Me, Myself and Murdoch

"Me, Myself and Murdoch"
Season	3
Episode	5
Airdate	April 11, 2010 (Canada)
Writer	Paul Aitken
Director	Don McCutcheon
Guests	Rosemary Dunsmore as Bernice Taylor Anastasia Phillips as Charlotte Taylor
Recurring	Paul Amos as Dr. Roberts Lachlan Murdoch as Henry Higgins
Previous	Rich Boy, Poor Boy
Next	This One Goes to Eleven

"Me, Myself and Murdoch" is the fifth episode of the third season of the Murdoch Mysteries and the thirty-first episode of the series. It first aired on March 16, 2010 (UK).

Summary

Detective Murdoch investigates the murder of Alexander Taylor, who is found in his living room on his birthday, having been killed with an axe. The case seems open and shut when they find the man's daughter, Charlotte, sitting on her bed with the murder weapon in her hands. Charlotte admits that she killed her father but has no memory of it. She also says she often has no memory when she is possessed by the devil. During an interrogation, another entity, Maddie, emerges from her psyche, leading Murdoch to conclude that there are two personalities in the same body. He consults Dr. Roberts, who has helped him in the past, who recommends they try hypnosis. While hypnotizing her, with Dr. Ogden observing the interview, Charlotte spots Julia and regresses into another personality - that of a three year old girl named Girlie. Girlie admits that she knows who the killer is, but cannot tell them since she promised Boo Boo, her older brother, that she would not tell.

On Murdoch's orders, Crabtree researches the family history through public records while Murdoch and Dr. Roberts use hypnosis to delve into Charlotte's trauma. They discover that Bernice Taylor was a widow married to a Mr. Edwards, and that she inherited the house upon his death. One year later, she married Alexander Taylor and gave birth to two children, a son named Joshua and a daughter named Charlotte. Bernice's 13 year old son from her first marriage, Robert, resented the abuse his drunken stepfather wreaked upon him and ran away from home. A few years later, Alexander Taylor butchered his wife in the cellar, with the murder being witnessed by Charlotte, driving her to madness. After burying her body in the floor and pouring cement on top of it, Taylor met another woman at church and married her, persuading her to take on Bernice's identity legally since the house was under Bernice's name.

Eventually, Robert Edwards, who had taken the identity of a Clive Brewster from Richmond, B.C., returned to his family home to work as a farmhand, eager to see if his mother, whom he was told had run off during a previous return visit, had returned. Instead, he found another woman pretending to be his mother. Seeing how Alexander was still a drunk and abusive father who beat Charlotte, Robert took the axe and killed his stepfather, planning to frame Taylor's wife for the crime. In the end, Charlotte is exonerated and sent to preside under Dr. Roberts' care, while Robert Edwards is incarcerated, with the Toronto Constabulary applying a demand for leniency.

Character Revelations

• Julia Ogden is interested in psychiatry and proves most capable in engaging "Girlie" into a whisper game to help solve the case.

Continuity

• Dr. Roberts returns to assist in the investigation and uses Hypnosis.

Historical References

• This episode takes place in Toronto 1897 – Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria 1819 - 1901) is Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, and Empress of India.
• Modern hypnosis started with the Austrian physician Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815).
• Eberhardt Gmelin is sometimes credited as being the first to report a case of multiple personality. However, there are reports of an earlier account by Paracelsus who wrote of a woman in 1646. Nevertheless, Gmelin's 1791 account of "exchanged personality" is very important as the first account of multiple personality written about in great detail.
• Though never spoken, Charlotte Taylor may have Dissociative Identity Disorder; DID was focused on for study between 1880 and 1920 and in 1944. The first detailed account in 1791 of "exchanged personality" was written about a 20-year-old German woman who began to speak perfect French, behave like a French aristocrat and spoke German with a French accent. When she was the "French Woman" she remembered everything she did but as the "German Woman" she denied any knowledge of the "French Woman."

Trivia

• Dr. Roberts makes his third appearance.
• Charlotte returns in The Incurables in Season 8.
• In 2010, Anastasia Phillips was nominated for Gemini Award for her guest role as Charlotte / Maddie / Girlie.

Cast

Main Cast

Yannick Bisson as William Murdoch
Hélène Joy as Julia Ogden
Thomas Craig as Thomas Brackenreid
Jonny Harris as George Crabtree

Recurring Cast

Lachlan Murdoch as Henry Higgins
Paul Amos as Dr. Roberts

Guest Cast

Rosemary Dunsmore as Bernice Taylor
Anastasia Phillips as Charlotte
Matthew Ferguson as Clive Brewster
Callahan Connor as Joshua Taylor
Bruce Beaton as Norman Copps

Gallery 

Mommy?

Whisper game, tell the Detective

Murdoch at the Blackboard

In the basement

Blackboard: A family tree of suspects