08. Dial M for Murdoch

[Lucy]

A switchboard operator contacts station house number 4 claiming to have overheard a murder on the telephone lines. Murdoch investigates but finds nobody home, no body and no evidence of an attack. However, he finds the room unusually clean so he instructs Crabtree to fetch him his murder bag. This is a crime scene.

[Lucy]

Another very good episode...

I have to say that George is so sweet ;D ♥

"Tess call me George" Awwww

Interesting story this week, it was nice to see more of George

"What would they do without Constable Crabtree?"...
Very good question, Tess!

Not a lot between William and Julia again.
There was a scene where she had to rush off to go to the hospital for a presentation with Darcy and I thought it was so sad that she left William standing there

[camilla]

Thank you for the review Lucy!!

[hannikan]

Yay, I'm excited to see it! I hope we get some romance focused episodes for Crabtree.

[hannikan]

I thought there was more between W & J this week. I thought they were going to leave things where they didn't find the book and it would turn out to have Sally connected to it (since she's in the U.S. probably). I wonder if this experience with Dory will make William no longer want to adopt. That was quite a twist at the end. And an interesting subject, people born with no conscience. And, of course, William invented wire-tapping tonight. Did you notice that Julia's ring looks like the one William had? The blue one? Did Darcy steal William's engagement ring? Anyway, the stuff with Brackenreid was fun. I loved him trying to pronounce all his H's. And of course Crabtree was great. Did anyone else think Tess was like a combo of Enid (her voice and manner of speaking reminded me of her) and Ruby (her impulsive, adventurous nature and inserting herself in the investigation)? And of course the murder involving the telephone line was similar to Murdoch.com. Anyway I wonder if she and George will start something and then Ruby will return for Julia's wedding and... something of a showdown will happen for George.

[akarana]

I just saw the episode and I have to agree with you: Crabtree and Brackenreid were hilarious!
I really laughed out loud when Crabtree was so 'humble' in the end and agreed with the woman. And Brackenreid is strutting around and his head is so big it barely fits through the door. I wonder when that whole campaign thing will go wrong. I have the feeling that might happen rather sooner than later.

As for Julia and William I thought there was once again more to their talks than meets the eye. I have t watch the scenes again to make complete sense of it, but I can tell you already what puzzled me when I saw them the first time.
1. William's conviction that the streetkid can't be trusted. He seemed so sure that the boy wouldn't bring Julia's book back
2. Julia's extreme reaction to the dead boy. As a pathologist and as a doctor who worked at a children's hospital she must be somewhat "used to it" as harsh as that sounds. Sure, kids are always harder, but she seemed completely shocked when they first found the boy. She just sat there and looked at him. And later she kept stroking over his hair.
3. I also wondered why she took so much to the boy who was alive. In episodes before where there were kids it was always William who had a connection to them, or once Julia's "date" for the night. She barely directed a word at the kids. So I thought it was strange that she connected to the boy the way she did.
4. And I'm still wondering about their last talk, mainly about William's thought that the boy could be born without compassion.
5. the last shot was somewhat strange too, because we had several shots like this in the last few episodes and I keep wondering if they mean anything. Usually it's William and Julia standing beside each other and then comes the zoom in or zoom out. It#s like they are trying to make a statement with it.

I will hopefully be able to make sense of it for me once I have the time to watch the episode again.

[camilla]

Hey guys only 5 episodes to the end of the season!hope to' see something more of my prefered couple before the end..

[hannikan]

Yeah I agree with you that it seemed strange that William was so cynical about Dory. And Julia seemed sort of too gullible compared to how she normally is. She has gotten a softer spot for children since working in Buffalo though. But I agree with you that she seemed to be so disturbed by the dead boy. She wasn't like that about Ben DiGiornio in Buffalo Shuffle. This season has had more episodes where children are not innocent than previous seasons where they were usually the victim. I think of Ezra and Ben with the blackmail. I also noticed that when Julia said she couldn't understand how a parent could abandon a child (meaning the street children) William bristled and said "everyone had their story." That could have been just a reaction to upperclass Julia's judgment on impoverished parents. That not all street children's parents abandoned them and not all children who stole were good underneath. But I couldn't help but think he was also thinking of her abortion. I wonder if that is going to be a sore point between them again. Also the idea that some people might be born bad (without a conscience, remorse or empathy) harkens back to Eugenics a little. Although there does actually seem to be credible cognitive science that supports this.

[CosmicCavalcade]

does anyone else think that boy was a sociopath? he was narcissitic, emotionless and had lofty ambitions that he was willing to kill for. i didn't see this coming at all because i've never heard of a child sociopath but i suppose there must be but that they are just very rare. maybe they're more likely to be street kids because of the harsh environment they grow up in. they don't receive compassion so therefore why should they give it? all in all it was a very good episode, i remained engaged the entire time. i'm not sure how i feel about Tess being a potential love interest for George because i don't know if i like her yet. she came off as rather abrupt and matter of fact. but they have very similar interests and seemed to be interested in each other so we'll likely be seeing more of her. i also agree that William and Julia behaved strangely in relation to the boys. did anyone else think for a moment that Julia was planning on adopting the kid?

