The Girls Can’t Help It – Director: Gary Harvey/Writer: Mary Pedersen
This one starts with Mary attending a swinging party full of flappers and dandies making merry at a mansion. She was invited by an old school friend (Jackie), but feels somewhat out of place surrounded by the upper classes. Frankie, on the other hand, has no problem going out all night with Alessandro. When she gets to the office in the morning, she needs to get rid of her hangover, so Trudy deals with the client who shows up (Shep Webley
from Webley Insurance). Webley explains that a rare bottle of wine (a Chateau Lafite Rothschild worth $30,000) was stolen from the Garrick mansion during a party last night. That just happens to be the party Mary was at, so Frankie figures they have the inside track. Trudy tells Webley (who was expecting male detectives) that they’ll solve his case, if he agrees to hire them as his in-house investigators for all Webley Insurance’s claims.
Mary is ecstatic at getting to rub elbows with the in-crowd, especially Jackie and her two gal pals (Lena and Katrina), who are known in the society pages 
as the Daybreak Girls because they party all night. Mary tells them she was there when the theft of the wine was discovered; Bertie Garrick is freaking out because the wine was the pride of his father’s collection and he figures he’ll be in shit when his father gets back from abroad. Frankie points out that selling wine that rare will be harder than stealing it and Flo offers to talk to an ex-boyfriend who’s a liquor fence. Frankie and Trudy go to the Garrick mansion and find out the butler (Roth) has the only key to the wine cellar, a key that’s locked in the safe when Roth doesn’t have it on him. Most of the bottles in the cellar are covered in dust, so the thief obviously knew exactly where the Lafite was. Bertie claims he didn’t tell anyone abut the Lafite, except his friend Digby.
Frankie goes to meet Flo’s ex (Mickey), who says he’ll let them know if anyone approaches him trying to sell the Lafite, as long as the insurance company pays the cut he would’ve gotten for fencing it. Trudy talks to Digby (who seems to think he’s Lord Byron), who tells her he was too wasted to steal anything that night. He mentions that Bertie’s ex-fiancée (Vivienne) knew about the Lafite, as did the Daybreak Girls because Bertie showed it to them himself, obviously trying to impress them. Mary arranges a meeting with the Daybreak Girls, who are snotty and dismissive of everything, claiming they don’t need to steal to get ahead. Jackie is nicer to Mary and wants her to join the group, but they’re pretty picky about who they hang out with. Trudy talks to Vivienne, who 
admits she found a spare key to the wine cellar (which Bertie isn’t supposed to have) on the walk outside, but denies stealing the wine. Trudy takes the key to a keymaker, who says it was Digby who had the key made. Frankie and Trudy confront Digby, who admits he had another key made so he could raid the wine cellar, but says he didn’t take the Lafite. He points out that anyone could’ve taken the key from his pocket when he was passed out at the party and accuses the Daybreak Girls. Frankie asks Mary to get some info from the Daybreak Girls, but she’s reluctant since she wants to be part of their group. Flo tells them there’s an underground auction coming up where the Lafite will probably be sold, but it’s run by a mobster named Leo Rhodes and is very exclusive. So they basically have to find the wine before the auction, or it’ll be gone forever.
Frankie has Alessandro ask around about the auction since he’s a famous European race car driver. Trudy finds out there have been other thefts (mostly of money and jewelery) at various upper-class parties, all of which the Daybreak Girls attended. Mary is hanging out with the Girls, but has trouble connecting with them. When Tara Tweet, the newspaper reporter,
comes by to take some photos, Lena and Katrina are total assholes to her and Mary gives Lena shit, pointing out that the only reason the Girls are famous is because of Tara’s newspaper column. Lena is impressed by Mary’s moxie and has Tara take some photos of the two of them and of the Girls dancing up a storm. Now that they’ve accepted her, Mary doesn’t want to hear that the Daybreak Girls might be thieves. But Vivienne pops up and claims someone stole her bracelet, accusing Jackie of taking it. When Mary opens Jackie’s purse to prove her friend innocent, the bracelet falls out.
