When Fran catches Maggie and her boyfriend smoking (which Maggie does not know), Fran decides that either telling Maxwell or getting mad at Maggie herself would not be an effective way to get Maggie to stop. Instead, Fran decides to "get caught" smoking herself in front of Maxwell and Maggie, Maxwell who will get mad at Fran, thereby scaring Maggie into stopping herself. The unintended result of this plan is that Maxwell calls Fran stupid, which if he will not take back, she threatens to quit. He doesn't so she does. The ploy does however work on Maggie. Maxwell overhears Maggie and realizes that Fran was indeed smarter than he in this situation. Maxwell just has to find where Fran has stormed off to and convince her to come back. She couldn't have found another nanny job yet - or could she?
—Huggo