21 Murdoch Street

"21 Murdoch Street"
Season	11
Episode	6
Airdate	November 6, 2017
Writer	Natalia Guled
Director	Harvey Crossland
Guests	Vijay Mehta as Harish Banerjee Ellora Patnaik as Padma Banerjee
Previous	Dr. Osler Regrets
Next	The Accident

"21 Murdoch Street" is the sixth episode of the eleventh season of the Murdoch Mysteries and the one-hundred fifty-sixth of the series. It first aired on November 6, 2017.

Summary

An Indian diplomatic couple approach Murdoch for help finding their sons, who went missing from a prestigious boarding school. When none of the other students will talk, John and Crabtree go undercover at the school to find out what they're hiding.

The emissary to the East Indian Raj Harish Banerjee and his wife Padma seek out Detective William Murdoch to find their two son who have disappeared from the prestigious Laird College two weeks earlier. Laird’s Headmaster had received a withdrawal letter from them dated Tuesday the 14th, the last day anyone heard from the lads and no one is forthcoming about them, especially the fellow students of the missing Banerjee brothers.

Reluctantly, Brackenreid allows John to go undercover as John Simpson, son of Thomas Simpson the whisky brewer. Gaining the trust of the tight-knit students after a staged altercation with the Inspector, John is invited to their secret gambling club with a still made from science equipment. Concurrently Constable Crabtree joins the undercover ruse as Professor Colin Matthews in the Department of Literature. John and Crabtree search the science laboratory for clues: a loose floorboard leads to the discovery of photos stained in blood. George improvises with some glue and violet phosphorous to illuminate the invisible; “Violet phosphorous absorbs visible light and translates it into ultraviolet radiation. At least, I think that's how the Detective put it.” They follow the illuminated blood trail and footprints to the basement’s furnace and discover human remains in its fresh layer of ash – in the middle of June.

In the Station House’s storage shed, Murdoch and Watts sift through buckets of ash to find evidence – curious bits of metal with bone and tooth fragments – amalgam fillings. They need to find out if the boys had fillings. Meanwhile, since Walter Moore has taken over the Banerjees’ gambling business, John bets away his brand-new oxfords for Walter’s ratty ones to check if they have traces of blood on them. Professor Matthews (aka Crabtree) questions Edmund Frye about pursuing his artistic talents, but Frye’s retort about Professor Abrams never meddled this much, “Is he ever coming back? He never said goodbye”, has Crabtree questioning the vacancy he is filling in Laird's Literature Department.

The Detective and Murdoch inform the Banerjees that there has been a murder on campus. The victim had fillings in the central incisor and first molar. But neither Vik nor Sunil had any such fillings. Constable Crabtree interrupts them, “Sirs, I don't think the Ba…uh the…come here!” George presents them with Abram’s agenda, along with some illicit postcards; his last entry was on Tuesday the 14th and he was mixed up in their scheme. Having gone by his rooming house, George reports that nobody's seen hide-nor-hair of him, but none of his possessions has been touched. Crabtree submits, “Sirs, what if the Banerjee boys were not the murdered?” The professor found out what they were doing and threatened to expose them. Then, the professor’s dentist confirms that indeed Abrams is the victim; the Inspector and Detective inform Mr and Mrs Banderjee that their sons are now prime suspects in the death of Professor Abrams.

Character Revelations

• When prodded by Inspector Brackenreid, John responds with a hard right hook in a rowdy ruse so that the uncooperative students would adopt John into their group.
• In his usual unusual insightful manner, Detective Watts gleans that John is not certain he wants to be a policeman.
• Inspector has a deep respect for the good Indian men who fought along side him.
• Crabtree impresses Murdoch with his improvisation with the ultraviolet light, revealing George's expanding knowledge base and skill set.

Continuity

• While Detective Watts questions John Brackenreid about his putting on a constable uniform and converting, John is determined to be a copper.
• While Margaret Brackenreid isn’t particularly fond of John joining the constabulary, she would give Thomas’ eyeteeth to fix their boys a spot up at Laird College. She hopes John’s undercover assignment will get him connections.
• Julia works with Marilyn Clarke toward furthering the science behind infertility. The disappointment in the first experiment is alleviated by an all-too-brief sweet moment between Julia and William.
• The extraction of medicine from plants, "...much the same way as Aspirin was from willow bark." (ep.1105).
• George takes advantage of the undercover assignment – to make an impression on some young minds via a certain published novel, The Curse of the Pharaohs – "a novel by the criminally under-appreciated author George Crabtree".
• John Brackenreid learns about Murdoch's portable UV light (torch/flashlight) and echos his father's motto "follow the money".
• Murdoch is working on a new invention that "...sees heat" which will (no doubt) be put to use in the near future, though Det. Watts questions "...why heat needs to be seen?"

Historical References

• This episode takes place in Toronto 1905 – in the Edwardian Era when Edward VII (Albert Edward;1841-1910) is King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas. In general usage the monarch came to be called the King-Emperor, especially in the Crown's overseas possessions and in British India and the princely states.
• The British Empire, its colonial history with India, and the racism against the people of a foreign nation.
• Brackenreid's Afghanistan War, devilishly hot and with sand everywhere.
• Ancient Egypt: sandy desert, the Nile, the Sphinx and "The great pyramids, both triangular and huge."
• Chasteberry has been used in folk-infertility remedies since Ancient Greece.

Trivia

• During the week off for Halloween, The Accident, originally scheduled to broadcast Nov. 6, 2017, was bumped to Nov. 13; 21 Murdoch Street aired on Monday the 6th instead. The reason for the swap has not been disclosed – yet.
• This episode was filmed in part McMaster University in Hamilton for the second time, first time was in Season 10 (ep.1006).
• The title (and storyline) is an allusion to the police procedural TV series "21 Jump Street".
• MM writer Natalia Guled reveals that the Writers Room has been really excited about Julia's storyline which gives a deeper depiction of the William-Julia marriage.

Cast

Main Cast

Yannick Bisson as Detective William Murdoch
Hélène Joy as Dr. Julia Ogden
Thomas Craig as Inspector Thomas Brackenreid
Jonny Harris as Constable George Crabtree

Recurring Cast

Charles Vandervaart as John Brackenreid
Daniel Maslany as Detective Llewellyn Watts
Arwen Humphreys as Margaret Brackenreid
Sophie Goulet as Marilyn Clark
Erin Agostino as Nina Bloom

Guest Cast

Matthew Isen as Edmund Frye
Vijay Mehta as Harish Banerjee
Tyler Murree as Headmaster Embree
Brett Houghton as Walter Moore
Dale Whibley as Gerald Jarvis
Aman Partap as Vik Banerjee
Parham Rownaghi as Sunil Banerjee
Ellora Patnaik as Padma Banerjee
Nicholas Fry as Urchin

Non-Credited Cast

Nathan Hoppe as Constable McNabb

Gallery

George and Nina