"Forever Young" is the third episode of the thirteenth season of the Murdoch Mysteries and the one hundred and eighty-ninth of the series. It first aired on September 30, 2019.
Summary
Murdoch investigates the bizarre murder of a young woman who disappeared a decade earlier yet somehow hasn't aged a day.
A couple on their evening walk witness a young woman, in a floral pattern dress, running just south of Park Drive in an apparent state of fright then her unidentified body is discovered just north of Cudmore Creek. Assigned to work with his latest invention, the Searchizer, Crabtree and Parker find a surprising match to the Bertillon measurements of the young woman in the records: Polly Townsend, reported missing by Jack and Doris Townsend twelve years ago in 1895.
Character Revelations
- William and Julia have new neighbours.
- Detective Murdoch has had a standing directive forbidding any offical communications with Miss Cherry of the Toronto Telegraph – which Miss Hart has ignored as she answers to the Board of Control not the Constabulary.
- George's new book is rejected by publisher Deakins of Canada.
Continuity
- George Crabtree has thoughts on the reason why the dead body hasn’t aged a day...
- Murdoch's Searchizer is introduced and used by Crabtree and Parker to identify the victim and follow up on a list of Eaton's debtors who buy with payments.
- Retired Inspector Hamish Slorach meets Special Constable Robert Parker while assisting on the case; He was the investigating detective at Station House No. 1 in 1895.
- Hot off the press Toronto Telegraph's Louise Cherry...
- Julia is at a medical conference but William's new portable headphone (not wireless) helps keep him in communication with her and his hands free.
- The tension between Murdoch and Miss Hart goes into high gear when the Detective admonishes the Chief Coroner for speaking to the press where upon she retorts, "Your wife may do your bidding but I am not she." This is not the first time, Murdoch has a feud with the City Coroner (see Dr. Francis).
- While the publisher's rejection letter mentions, "The passages describing the flower girls of Flower Hill were particularly appealing", George points out at least they didn't spell his name as Carbtree.
- The Röntgen Machine was first introduced in Dinosaur Fever and again used in Murdoch of the Living Dead.
Historical References
- This episode takes place in Toronto 1907 – Edward VII (Albert Edward;1841-1910) is King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas.
- In 1883, the Parisian police adopted Alphonse Bertillon's anthropometric system, called signaletics or bertillonage, identifying individuals by measurements of the head and body, shape formations of the ear, eyebrow, mouth, eye, etc., along with individual markings such as tattoos and scars, and personality characteristics.
- The X-ray was discovered in 1895 by Röntgen who received the Nobel Prize in Physics for its discovery in 1901.
- Principle of Relativity and Time traveling at the speed of light (Albert Einstein).
- Sleeping Beauty, (French: La Belle au bois dormant or German: Dornröschen, Little Briar Rose), also titled in English as The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods, is a tale of a princess who is forced into an enchanted sleep and is later awakened reversing the magic curse. The earliest known version of the folktale is found in the narrative Perceforest, told between 1330 and 1344.
Trivia
- Neither Detective Watts nor Dr. Julia Ogden appear in this episode.
- When talking about his book with Robert Parker, George alludes to plot line in Sir. Sir? Sir!!!.
- Murdochians will recognise recasted actors Joris Jarsky, Lindsey Connell, and Paul Braunstein who was Arlen Pike in Murdoch of the Klondike, along with Nadine Roden who first appeared last season in Sins of the Father.
- Partly filmed in Port Hope, Ontario: Murdoch rides his bicycle on John Street, and the Port Hope Memorial Bandshell is used as the venue for the thwarted demonstration of the eternal youth machine.
Notable Quotes
- Crabtree to Parker: "Speak the words and they immediately become alive!"
- Crabtree to the Inspector and Murdoch: "Sir, it's well accepted that vampires do not age. She was last seen during the night. Her body was completely drained of blood, which would suggest to me a second vampire. I mean, there is a lot of infighting amongst vampires, don't even start with werewolves. Finally, her throat was slashed to disguise the bite marks....She may have been kidnapped by aliens, possibly Venusian."
Errors
- The envelope of the publisher's letter to George appears to be already opened in all prevous shots before Parker opens it.
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
Shanice Banton as Violet Hart
Marc Senior as Special Constable Robert Parker
Patrick McKenna as Inspector Hamish Slorach
Bea Santos as Louise Cherry
Raoul Bhanja as Dr. Sanjay Prasad
Guest Cast
Joris Jarsky as Bertie Smothers
Lindsey Connell as Doris Smothers
Paul Braunstein as Raymond Huckabee
Jonelle Gunderson as Goldie Huckabee
Sava Drayton as Norman
Nadine Roden as Rose
Jenna Warren as Nancy
James Dunn as Newsboy
Non-credited Cast
Nathan Hoppe as Constable McNabb
Gallery
Murdoch Mysteries Season 13 |
---|
Troublemakers • Bad Pennies • Forever Young • Prodigal Father • Murdoch and the Cursed Caves • The Philately Fatality • Toronto the Bad • The Final Curtain • The Killing Dose • Parker in the Rye • Staring Blindly into the Future • Fox Hunt • Kill Thy Neighbour • Rigid Silence • The Trial of Terrence Meyers • In the Company of Women • Things Left Behind • The Future is Unwritten
|