Sweet Justice – Director: Bosede Williams/Writers: Jennifer Kassabian, Robina Lord-Stafford
This one starts with Trudy and her family moving into their new house (and naturally Mildred recruits Frankie, Mary, and Flo to help move stuff). Trudy is pretty happy, but they hear a disturbance outside and find a woman across the street pounding a fire hydrant with a sledgehammer. The woman (Toni Freedman) is pissed off that the water in the neighbourhood isn’t clean and makes her son Sam sick whenever he drinks
it. Toni says the city government doesn’t care )since the people in the neighbourhood are working class), so she’s taking matters into her own hands. Mildred volunteers Frankie and Trudy to get to the bottom of things, but Toni questions how good a detective Trudy is if she didn’t notice how shitty the water was before moving in. Sure enough, when Trudy checks the water at her place, it looks like crap.
Frankie calls Sebastian to look at the plumbing but he says it’s fine, and Trudy says the water was good when she checked it before buying the house. Frankie figures the polluted water must be coming from upriver, 
probably from one of the two factories located there. At the morgue, Flo gets a surprise visit from her niece, Ellie, who seems a bit cagey about why she suddenly decided to pop in. Frankie and Trudy go to the reservoir to check things out and meet the caretaker (Arturo). He tells them the water there is fresh, but mentions some bootleggers just upriver, suggesting they might be responsible for the pollution. Frankie and Trudy join Toni at a meeting with a city commissioner (Renforth), who just gives them the runaround. Toni throws the filthy water on him and leaves, but he tells Trudy he’ll consider their case, although his power is limited. At the café, Flo and Mary hang out with Ellie, but Flo tells Mary confidentially that she talked to her sister and it turns out Ellie was kicked out of the house because she’s a bit of a hell-raiser. Flo’s pissed off that Ellie lied, but Mary suggests she might need
Flo’s guidance more than ever. Frankie and Trudy tell Toni about the bootleggers and she’s ready to head straight out there, regardless of the danger. Frankie and Trudy worry she might do something stupid and later we see a woman putting on a mask and an elaborate costume, like some 1920s superhero. Later, she spies on the reservoir and sees Arturo getting paid off by someone in a truck to let him dump some toxic shit in the water. The vigilante takes some photos, but is discovered and has to run away (after decking Arturo).
The next morning, Alessandro and Frankie enjoy some sex, but she nixes his idea to take the day off. She finds the photos the vigilante (who the newspapers are calling Lady Justice) took and realizes Arturo was lying about the bootleggers. At the café, Flo, Mary, and Ellie discuss Lady Justice and Flo surprises Ellie with tickets to a matinee show (although doesn’t 
seem nearly as excited as Mary). The photos Frankie got are too blurry to make out the logo on the trucks, so Frankie figures they’d better talk to Arturo. They discuss Lady Justice and Frankie figures she might be Toni. Arturo claims he didn’t pay attention to the trucks, so he’s not much help. Trudy figures her old pal Boyzey Pembroke could help identify the truck and he does recognize it as Silver Star Rental Company. He’s worked with them before and says they may be able to trace the trucks from a manifest sheet. Boyzey expresses his admiration for Lady Justice, but Trudy says she doesn’t trust anyone wearing a mask. Frankie obliquely asks Toni if she’s Lady Justice (pointing out some bruises on her knuckles) and warns her to be careful. Ellie doesn’t show up for the matinee, which pisses Flo off enough that she gives Ellie shit when she
finally does show up. At Silver Star Trucking, Frankie distracts the manager while Trudy takes a sample from the back of a truck. They give it to Renforth, who claims the photos are illegal and they need a sample from the reservoir to compare to the one Trudy took from the truck. Frankie and Trudy are pissed off and figure Renforth is probably covering something up. Lady Justice gets a water sample from the reservoir and is chased by guards. She drops the sample off at Frankie’s place and Frankie tries to grab her. They fight for a bit and Lady Justice takes off, but Frankie ends up with one of her bracelets.
