A Family Affair – Director: Harvey Crossland/Writer: Jennifer Kassabian, Keri Ferencz
This one starts with the gals celebrating Trudy’s new job, working full-time as an investigator for Webley Insurance. Frankie is leaving too, but only for a few months; she’s going to Europe with Alessandro to support him on the racing circuit. As the girls get ready to head out for more celebrating, Frankie’s brother Jack shows up. (Remember him from A Brother in Arms?) The others leave Frankie to talk with Jack, who drops a bombshell: their father (Ned) is still alive.
Jack shows Frankie a newspaper clipping with a photo of someone he’s sure is their father. Frankie isn’t convinced, since she saw her father killed in front of her when she was a kid, but figures it’s worth looking into. Alessandro shows up and Frankie explains things, saying she’ll have to delay going to Europe to investigate whether her father is still alive. At
Webley Insurance, Shep Webley gives Trudy her signing bonus ($200, which is over $5,300 in today’s money) and introduces her to Annabelle, the in-house doctor who does all the medical claims and assessments. At the police station, Detective Hunter tells Mary they want to make her a real police officer, which has always been her dream. Hunter has to leave when Detective Lyle shows up to tell him he’s found someone they’ve been looking for in Niagara Falls. Frankie talks to another witness to Ned’s death, Rami Mabrook, whose story doesn’t quite ring true. Rami admits that he (and another supposed 
witness) were paid by Ned to help him fake his death. Flo and Ellie run into Ellie’s mom (Rosalyn), which makes Ellie immediately run in the other direction. Flo isn’t happy to see her sister, who wants to take Ellie home. Flo refuses, but Rosalyn reminds her she doesn’t have any legal right to keep Ellie. At the insurance office, a woman (Sintra Patel) comes in complaining about the company denying her claim. She broke her leg falling off a ladder, but Annabelle says Sintra has an underlying medical condition (low blood pressure), which is why her claim was denied. That doesn’t sit too well with Trudy. Frankie and Jack talk to the guy whose store the photo of Ned was taken in front of and learn that Ned might be at a local hotel. Mary wants to tell Stephen about her promotion, but he has some news of his own: he has a witness (Albert Stuart) ready to
testify about being roughed up by Detectives Lyle and Hunter. But when he mentions meeting Stuart at Niagara Falls, Mary remembers what Lyle said earlier and tells Stephen, who’s ready to head out to the Falls to warn his witness. Naturally, Mary decides to go along. At the hotel, Frankie and Jack don’t find Ned, but they do run into Nora, who’s also looking for him.
Nora figures Ned is back from the dead to pull a spectacular con job and she wants in on it. She still doesn’t trust Jack, but does tell Frankie that one of the other people in the newspaper photo is Desmond Greer, one of Ned’s old 
cohorts in crime, and gives Frankie his address. Stephen and Mary can’t find Stuart at the meeting place and Stephen assumes Hunter and Lyle have gotten to him. When he hears about Mary’s promotion, he’s not happy, saying she shouldn’t be getting favours from crooked cops. Mary reminds him they still don’t have any solid proof that Hunter and Lyle actually are crooked. At the morgue, Flo examines Sintra and finds her blood pressure is perfectly normal. Flo tells Trudy that Sintra’s assessment reads like it was written by someone who knows nothing about medicine, which makes them wonder if Annabelle is even a real doctor. Frankie talks to Desmond Greer, who is surprised to hear that Ned might still be alive and swears he’s gone straight. Frankie notices he’s wearing a strange ring, which he says he got from a brother … a brother he’s supposed to be meeting tonight. Ellie shows Flo
some court papers her mother has filed to get her back and vows that if she’s forced to go home, she’ll just run away again and never come back. At the office, Frankie goes through some of her dad’s old stuff and finds a ring just like the one Greer was wearing, as well as a photo of him in robes with a bunch of other guys. Sebastian recognizes the ring as belonging to a member of the Brotherhood of the Crooked Dagger, a secret club he says is a mix of high society and common thieves, not averse to a little bloodshed. Frankie realizes there must be a Brotherhood meeting tonight and gets inside disguised as a member. Greer 
warns the Brotherhood about Ned Drake being alive and says they have to eliminate him before he can spill any of their secrets. At Niagara Falls, Mary and Stephen find out Stuart died in a car crash, which Stephen immediately assumes was orchestrated by Hunter and Lyle. Mary doesn’t want to believe that, but heads to the accident scene to look around. At the Brotherhood meeting, Frankie is accosted by another member as she’s leaving. She’s ready to shoot him until she realizes it’s her dad, Ned Drake.
