Detective Murdoch (Yannick Bisson) isn’t the only one with a mystery on his hands this week. I’m puzzling over why an episode with everything that makes for a great Murdoch Mysteries outing left me less than impressed. It features a fascinating figure from history, it’s often funny despite its grim subject matter, and writer Faisal Lutchmedial clearly knows his characters. It even has Murdoch Vision. Yet in the end, all these elements add up to no more than an okay episode. I blame the A/B story format.

Now, I realize I’m a tough grader here. Twenty seasons’ worth of episodes have set the standard very high, and every new one gets measured against the best of them. Even so, the problem with telling two separate stories in one episode is getting harder to ignore. As in last year’s Diamonds in the Sand and S18’s Only Murdoch in the Building, the B plot here seems to exist not to serve the storytelling, but to work more of the regular cast into the episode or solve other logistical problems. As a result, neither storyline gets the airtime it deserves.

Immoral Purposes

Like Iona Berger (Lucy Hill), I’m not a great fan of boxing and don’t see what’s so inspiring about a man who knocks people out for a living. Jack Johnson’s story turns out to be a compelling one, however, and actor Ryan Allen does a wonderful job bringing the first Black world heavyweight boxing champion to life. As Thomas Brackenreid (Thomas Craig) puts it, he’s got some charisma, this lad.

As with any historical figure who passes through Station House 4, we know that Johnson can’t be the murderer. Still, suspecting him of killing his friend Aaron Willard (Christopher Charles) allows for a quick exposition of his backstory. We find out he’s the reigning world champ, runs a successful nightclub, is married to a white woman (Lucille, played by Alexandra Beaton), has a playful streak, and is wanted in the United States for fleeing the country after being convicted on a racially motivated charge of violating the federal Mann Act – forbidding the transport of a woman across state lines for immoral purposes. No wonder he thinks that Murdoch and Brackenreid want to string him up. The scene in the interview room is one of the highlights of the episode, especially this chilling exchange between Johnson and Brackenreid:

I know what happens when a man like me gets hauled in here. People have been threatening me with time my whole life. – This is not about time. This is about your neck in a noose. – Yeah. People have been threatening me with that my whole life, too.

As we viewers know, though, Murdoch and Brackenreid are only interested in the truth. The Chief Constable is especially alert to the racial hostility that Johnson faces daily. I actually cheered when Brackenreid tells Lucille’s mother, Mrs. F. Cameron-Falconet (Kirstin Rae Hinton), You and your views, madam, are not welcome here in Canada.

It’s a scientific device!

As I said, this episode is full of classic Murdoch Mysteries elements, and none is more classic than Murdoch inventing something to help him solve the case, then dismissing any suggestion of commercial application. In this case, the punching bag machine, or rather, strike force measuring device, helps Murdoch prove Johnson’s innocence and makes for a great scene with Brackenreid telling the lads how to punch (and setting up a callback at the end of the episode when we learn Murdoch wasn’t mimicking Brackenreid but learning from him). It’s a very funny scene, rivaled only by Detective Watts (Daniel Maslany) mixing Effie Newsome (Clare McConnell) yet another hangover cure – using eggs from his desk drawer, as one does.

You may have noticed I haven’t said much about the murder or the victim. And there’s the rub. After Johnson’s cleared, the episode seems to lose interest in solving the case. Sure, we get a couple of scenes with potential suspects, we learn of a possible motive (the boxer’s entourage has been cut loose, so their gravy train is over), and Constable Roberts (Kataem O’Connor) poses a theory of the case that we never hear of again. Roberts has an excuse: being punched in the face. The writer has none. As for the case itself, Murdoch does get his man (as in, floors him with a mean right hook, but not before apologizing like the true Canadian he is).

Heartbreaking

We don’t get to learn a lot about Aaron Willard, and even less about the victim in the B story, a young man called George Hughes whose death turns out to be accidentally self-inflicted. In fact, the first time we hear of him is when we are dropped straight into Watts’ crime scene. It’s a tragic tale of a young man who is trying to become more manly to please his harsh father, and Maslany certainly makes the most of it. It’s heartbreaking to see how Watts can’t bear to stay in the same room with Mr. Hughes (William MacDonald) any longer than he needs to. Though the episode never says so, it’s easy to read this as personal: as a gay man, Watts can relate to being told he isn’t manly enough. Solving the case is a straightforward affair, with coroner Violet Hart (Shanice Banton) doing most of the heavy lifting. I’d have loved to see this storyline fleshed out far more, and I can easily imagine it making a good episode on its own.

Easily the best part of Lutchmedial’s script is his firm grasp of these characters, who all behave exactly as you think they would. Violet is impressed by Johnson, but not so impressed she won’t haggle over his performance fee. Louise Cherry (Bea Santos) is an annoying reporter but a good friend to Effie. Teddy Roberts takes Johnson’s advice to keep on being that trailblazer and doesn’t mind one bit when Iona Berger – who’s only at the boxing ring as a morality officer, you understand – takes his arm. Of course Henry Higgins (Lachlan Murdoch) has a bet going on who has the hardest punch in the station house, and of course it only takes the promise of free drinks to get Effie to the Starbright Club. I could go on, but it should be clear that Murdoch Mysteries has a great cast of regulars to draw on. It just shouldn’t draw on all of them at once.