The Canadian Patient

"The Canadian Patient"
Season	11
Episode	4
Airdate	October 16, 2017
Writer	Simon McNabb
Director	Alison Reid
Guests	Jamie Thomas King as Dr. Bertram Lennox Stuart Hughes as Dr. Anton Ridgeway Jayne Eastwood as Mary Baker Eddy
Previous	8 Footsteps
Next	Dr. Osler Regrets

"The Canadian Patient" is the fourth episode of the eleventh season of the Murdoch Mysteries and the one hundred-fifty-fourth of the series. It first aired on October 16, 2017.

Summary

Detective Murdoch, Dr. Ogden and Constable Crabtree attend an organ transplant surgery to see if it can be done.

Murdoch investigates a surgeon whose cutting-edge organ transplants wreak medical havoc and run afoul of Mary Baker Eddy and the Christian Science movement.

Character Revelations

• Introduction of Miss Violet Hart, a possible City Morgue assistant for Dr. Ogden.
• John Brackenreid is a constable-in-training at Station House No. 4 to his mother's distress.
• While in Chicago, (see ep.1018), Julia visited a renowned fertility physician who could not help her but thinks she can conceive a child.

Continuity

• George Crabtree comes up with another trademark name for a medicinal pill that Violet Hart is promoting at the Toronto Medical Exposition: "Well, here's what you should call them vitalamines! No. Uh, vitalmines. Vitelmints. Vi vita Vitalamines".
• In the Medical Exposition's operating theatre, George gnaws on red licorice twists while watching the groundbreaking transplant operation.
• Karl Landsteiner's system for typing the first three blood groups was initially introduced in Tour de Murdoch.
• Margaret and Thomas argue over John's career choice and his future.
• Ogden tells Murdoch that most doctors are megalomaniacs, particularly surgeons as it is seen by young men to be a career filled with glory.

Historical References

• While liquorice (British English) or licorice (American English) has been around since ancient times and is believed to give vitality and longevity, red (fruit flavors) licorice contains no liquorice (glycyrrhiza) root. In 1893, liquorice became candy first for adults, then for children in the form of pennies, pipes and various shapes.
• Pathologist and immunologist Karl Landsteiner studied under Emil Fischer, discovered the different human blood types in 1901, and introduced a system for typing the first three blood groups.
• The hemacytometer consists of a thick specialised glass slide with a rectangular indentation that creates a chamber designed to count blood cells using a microscope. The hemacytometer has gone through a series of major development in the 1800s and early 1900s.
• Mary Baker Eddy, founder of the Christian Science movement, believes sickness can be cured with a prayer.
• In the landmark year, 1906, the University of Toronto opened its doors to permit women to study medicine, and the Ontario Medical College for Women closed, but its clinic called the dispensary remained open and continues to prosper in Toronto.
• In the form of leaves from the willow tree, aspirin has been used for at least 2,400 years. In 1853, chemist Charles Frédéric Gerhardt treated sodium salicylate with acetyl chloride to produce acetylsalicylic acid for the first time. By 1897, scientists at Bayer labs began studying acetylsalicylic acid as a less-irritating replacement for salicylate medicines.
• In the early 1900's much research was done on hormones and how they related to fertility, (also, see ep.1010).
• Word origin: megalomaniac, 1890 (noun), 1899 (adjective), the belief that one is much more important and powerful than one really is. The megalomaniac differs from the narcissist by the fact that one wishes to be powerful rather than charming, and seeks to be feared rather than loved. To this type belong may lunatics and some of the great men of history.
• Cambridge University medical research is mentioned, along with a "Dr. Gowland", making an alluison to  Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins OM, PRS an English biochemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1929, with Christiaan Eijkman, for the discovery of vitamins.

Trivia

• Actress Shanice Banton as Violet Hart joins the Murdoch Mysteries' Recurring Cast.
• Re-cast actor Jonathan Wilson, who portrays Dr. Kemp, was first seen in Dead End Street as Felix Roach.
• Showrunner Peter Mitchell has teased that a new domestic drama will consume Julia and Murdoch after this episode which is revealed at the end of Brackenreid Boudoir and demonstrated in F.L.A.S.H.!.
• Filmed at Hacienda Sarria, a hidden gem in Kitchener, Ontario.

Errors

• When Miss Hart mentions Dr. Gowland of Cambridge University's remarkable research, she has his name wrong. She means Dr. Frederick Gowland Hopkins. Either this is a script error or it is a deliberate error to demonstrate Hart's inaccurate sales pitch for her vitamins, a prescient allusion, and/or a hint of something more (sinister) about her?
• While the modern licorice candy evolved in the 17th century, the American Licorice Co. who created the vines and twists opened business on W. Jackson Blvd., Chicago, in 1914.

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

Arwen Humphreys as Margaret Brackenreid
Charles Vandervaart as John Brackenreid
Sophie Goulet as Marilyn Clark
Shanice Banton as Violet Hart

Guest Cast

Jamie Thomas King as Dr. Bertram Lennox
Stuart Hughes as Dr. Anton Ridgeway
Jayne Eastwood as Mary Baker Eddy
Stacy Smith as Jeanette Heins
Brendan Beiser as Mr. Gable
Jonathan Wilson as Dr. Kemp
Robert Nolan as Mr. Sheen
Tim Funnell as Robert Heins
Scott Hilton as Assistant
Thalia Kane as Young Woman

Non-Credited Cast

Nathan Hoppe as Constable McNabb

Gallery

Toronto Medical Exposition

Crabtree meets Miss Hart

George fetches Dr. Ogden for the Detective...

The transplant operation not going well...

Meanwhile at the Station House...

Margaret wants more for John...

Examining the victim at the City Morgue

Examing the blood with the hemacytometer

Interviewing Dr. Kemp