Frankie Drake Mysteries Review: Counterpunch (Season 3 Episode 2)

Frankie Drake Mysteries Season 3 Episode 2, “Counterpunch,” feels like a return to form for this plucky little mystery show after a bizarre premiere installment that sent Frankie to London to meet Agatha Christie.

In “Counterpunch,” things feel very much back to normal. The fab four ladies of the Drake Detective Agency are back together, and each of them gets something significant to do. An ex of Frankie’s turns back up. She even gets to punch a couple dudes in the face.

What more could we want from an episode of this show?

Since this hour is titled “Counterpunch” it shouldn’t surprise anyone that it’s largely structured around Frankie’s boxing hobby, one of those weird character quirks that’s meant to prove to viewers that Ms. Drake’s just not like all those other girls of her day. 

She can throw a mean right hook, after all! 

But, thankfully, the boxing stuff is actually woven organically into the story for once, used as both a setting to entrap the episode’s bad guy, and as a chance to illustrate the fact that our heroine isn’t the only lady boxer in existence.( Plus, it allows Frankie to save the day by proving she can take a punch.)

Plus, professional boxer Moses Page returns, just in time to give Frankie a much-needed fighting refresher and a makeout session. (And, apparently, he might even be sticking around this time.) 

This isn’t a bad thing, to be sure — the man is charming, and very easy on the eyes. And, hopefully, if this is going to be a story with real legs, here’s hoping Frankie Drake Mysteries really digs into the story around putting their female lead in an interracial relationship in a show set during the 1920s.

Sure, Canada isn’t the U.S., and the black experience in Toronto is clearly different from, say, the American South, but the show has made a point before of addressing the struggles of Trudy and other characters of color. It certainly seems as though that would be a story worth telling, is all I’m saying. 

The gist of the main story involves a local traveling salesmen, selling an energizing tonic that turns out to be spiked with cocaine. What seems as though it’ll be a simple story of a shady businessman takes a turn, however, when it turns out that elixir-selling Harland is just really into health products, and is getting framed by a local pharmacist afraid he’s stealing his business and blackmailed by a corrupt cop who’s running a shakedown protection racket in the city. 

The boxing comes in when Frankie realizes that said corrupt cop is also an inveterate gambler and she stages a rigged match — that turns very real — to draw him out. 

The sequence at the fighting ring is fabulous from start to finish — from Frankie’s unexpected, hulking female opponent, to Mary’s undercover work as a fancy betting lady, everyone got to play a part in the final bust of the stereotypical bad cop. (I’m not made of stone, his face as he realized that Frankie was, in fact, actually going to win was gold.)

But, mostly, it is a joy just to watch these four women share a screen again, and that Frankie Drake Mysteries allows them all to play a significant part in this week’s A-plot. The seamless way this group communicates and shares the load of solving a mystery is so darn fun to watch. 

Perfect example: Does any scene more perfectly encapsulate the energy of this show than Mary rushing into the morgue to fetch Frankie a potentially dangerous drug for use during her boxing match, all while Flo was making out with a dude in the corner?

I mean, that’s why we watch. Right there. 

Stray Thoughts and Observation

• Still no mention of Detective Grayson? This is starting to feel like that time Ernest Hemingway just straight vanished from Toronto without a trace, except I’m experiencing a lot less joy about it.
• Trudy got the best outfits this week but, sadly, the least to do, and I’m salty about.
• I know that Harlan said he had to move on to not saturate the market with his stupid health drink or whatever it is, but surely we can have him back on the show sometime? He and Flo are adorable together, and I’m pro anything that gives her stories that take place outside the morgue.
• I have a lot of complicated feelings about Frankie drugging that woman who hadn’t done anything wrong to win that fight. I mean, yay, Frankie one! The shady cop was defeated! But…she also cheated? And chloroformed a stranger? Yikes?

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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