Prince in Exile – Director: Eleanore Lindo/Writer: Peter Mitchell
This one starts with Frankie and her new boyfriend (Alessandro Contento) arriving at a club with a bunch of reporters clamouring to take Alessandro’s photo. They don’t really care too much about Frankie, especially one obnoxious reporter who pisses Alessandro off by being rude to Frankie. Inside the club, we learn that Trudy’s fiancé Bill has gotten a job offer in Ottawa, which means Trudy will be moving there after the marriage. It’s obvious she’s still having doubts about marrying Bill, but she won’t admit it. Frankie and Trudy notice a guy aggressively questioning another customer and force him to leave. The guy says he’s looking for a missing Prince, so they decide to help.
The guy (Count Grigore) tells them Prince Pavel (eldest son of the Romanian King) has gone missing. Grigore knows Pavel came to the club looking to have some fun and suspects he found it, most likely with a woman. Grigore wants to find Pavel before word gets out, which could cause
a scandal (and cost Grigore his job). Frankie and Trudy promise to be discreet but immediately tell Flo and Mary, who’s a bit of a Prince Pavel fangirl. Trudy mentions a story in the Worker’s Gazette about the cops from Mary’s station leaning on supposed radicals, but Mary says the story is bullshit (and that the writer, Steven Reed, is a Commie). Frankie and Trudy talk to a customer at the club who remembers Pavel being there, holding court with a bevy of beauties. He says Pavel went to a haberdashery to get a new suit, so Frankie and Trudy head over there. They don’t notice the obnoxious reporter (with the 
prescient name of Tara Tweet) following them. The haberdasher tells them Pavel did order a suit and took off in a green car with some woman. Tara corners Frankie and Trudy and offers to give them info on Pavel (including why he’s really in Toronto) in exchange for an exclusive interview with the Prince if they find him. At the police station, some detectives (Hunter, Lyle, and McIntosh) ask Mary to come with them to break up a Communist rally, since there are some women there. Mary is flattered, especially when McIntosh mentions knowing her father. Frankie and Trudy follow Tara’s info to a theatre,
looking for an actress named Szofia. At the rally, Steven Reed is giving a speech about how the cops are acting like thugs, something they quickly confirm when they come in and start busting heads. Reed tries to take off but Mary tackles him, earning praise from the other cops. At the theatre, Frankie and Trudy confront Szofia, who says she doesn’t know where Pavel is but will kill him if she sees him again.
Szofia admits she came to Toronto (pretending to be an actress) so she and Pavel could elope, but he recently told her there was another woman, which 
explains why she hates him now. At the hospital, Mary tells Flo about stopping Reed and casually mentions how attractive she thinks he is. (There was a definite vibe between them when she took him down.) Frankie and Trudy tell Grigore about Szofia (with whom he’s already familiar), but he has no idea who the other woman might be. At the station, McIntosh and Lyle ask Mary to come with them to check out an abandoned car. At the office, Frankie tells Alessandro about Pavel, who is apparently quite a fan of Alessandro’s. Bill stops by and tries to ask Frankie about Trudy’s feelings for him, but she says he should be asking Trudy that. The car Mary and her new pals investigate turns out to be the one that picked up Pavel (which Frankie told Mary to look for) and Mary finds a bloody handkerchief in it. She tears off a piece before showing it to the
detectives, who don’t seem to care too much. (They’re more interested in the car being seized and put up for auction so they can buy it.) Mary takes the cloth to the hospital, where Flo tells everyone the blood is O-negative, but Szofia has no clue what Pavel’s blood type is. Mary has a conversation with Reed (who’s in a jail cell) and feels a bit uneasy when he points out that the cops shouldn’t have arrested him for speaking his mind. Mary gets Frankie and Trudy into the impound lot to look at the car and Frankie finds a note written in Hungarian. When Grigore sees the note, he’s happy and says that Roxana has found her prince.
