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In TNT’s Animal Kingdom, the Cody family has always been a volatile mix of loyalty, betrayal, and crime.
But when Frankie enters the picture, things get even more complicated, quietly, and without the bloodshed we’ve come to expect from the show. By encouraging Craig Cody to distance himself from his family and providing him with independence in both romance and business, Frankie meddles in the Codys' lives without ever being completely honest about her motivations. Her presence erodes the bond the Cody brothers need to survive by fostering mistrust and emotional distance.
Frankie's personality does not lead to melodramatic betrayals and high-testosterone showdowns. Rather, she plays games with deliberate intent. She appears in season 3, and she does so not by dint of bullets but by an act of will, namely over Craig Cody. As the seasons unfold, her acting leaves one wondering about her motive, loyalty, and ambition.
Let's dive deeper into how Frankie disrupted the Codys' lives.
Frankie's introduction in Animal Kingdom: Bigger than Billy's girlfriend
Frankie comes to Animal Kingdom Season 3 as Billy's girlfriend. Initially, she's a supporting cast member who gets set against Billy's hotheaded personality. In no time at all, however, she becomes a professional thief and savvy con artist. She's intelligent, cool-headed, and has something up her sleeve.
In contrast to disordered and disorganized Billy, Frankie is business-like and cool. She establishes her role in the world of art crime very quickly, providing the Codys with a commodity they value highly: a ticket into profitable but illicit criminal operations. She is valuable to them both for her street knowledge and business acumen, but loose on their hands as well. Frankie's riding shotgun, not only—she's looking to create her own niche.
A troubling affair with Craig Cody in Animal Kingdom
Frankie's richest connection is to Craig Cody. What started as an affair is a messy relationship that meshes passion and commerce. Frankie can see something in Craig—not as a sex object, but as a man for whom she can build something. She shows him new vistas, new horizons, and most of all, a new philosophy untainted by family duty.
Craig, who had only ever lived with Smurf and his brothers, starts to imagine what it would be like if he were living independently. Frankie never so much as insists that he leave his family in words, but she shows him himself that there has to be more to life than stealing banks and struggling to be top dog. Through her, Craig gradually unwinds from the history of the Cody family and starts discovering who he is.
Subtle influence: Not a villain, but not innocent
Frankie is not a manipulative woman on the surface, but neither is she available. Her psychological and subterranean power over Craig excludes manipulating anyone with connivance, cheating, or betrayal of the Codys theatrically, but she does not participate in their backroom power games. She offers resources, arranges introductions, and begs business—but keeps herself at arm's length.
Why her intervention is so effective is that she is not personally involved. Frankie never got into a cause whole hog, never professed strong loyalty to the Cody family, and never showed what she had planned for herself in life.
That lack of information generates tension, especially when Craig begins to move away from the crew. The rest of the family begins to wonder what she has in mind—and rightly so. She is not behaving against them, but she is not behaving in their favor either.
Opportunism and business acumen in Animal Kingdom
Frankie is an opportunist. Either calling markers with the art-world contacts she's made or suggesting new heists, she always keeps herself foremost in mind. She is a title partner solely, particularly to Craig, but never at the cost of losing her autonomy. She's the type of criminal, in a way, who operates on loose loyalties—accountable only to herself.
One of the most characteristic things about Frankie in Animal Kingdom is that she does not seek disorder. She is not doing it to get even or because she enjoys the drama. She is a thinker. And it is by thinking that has continually undermined Craig's place in the Cody family. Where others employ savagery, Frankie employs alternatives, drive, and creativity to re-frame what Craig believes to be feasible.
The more he steals a page from her book, the further away from the Cody tradition he is drifting.
Exit after the Hawala heist in Animal Kingdom
Frankie's story in Animal Kingdom doesn't conclude in betrayal, but in an exit, although discreet. After the Hawala heist, she takes her share and departs, bound for Costa Rica. No retribution, no brutality, no sensational showdown. She simply exits.
But she transforms Craig. He is no longer our same old free-wheeling Cody brother we've grown accustomed to depending upon in the early seasons. Frankie's presence redirected his mind—she caused him to think about everything from his life of crime to his family relationships. And although she never hurt the Codys, her departure leaves a vacancy. Craig is more independent, more questioning, and more conflicted than ever.
Frankie's motivation in Animal Kingdom: Smurf respect or self-interest?
At an early point in her life with the Codys, Frankie is infatuated with Smurf. Frankie adores Smurf because she is strong-willed and independent. When Frankie initially becomes involved with the Codys, one of the initial reasons she gets involved with them is to be friends with Smurf and be around her. That respect never becomes devotion, however.
Frankie is constantly self-serving. Even her love affair with Craig is business-before-politics. She's always protecting what's up ahead. And when it no longer benefits her, she'll have no problem moving on. This modus operandi—entering, gaining trust, taking her share, and exiting—is encapsulated in her trajectory throughout the series.
The legacy of Frankie's interference in Animal Kingdom
Frankie didn't betray the Codys in Animal Kingdom, but she did transform them—and, particularly, Craig. She transformed his attitude and undermined his loyalty to the family. She brought about doubt, ambition, and the idea that there was something greater outside the world than crime. In a family that lives on blind loyalty and strict codes, these are deeply subversive values.
Though she is frequently left out of the big battles, her shadow is never absent, in implicit or insistent form. Frankie shows us that not all peril comes with guns and schedules. Some come with smiles, with intention, and soft goodbyes. Her liminality—neither enemy nor friend, yet something in between—is the same thing that propelled her as one of Animal Kingdom's most resilient, quietly strongest characters.
Frankie's coup of Animal Kingdom was never raw force. She did not steamroll into Cody's family dynamics and stab them in the back for control. She operated from the inside out—speech by speech, bargaining by bargaining, relationship by relationship. Her power is better measured not in what she took away from the system, but in what it left behind: discombobulation, autonomy, and a reorganized Craig worldview.
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In the end, Frankie's is a way of survival, of self-preservation, and of the hell of small rebellion. She didn't need to destroy the Codys to change them—to reveal them to another existence. And in their universe, that was sufficient to send it crashing.
Also read: Does Animal Kingdom's ending leave the chance for Season 7 or a spin-off? Speculations explored
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