In the Altogether

"In the Altogether"
Season	3
Episode	12
Airdate	June 6, 2010 (Canada)
Writer	Jean Greig
Director	Steve Wright
Guests	Ennis Esmer as Marcus Evans
Recurring	Lachlan Murdoch as Henry Higgins Sean Harraher as Constable Worseley Peter Stebbings as James Pendrick Kate Greenhouse as Sally Pendrick
Previous	Hangman
Next	The Tesla Effect

"In the Altogether" is the twelfth episode of the third season of the Murdoch Mysteries and the thirty-eighth episode of the series. It first aired on May 4, 2010 (UK).

Summary

While out on a stroll, Julia tries to explain to William her wanting a change from working on only dead people but the Detective and Doctor soon find they have a murder on their hands when an attractive young woman, Abigail Tungstall is found strangled in the park. When Murdoch and Constable Crabtree search the woman's lodgings, they find some very risqué photographs of the young woman leading them straight to a known pornographer, Marcus Evans. He denies having anything to do with the young woman's death, saying she had quit some time ago.

However, one of the other models who had been a close friend of the victim tells them that Abigail had gotten into a new business at a different address, which turns out to be an apartment where Abigail had taken men for trysts, which consists mainly of a boudoir with a large, luxurious bed and a hidden camera behind a one way mirror. Murdoch discovers a safe behind a panel and once it is opened, he is shocked to find among others photos of Sally Pendrick, whose husband James he has long suspected of criminal activity.

The men in the photographs who have been blackmailed all have motive, but on investigation they are all cleared, except one man who cannot be identified. They instead trace the camera found in the hidden room and get the name of the purchaser, Colin McTavish, who is apparently Abigail's employer and the one who has been blackmailing everyone.

Mrs. Pendrick eventually admits to having posed for the photos when she was young, prior to her marriage, and that she is now being blackmailed by McTavish with a threat to inform her husband of them. When Murdoch accompanies her to a meeting with McTavish in hopes of catching the man, there is an explosion in the warehouse where they were to meet, and they are nearly killed. The suspected blackmailer's body is found in the warehouse, but Julia determines that he had been dead before the explosion, it is not what killed him.

They also discover that the woman in the picture with the unidentified man is not Abigail, but her model friend Moira who had pointed them to her trysting place earlier. Moira admits she was there, but only the one time, and she does not know who the man is either. However, she tells them to take another look at Marcus Evans, because he was in love with Abigail and if he'd found out what she was doing, he would have had motive to kill her. When Murdoch confronts him he confesses to strangling Abigail in the heat of an argument, but says he didn't blackmail anyone and knows nothing about McTavish or his death.

Murdoch determines they are dealing with two separate crimes, and suspects the bomb was intended for Sally, thinking that someone, probably James, was out to kill Mrs. Pendrick all along. Upon investigation of the pieces of the bomb which are retrieved, Murdoch finds evidence that a finely made and expensive Swiss clock wheel like the ones James Pendrick used in his model of the solar system was used in the timing device. With testimony from the makers that an order was shipped to Pendrick and there were no other buyers in the Toronto area, Pendrick is arrested and charged with the murder of McTavish and attempted murder of his wife.

Meanwhile, Dr. Ogden is growing restless, perhaps H. G. Wells was accurate when he observed there was something missing in her life. Her romance with Murdoch grows strained as her uneasiness increases, as she and William can't seem to finish a conversation without being interrupted, let alone have a heart to heart talk. She seriously considers an offer to practice medicine in a new children's hospital in Buffalo, as the head of pediatric surgery.

Character Revelations

• Sally Pendrick has been hiding details of her past from her husband.
• Murdoch asks George how many Aunts does he have for the first time. George can only get through the As and Bs before the Detective stops him, " You can fill me in on the Cs through Z another time."

Continuity

• Murdoch refers to the events of This One Goes to Eleven and Future Imperfect in recounting his suspicions of James Pendrick.
• Prescient George Crabtree foreshadows the use of the half-silvered mirror evolution into an one-way mirror, "Sir, imagine we had one of these at the station, in the interview room."
• Julia continues to grow more restless about her relationship with Murdoch, and tells him that she thinks H.G. Wells was right in Future Imperfect when he said there was something missing. She meets with a doctor from Buffalo that she previously got a call from, who says he is 'wooing' her, apparently to move and take a new position at his hospital.

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.
• In 1885, George Eastman began marketing the world's first commercial film.
• The box camera became commercially available by 1888.
• The half-silvered mirror "used in scientific experiments to split beams of light" is often called a pellicle mirror in photography used as early as the 1600s with the camera obscura, then the magic lantern to the camera lucida in 1806.
• In 1892, Dr. Mahlon Bainbridge Folwell founded the Children’s Hospital of Buffalo with Mrs. Gibson T. Williams and her daughter Miss Martha Tenney Williams.

Trivia

• It is never revealed who the unidentified man was since his name wasn't on the list found in the apartment, even Moria, Abigail's friend didn't know his name when she said to the Inspector, "Abbey knew him, I didn't! I've never seen him before or since!"
• The Children’s Hospital of Buffalo is now Oishei Children’s Hospital.
• The Transparent Mirror (relates to an advertising display device) was invented and patented on February 17, 1903 by Russian Emil Bloch residing in Cincinnati, Ohio.
• The character Colin McTavish is not credited.

Errors

• When Murdoch pulls the packets of money out of the safe, you can easily tell that there were only a few real bills on the outside and regular paper in between.
• Sally Pendrick's choker is held together by velcro at the back
• James and Sally Pendrick are featured in the next episode (ep.313), the Season 3 finale.

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
Peter Stebbings as James Pendrick
Kate Greenhouse as Sally Pendrick

Guest Cast

Ennis Esmer as Marcus Evans
Janet Porter as Moira Mahoney
Kevin Bundy as Dr. Folwell
Julian DeZotti as Luther
Olivia Rameau as Beatrice

Non-Credited Cast

Sean Harraher as Constable Worseley

Gallery

We're needed again

Working it out..

at the Blackboard

Half silver mirror