Murdoch and the Treasure of Lima

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"Murdoch and the Treasure of Lima"
Season	17
Episode	1715
Airdate	February 5, 2024
Writer	Noelle Girard
Director	Cazhhmere Downey
Guests	Margaret Atwood as Loren Quinnell
Recurring	Arthur Carmichael
Previous	The Smell of Alarm
Next	Preacher Jimmy Wilde

"Murdoch and the Treasure of Lima” is the fifteenth episode of the seventeenth season of Murdoch Mysteries and the two hundred seventy-eighth episode of the series (not including the three stand-alone holiday specials). It first aired on February 5, 2024.

Summary

A treasure hunter approaches Watts about a trove of Incan gold stolen by a distant relative of Watts, whose family heirloom holds the key to finding it. When the man turns up dead, Murdoch surmises that following his map will lead to his murderer. Murdoch and Watts strike out into the bush to hunt a killer and lost treasure, along with treasure hunter Leopold Hudson.

Character Revelations

• Discovering a great-grand-uncle Captain William Thompson left a family heirloom with a connection to a treasure map, originally entrusted to his sister who was married to a descendant Elmore Wattenberg, Watts must look for the heirloom watch his father handed down to him before his death. He had told him never fix the watch and that maybe he'd understand one day, "I always thought it was some kind of metaphor."
• Violet Hart's late husband's old restaurant has closed down; She tells Brackenreid, "Oh, never liked the food there, anyway."

Continuity

• Violet Hart has a flashback to her past with Arthur Carmichael and the curare drug.
• Murdoch's has been planning to refine the Weaponized Capacitor (Murdochian taser) as it is not very accurate at

long range (but at short range, it's terribly effective) and, with an impromptu tweak, it is used quite differently.

Historical References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.
• By 1820, the story of Incan gold legends and myths was the colonial exploitation of the Inca Empire’s wealth and the subsequent disappearance of much of it, particularly after the Spanish conquest in the 16th century. The legends of Lost Gold persisted into the colonial and modern eras, fueling treasure hunts and inspiring adventurers, but little to do with the Inca Empire culture. The Incas revered gold, believing it was the "sweat of the sun" and an earthly manifestation of their principal sun god, Inti.
• Red E Coffee was the first mass-produced instant coffee, created by Belgian-American inventor George Constant Louis Washington (1871-1946) in 1909 after observing coffee powder on his carafe in Guatemala. Its popularity will surge during World War I due to its use by American and Canadian soldiers.
• One of the oldest and most important of the higher institutions of learning in the United States, Columbia University had evolved significantly from its origins as King's College. By 1911, it had reciprocal relations with other institutions, allowed women to attend, and was preparing to officially become Columbia University in 1912.
• Edmund Selous (1857–1934) was a British ornithologist and writer.
• Curare is of botanical origin from various tropical American plants. The drug belonging to the alkaloid family of organic compounds, derivatives of which are used in modern medicine primarily as skeletal muscle relaxants. Crude preparations of curare have long been used as arrow poisons to aid in the capture of wild game by Indigenous peoples of South America. In fatal doses, death is caused by respiratory paralysis.
• The Glisenti Model 1910 was a 9 mm calibre semi-automatic service pistol produced by the Italian company Società Siderurgica Glisenti. It was put in production in 1910 to replace the aging Bodeo Model 1889.
• The Browning is an semi-automatic pistol designed by John Browning and manufactured by Fabrique Nationale of Belgium.

Trivia

• Meegwun Fairbrother first appeared on Murdoch Mysteries in Season 9's House of Industry.
• Margaret Atwood, a Canadian novelist, poet, literary critic, and inventor, makes a cameo appearance in this episode as Lorin Quinelle, an amateur ornithologist. Her own interest in birds was a hobby she had shared with her late husband.

Notable Quote

Murdoch to Lorin Quinelle: "Lay down the gun and take up a pair of opera glasses."

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 Llewellyn Watts
Shanice Banton as Violet Hart
James Graham as Arthur Carmichael

Guest Cast

Margaret Atwood as Loren Quinnell
Meegwun Fairbrother as Leopold Hudson
Ashley Leggat as Miranda Fekete
Mike Petersen as Dr. Aldous Hardy
Xavier Schoppel as Jorg Holstrom
Martin Julien as John Coffrey
James McDougall as Emmett Wilks
Deborah Lobban as Mrs. Pym
Paul Irving as Constable
Michael T. Burgess as Concierge