‘Franklin and Bash’ episode recap – 'Last Dance'

Open with Stanton receiving a Buddha head in the mail. The eyes are blackened out and there are red lines painted down the face.

Shoot to Jared and Peter handling the will for a recently widowed microbiologist named Martha Rheem-Strauss. She wants to ensure that her husband’s body is being donated to a company called BodyView.

Shoot to Damien wanting to call the police because he thinks someone is after Stanton. But, Stanton tells Damien that he has it handled.

Shoot to Jared and Peter learning that BodyView is a company that uses dead bodies as a type of displayable art as mannequins. When the boys also learn that because Martha’s husband was a microbiologist, the company wants to use his body in a display of modern dance, his widow balks.

Shoot to Damien bringing Stanton a list of possible enemies who might have sent him the Buddha head. On the list is a bank robber that Stanton unsuccessfully defended named Samuel Jeffers, who was just released. When Jeffers’ guilty verdict was rendered, Stanton had given him some words of Buddhist wisdom.

Shoot to the courtroom during a settlement hearing. BodyView’s lawyer reads a statement, which gives Dr. Strauss’ specific instructions about what to do with his corpse. Martha disregards these instructions and wants her husband’s body back. The judge then places an injunction on the body, which prevents it from being converted by BodyView until the matter is discussed in court.

Shoot to Jared, Peter and Pindar looking for a legal precedent that would get Dr. Strauss’ final wishes overturned. They come across several cases where the final say seems to rest with the closest living relative.

Shoot to Damien going to see Jeffers. He warns him to stop harassing Stanton. Jeffers doesn’t seem bothered or interested in Damien’s threat.

Shoot to Hanna running into a courtroom sketch artist named Nolan that she dated in college. She wants to avoid him but he asks her out. But, she thinks dating men who are less successful than she is never works out.

Shoot to Stanton and Damien bringing in the woman that Jeffers took hostage during his bank robbery. She tells them that she hasn’t heard from Jeffers and isn’t interested in helping them. Still, Damien wants to get more information on Jeffers so he asks Carmen to look deeper into Jeffers’ background.

Shoot to the courtroom. During cross-examination, Martha admits that she wasn’t aware that her husband took dance lessons seven days a week. A dance instructor then stands up and says that she knows what Dr. Strauss’ final wishes were and that she and Dr. Strauss were in love.

Shoot to Martha admitting that her husband had affairs but doesn’t think they lasted.

Shoot to the court hallway as Jared and Peter wonder if Martha is wrong and Dr. Strauss was planning on leaving her.

Shoot to a hearing to obtain a restraining order against Jeffers, Jeffers portrays his judicial prowess and kicks Damien’s butt in court. In a complete 360, Jeffers ends up getting a restraining order against Damien and Stanton. Following the hearing, Stanton wonders if he really did give Jeffers his best defensive effort.

Shoot to the courtroom as Jared is showing the dance instructor receipts that show that Dr. Strauss jumped from hobby to hobby throughout his life and that he never stayed with one for more than a year. The receipts also show that his dance lessons only lasted nine months. Then, the dance instructor has to admit that Dr. Strauss stopped paying for the lessons.

Shoot to Hanna seeing Nolan and telling him that her schedule has freed up and they can go out on a date.

Shoot to BodyView putting a divorce attorney on the stand. He testifies that Dr. Strauss had looked into filing for divorce. The judge then rules in favor of the dance instructor, who chooses the BodyView option for Dr. Strauss’ body.

Shoot to Hanna and Nolan’s date. Hanna finds out that Nolan is actually a highly paid artist, who does courtroom sketches because he finds it interesting. They start to fool around but Nolan wonders if it’s because Hanna now knows he’s rich.

Shoot to Jeffers planning an anti-harassment suit against Damien and Stanton, which includes a hate crime component because he’s 1/8 Native American. Carmen then tells Damien that she will see what she can do to help.

Shoot to the morning after for Hanna and Nolan. Nolan remembers Hanna’s skill as an artist and thinks she’s forsaken her talent.

Shoot to Jared and Peter looking through Dr. Strauss’ estate papers. They find that he has been making payments on a family burial plot for 14 years. But, it’s too late since Hanna then informs them that Dr. Strauss’ body has already been converted into a statue as art.

Shoot to Jared and Peter telling Martha the news about the burial plot. They then ask her if she’d like Dr. Strauss’ body back even though it’s already been converted by BodyView. She tells them that she does but they tell her that she’ll have to divorce him first.

Shoot to Carmen watching somebody who isn’t Jeffers, throw a Bonsai plant through Stanton’s window. Damien was after the wrong man.

Shoot to the court room. Damien admits that the whole business against Jeffers was a misunderstanding. Then, Damien and Stanton ask for five minutes alone with Jeffers.

Shoot to the court hallway. Stanton apologizes to Jeffers and asks him not to press charges against Damien. Jeffers then tells Stanton that he actually did a great job defending him, since he got him a five-year sentence. He then adds that Stanton inspired him to get an education and that he tried to apologize to the woman who he took hostage during the robbery but she wanted no part of his apology. Damien and Stanton then wonder why she lied to them about not hearing from Jeffers and guess that she is in fact the one setting them up.

Shoot to BodyView putting a customs agent, who specializes in shipping on the stand. He testifies that bodies like Dr. Strauss’ aren’t shipped as art.

Shoot to Damien and Jeffers visiting the Jeffers’ female hostage. Jeffers apologizes to her again, then Stanton appears, tells her that he’s a victim also and about the importance of an apology for all parties. She then apologizes to Stanton.

Shoot to Nolan being put on the stand. He testifies that art is an intentional arrangement of things in order to illicit an emotional response. Then, Jared brings a stuffed bear into the courtroom. Nolan then says that he thinks taxidermy has long been considered as art and thinks Dr. Strauss’ body would qualify.

Shoot to the judge ruling that while he believes that the dance instructor and Dr. Strauss did have a relationship, he also believes that Dr. Strauss’ body qualifies as art and awards it to Martha.

Shoot to Stanton telling Damien to calm down in the future.