Official Season 5 Discussion

[hannikan]

Yeah, I agree with you about everything you said except that William wanting bio kids that broke them up in S3. It was Julia's belief that he would only want bio kids and his failure to express quickly enough that he was happy to adopt. She usually doesn't give him enough time to react to bombs she drops, which is her blame in their break up. That and leaving without saying good bye. His blame is that he didn't contact her after she went to Buffalo. He waited until she contacted him 6 months later. By that time she had met someone else that she cared about (though much less).

Anna is Catholic but she wasn't church-going like William is. She mentioned in TMI that she hadn't been to church in a long time. If she married him she would probably go as often as he wanted. The fact that her background is Catholic would make it easier for them to marry than William and Julia, but as you say, the fact that William is Catholic and Julia from a Protestant background won't matter to them in the end. Society would have a problem with it but that wouldn't stand in their way. It certainly won't matter to Julia. And her agnostic values didn't prevent William from proposing to her before. Frankly, I don't think Anna will live past her appearances in S5. I don't know that but that is my feeling.

I do think we'll be seeing more of Mrs. Brackenreid this season and I do like her a lot. She's not someone who could be incorporated into every episode, but somewhat regularly. I do think Ruby could be incorporated more than she has been. She could have replaced Paddy Glynn at the newspaper and been worked in as much he was. I think the actress isn't available to appear this season though. Yeah, I don't think Emily, Darcy or Anna will make it into S6 either.

[murdochic]

It was William's attitude about bio kids that made Julia think he wouldn't want to adopt. She's not psychic, and William is always too late to say what he really feels. That is why they are in the mess they're in. Julia is obviously unhappily married, and William is just being William. If the guy would just voice his feelings those two would be married already lol.

I don't know if Anna will die, at least if she does it will stop the writers bringing her back like a boomerang every series. It's time to lie that storyline to rest, either kill her off or just have her go back to America.

[CosmicCavalcade]

yeah but she gave him virtually no time to react and then she runs away off to Buffalo. I still think the blame is about equal on both sides.

i think Anna will die. I think the reason why she appears again is because the Black Hand are closing in and/or already found her and so she breaks her cover and looks for help from Murdoch. He helps hide her for awhile, say the first part of the two parter but then they eventually find her during the second part and kill her when Murdoch isn't around. He finds her body at his place and is all grief stricken about it. And then he becomes so motivated to avenge her death that he figures out a way to stop the Black Hand once and for all. I know, i know, it's way too dramatic but i think it's somewhat plausible. ;D

[murdochic]

I couldn't figure out why I wasn't enjoying S5 so far, but after thinking through all the episodes I now Know what the problems are for me. There's three main ones.

A) Is how the episodes are written and handled:
Ep 1 was two normal murder storyline, which should have been good. But the fact William was separate from the other three, both storylines felt incomplete without the full team working together.
Ep 2 was a politically based storyline, as was Ep 4. That is too much politics in a span of two episodes IMO. Julia leaving at the end of the episode brought the whole thing down even though the team were reunited.
Ep 3 was a bit farfetched as a storyline. And the lack of Julia made it feel incomplete.
Ep 4 was political again. And they are trying too hard to be historical accurate this series, and the storyline came off forced for me. Shoehorning in real people into the storylines this series feels uncomfortable, as they don't seem to flow with the rest of the episode. Lack of Julia again affected the team chemistry.

B)None of the characters have had any real character exploration yet. It's all been very shallow on the character personer front. And the lack of Brackenreid in most scenes is glaring, he's bascially wallpaper so far.

C)Julia not being in most of the episodes. You miss her presence and Emily just isn't enough to fill her shoes. The lack of the W/J romance has taken a spark from the show. And even just a lack of their professional scenes isn't helping.

These are the reasons for why it's just not working for me yet. I blame the new writers, they don't seem to know quite how to handle things. I am hoping even with Julia's absense that ep 5 will be better because Brackenreid finally gets some screentime. Though I suspect we won't get any real character exploration until ep 7 when Julia is back, and the Anna stuff is resurrected. I am hoping the latter half of this series will at least make up for the earlier part. I'm not giving up on S5, I still have hope that these problems will be fixed soon.

[spa]

Its funny isn’t it? We all have our ideas of who we want together and what we think is wrong or right with the show. If the writers are going to do what they do with the characters then of course we will discuss them and put our own slant on what we want to happen.
I feel as an actress Helene Joy has been very under used for the last couple of seasons. She is a theatre trained actress and if the writers continue to under use her services then she will find another role which suits her better. I know she had other commitments at the beginning of season 5 which could account for her minimum scenes, but overall the storylines could make better use of her talents. Julia Ogden was a very forward thinking and independent young lady in Seasons 1 & 2 but seems to have changed her personality of late.
I don’t think Anna will come back again after this season, although I don’t think she will die. You can bring a character back just so many times, especially one who is a romantic interest.
I wish the writers would bring back the times when they tackled important issues such as racism, abortion and homophobia. Those were well written episodes and important issues which are just as relevant today as then and the writers weren’t afraid to confront them, where as they seem to be avoiding similar themes in later seasons. Maybe the more successful a show becomes the more careful they have to be with storylines. If so, it is a shame and I personally think it does the show more harm than good.