Jackie denies taking the bracelet and Mary believes her, but Jackie can’t tell them anything about the other thefts since she’s only been hanging out with them for a short time. Mary talks to Lena and Katrina, who seem to 
believe Jackie is guilty and are ready to dump her and bring Mary into the group … as long as Mary has nothing more to do with Jackie. Mary is pissed off at their disloyalty and gets the girls to leave their room with her so Frankie and Trudy can search it. They find some steamy letters from Bertie Garrick to Lena and a bunch of pawn tickets for various jewelery items. They also find an old photo that proves Katrina, the European heiress, is just a regular gal from Hamilton named Catherine. When they confront her, Katrina (or Catherine) admits she sold some jewelery to finance her high lifestyle, but denies stealing the wine. She did set Jackie up because she wanted to get the heat off herself and Lena. Mary says she kinda understands, since being a Daybreak Girl is like being a movie star. Mary says Lena admitted to her that she went after
Bertie, but backed off when she found out he had zero access to his father’s money. Mary doesn’t think Lena stole the wine though, since she really does have her own money. Webley shows up and gives them shit for not solving the case yet, especially since the auction is tonight, and Frankie gets so pissed off at his attitude that she tries to quit. Trudy convinces Webley to let them try to recover the wine and he agrees (since he has little choice). Frankie and Trudy have an argument about the business and how Frankie treats it like a lark while Trudy needs the money to build herself a decent life. Trudy leaves and Frankie is pretty bothered by the fight, but Mary leaves too because she’s meeting the Daybreak Girls.
Trudy returns later and she and Frankie talk things out. Flo has gotten the password for the underground auction and Trudy has a plan. Alessandro will go in as himself, with Flo as his personal sommelier, Aline (complete 
with fake French accent). There’s a diplomat named Izakow who might bid on the wine (and who it would be impossible to get it back from), but Isakow doesn’t know shit about wine, only buying whatever seems the most prestigious. So if they can convince him the Lafite is crap, he won’t bid on it. They’ll also have to convince whoever does buy it that it’s not worth going to jail over, but Frankie thinks Trudy’s plan is a good one. At the auction, Flo talks down the Lafite and talks up another wine. Frankie tries to find out who’s selling the Lafite, but Leo won’t tell her anything. At the club, the Daybreak Girls invite Jackie to rejoin their clique, but insist she drop Mary as a friend … which she does without a second thought. Mary runs into Tara, who invites her to
hang out. At the auction, Frankie and Trudy start a rumour that the Lafite is a fake and Alessandro pushes Izakow into buying a different wine. Vivienne shows up and Frankie figures she’s the seller, which seems to be the case. The rumour about the fake Lafite works and Vivienne ends up buying it for nothing, but Leo won’t let Frankie and Trudy confront her right there. Frankie has Roth tell Bertie and Vivienne to meet them and bring the wine. Bertie admits he took the wine because he wanted some money of his own to open a phonograph store, and he asked Vivienne (who’s still his girlfriend) to help him sell it afterwards. Frankie says she’ll keep quiet, but warns them not to steal anything else.
One of Mary’s fellow Morality Officers asks about the Daybreak Girls and she says they’re not as great as they seem. Webley thanks Trudy for finding the wine and signs a contract making her and Frankie the official 
investigators for Webley Insurance. Flo and Alessandro arrive after partying all night and Mary shows up to apologize to Frankie for ditching her the night before. This is a good episode, focusing on the flapper lifestyle, with the Daybreak Girls coming off like characters from an F. Scott Fitzgerald story. It’s interesting to see Mary get caught up in the glam, as she seems like the least likely of the four to be into that scene. But maybe that’s why she was so fascinated, because it was so different from anything she’d done before. Mary also learned a lesson about how to tell who your real friends are and there was an obvious parallel between her ditching Frankie and Jackie ditching her.
Noticeable Things:
- A 1784 Chateau Lafite Rotschild is apparently worth about $93,000 today.
- When Mary is telling the Daybreak Girls how fascinating her neighbour is, she mentions that he witnessed August Herring’s biplane flight, which supposedly took place in 1898, five years before the Wright Brothers. Naturally, the Daybreak Girls aren’t impressed.
Favourite Quotes:
- “I never lie about men … or taxes.” Flo’s philosophy of life.
- “Sensible. You sure?” Trudy when she sees Mary doing the Charleston at the club.
- “Your skirt is scandalously short.” Mary’s fellow Morality Officer passing judgement on her flapper outfit.