Now that’s how you stick the landing! After last week’s cliffhanger, in the Season 18 finale the plane touched down and immediately pulled back up into the air. Constable Tucker is dead, gangster Tony Petrucci has escaped, and we’re off on another nail-biting adventure—one that offers a fast-paced story, lots of twists and turns, a great cast of old and new characters, and a thought-provoking theme. And it ends with another bloody cliffhanger!

Writing a review of part one of a two-part TV episode arc without having seen the second part can be tricky: by definition, the story is incomplete, and pacing and structure can’t be fully judged. The Body Electric marks the first half of a two-part finale for Season 18. While it’s tough to assess the full impact without seeing how it all lands, even as a standalone episode it works quite well. A very full episode, it not only sets up part two but also uses a large cast to tell a story of corruption and ethics that can stand on its own two feet.

The writers of Murdoch Mysteries were thrown a curveball when Hélène Joy decided to take a sabbatical and drastically reduced her appearances on the show. Julia Ogden's absence compounded the logistical nightmare of actor and location availability, which is the everyday reality for this production. Yet, as we see in Going Postal, it also opened up opportunities to add more depth and complexity to William Murdoch’s (Yannick Bisson) character, turning what was necessitated by circumstances into strength.