[hannikan]

Well, back to the issue of adopting, Julia would have assumed William wanted biological children because that would have been anyone's assumption of anyone who wanted children in those days. The fact that he so clearly wanted children made her insecure that she would not be able to provide him with children. It never would have crossed her mind or would anyone's mind that he might accept adopting a child/taking a child in that had no one to care for him/her. But if she had talked to him about her fears and her inability to bear children, she would have found out that he was happy to adopt. It's the lack of communication that caused their relationship to break down. If William had told her sooner (but after she went to Buffalo) that he wanted to marry her and adopt children, the relationship would not have fallen apart. I did find it against Julia's character to want to marry so much that she would settle for someone she didn't passionately love. In that past she would have stayed a spinster if she didn't marry for love. It makes me think she did that to have a child and that suggests that she and Darcy discussed adopting. She has seemed to be thinking more about children since wanting to work with them in S4. I just don't think the Black Hand will give up hunting Anna down and they will find her at some point. The fact that she will be coming out of hiding to be around William again is certainly risky.

[petunia]

My theory on the adopting story is that while in the The Telsa Effect we are led to believe that Julia leaves for Buffalo the day after she informed William of her sterility, in fact many days, even weeks have elapsed between her telling him, and her departure. I base that on Julia's response to Ruby in The Kissing Bandit when Ruby reads William's marriage proposal to her. In that proposal he does say they can addopt. Julia responds with: "He had ample time to tell me this before I left for Buffalo." I do not think overnight is "ample time". If this event gets revisited by the writers, they will change history to show that a considerable amount of time ellapsed between the two events. That would mean that William agonized for days over Julia's news that she was sterile. Eventually he came to the conclusion that Julia was more important to him than biological children. Unfortunately by then Julia had given up on him and left town. Well, my theory anyway....

[catymurdoch]

I think u are right Petunia. I wish the editors of the show could actually write on the screen the time passed when necessary. Not hard to let us know on screen.... 3 months later would have been nice to see on screen at the beginning of season 5 for the 2nd episode because sometimes, I am all confused but with a time, you can then understand a lot better why a character may react one way or another. Like for the Buffalo episode, I had no clue about the time she left and the time she is asking William for his help. I actually thought it was like 1 month later to b honest but I read on the board that it was 6 months later. Now I undestand a little more why Julia started seeing someone else but to start with I understood that she got engaged to a total stranger like 1 month after she left Toronto and her true love.

I am glad to know now that episode2 of season 5 is 3 months later and it makes more sense to me too. Now I wonder how much time was between end of ep 2 season 5 and episode7!!

Does someone know about the time passed between those 4 episodes. To me, it looks like quite a long time because Julia...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Spoilers below..............................







seems very relaxed with Darcy. Looks like she has been his wife for a few months already. She seems very settled in her new house but you can see she is still thinking about something when she is alone. I wonder if she really likes having servants shaking the bell to warn them that dinner is ready. I don't think its her to live like this. I remember seeing a scene when she was scrubbing the morgue floor because she was short of staff so I don't think she minds getting dirty and probably cook for her guests... I think that kind of life will b too boring for Julia. doesnt look like much fun. I just cant see Darcy and Julia strolling down the parc and having a picnic and romantic night in the park afterwards to like she had with William. I really do think that she will get bored of the lack of fun in her new married life and I reckon she will visite William a lot just because she misses that part of her life and the magnetism that they both have when they work together.
I really hope her new practice is not in trouble but I dont think its gonna last. Looks like each time she wants to start a project, it kind of fail eventually. Would be nice though for her to do what she really wants to do. I also understand why she is fed up to work with dead people. Her life is bit complicated and its hard to know what she should be doing. She is really confused. I hope she can still keep her practice because this is what she wants to do but she also have a section where William can visit her like he used to do at the morgue and call her sometimes to help on his cases. Then, we can see them working together on the field like ep 3 season 5. There were some great interaction betweem them in that episode.

