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"The Long Goodbye Part 1" is the twenty-third episode of the sixteenth season of Murdoch Mysteries and the two hundred sixty-second episode of the series (not including the three stand-alone holiday specials). It first aired on April 3, 2023.
Summary
After Brackenreid announces his departure for England, he confides in Murdoch that this may mark his retirement and has recommended Murdoch for interim inspector. A skeptical Murdoch hopes to be promoted, but the Board of Control selects the younger, zealot Detective Edwards from Station House No. 1 for the job. When a constable is found strangled in a flophouse, Edwards's heavy-handed righteous crusade to clean up Toronto hampers the investigation.
At the flophouse on River Street, they find an unidentified man strangled with a lamp cord in a room rented by a woman. A witness heard the woman running out the back door at 2:55am and had seen the couple arrive an hour earlier, the man called her Francesca. Then, upon seeing the dead victim, Crabtree identifies the man as Constable Archibald Langley of Station House Three. Inspector Edwards concludes that the killer is likely hiding in one of the dens of iniquity and orders a crackdown on every brothels, bordellos, and houses of ill repute as he wants the city turned upside down – Toronto is rotten to the core; His clean up includes the men visiting them and offers a bonus of 50 cents for every arrest.
At the City Morgue, Mrs. Hart confirms that Mr. Langley's cause of death is asphyxiation but she has found a wound to the back of his head and, from its severity, he was either dazed or unconscious when he was strangled. More importantly, he was not killed with the lamp cord but with something thicker and wider and most likely leather — a belt or strap.
Suspicious of the coppers brought over from Station House One by the new inspector, George reports to Murdoch about a new witness who saw a woman fleeing the scene, but the timing doesn't seem to match up. She swears she saw Francesca at 2:45am, ten minutes before the clerk said he heard her running out the back door. The witness works at a bakery where she arrives on time at 3:00am and swears she didn’t leave a minute after 2:45 for the 15-minute walk to work – so either she or the clerk is mistaken. They return to the flophouse to find out what they have missed.
In the dead-end back alley of the flophouse and Sing’s Laundry Service, George finds a cameo beneath broken window glass. If this is Francesca’s, then she came through the alley before the window broke. She was seen at 2:45 and the clerk heard a fracas at 2:55 so someone else was in the room with Langley. The crime scene had been staged. Edwards does not take the news of Francesca’s innocence to halt his crusade as she had seen the killer, ergo they must find her, though he permits Murdoch and Crabtree to continue their investigation.
Murdoch and George interview the victim’s wife who insists her husband was a God-fearing man and never would have been with a harlot. But she cannot account for his evenings out. Archie had a courier message last week which never happened before and she had kept the envelope which leads them to the court house and Crown Attorney Templeton who had met with Langley last week. They discover that Constable Langley was working on a case that his superiors had closed and suspected a cover up. Close to finding out the truth, he felt that taking it to his inspector was not an option and asked if he could bring his findings directly to Templeton. Unfortunately, he did not disclose the case, as he wanted all the evidence in place first. Murdoch sends George to Station House Three to search for his notes or a case file in his desk. Agreeing, George requests time to meet Effie at the bank as they are thinking about buying a house in The Annex. Murdoch congratulates George and asks him if he is sure he wants to live that far from the city.
Despite the crowded jail cells, Inspector Edwards expands his purview to speakeasies, clubs, burlesques, gambling dens, and deviancy in all its forms even if they are legal businesses or private homes. He even accuses Crabtree of socializing with a woman while on duty. Informing his new boss that the woman is his wife, Crabtree keeps his findings concealed in his custodian helmet until in Murdoch’s office. Langley's notes reveal that the murdered woman he was investigating had been strangled with the length of something, likely leather, identical to one used on Langley himself. The abbreviations "MB" and "OW" isn't clarifying but he was going to meet with Francesca, perhaps a friend of the victim. There is a card from Talman's Photography Studio with an address, along with a torn diary page dated the same day the constable was killed. When they question Mr. Talman at his shop, they confirm that Langley and Francesca came to the shop and learn that they were asking about another woman Olivia Wright who had ordered film developed which had included a photo of a man asleep in bed, but Talman doubts he could identify him. Langley's file made note that there were ashes found in a wastepaper basket at the scene of the murder. This substantiates an illicit liaison with a powerful man, possible blackmail and murder to avoid scandal — this wouldn’t be the first time, points out Crabtree.
Character Revelations
- Thomas Brackenreid has an aunt "on her last legs back in Yorkshire" and he has booked passage to England. He confines in Murdoch that he and Margaret have been talking for some time about retiring to Yorkshire and the "...truth is, it's more likely than not that when I get on that boat, I won't be coming back".
- George and Effie are buying a house in The Annex.
- Julia Ogden's dream for the Clinic, her next challenge, has fallen away as government funding for the women's hospital has been denied.
Continuity
- Once again Station House No. 4 has an interim Inspector and Catholic Detective Murdoch is passed over again (ep.102), even though Brackenreid has recommended him to the Chief Constable who had thought this time could be different, because it's only an interim position and they may not be paying attention. Toronto the Good is still a Protestant city.
- The pizza man (ep.603) still is serving slices from his hat on the streets of Toronto.
- Watts gets arrested at a private house party and goes on a hunger strike, demanding his day in court.
- Cassiopeia Bright is arrested during the police raid of her nightclub; Violet Hart manages to escape, saving her reputation.
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. His official portrait hangs in the Inspector's office.
- The Annex is becoming a suburb of Toronto. In the 1870s housing was built east of Bedford in what was then part of Yorkville and by the early 20th century, wealthy residents of the Annex moved farther north into neighbourhoods such as Forest Hill and Rosedale. This exodus opened homes in the Annex to a larger demographic, with many converted into rooming houses.
Trivia
- Recasted actor Laurie Murdoch appears for the third time on the series; the first time was in I, Murdoch as Martin Hammerton and the second time was in Mr. Murdoch's Neighbourhood as Alvin Nash. He is Lachlan Murdoch's father.
Errors
- If Talman's Photography Studio is nearby Scott's Diner on the same side of the street, both the Detective and Constable would know its address. Furthermore, the shop appeared in the Porcelain Maiden earlier in the season, indicating that Murdoch had frequented the shop.
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
Lachlan Murdoch as Constable Henry Higgins-Newsome
Daniel Maslany as Detective Llewellyn Watts
Shanice Banton as Violet Hart
Arwen Humphreys as Margaret Brackenreid
Isaiah Buchanan as Mark Taylor
Samantha Walkes as Cassiopeia Bright
Ben Sanders as Inspector Edwards
Sebastian Spence as Allen Templeton
Jamie Robinson as Mr. Talman
Guest Cast
Dana Puddicombe as Mrs. Langley
Laurie Murdoch as Melvin Banks
Carson Durven as Hotel Clerk
Michael Grzejsczak as Jerome
Robin Archer as Mr. Colwin
Kenzie Delo as Constable Tucker
Justin Miller as Man at Party
Non-Credited Cast
Nathan Hoppe as Constable McNabb
Paul Irving as Constable Paul
Gallery