[cpfan]

Apr 6, 2011 13:26:41 GMT hannikan said:

I also noticed that when Julia said she couldn't understand how a parent could abandon a child (meaning the street children) William bristled and said "everyone had their story."

Oh, I thought he may have refered to his own experience. Afterall, wasn't he kind of abandoned by his own father after his mother died? Even if he didn't have to live on the streets. He also may have made his experiences with street kids, either due to his profession as a police officer or his own childhood.

[akarana]

Yeah, when he said that everyone has their story, my first thought was "He's talking about the abortion". I can't even explain why, because in general I think they are past that topic.
But it matches the episode feeling for that when it came to their overall actions and feeling I felt a bit like something was "off" when it came to Julia and William.
And I'm not sure because I'm not religious and not catholic, but wouldn't it kind of go against the bible to believe that a child was born "bad"? It really surprised me that Murdoch even voiced the possibility. he came around and helped/befriended prostitutes and homosexuals, which at the time and with his faith would be nearly equal to "devil" and then he doesn't believe in the good in a boy, of which he has no idea what he went through? For me that's odd.

[hannikan]

Well, I think William was as startled by the boy's lack of conscience as Julia would have been. William was more cautious about him than Julia was but he still generally liked him before the conversation that showed he was the murderer. Dory demonstrated having no conscience; William didn't just impose the idea on him. I'm not an expert on this at all but my understanding is that some psychopaths develop no conscience as children. It could partly his harsh environment (he certainly didn't have good role models in the "uncles" and "granddad") but it was also in his nature. This is what William was debating in his mind, was it nature or nurture that had made Dory what he became? And yes, this debate would have question some tenets on his faith. I think you're right that William probably was also thinking of his own abandonment when he said that everyone had their story. Some children's parents die and they have nowhere to go. They might bounce from one caretaker to another (like foster care today) before ending up on the streets. They might run away from cruel caretakers. In those days if the mother died, the father rarely looked after the children. But as a child it would not have been so obvious to you that your father would be thought incapable of taking care of his child. And it would still have been hard to be taken away, even if you were well treated wherever you were taken, like William was.

[gwynhyfer]

I think the idea of the complete lack of empathy displayed by the young lad is referring to the early mind of the psychopath. People generally think of psychopaths as being adult but the lack of empathy or conscience is often traced back to childhood and can be displayed in certain behaviours such as killing or dismembering insects or pets for 'fun' and other early behaviours. The lack of empathy in psychopathy however, is no the same as that in the individual with autism. The psychopath can only see things from their point of view but have enough ability to be able to manipulate people or situations to benefit themselves, even to the point of killing. They can come across as charming and extremely polite and pleasant, which is probably why Julia was taken in. If she hadn't given the boy the book, he may well have wanted to do to her what he needed to obtain the book if she hadn't and thought nothing of it. Basically this also adds to the nature/nurture debate because it does look as though some individuals are born 'psychopaths' or 'sociopaths' but their environment may influence whether they use this lack of ability to empathise by being a ruthless businessman who may reach the top of the corporate ladder without any regard for who is bypassed along the way or become a serial murderer. Just to add, the difference between the autistic mind and the psychopaths mind is that the autistic individual frequently has an impaired 'theory of mind' whic basically means that they don't understand that others don't see the world as they do and therefore they do not manipulate things for their own benefit but simply 'don't get it'.

[lovemondays]

I really like this episode. It's funny, cheeky, has good character development and a twisted murder that punches you right between the eyes once it's solved.

The scene in morgue where Julia "can't imagine" giving up their children and William responds, "Everyone has their story" hit me like a lightning bolt. Is William so hard on Dory because he's angry with Dory's choices or is Dory's situation causing him to realize that while his own childhood could have led him down this road he was, in fact, very lucky? William also seems to exude a good deal of contempt for the parents of street kids...directed at his own father perhaps?

Julia seems heartbroken over Pip's murder and wants to take Dory under her wing. I find it interesting that William was actively discouraging that. Was he trying to protect her heart or was he saying "you had your chance at motherhood"?

[snacky]

Nov 16, 2014 17:16:45 GMT lovemondays said:

I really like this episode. It's funny, cheeky, has good character development and a twisted murder that punches you right between the eyes once it's solved.

The scene in morgue where Julia "can't imagine" giving up their children and William responds, "Everyone has their story" hit me like a lightning bolt. Is William so hard on Dory because he's angry with Dory's choices or is Dory's situation causing him to realize that while his own childhood could have led him down this road he was, in fact, very lucky? William also seems to exude a good deal of contempt for the parents of street kids...directed at his own father perhaps?

Julia seems heartbroken over Pip's murder and wants to take Dory under her wing. I find it interesting that William was actively discouraging that. Was he trying to protect her heart or was he saying "you had your chance at motherhood"?

I find it interesting William was so suspicious of Dory, too. Was it intelligence/insight into Dory's character, or was William somehow drawing from his own experiences - either when he had exploited the good will of adults, or when the chaos of being an orphan had disrupted relationships and led to a broken heart?

Ouch for that "you had your chance at motherhood" sentiment - but you could be right there. William is hardly perfect and has been known to be a bit petty. The issue of Julia's abortion and choices grinds at him just as it does her since it affects the future they could have had together.