Murdoch Mystery Mansion

"Murdoch Mystery Mansion"
Season	12
Episode	1201
Airdate	September 24, 2018
Writer	Peter Mitchell
Director	Gary Harvey
Guests	Sophie McShera as Ann Ryand Aaron Poole as Frank Lloyd Wright
Previous	Free Falling
Next	Operation: Murder

"Murdoch Mystery Mansion" is the premiere episode of the twelfth season of the Murdoch Mysteries and the one hundred sixty-ninth of the series. It first aired on September 24, 2018.

Summary

Detective Murdoch and Dr. Ogden have rebuilt their life after Ogden’s recent miscarriage by building a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, a Chicago architect with a burgeoning reputation. However, the house is rocked by an explosion in Murdoch’s specially designed potato-cooking room that claims a man’s life.

Murdoch and Ogden invite George and Inspector Brackenreid to a housewarming upon completion of their new avant-garde home, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. To their surprise, Mr. Wright and his assistant Miss Ryand are hosting a viewing show of their home; there is a catch to owning Wright’s first-ever house in the Toronto area – a fine print clause Dr. Ogden overlooked in the contract. In short order, their new home turns into a crime scene filled with suspects when what is left of Mr. Lionel Spoud’s body is discovered in the innovative potato-cooking invention – a closet-sized microwave prototype. Mr. Wright comes under suspicion when it is discovered that the victim was a rival architect.

While still remaining Toronto’s Chief Coroner, Dr. Ogden is attending the University of Toronto School of Medicine to study surgery; this leaves the reliable Miss Hart to run the day-to-day workings of the City Morgue – and an opportunity to bolster her own quest to becoming the next Chief Coroner.

At the Station House, the Inspector and the soon-to-be-wed Constable Higgins duel it out over who is the boss – Ruth or Brackenreid, escalating with Higgins quitting the Toronto Constabulary.

Character Revelations

• Julia and Murdoch have left Windsor House Hotel for their new home.
• Julia is studying to be a surgeon at the University of Toronto, “It’s so much more interesting cutting into living tissue than dead. You should have seen the size of the cyst I helped remove today.” 
• Not having been given a middle name, Henry has chosen one: Hieronymus (Latin form of an Ancient Greek name,  corresponding to the English given name Jerome.)
• Henry Hieronymus Higgins quits the Toronto Constabulary after a showdown with Inspector Brackenreid, as well as insulting Mrs. Brackenreid's wedding planning prowess (ep.912) upon his hasty exit from the Station House.

Continuity

• William and Julia's home (and property) is the scene of a crime – again (ep.918, 1013, 1018).
• George's idea from Season 3 (ep.313) finally happens, when Murdoch invents the "potato cooking room" (closet) for their new home – a micro-wave oven precursor – that could use a turntable to solve its "cooking evenly" issue.
• While ambitious Miss Hart has her plans to be the next coroner at the City Morgue, Inspector Brackenreid gives her a straight-talk on the realities of Toronto-the-Good.
• Henry and Ruth plan their upcoming wedding day and Ruth insists on finding George the "woman of his dreams".

Historical References

• This episode takes place in Toronto 1906 – the Edwardian Era (1901-1910) is the time when King Edward VII rules the British Empire; It is also known as the Belle Époque era, conventionally dated from the end of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 to the outbreak of World War I in 1914.
• American architect, interior designer, writer, and educator Frank Lloyd Wright is introduced.
• William and Julia have brought back from their recent travels to South America a Peruvian statue of Naymlap. Julia calls the statue “Apu” (god); The term dates back to the Inca Empire. Apus are the spirits of the mountains (sometimes solitary rocks and caves) that protect the local highland peoples in the religion and mythology of Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia.

Trivia

• This episode marks the first time Julia Ogden ( Hélène Joy) is seen riding her bicycle ( ep.101).
• Allusion to Tinder and the #MeToo movement.
• Downton Abbey’s Sophie McShera (Daisy) is the fourth member of the Downton Abbey cast to guest star (ep.602, 900) and the second in a Season Premiere (ep.1001) of Murdoch Mysteries.
• The name Ann Ryand may be an allusion (and wordplay) on Ayn Rand.
• Recast actor Paul Rivers (Mr. Kepner) was first seen as the Train Conductor in A Midnight Train to Kingston.

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

Daniel Maslany as Detective Watts
Lachlan Murdoch as Constable Henry Higgins
Shanice Banton as Violet Hart
Bea Santos as Louise Cherry
Siobhan Murphy as Ruth Newsome
Nathan Hoppe as Constable McNabb

Guest Cast

Sophie McShera as Ann Ryand
Aaron Poole as Frank Lloyd Wright
Nicholas Carella as Mr. Towne
Shannon Curie as Mrs. Ferguson
Shane Carty as Mr. Ferguson
Jean Pearson as Mr. Dodds
Paul Rivers as Mr. Kepner
Allan Turner as Mr. Spoud

Gallery

Arriving at new home on their bicycles

George is ready with his own potato...

Questioning the suspect at home

Questioning the Contractor

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