Frankie Drake Mysteries Review: A Most Foiled Assault (Season 4 Episode 4)

Frankie Drake Mysteries Season 4 Episode 4, “A Most Foiled Assault,” is a great example of the ways this series has carved out its own space in the crowded procedural television landscape. Yes, it’s a show focused on a female lead character and her smart posse of female friends, and that’s great. 

But it’s also a series that tells specifically female-focused stories, in a way that many shows like it don’t bother to attempt. In the world of Frankie Drake Mysteries, Frankie and friends are often tasked with solving mysteries that are specifically connected to women and women’s experiences. 

“A Most Foiled Assault” is about Canada’s first female fencing team, and it’s precisely the sort of thing you don’t see on other shows of this ilk. And while the story may be explicitly about women’s fencing, specifically, it’s also about women’s struggle to be taken seriously generally in a world that’s dominated by men. 

Half the fun of this particular story is the way it so firmly grounds itself in the specifics of women’s fencing — from the athletes who are desperate desire to be recognized for their abilities to the backstabbing and jockeying for position that takes place in and among the group of women fighting to make the national team. (Plus, Trudy’s right — it does just look exciting.) 

While there are certainly elements of “A Most Foiled Assault” that feel a bit over the top — i.e., the way nearly every man in it save for Flo’s charmingly lame new falconer friend feels like a caricature of early twentieth-century sexism.

The guy who purposefully dressed up as a female fencer to try and discredit them in their own spaces feels particularly egregious (though, sadly not entirely out of step with where some of our modern conversation about sports still sits.)

But is this because we’re simply trained, as viewers, to consider any acknowledgment of such misogyny to be tacky and/or uncomfortable? I don’t know, but given that Frankie Drake Mysteries is one of the few series that’s honest about how pervasive and gross this attitude is, I suppose I can forgive a little bit of excess.

Plus, at least there’s the second-hand catharsis that comes from watching Frankie punch sexists in the face. I’m shallow that way. 

Like many of Season 4’s cases of the week, the actual mystery of who killed the ladies’ fencing coach isn’t all that compelling, though the killer does turn out to be one of the more interesting options out of the episodes list of suspects. (A top fencer who discovered her sister was about to be cut from the team, and couldn’t stand the prospect of going to the world championships without her.)

Though I’m not sure that killing the coach was the best path to ensure they’d compete together, given that his death — and the ensuing arrests and scandal — basically killed the idea of a female national team entirely. So, let that be a lesson, I guess.

On the plus side, the method by which Frankie and Trudy sussed out the culprit — learning about fencing and watching enough practice footage to identify when someone was pretending to be a different competitor from their stances — was really rather inspired. 

Elsewhere, Mary gets tapped to help out on another high-profile murder investigation. (Yay!) True, it’s only because the police chief equated the “locker room” angle of the murder with women in their undergarments.

But anything that gets Mary out of measuring skirt lengths, I support. She’s genuinely good at her job, and it’s infuriating to watch these officers try to manipulate her because her desire to do real police work is so palpable. Does that enthusiasm sometimes blind her to the real flaws in the system? Yes, clearly.

But it feels like she — and other women like her — are obviously part of the solution that will ultimately help improve policing if given the chance. Ugh.

Elsewhere, it looks like Mary is finally going to get the romance she’s deserved for basically this entire series, with Steven the journalist who is also sort of a communist? He’s very sweet and they’re super cute together, but I can’t be the only person who finds his decision to not keep their conversation about Ruby’s off the record very disturbing? 

Stray Thoughts and Observations

• I feel like I haven’t said this enough of late, but truly Frankie Drake Mysteries’ attitude toward female sexuality – and 1920s sexuality in particular — is truly such a breath of fresh air. None of these women are in any way ashamed of their interest in or enjoyment of sex, and its most unconventionally attractive woman gets as much male attention as its star. You honestly love to see it.
• Alessandro remains my favorite of Frankie’s boyfriends ever and I’m so nervous that means something awful is going to happen to him. 

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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