Ghost in the Machine – Director: R.T. Thorne/Writer: Keri Ferencz
This one starts with Frankie and Alessandro about to get it on in her office when Nora shows up. She’s broken up with her latest flame and needs a place to stay for a few days. Frankie reluctantly agrees and heads out with Alessandro, leaving Nora to make herself at home. Late that night, Nora is awakened by someone calling for help and sees a freaky-looking girl, who vanishes and reappears when Nora’s looking in the mirror. Naturally, Nora assumes it’s a ghost.
The next morning, Nora tells Trudy about the ghost. Trudy is skeptical until she finds a piece of paper in the typewriter that says, “Find the person who killed me.” The paper has no fingerprints on it, so Trudy starts to believe
Nora’s story. Since there hasn’t been anything weird in the building before, Trudy figures the ghost must’ve died (or been killed) lately, so she calls Flo at the morgue to ask about recent deaths. Flo meets Trudy, Nora, and Mary at Wendy’s café and tells them there have been four unexplained deaths in that building in the past decade, but nothing recent. Mary tells them about a woman (Laura Gordon) who was supposed to meet someone in Frankie’s building a few days ago, but went missing. Frankie arrives and immediately dismisses the idea of a ghost, but agrees to investigate Laura’s disappearance. Trudy figures they should talk to the other people who have businesses in Frankie’s building, and Frankie meets Laura’s mother. Mrs. Gordon says Laura had been acting weird lately, like she was keeping a secret. Trudy and 
Flo meet some of Frankie’s neighbours: Dolly Falk, who says she deals in “nightmare-makers” but seems to import African art; and Ms. Underwood, a taxidermist who loves discussing her work. Frankie talks to a guy named Robert who works at the accounting firm upstairs. Robert says Laura is his girlfriend but he hasn’t seen her lately, and he’s quite worried to hear she’s gone missing. In the office, Trudy and Flo are using a spirit board to contact Laura’s ghost. They’re startled by a knock at the door and even more shocked when it turns out to be Laura, alive and healthy.
Laura explains that she went to the watchmaker’s office upstairs to interview for a job when the owner (Michael Whinder) put the moves on her. She was upset about that and pissed off about her overbearing mother trying to run her life, so she needed some alone time. Laura heads up to
assure Robert that she’s fine and the gals celebrate solving the mystery. But they get a phone call from someone asking them to find the killer, so Nora suggests they pull an all-nighter at the office to see if the ghost shows up. (Of course, Nora plans to stay at a hotel; one encounter with the ghost was enough for her.) They invite Mary to join them and she agrees, even though she’s scared of the ghost. At the stakeout, Mary spills food on herself and tries to wash it out, but freaks out when blood comes out of the taps. Frankie checks the water tank on the roof and finds it full of blood. She runs into Sebastian West, a carpenter who just opened a studio in the building, but he refuses to say why he’s on the roof. Frankie tells the others about Sebastian and decides she wants to check out his studio. Trudy and Flo break into Whinder’s Watches to find out who else 
interviewed for the job there, thinking Whinder might’ve put the moves on some other woman and things turned bad. Sebastian is in his studio, so Frankie has to come up with a story about why she’s snooping around. The lights go out and Mary almost brains Frankie when she returns to the office. Trudy and Flo check Dolly’s import shop and Flo almost scares Trudy to death with an African mask. Frankie and Mary find out someone has been messing with the fuses and Frankie figures it’s Sebastian. Mary hears a noise and freaks out when someone knocks some boxes over onto Frankie.
Frankie is fine but thinks Sebastian was the one who knocked the boxes over. At the café, they meet the local paperboy (Christopher) and Nora show up to let them know she had a very peaceful night. Frankie still suspects Sebastian, especially after she hears he told Ai Lin (a waitress at the café) that he was married, even though he told Frankie he lives alone. Trudy
checks on the women who interviewed at Whinder’s Watches and comes up with one (Andrea Holmes) who went missing last week. Frankie arranges for Mary to get Sebastian out of his studio so she can break in, but he comes back early and catches her. Trudy talks to Whinder about the missing Andrea Holmes, but he was playing cards with his mother that day, so he’s in the clear. He does say that Andrea mentioned running into someone she knew and was so flustered she left her 
glove behind. Sebastian gives Frankie shit for breaking into his place and she accuses him of being behind everything that’s happened lately. Things get physical and they end up rolling around on the floor together … which both of them seem to enjoy. Trudy interrupts, taking Frankie to see a freshly-painted message on the wall. They chase the ghost but he eludes them … and runs straight into Flo. The “ghost” turns out to be the paperboy, Christopher.
Flo brings Christopher into the office where he tells them he saw someone (who had dark hair and a dark coat) push a woman—most likely the missing Andrea Holmes—down the stairs last week. His mom didn’t believe him, so he pretended to be the ghost so he could leave clues and get Frankie to investigate. (Flo figured things out because he used his mother’s pickled
beet juice for the “blood” that came out of the taps.) Frankie and Flo check the basement, since Christopher saw the killer go down there, and they find Andrea’s body. Andrea’s neck is broken and they find reddish animal hair on the body, so they talk to the taxidermist. Ms. Underwood tells them the fur is from a cat and Frankie thinks of Robert, who has a ginger cat in his office. The accounting office has suddenly been closed, but they find Trudy there. She learned from Laura’s landlady that she had a boyfriend named Robert up until a short while ago and Robert did mention a messy break-up to Frankie. Trudy found the other glove in Robert’s office and while they’re discussing things, 
Sebastian gives them a piece of green fabric he found snagged on a nail on the stairs. Frankie recognizes it as coming from Laura Gordon’s green coat. Frankie and Trudy find Laura and Robert about to leave town and force Laura to admit that she killed Andrea out of jealousy. Later, the gals get ready for a costume party and Christopher drops by to apologize for all the trouble he caused. Frankie apologizes to Sebastian and there’s definitely chemistry there … but Alessandro shows up to cool things off.
This is a good episode where the ghost stuff is almost incidental to the plot (and turns out to be a red herring anyway); it’s basically just a way for
Frankie (and us) to meet the people she shares the building with. I’m not sure any of them will be showing up again, with the obvious exception of Sebastian, who will be a complication in Frankie’s relationship with Alessandro. It was nice to see Nora again and we got to hear most of the ladies scream at various frights. I like Mary’s scary costume for the party at the end; she kinda reminds me of iZombie, although Mary definitely takes it to the next level.
Favourite Quotes:
- “Looks more like you were on your way in … if you catch my meaning.” Nora’s double entendre when Frankie and Alessandro say they just on their way out.
- “Porcupines are a thorny task.” Ms. Underwood’s taxidermy joke, which Flo finds hilarious.
- “He can bevel my edges anytime.” Flo’s reaction after seeing Sebastian.