The Panic in High Park feels like a good old-fashioned Murdoch Mysteries episode, with a contemporary debate transplanted to 1913 Toronto, a good murder mystery sporting a nice set of plausible if somewhat cartoonish suspects, a cool invention, some physical comedy, and the main characters all true to form. Also, poor Henry.

Writer Keri Ferencz deftly ties together two issues that remain very much alive today all around the world: coexisting with wildlife like coyotes, and the construction of apartment buildings in residential neighbourhoods. She tells her story through Toronto’s High Park, which is much more than a backdrop: it’s where the building boom means fewer homes for animals, where a rabid coyote is causing a panic hardly quelled by Louise Cherry (Bea Santos) calling it The Beast of High Park, where Effie Newsome (Clare McConnell) is moving into an apartment just across the street, where two murders and a rental scam take place, and where the victims and suspects all live(d) and work(ed).

Pivotal Scene

While not filmed at the actual High Park, first-time Murdoch Mysteries director Vanessa Matsui nevertheless evokes the beautiful sanctuary that morality officer Iona Berger (Lucy Hill) speaks of. Still, the pivotal – and hilarious – scene takes place not in the park, but in the station house. I’m talking, of course, about what happens after the rabid coyote has been shot and a woman has been found murdered. Chief Constable Brackenreid (Thomas Craig) is worried there are other coyotes in the park: the public is still primed to be terrified of them thanks to Miss bloody Cherry. He wants Constable Roberts (Kataem O’Connor) to put them down, but Roberts won’t take a life, any life, unnecessarily. Ever practical, Detective Murdoch (Yannick Bisson) has invented a non-lethal sedation device – or, if you think that’s a mouthful, a dart gun.

It’s interesting how each of these three characters embodies a different facet of the debate over how to deal with increasing urban wildlife encounters. Brackenreid just wants to eliminate the animals altogether: Lethal is the point. Roberts is what Brackenreid would describe as a do-gooder and takes an ethical stand. Murdoch takes the pragmatic position, trying to find a way for humans and animals to peacefully coexist. It’s the perfect illustration of good character writing: each character has his own voice, and his position in the debate follows naturally from his personality. However, this is Murdoch Mysteries, not the op-ed pages, so Brackenreid accidentally shooting Constable Higgins (Lachlan Murdoch) with the dart gun is just the right way to cap off the scene.

Ouch!

It’s not often I say this, but I truly felt for Higgins in this episode. Between the getting shot, flopping onto then sliding off the chair, moving Effie’s stuff up four floors then two floors down again, tripping over a rock in the park and Murdoch complaining why didn’t you stop him?, he’s having a bad few days. Lachlan Murdoch literally throws himself into the work – I can only hope he didn’t have to reshoot that scene a dozen times. I don’t know if my back will ever be the same – I’ll say!

With the notable exceptions of Detective Watts, Inspector Choi, and Margaret Brackenreid, all the current regulars appear in the episode. And they too behave exactly as you’d expect them to. Miss Cherry goes head-to-head with the Chief Constable, and for once does not come out on top. Miss Berger reminds us she’s new to the big city, but she was born to be a morality officer – and she might even be heading into romantic territory with Teddy Roberts. Brackenreid delivers a me ol’ mucker, and Effie Newsome uses her cool logic to help Murdoch catch the killer. And Murdoch himself? He displays his brains and brawn – as Choi once said about him – with his inventions and by needing just the one arm to stop a fleeing suspect. Still, one of his (few) weaknesses is also on display, as said suspect hoodwinks him by using some pseudoscience: Ah. Seems like sound science.

Hardly Trustworthy

Though to be fair, the suspects in this episode are a particularly slippery bunch. All of them have jobs that typically don’t inspire a lot of confidence: a dentist, a snake oil seller, a property developer, a building superintendent. Ask people to name the least trustworthy occupations and odds are several of them would make the list. And their jobs are the least of it – they all seem shifty enough to commit murder. Take Parker Crosby (Kris Siddiqi) of Crosby’s Curative Creations: he’s selling coyote repellent ostensibly made of wolf urine, revealed to be apple juice. Or building superintendent Pascoe (Benjamin Blais) who can’t keep his lies straight as he’s taking more deposits than there are apartments. Form of the numbers blindness, my eye! Or property developer Bartholomew Prescott (Karn Kalra), who rejoices in the coyote attacks because they lower the price of land and flat-out admits to Murdoch that he would go as far as he needed to go to keep business booming. And lastly, Dr. Samuel Laboda (Adam Bogen) simply seems suspicious because he’s a dentist and very much looks the part – gorgeous dentist’s office set notwithstanding.

While The Panic in High Park may not be the type of episode to be nominated for a Canadian Screen Award – just a tad formulaic, no substantial character development or new depths, funny yet somewhat stereotypical supporting characters – the clever murder plot and even cleverer writing make this a worthwhile and hugely entertaining instalment of Murdoch Mysteries. Highly recommended – just don’t ask poor Higgins.