11. Murdoch in Toyland

[Lucy]

Murdoch is taunted by a murderer who leaves dolls with personal messages at crime scenes.

[barbarama]

I think this one will have lots of suspense

And Julia is finally back again on this one so yeah!!! ;D

Can't wait for next tuesday!!!

[catymurdoch]

Mee too, Can't wait

[hannikan]

Ah, this sounds promising! I'm glad Julia will be back, too. I liked Invention Convention and Who Killed the Electric Carriage, which didn't have her. But it's time she was back now!

[hannikan]

Here's a little more from Alibi's site: "After a young girl is abducted from her bed, Murdoch is stunned to discover that a talking doll left at the scene has a recorded message directed at him. Having no connection to the family of the missing child, he's confounded that the perpetrator would refer to him by name. With Constable Crabtree's assistance, Murdoch canvases the neighbours to see if anything was amiss, but they come up empty-handed. Inspector Brackenreid is equally baffled by the creepy clue given no ransom demand has been made."

[Lucy]

Hmmm sounds like an interesting and I'm also glad Julia is back in this one!

[hannikan]

Yeah, I'm excited that she's back, too!

[murdochic]

Finally! An episode that feels like old school MM. I could cry with joy, it had almost all the ingrediants of MM at it's best. An exciting case, an intriguing mystery, the team working together, an old criminal brought back, Julia around the station and W/J resurrected. Thank god the writers finally remembered what the show it meant to be like. It almost felt like S1-3 again.

I am so glad that W/J's love hasn't been forgotten. And that them being the love of each others life was remembered. Best episode in S5 so far by a mile. I am so happy I finally have something to look forward to again as W/J are surely back were they belong, being in love with each other. Now they just need Julia in every episode again and getting rid of Darcy who is a thorn in the side of the show. Nice to know this series may not end as such a dud afterall. If the last two episodes are near to this level then I won't have to write S5 off afterall, I'll have about 4-5 episodes I wouldn't be ashamed to claim as MM ones.

[hannikan]

Ooh you're making me excited to watch it now. I've been preparing for an interview I have the day after tomorrow in this endless job hunting cycle. MM will be my reward!

[catymurdoch]

At last, Julia is back and Hannikan dont read too much if u dont want to get spoiled.

I suppose we are now allowed to talk about M in toyland!! (Spoilers below)





I loved the case and seing Julia paying a visit to station 4. She looks so sad and she nearly wanted to cry at the beginning. Her eyes were very watery. She was so happy that William asked her for a bit of her help with the case and she was smiling again. She came to the station because she knew the family of the little kidnapped girl. I think she knew them as patients.!!

I think Julia is missing the whole team big time.
Darcy does not seem to spend any time with her at all. He is always away and when he came back by the end of the episode(we didn't see him by the way) he apparently asked her why she was in danger. I was so happy about what Julia told Darcy as the answer. I bet he is gonna hand her over to William next saying that he can't protect her and he will recognise that if William would not have found Julia, she would be dead now. looks like because William and Julia put lots of men and women to jail to b hung, Julia and William will always b in danger( I bet even more with the black hand and the Anna storyline: fake death) plus looks like the writers may want to bring back some of the murderers who may have escaped like that guy from big murder in the campus.(He probably will come back to kill Julia because this what he wanted to do , he wanted to take away what William loves most in the world and he said it loud and clear)

I bet Darcy does not want Julia to die because he can't be around to protect her. I hope he will come to his senses, apologise for ruining her life, a happy life he could never assume because he is not around much and Julia is probably by herself all the time at home. How sad!
I think this is what Darcy will give Julia: Her happiness back now that I have seen Murdoch in toyland. I dont think the writers will kill Darcy off although for a while I wondered if the headless corpse was his body.

OMG. William went mad when he discovered the doll who looked like Julia and poor Julia, She must have been buried alive for the night.
It took a while for William to find out that she was at the cimetery but I am glad that Bell was back to sort out the recording of Julia 's voice for a clue.
I was on the edge of my seat each time we saw Julia struggling in the coffin for some air.

So sweet how they hugged each other. He took her in his arms straight away like a real husband to be and comforted her.
The chat they had at the end was like it was before except we only had hands touching but no cuddle although they wanted too but couldnt. Would have been nice to have a dream scene there because after all, they know they still love each other.

Georges is really upset that Julia married the wrong guy and that they both made a mistake so I reckon that is it. Darcy is probably leaving the show very soon and again, I think he will ask William to look after Julia, probably apologising for his selfisness and she belongs here with William. I hope it goes this way and then Darcy could go away in peace knowing that Julia is happy and safe. he will divorce her without any problem because of that and will give her her freedom back witout hesitation. We will still like him but then we know he can then carry on his career without to worry about Julia's safety.

I liked it very much and I hope the next episode involves Julia too.

[murdochic]

It would be best if Darcy didn't divorce her. William is catholic and he couldn't marry her if she was divorced, not without converting to protestent. It's easier all round if Darcy is killed off. It's a simple way out of the storyline and it poses no problems for them when they want to get married in the future, which unless they kill Julia off at some point, I would say was probably inevitable after what was said in this episode. So what we don't need is another possible obstacle in W/J's way. Of course I'd take a divorce over her staying married because this episode clearly showed she is not happy at all and she is still madly in love with William. If J/D divorce then W/J will just have to convert to protestents and then get married.

