Frankie Drake Mysteries Review: Dealers Choice/Now You See Her (Season 2 Episodes 9 and 10)

Frankie Drake Mysteries’ second season goes out on a particularly high note with Season 2 Episode 9, “Dealer’s Choice,” and Season 2 Episode 10, “Now You See Her,” two installments with thoughtfully plotted mysteries that allow the series’ titular heroine to shine.

However, it’s “Dealer’s Choice” that’s likely to go down as one of the series’ more memorable hours, and that’s because the show has finally given Frankie a nemesis/occasionally uneasy ally that’s worthy of her: Female mob boss Bessie Starkman.

Starkman first appeared back in Season 2 Episode 6, “Extra Innings,” where she was busy running an illegal sports betting ring. Here she’s in charge of an underground gambling casino, with all the attendant threats and arm-twisting that come along with such an enterprise.

After masked men rob her illegal casino, Frankie and Trudy find themselves teaming up with Bessie to solve the crime and find a missing pocket watch that belonged to one of the mob boss’ regular customers. Along the way, Frankie finds herself framed for murder and goes more than a few rounds with Bessie on a variety of topics.

For the past couple of weeks, we’ve all been wondering whether Detective Grayson might be being set up as Frankie’s romantic sparring partner. And that certainly seems to be a road that we’re traveling down, albeit at a slower pace than many of us predicted. (The two skirt right up to the edge of what feels like a drunken hookup, but then pull back in the name of keeping things simple and professional.)

All of this is fine, of course, Frankie Drake isn’t the sort of character who isn’t going to have a love interest or sexual conquest of some sort hanging out around the margins of her story. And perhaps Greyson will still be that person for her. (That’s not necessarily a bad thing, either.)

But Frankie’s true rival is — and should 100% remain — Bessie.

They need to bring this woman back as many times as possible in Season 3, and keep right on walking this thin line between open enemies and a sort of begrudging respect that might become something like friendship if given enough time.

It feels as though Frankie Drake was always truly meant face off against a woman, in both a professional and a personal capacity, and since Nora is now much more family than foe, Bessie seems like the next best, most interesting thing.

The two women are wonderful together, precisely because they have so much in common. In a different world, under different circumstances one could likely have been the other.

They’re both scrappy and smart-mouthed. They take no crap from anyone. And these women know all too well how hard it is to earn respect in a man’s world. No matter what their line of work might be.

Sure, Bessie’s dealings aren’t exactly legal, and she’s certainly capable of doing some immoral, unethical and even downright violent things. She’s no role model, that’s for sure. But she’s nevertheless fascinating to watch.

And despite their often waspish verbal sparring, it’s obvious that Frankie thinks so too. The feeling of grudging respect between these two women is intriguing, particularly given the fact that they operate on opposite sides of the law.

It’s hard to determine whether Bessie is envious of or just wistful over Frankie and Trudy’s friendship — maybe she once had a similar relationship in her own life that went south for whatever reason, it’s not clear.

But despite the fact that she’s threatened both of them on a professional level, Bessie seems to kind of like them in spite of herself. She even tells the women to take care of one another — a piece of advice likely spawned by the fact that even though she’s in charge of an empire, she’s there alone.

Given that Bessie and the women of Drake Detective Agency part ways on vaguely equal terms — Frankie successfully swindled Bessie out of shooting their prime suspect by beating her at cards — there’s every chance we’ll see these two women butt heads again next year.

And we absolutely should.

Frankie Drake Mysteries is a show that reveals in telling stories featuring unorthodox and groundbreaking women. Their antagonists should follow the same playbook, if you ask me.

Stray Thoughts and Observations

• My only real complaint about either of these episodes is that there was a bit less Mary than I’d grown accustomed to seeing this season, and that made me sad.
• Loved the random off the cuff comment about Hemingway’s writing though!
• Honestly, I’m still not sure how to feel about the (totally obvious) impending Frankie/Greyson thing. On the one hand, I like the fact that the show didn’t immediately jump into something with them, and actually took the time to show Frankie drawing a clear boundary between them. On the other hand, seriously last week Frankie thought this guy was falsifying evidence so it feels a bit rushed that we’d go from that to alarm siren-level sexual tension so quickly. Maybe try them just being friends for a bit first?

What did you think of this episode of Frankie Drake Mysteries? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Frankie Drake Mysteries airs Saturdays at 7/6c on Ovation.

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