The Local Option

"The Local Option"
Season	9
Episode	6
Airdate	16th November 2015
Writer	Simon McNabb
Director	Laurie Lynd
Recurring	Arwen Humphreys as Margaret Brackenreid Mouna Traoré as Rebecca James Kristian Bruun as Constable Slugger Jackson Charles Vandervaart as John Brackenreid
Previous	24 Hours Til Doomsday
Next	Summer of '75

"The Local Option" is the sixth episode of the ninth season of the Murdoch Mysteries and the one hundred twentieth episode of the series.

Summary

With drunk and disorderly behavior running rampant in Toronto Junction neighbourhood, the temperance movement advocates The Local Option, a prohibition measure that will curb liquor sales in the area. Inspector Brackenreid learns he must endure prohibition measures at home when Margaret invites radical anti-alcohol activist Carrie Nation to stay with them. Mrs. B is back! 

The Toronto Constabulary’s Station House No. 4 is asked to send a few men to help out patrolling The Junction due the town having too many drunks and not enough coppers. Crabtree and Jackson break up a bar brawl at the Peacock Hotel and Tavern, leading to an overnight jail stay for all those involved. The upon releasing them the next morning, Councilman Arthur Slauson is found among them and dead. It is assumed he was injured in the brawl and succumbed sometime later until Dr. Ogden finds the body to have bruising and a few small gashes, but nothing obviously fatal. She needs to check for cerebral edema and other internal injuries in the morgue. In the meantime, Detective Murdoch with Inspector Brackenreid search for motives and suspects which leads their investigation to cross paths with the Temperance Movement’s campaign to make the town dry: as The Junction goes, so goes Toronto.

Character Revelations

• John Brackenreid has his first drink, his father's scotch, followed by Father-Son talk.
• Rebecca James lives in Toronto Junction and travels 30 minutes to work. She reveals to George that she take a brandy before going to bed.

Continuity

• Dr. Ogden's "morbid" morgue humor returns.
• With a "foot-in-mouth" George Crabtree, along with Murdoch meet Rebecca James.

Historical References

• Carrie Amelia Moore Nation (first name also spelled Carry;1846 – 1911) was an American woman who was a radical member of the Temperance Movement which opposed alcohol before the advent of Prohibition. She is particularly noteworthy for attacking alcohol-serving establishments (most often taverns) with a hatchet. On the other hand, Nation refused to wear a corset and urged women not to wear them because of their harmful effects on females' vital organs.
• Methanol acquired the name "wood alcohol" because it was once produced chiefly as a byproduct of the destructive distillation of wood. It was a household item in the gas-age, used to prevent pipes from freezing in winter.

Trivia

• Filmed in the village of Ayr, located south of Kitchener and west of Cambridge, Ontario. Scenes were filmed at the site of the former Gooderham & Worts Distillery.

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
Mouna Traoré as Rebecca James
Kristian Bruun as Constable Slugger Jackson
Charles Vandervaart as John Brackenreid

Guest Cast

Valerie Buhaglar as Carrie A. Nation
Max McCabe-Lokos as Liam Bertrand
Roark Gilchrist as Leopold Buck
Jason Bryden as Rev. Shore
Tara Koehler as Mrs. Slauston
Clyde Whitman as Councilman Arthur Slauston