Grigore explains that Roxana was Pavel’s betrothed, daughter of a noble Hungarian family. Pavel marrying Roxana (which he doesn’t want to do since he loves Szofia) will cement Romania’s position and calm tensions 
between the two countries. Grigore wants the marriage to take place, preferably in Romania, but it looks like Roxana has kidnapped Pavel so she can marry him right here in Toronto. At the station, Reed is released and tells Mary to check some of Lyle and McIntosh’s arrest records for a certain date and if they’re missing (which he’s sure they will be) to check hospital records. Tara writes a story about Frankie investigating Pavel’s disappearance, which causes a minor scandal (although Frankie doesn’t seem too bothered). Trudy asks Flo about her marriage and Flo says Trudy has to be 100% sure before going through with it. At the station, Mary can’t find the arrest records and has to make up a lie when Lyle catches her snooping. Hunter gives Frankie shit for not letting the cops know about Pavel, but she invokes client confidentiality and promises to find him. Flo shows Mary the hospital records of a guy who came in beat to shit but took off before they got his name. Mary figures the cops pounded the guy. Trudy finds a Romanian Orthodox church and they
figure Roxana might be marrying Pavel there. Frankie sends Mary and Flo to get Szofia (who should be great at ruining a wedding), but they find Grigore at the theatre looking for Szofia too. She’s not there but they tell Grigore they think they know where Pavel is. Flo has to work, so Mary and Grigore head for the church. Frankie and Trudy are already there and find Pavel being held at gunpoint before the altar. Another gunman arrives with Szofia and Pavel tells her he lied about the other woman to keep her safe. Obviously it didn’t work, since the gunmen can now threaten to kill Szofia unless Pavel goes through with the wedding.
Frankie and Trudy find Roxana getting ready and Frankie takes her place, getting close enough to attack the gunmen and kick their asses. Grigore and 
Mary show up and Grigore pulls a gun, telling Pavel he has to marry Roxana or Szofia is dead. Mary disarms Grigore and he’s tied up with Roxana and the gunmen so Pavel and Szofia will have time to get away. At the office, Pavel says the royal marriage wouldn’t really have any lasting impact, so he’d rather stay in North America and marry Szofia. The Romanians would never stop looking for him, but Frankie has an idea: she fakes Szofia and Pavel’s death in a drowning accident. I think Grigore realizes they’re bullshitting, but lets it go … as long as Pavel and Szofia stay “dead”. Trudy meets with Bill and tells him she can’t go through
with the marriage. Mary checks the address of the guy who got beaten by the cops and runs into Reed, who tells her the guy got pounded for complaining about a protection racket in his neighbourhood. McIntosh and Lyle see her talking to Reed and warn her to be careful who she associates with. Trudy tells Frankie about breaking up with Bill and Frankie breaks a date with Alessandro to console her.
This is a pretty good episode: we meet Alessandro properly, Trudy finally listens to her heart and calls off the wedding, and Mary finally starts getting some recognition at work, but ends up mixing with a bad element on the 
force. And at the heart of it all is a love story. Szofia is pretty funny, constantly being sarcastic and insulting people, but genuinely in love with Pavel (who seems like a decent guy, so she must have some redeeming qualities). It’s nice to see Mary kicking some ass, and Reed is obviously a potential love interest, but I hope she doesn’t get in over her head with the crooked cops. It’s interesting to compare Pavel and Roxana’s forced marriage to Trudy and Bill’s aborted nuptials; Pavel wants to follow his heart and marry Szofia, while Trudy’s heart tells her that marrying Bill is the wrong decision.
Favourite Quotes:
- “I’m sure they were all excellent sailors.” Flo’s reaction when Mary mentions Pavel yachting around the Mediterranean with an all-female crew.
- “I don’t care. She is not me, so he has made a lesser choice.” Szofia letting Frankie and Trudy know how she feels about Pavel choosing someone else.
- “Just try me.” Mary being tough.
- “You are simple people. Are you happy?” Szofia wondering if the peasant life is for her.