Glory Days

"Glory Days"
Season	8
Episode	3
Airdate	October 20, 2014
Writer	Peter Mitchell and Jordan Christianson
Director	Yannick Bisson
Guests	Steven Ogg as Bat Masterson Anthony Lemke as Father Clements
Recurring	Lachlan Murdoch as Henry Higgins Kristian Bruun as Slugger Jackson Dixie Seatle as Mrs. Kitchen
Previous	On the Waterfront Part 2
Next	Holy Matrimony, Murdoch!

"Glory Days" is the third episode of the eighth season of the Murdoch Mysteries and the ninety-ninth episode of the series. It first aired October 20, 2014.

Summary

Moments before a prize fight featuring George “Little Chocolate” Dixon, the frontier lawman and gambler William Barclay “Bat” Masterson, now a writer for the New York Telegraph, pulls a gun on the notorious duo Robert Leroy Parker and Harry Alonzo Longabaugh, also known as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Luckily– or unluckily, Constables Higgins and Jackson are in the audience and tackle the legendary U.S. lawman before he squeezes off a shot in the very packed room. The question is whether the escaped dastardly duo are truly in Toronto? 

Murdoch is doubtful about the whole thing and is under the impression that Butch and Sundance had fled to Argentina the previous year. Brackenreid is keen however - and just a bit starstruck - and they set off to find the two men Masterson says he saw. After the Bank of Toronto is robbed followed by a train robbery that left a guard dead, Masterson's claim appear confirmed, but Masterson himself knows otherwise and comes clean.

Meanwhile, Julia and William's wedding day is fast approaching but they have yet to select just where they will be married: Julia wants William's unexpressed wish to be married in his church granted. Crabtree collects from the Inspector and Station House No. 4 for Murdoch's bachelor party.

The bandits who robbed the bank are the same two who robbed the train, they match the general description given by the stuttering bank manager as well as the surviving guard and the engineer from the train. The robbers knew the most advantageous time to strike both targets: the bank was holding the payroll for the Grand Trunk railway and the train was delivering the that payroll ($5000) to one of its subsidiaries. Both robberies are linked to the Grand Trunk Railway. While all the bank employees are cleared of any suspicion, the railway employees would've had inside knowledge in both cases.

Doesn't take brains to rob a bank, just nerve and former employees Ed and Hoyd O'Bannons aren't short on nerve, often showing up to work drunk or not at all, which leads the Detective to McLeod's Tavern on Queen Street to make the arrest. With proof that the bullets pulled from the ceiling at the bank were fired from O'Bannon's gun, they confess to the bank robbery but, on their mother's grave, they did not rob the train. It's true that they stopped the train with the fake explosives. But two armed guards were waiting for them so they didn't even get close to the money. Both guards were alive when they fled the scene. The train guard was killed with a 32 calibre and 45s were pulled out of the bank ceiling confirming the O'Bannons story. 

The Grand Trunk Railway should reconsider their hiring practices: first, the O'Bannon boys and now... Hiram Claxton, the surviving guard, who doesn't come from the most reputable of families. His brothers have done jail time and he avoided the same only by joining the American Army. He moved to Canada three years ago to his family farm north of the city– thus, the location of old Wild West-style shootout and where his arrest is made. 

Character Revelations

• When George asks where the Detective and Doctor will live once married, Murdoch tells George, "I intend to build us a house. But Mrs. Kitchen's will have to do in the meantime." George doubts that Dr. Ogden will be keen on that arrangement.
• Beef stew is one of Murdoch's favorite dishes. Mrs. Kitchen tells Murdoch he certainly isn't going to bring his bride back to live in her boarding house. "Who'd entertain such foolishness?"
• Father Clements tells Julia that William's at peace in a way that he has never known him to be, and Julia tells him so is she. Julia and the Father meet several times.
• Bat Masterson once sat across from Butch Cassidy at a card table in Hot Springs, Montana, "I'll bet I am the only man in this city to say I've looked him in the eye." Masterson was born in Quebec, Canada but considers himself "as American as they come."
• Inspector Brackenreid tells Bat, "That's the thing about Canadian law enforcement, Mr. Masterson: patience, diligence, and the reliance on intellect trump the quick draw of the gun every time."
• George rents a tavern and asks Mrs. Kitchen to bring some food. Constable Jackson has it in his head that he'll play the trumpet but George explained to him it's a bachelor party for the Detective, "not a godforsaken talent show..."

Continuity

• William doesn't want a bachelor party and Julia declines a hen party considering how the last one she and Dr. Grace attended went (ep.714).
• Father Clements tells Murdoch that he is so pleased that William has finally found someone in this world who is at the very least his equal and Julia tells William the Father has permitted their wedding to take place in the church, " And if we're to marry, I want to marry all of you."
• When Bat Masterson is taken to the most reputable house of ill-repute in town, the belly dancer and Middle Eastern music reminds Inspector Brackenreid of Afghanistan.
• Being both lawmen and writers, George tells Bat, "I'll get you a copy of my book, Curse of the Pharaohs, it's a rollicking adventure. I've set myself as the main..."

Historical References

• Canadian boxer George “Little Chocolate” Dixon
• Bat Masterson and his pistol, "the gun that saved the West"
• Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid
• Sundance's sweetheart, Etta Place
• Dodge City War and Wyatt Earp in Tombstone
• Toronto Gazette and New York Telegraph

Trivia

• Filmed in Hamilton and at Black Creek Pioneer Village, a working village, typical of those established in south central Ontario between the 1790s and the 1860s, created by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority.
• This episode is a favorite one of both Yannick Bisson (William Murdoch) and Thomas Craig (Thomas Brackenreid).

Errors

• The "South Simcoe Railway" referred to in the episode is the name of the tourist railway used for filming, not a subsidiary of the Grand Trunk Railway as described in the dialogue. The train shown is also a Canadian Pacific prototype, and would not have operated on Grand Trunk tracks
• When Murdoch is knocked through the loft wall he loses his hat, but miraculously the hat appears back on his head when he lands.
• A notepad cannot stop a bullet.

Cast

Main Cast

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

Recurring Cast

Lachlan Murdoch as Henry Higgins
Kristian Bruun as Slugger Jackson
Dixie Seatle as Mrs. Kitchen

Guest Cast

Steven Ogg as Bat Masterson
Anthony Lemke as Father Clements
Rod Wilson as Hiram Claxon
Dan Fox as Liam Claxon
Andrew Butcher as Walter Claxon
Milton Barnes as George Dixon
Denis Germain as Arthur Brown
Sean Clement as Lucas Hunt
J. Sean Elliott as Mr. Fleet
Lorry Ayers as Madame Dupree
Diana Bentley as Cynthia
Daniel Falk as Reporter Matthew Booth
Michael Iliadis as Reporter Neil Sutherland
Dan Karpenchuk as Train Engineer
Jameson Kraemer as Railway Boss
Bruce Beaton as Hoyt O'Bannon
Peter Valdron as Ed O'Bannon
Marie Lou as Belly Dancer

Uncredited Cast

Brian Kaulback as Constable Hodge
Sean Harraher as Constable Worseley