Jagged Little Pill

"Jagged Little Pill"
Season	10
Episode	1005
Airdate	November 7, 2016
Writer	Carol Hay
Director	Harvey Crossland
Previous	Concocting A Killer
Next	Bend It Like Brackenreid

"Jagged Little Pill" is the fifth episode of Season Ten and the one hundred thirty-seventh of the series. It first aired November 7, 2016.

Summary

Murdoch and Ogden investigate the poisoning of a philandering businessman; Miss James is suspicious of a fellow student's suicide.

In the dead of night, a young woman is running for her life and a prominent Toronto business man is found dead in his automobile by a constable. The next morning in the City Morgue, the autopsy of the murder victim is begun by Dr. Ogden and Miss James. Murdoch informs them that Mrs. McInnis reported her husband missing two days ago. Along with Mr. Ed McInnis' body, Sarah Franklin's body was fished out of the river and arrives at morgue– to Miss James' disbelief and distress: Rebecca can not believe her friend and fellow medical student committed suicide.  

Character Revelations

• Murdoch never did get the hang of morgue humor; on the other hand, Miss James is a quick study.
• Rebecca James is called Becca by Nate.

Continuity

• Nate Desmond is still sweet on Rebecca, since Colour Blinded.
• Julia patiently stands by as William interviews building contractors for their yet-to-be-built house with an ‘automatic dishwashing cupboard’ and ‘standing bath’.
• Dr. Augusta Stowe-Gullen asks Julia to teach forensic medicine at the Women’s Medical College which Ogden accepts.

Historical References

• Ontario Medical College for Women and its beginnings as Women’s Medical College with its ties to Dr. Emily Stowe; her daughter Augusta Stowe-Gullen taught at the medical college at that time.
• Gutzeit test is a test for arsenic used esp. in toxicology that is based on the formation of arsine (as in the Marsh test) and the production by the arsine of a brown stain on filter paper moistened with mercuric chloride solution; named for Ernst Wilhelm Heinrich Gutzeit (1845-1888) who developed the method.
• The research into syphilis and the sleeping sickness is historically accurate.
• The "modern day" pencil with eraser was invented in 1858 and mass produced in North America by 1904.
• Professor Hempel stealing Sarah Franklin's notes to further his research could be a possible allusion to how James Watson and Francis Crick stole Rosalind Franklin's notes which led to them winning the Nobel Prize in Physiology for the discovery of the DNA double helix.

Trivia

• The episode was filmed at a medical college in Guelph, Ont.
• While shooting in Guelph during a karaoke break, "Mouna went up and sang and blew everyone’s mind." MM Writers knew that and built it into the Once Upon a Murdoch Christmas storyline.
• Johnny Harris and Thomas Craig do not appear in this episode as their characters Constable George Crabtree and Inspector Thomas Brackenreid.

Cast

Main Cast

Yannick Bisson as Detective William Murdoch
Hélène Joy as Dr. Julia Ogden

Recurring Cast

Mouna Traoré as Rebecca James
Jordan Johnson-Hinds as Nate Desmond

Guest Cast

James Gallanders as Professor Lawrence Hempel
Julie Khaner as Dr. Stowe-Gullen
Matt O’Connor as Bernard Winston
Clare Stone as Anne Baxter
Erin Carter as Katherine Roy

Gallery

Crime Scene

Rebecca investigates

Professor Hempel