The next morning, Boyzey shows up with the list of companies that rented trucks two nights ago and Frankie figures they can have Flo analyze the reservoir sample to narrow down the suspects. But Renforth shows up and 
takes the water sample, claiming it was obtained illegally, so they have to settle for getting a sample from Trudy’s tap (which still won’t prove the reservoir is polluted). They notice Toni is selling her house (at a loss) to get Sam to a safer neighbourhood. Sam tells Frankie Toni hurt her hand punching the wall and that she never wears jewellery because it turns her skin green, so Frankie figures Toni isn’t Lady Justice. They notice other people selling their houses and figure someone (probably the city) has plans for the land and polluted the water on purpose to get rid of the people. Frankie confronts Renforth with her suspicions, but he pretends not to know what she’s talking about. Flo says the water samples both contain copper acetate, which is used as a colouring agent … like in candy. Copper acetate is supposed to be illegal, but they figure the Candy company (Bonbon’s Candy Emporium) may still be using it and that’s what they were dumping in the reservoir. Flo is worried about
Ellie since she didn’t come home, so Mary goes through her stuff and finds some lipstick and a rendezvous in her date book. Trudy and Boyzey check out the candy company owner (Regis Walker) and run into Julia from Life on the Line … who just happens to be married to Regis now. When they see Regis meeting with Renforth, Julia starts to say something about the commissioner, but stops herself. Trudy decides to follow the two men and tells Boyzey not to do anything stupid. Mary and Flo find Ellie and she’s not with a guy … she’s with a girl. Flo realizes why Ellie is so secretive, but Mary reminds her that homosexuality (at least in public) is illegal, so Ellie needs to be more careful about her PDAs. Trudy finds some papers in Regis’s car, but Renforth spots 
her as she leaves. She finds Boyzey has gone to look for more evidence. At the office, Sebastian asks Frankie to pick his locked door and they’re flirting hard, but are interrupted by Renforth. He tells her he’s had a crisis of conscience and blames Regis for polluting the water so he can buy up Trudy’s neighbourhood and expand his candy factory. He says Trudy is already at the candy factory, but when they arrive Boyzey is dangling over a vat of chemicals and Frankie realizes Renforth led her into a trap. Luckily, Lady Justice is already on the scene.
Regis (who seems a little crazy) admits he polluted the water to get the land cheap and says he blackmailed Renforth into helping him. Julia shows up
and shoots Regis in the shoulder for talking to much; I think she’s even crazier than he is, but she’s the brains behind the operation. Lady Justice jumps in to save Frankie and Boyzey, but Boyzey gets shot in the leg. Frankie goes after the blackmail photos and Lady Justice (who sounds exactly like Trudy) follows her … after giving Boyzey a big smooch. While Frankie retrieves the photos, Lady Justice mixes it up with Julia, kicking her ass. Frankie gives her the photos (and obviously knows she’s Trudy), saying she’ll stay with Boyzey until the cops show up. 
Later, Flo and Ellie have a talk and Flo tells her she can stay with her, as long as she doesn’t tell any more lies. At Trudy’s house, they celebrate the clean water and Trudy tells Frankie she didn’t tell her she was Lady Justice because she didn’t want Frankie to go to jail if they were caught. They hear a bulletin about Regis and Julia escaping and Trudy wonders if Lady Justice might have to make another appearance.
This is a pretty good episode, with Trudy taking on the persona of a vigilante like Batman (although Mary compares her to Zorro, who was definitely an influence on Batman) and Regis and Julia acting a bit like the
Joker and Harley Quinn. It was nice to see Boyzey again and I wonder if that kiss means a romance for him and Trudy (especially since he seems to suspect her secret identity at the end). I’m also wondering if Regis and Julia are going to make a return appearance, or if their escape was just a nod to how comic book villains never stay in prison for long. I like Ellie as a character and hope she comes back, although there are only two episodes left in the series, so there’s not much for her to do.
Noticeable Things:
- Toni says her husband served with the Black Battalion in the War, which was a real unit made up of black volunteers, since they weren’t allowed to join the regular army. They ended up doing construction and other drudge work and weren’t even issued weapons.
Favourite Quotes:
- “In five minutes I could write up six women for improper hemlines, eight if I scribble.” Mary trying to convince Flo that Ellie still has time to make the show.
- “If I wanted to be treated so rudely I woulda had kids of my own.” Flo complaining about Ellie’s behaviour.