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 and the one hundred sixty-ninth of the Murdoch Mysteries 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.

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 constabluary 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).
• 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".

• Murdoch invents the "cooking room" for their new home – a micro-wave oven precusor – that could use a turntable to solve its "cooking evenly" issue.

Historical References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.
• 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.

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

George is ready with his own potato...

Questioning the suspect at home

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