Her lame excuse to come and see Murdoch at the station was cute, she obviously was really worried about him and had missed him. And they really showed how much he still loves her, he almost went beserk when he found out Gillies had her. Then his frantic race to the grave yard and him hugging her tightly when he got her out of the coffin. That is probably the most emotional I've ever seen him. Even George said they'd both made a mistake and should be with eachother. He got upset on their behalf, which again was cute. I liked how Brackenreid made George leave them alone in the office, because everyone can see they aren't over eachother. The writers even had Gillies say how he'd targeted her because he knew she was the thing William loved most in the world, and he couldn't deny it. Which he didn't. The whole thing was a major resurrecting of their storyline. The show can't backtrack on all that once again, W/J are surely well and truly back as a romance. Which means Darcy has got to go, pronto. Death is the best solution to that, that way W/J don't have to feel guilty. And the other problems I mentioned aren't an issue.

I have a feeling the time machines in the finale will in someway be real, and Murdoch will see a future with Julia. That is probably the satisfying ending the producers promised. Unless they reshot it because they found out there was a S6, I think S5 will end leaving no doubt that W/J have a future even if she's still married. If does end that way then in S6 they will have to find a way of getting rid of her inconvenient husband, because they can't rewrite what they've done.

[hannikan]

Yeah, I doubt Darcy would just hand her over to William. He blames William for not figuring it out sooner where she was. So he's angry with William again. Marrying her after she has been divorced (by Darcy, it would have to come from him, not her) could be the sacrifice to be with his love, mentioned in S3. It would be a sacrifice for William to marry a woman who had been divorced by her husband because of William's religion. But I think he might be willing to admit that that tenet doesn't make sense. I don't see him converting to Protestantism because of it and Julia wouldn't ask him to since she has little affiliation that way. It would be easiest to have Darcy die, of course. Julia seemed very lonely and abandoned when she came to William at the beginning of the episode. This was a great episode and it started in a very different direction than it started. But it had a logical path. I think Julia will be seeking Dr. Roberts' help to work through her traumatic experience. I think I'll have to watch it again before I make more specific comments.

[barbarama]

Oh my god what an episode!!!!

I was on the edge of my seat even if I knew by reading too much before that Julia will be buried alive, I was still shouting "when are you going to figure this out and find her!!!!"

The episode was great bringing back a murderer from "Murder on Campus", Dr. Roberts as well as Alexander Bell to solve all this was brilliant ;D

Also George talking about W/J relationship he is the sweetest and when he discovered to whom the fingerprints belonged to only to have William involuntarily snatch his enthusiasm (that was very funny)

I think you are all right, the writers can't take back what has been said in this episode and Julia is visibly unhappy (the scene in Murdoch's office and outside as well), I hope we can finally move forward and have them get closer again but I am really happy with the way the episode went it gave me hope for the future and having a bit of romance again was nice to see

catymurdoch, me too when I saw the headless body I thought for a moment it might be Darcy (that would be an horrible way to die though, I do not wish him that kind of suffering)

Overall if the episodes are continuing like this than I am super optimistic for season 6 ;D

[hannikan]

I was thinking how Gillies would have known that Julia and William (still) cared deeply for each other. That wouldn't have been too noticeable to him in BMOC because I don't think he saw them together much. He and Robert Perry followed William around when he wasn't with Julia. But I noticed that when Julia came to William's office at the beginning of MIT, the blond woman accomplice of Gillies had followed her. She also followed them when they were out walking together. I think that is how Gillies knew that Julia was (still) important to William and that may be when/why he hatched the abduction of Julia. I had to laugh when Thomas talked about cutting the head off his sister's doll for no reason when he was boy. That's brothers/boys for you! They destroy things for the sake of destruction, no malice intended usually. At least my bros did. The feelings btwn William and Julia to me are so palpable to me. That chemistry and their acting together is so well done. George and Henry were funny together with the fingermarks. It was kind of fun to see the names of past characters like Sally Pendrick (Hubbard) on the chalkboard. I do wonder if she'll be back at some point.

[hannikan]

Sally could figure into a plot about the Black Hand actually since she is from New York state. They could find a way to work her in as the wife of a mob boss or something. Legally she may still married to James though. If he thought there was no point in going through the red tape to divorce her since she ran off anyway. That could be interesting if she came back to exhort him. He obviously could have divorced her due to her criminal actions, too. She fled so we don't know what happened nor where she ended up. I thought the stuff with Thomas and William being "attacked" by the automatic sprinklers was funny. I was surprised a church would have them though. Automatic sprinklers were patented by the 1870's and even improved upon by 1890, but they weren't in use in residences until the mid-20th century. They were used by businesses, like inside factories for protection against fire, like they are today. I don't think they were used to water the lawns although maybe they were for cemeteries. I wonder if they would have thought to do that at night. Anyway it was entertaining and a good way for William to figure out where Gillies' lair was. That's true that the doll with the noose around its neck did look like Julia. I also noticed the little girl Veronica looked like Julia. We never saw the blond accomplices' face, so I wonder who she is. I have a feeling she may reappear esp since Gillies himself is still on the loose. I wonder if she will be someone familiar. I thought of the woman who impersonated Monique in Monsieur Murdoch. She and Gillies could have both escaped from prison. They could be a fugitive/outlaw couple like Bonnie and Clyde. She'd be older than him but it's possible.