[gwynhyfer]

It doesn't seem to be going so smoothly in the Julia/Darcy household afterall. Divorce would be unlikely but people did often remarry due to early deaths, etc. I have often wondered how Julia knows for sure she is sterile - I know she had her abortion but the reality is that women wouldn't have known for sure they couldn't have children and it would have been a time thing when pregnancy didn't happen. William was a bit lame about telling her that he was happy to consider adoption and when he asked Brackenroid if Julia was happy when she got married - well again, Julia had written a note to tell him she loved him and wouldn't marry Darcy if he loved her so even if she appeared happy he must have realised Darcy was a compromise. I don't know how many signs the poor woman has to give to the man before he throws caution to the wind and declares his undying love! I don't see the darcy thing lasting. The cracks are appearing but divorce won't be possible. Will Darcy meet an untimely end perhaps? We do know Anna's outcome now, of course...

[barbarama]

I totally agree with your post gwynhyfer about the J/W situation.

I read posts where people say that Julia has been hurting William when she left for Buffalo after dropping a bomb at him by telling she was sterile, that is true but for me the main problem between these two is that they don't speak to each other or say what's in their hearts and then assume that what they are doing is best for the other.

Indeed someone posted once that in "Murdoch in Wonderland" when Ruby showed the marriage proposal to her sister Julia mentioned that William had "plenty of time" to talk to her before she left for Buffalo. Before that I always thought that she left very quickly and William didn't get a chance to think about what he wanted before going to the train station, but now I think maybe not, maybe there was more time and because she didn't hear from him she assumed that he was fine with her decision.

Also in "tattered and torn", when he writes to her after 6 months about that case he was going to write "all my lo...." and then changed that to "best regards", after receiving that sort of letter one might think that he just want to have a professional relationship and that's all.

As I said before I think they are both to blame for the situation that they are in but it is also part of the show, creating tensions and angst between characters is all part of it (as long as it doesn't last too long, I do want both of them to be happy - that doesn't mean that because they are together that we can't have great scenes with them as they are both opinionated and passionate!! )

[Lucy]

I'm really looking forward to the new episode tomorrow night!!

I agree with you barbarama about the W/J situation.
Although I'm slightly confused as to why Julia would so readily help fake Anna's death (keeping in mind that she is his 'girlfriend', so to speak). Unless she looked at it as helping save Anna's life than helping Murdoch

[CosmicCavalcade]

^^yeah, i'm pretty sure it was the former. It's like the time W/J were on the outs in S2 and Murdoch wanted to ask a favour of her. She immediately made up some excuse and refused to help until he told her it wasn't for him, it was for Brackenreid. Only then, did she agree to help him. And considering this had to do with someone's life and not just a bad mood, she'd have to be very selfish indeed, not to help out. but i can see why she might hesitate. because now she might be considered an accomplice and the Black Hand could eventually come after her. Oh man, that would mean that Anna, Will and Julia could be in danger later on. oh and that boy. will we never be rid of the Black Hand storyline? I must admit that i'm starting to find it rather tiresome.

[barbarama]

I agree with the "Black Hand " story becoming to be too much, the same goes for Anna coming back again and again and again... She is nice but if something more important was to happen between her and William it would have been done already. I think he likes her maybe even he is fond of her but I don't think he is in love like he is with Julia.

As to why Julia would have helped with the Anna situation, in my opinion because it was a life or death matter it was to help save Anna's life.

I am a bit confused as to when Julia is supposed to come back, some board says she was only away for 4 episodes suggesting that she would be in tomorrow's episode (although not credited in IMDB), Iden Ford (Maureen Jennings' husband) said that she was in Staircase to heaven (still not credited in IMDB), the 2 I am sure of are "Murdoch in toyland" and "20 century Murdoch". Does someone know for sure in which episodes she is in?

Thanks in advance!!!!

[hannikan]

I agree that both William and Julia have let them to where they are now. They both dropped the ball in different ways, at different times. I think Julia helped William save Anna's life because she does like Anna and would want to help her. I also think Julia thinks that since she let William go and married Darcy, he should be happy with Anna if he can be. Since that doesn't seem possible, she can at least help him save her life.

[catymurdoch]

Hannikan, I see what u mean about the end of Dinosaur fever. I liked that scene, more like a wish come true!! That would b good for the time machine episode and would explained the (spoilers)..........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................





2nd picture with Julia dressed in red for firework night. Cant wait for that episode.
(spoilers)......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................



The boy may also b Murdoch himself at the age of 11!! Could b his son like in dinosaur fever but I am not sure the writers will go that route again. They have done it once with William and Julia's son and would b cheesy to do it again and even more cheesy to do it like William had a son with someone else than Julia.

Anna is now gone so didnt seem like he was affected by her departure in invention convention, therefore can't see him dreaming about wanting a child with her.

Its amazing actually to see how fast William has recovered from Anna leaving for good and how upset he was when Julia only moved to Buffalo.
He knows he cant' see Anna anymore and he didnt shed a tear and he knew he could go and see Julia in Buffalo and it was like he was crushed.
I think the boy is Murdoch himself as a 11 year old boy. Thank u for the link.