Murdoch and the Mona Lisa

Spoiler warning! This article contains plot details or information about an upcoming episode/season which has not been aired world-wide yet. Don't believe everything you read, content is subject to change at any time.

"Murdoch and the Mona Lisa"
Season	17
Episode	1703
Airdate	October 16, 2023
Writer	Noelle Girard
Director	Gloria Kim
Previous	Do the Right Thing Part 2
Next	Bottom of the Barrel

"Murdoch and the Mona Lisa" is the third episode of the seventeenth season of Murdoch Mysteries and the two hundred sixty-sixth episode of the series (not including the three stand-alone holiday specials). It first aired on October 16, 2023.

Summary

After a man is bludgeoned aboard a ship, Murdoch learns the victim was a suspect in the recent theft of the “Mona Lisa” from the Louvre. His inquiries lead him to other artistically inclined passengers, including artist Emily Carr and one who spent time in a sanatorium.

Character Revelations

• Emily Carr is painting a mother-daughter portrait of Julia and Susannah in the Murdoch Home and makes her re-think painting.

Continuity

• Susannah has a new nanny...
• Higgins goes undercover again...

Historical References

• This episode takes place in Toronto 1911 – George V is King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936.
• In the early morning of August 21, 1911, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa goes missing in Paris without a cue or suspect. It would take two years to discover that former Louvre employee, Vincenzo Perugia, had stolen it with hopes to return the painting to her rightful home, Florence, Italy. Before the theft, only scholars, art historians, and the intelligentsia considered the painting a renaissance masterpiece also known as La Gioconda in Italian (or La Joconde in French), upon its return on December 31, 1913 to the Louvre the world became captivated by her smile — becoming a renowned icon and one of the most valuable paintings in the world, holding the world record for the highest insurance valuation at over $800 million.
• Canadian Emily Carr was a painter and writer whose lifelong inspiration was the coastal environment of British Columbia.
• Camera Lucida, (Latin: “light chamber”), is an optical instrument patented in 1806 by William Hyde Wollaston to facilitate accurate sketching of objects. It consists of a four-sided prism mounted on a small stand above a sheet of paper, canvas or panel; The original microscope was replaced by two diagonal mirrors for the prism: one transparent mirror was positioned above the microscope eyepiece and the second at a short distance above the work surface. Murdoch not recognizing it nor its function is inconsistent with his usual knowledge of past inventions.

Trivia

• The Mona Lisa is only a medium size painting, 30 inches by 21 inches (77 cm by 53 cm), often smaller in real life than people expect.
• While the theft of the Mona Lisa is historically accurate, Murdoch recovering it and it being stored away in a Brackenreid closet are pure fiction, albeit humorous and entertaining.
• The theft of da Vinci's now famous portrait has inspired a song and many a tall tale including another detective's recovery of it in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Final Problem (1985), missing for two years without a trace gave way to conspiracies and forgeries along with fodder for fiction ever since.

Cast

Main Cast

Yannick Bisson as Detective William Murdoch
Hélène Joy as Dr. Julia Ogden
Thomas Craig asInspector Thomas Brackenreid
Jonny Harris as Constable George Crabtree

Recurring Cast

Lachlan Murdoch as Constable Henry Higgins-Newsome
Daniel Maslany as Detective Llewellyn Watts
Shanice Banton as Violet Hart
Arwen Humphreys as Margaret Brackenreid

Guest Cast

Kristen Banton as Emily Carr
Johnathan Sousa as Vincenzo Peruggia
Oliver Dennis as Aurthur Rawley
Yanna McIntoch as Nanny
Charlotte Dennis as Lady Isabelle
Raphael Grosz-Harvey as Henri Dubois/Jacques Martine
Brian Sills as Ronald Lash
Robert Dodds as Older man
Ali A. Kazmi as Younger man
Celestina Aleobua as Bartender