At the accident scene, Mary and Stephen find evidence that Stuart’s car was run off the road, even though the police report didn’t mention that. Stephen wants to run his story without witness confirmation, saying that the truth is more important than his credibility. At the office, Frankie is pissed off that
her father abandoned her and Ned admits he acted like a coward. Alessandro comes by to say goodbye, as he has to leave for Europe. Frankie can’t come right now, so he gives her a ticket but it sounds like he’s not expecting her to show up. After Alessandro leaves, Frankie has to break up an argument between Nora, Ned, and Jack. Flo and Rosalyn are still clashing over Ellie’s future, but Flo points out that she knows her sister is full of shit. Apparently, Rosalyn likes the booze and sex as much as the next gal and Flo is ready to bring all that up if they end up in court. At the office, Ned explains that he faked his death to get off the cops’ radar, but he’s back now because Greer stole an antique telescope using plans Ned drew up years ago. Now Ned wants to steal the telescope 
back (from the Brotherhood vaults) and then go back into hiding. He needs two more Brotherhood rings to unlock the vault, so Frankie and Jack volunteer to get them. They run a quick con to get the rings and it works. At the station, Hunter and Lyle warn Mary that Stephen’s article won’t help her chances of promotion, but instead of scaring her, their threats piss her off. At Webley’s Insurance, Trudy tells Webley that Annabelle isn’t a real doctor and should be fired immediately. Webley says he’ll take care of it. Mary goes to see Stephen and finds the newspaper office burnt to the ground. Stephen is fine, but he
obviously can’t print his article now. Mary decides to go on the record against Hunter and Lyle, saying they can get another paper to publish the story. Frankie, Ned, and Nora sneak through some underground tunnels to get into the Brotherhood vault, but thanks to Nora’s clumsiness she’s cut off from Frankie and Ned, who have to continue to the vault without her.
Frankie and Ned get into the vault but have to knock out another Brother. Frankie has to take his place in an initiation ceremony, leaving Ned to find the telescope. At the insurance office, Trudy finds out that Annabelle is Shep’s wife, so she’s obviously not getting fired. They’ve put Trudy’s name on all the false claims to keep her from going to the authorities, but Trudy says she won’t mind losing her credibility as an investigator if it stops their 
crooked schemes. At the Brotherhood meeting, Ned gets the telescope but has to intervene when Frankie is caught. A big fight breaks out, with Frankie (and Nora, who found her own way inside) pounding some of the Brothers and Ned engaging in a dagger duel with Greer. Ned is stabbed and Frankie kicks Greer’s ass before taking him back into the tunnels. Mary asks Tara Tweet to write the story about Hunter and Lyle. She’s reluctant, since she usually just does gossip columns, but Mary points out that writing this story will make her famous. Frankie and the others run into Jack in the tunnels but he takes the telescope and leaves, which makes Ned laugh since his son turned out to be as crooked as he is. Ned admits he left because he thought Frankie would be
better off without him, then he dies from his wound. Later, Rosalyn signs over custody of Ellie to Flo before leaving, and Mary has to face the other cops—including a pissed-off Hunter and Lyle—when Tara’s article comes out. As a grieving Frankie seeks comfort from Sebastian, Trudy returns to the office to find Annabelle waiting with a gun. Downstairs, Frankie and Sebastian hear a gunshot … but we don’t get to see what happened.
Unfortunately, this is the final episode of the series, so we never find out what happens to Trudy. It’s possible she disarmed Annabelle, or deflected the gun before it fired … or she might have been shot. But unless they do 
some kind of follow-up (which seems unlikely) we’ll never know Trudy’s fate, not to mention what happens to Mary now that she’s pissed off a couple of crooked, vindictive cops. Aside from the unresolved cliffhanger, this is a good episode, with Frankie meeting and losing her father in quick succession. We got some closure with Ellie’s situation and Frankie’s relationship with Sebastian seems to be moving forward … in fact, the way they set things up it almost seems like they were expecting to do another season. But that hasn’t happened, so we’re left wondering what happens to everyone. I liked this series overall,
with the cool 1920s setting and the strong female characters. Mary is still my favourite, but I appreciate all the characters and hope that the creators might find a way to bring them back some day (including Trudy, I hope) so we can see some more of their adventures. Next week, I’ll be doing my Season 4 overview and announcing the next show I plan to review. I hope you’ll all join me on that journey too.
Favourite Quotes:
- “Based on Annabelle’s assessment, Mrs. Patel is a ninety year-old opium addict with glaucoma on her deathbed.” Flo pointing out that Annabelle is no doctor.
- “Unless the point you’re talking about is at the end of that French fry in your hand, I really don’t.” Flo’s response when Annabelle asks if she’s sees her point about Ellie’s upbringing.