Murdoch and the Temple of Death

"Murdoch and the Temple of Death"
Season	8
Episode	10
Airdate	January 12, 2015
Writer	Paul Aitken
Director	Harvey Crossland
Recurring	Athena Karkanis as Dr. Iris Bajjali
Previous	"The Keystone Constables"
Next	All That Glitters

"Murdoch and the Temple of Death" is the tenth episode of the eighth season of the Murdoch Mysteries and the one hundred-sixth episode of the series.

Summary

Detective Murdoch finds himself exploring a mysterious temple in a search for the Holy Grail. Detective Murdoch and Constable Crabtree investigates the death of a man found in the river by Inspector Brackenreid while out fishing with his boys. The man had been shot in the forehead by a metal rod shaped like an arrow. A receipt in the dead man's pocket directs them to the town of Markham where the dead man is identified as someone who was searching for a mythical Taj Mahal-like temple that is supposed to exist in the woods somewhere west of town and is guarded by a troll. They locate the temple, quickly identify the murder weapon and learn why local legend calls it the temple of death. Julia, Dr. Grace and their friends meanwhile continue to pursue their political aspirations.

Evading a trap

Continuity

• Iris Bajjali returns in her second, and final, appearance.

  

Historical References

• Hagia Sophia is a former Greek Orthodox Christian patriarchal basilica (church), later an imperial mosque, and now a museum  in Istanbul, Turkey. From the date of its construction in 537 until 1453, it served as an Orthodox cathedral and seat of the Patriarch of Constantinople, except between 1204 and 1261, when it was converted to a Roman Catholic cathedral under the Latin Empire. The building was a mosque from 29 May 1453 until 1931. It was then secularized and opened as a museum on 1 February 1935.

Trivia

• The entire episode is an homage to the Indiana Jones franchise.
• Crabtree describes the protagonist of his new novel as a "swashbuckling archaeologist", but one with an Achilles' heel: butterflies (revealed as Murdoch's phobia in Murdochophobia) rather than snakes.
• The title of the episode is a reference to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Crabtree even warns Murdoch, "Sir it's called the Temple of Death, not the Temple of Doom."
• The episode itself is based on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Specific elements paid homage include:
• The various traps, including blades, which protect the grail.
• The elaborate decoy grail which protects the unadorned true grail.
• The female companion who meets her end after trying to make off with the grail.
• The arrow and boulder traps may be a reference to the opening sequence of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
• Billy MacLellan (Enoch/Stephen Hayes), previously played Walter Lacey in Let Loose the Dogs.

Errors

• Both Murdoch and George say that the Temple of Death is "full of booby traps." But when they say that, they have only seen the one trap, the one that killed Bashar Kaba. It is only later that they discover the other traps.
• When Murdoch is investigating the stone pedestal and lifting part of it you can clearly see 2 coins on it, but in the shots before and after there is only 1 coin because the other slided of. After lifting there is also sound of only 1 coin falling down.

Cast

Main Cast

Yannick Bisson as William Murdoch
Hélène Joy as Julia Ogden
Thomas Craig as Thomas Brackenreid
Jonny Harris as George Crabtree
Georgina Reilly as Emily Grace

Recurring Cast

Nicole Underhay as Margaret Haile
Athena Karkanis as Dr. Iris Bajjali
Lachlan Murdoch as Henry Higgins
Charles Vandervaart as Bobby Brackenreid
Jayden Greig as Johnny Brackenreid

Other Cast

Billy MacLellan as Enoch/Steven Hayes

Gallery