Here’s a small miracle for you: nineteen seasons in, and Murdoch Mysteries is still this much fun. Another Brick in the Wall is a confident, cornucopian episode – stuffed to the brim with a compelling mystery, whimsical humour, personal drama, a cast member in peril, and more costume glory than a theatre wardrobe department on opening night. And yet, for all that abundance, it never feels overstuffed.

You could argue – and you wouldn’t be wrong – that there’s nothing here we haven’t seen before in some form. A body hidden in a wall. Someone buried alive. A costume party. Morse code. Portraits with secrets. But that’s precisely the point: Murdoch Mysteries has a treasure chest filled to the brim with wonderful elements, and the writers have been taking them out one by one this season and polishing them until they shine. This episode is no exception. It feels fresh – which, after nineteen seasons, is no small achievement.

Straight from the Fan Boards

If you follow my reviews, you’ll know I make no secret of my view that it’s the writers’ room that is at the heart of the show’s success. The scripts drive everything – costumes, music, locations, acting, sets. (I know, I know – some fans always blame the writers when they don’t like something. They’re wrong!) And in this episode, the writers are having a bit of good-natured fun with us – the Toronto Tattle articles could have been lifted wholesale from fan discussions: rumours about Murdoch (Yannick Bisson) and Effie (Clare McConnell), speculation about George and Julia, outrage about the wrong things. Effie cancelling her subscription echoes every I’m done watching unless they fix this post you’ve ever seen. It’s affectionate teasing, not mockery, and it’s very funny. Also, George is getting name-dropped quite a lot in these past few episodes, and I’m choosing to take that as a hint.

Meanwhile, the episode quietly weaves in modern parallels: cameras becoming commonplace, fake news persisting even after retractions, image mattering more than arguments in the court of public opinion. The writers use 1913 to hold up a mirror to 2026 without being heavy-handed about it.

Another Brick in the Wall was written by Faisal Lutchmedial – who earns his first full writer credit here – and directed by Alicia K. Harris. Two newcomers, then, and yet this feels like a good old-fashioned episode: Murdoch geeking out over his infrared camera, reluctantly getting dressed up for a bal masqué, piecing together a decades-old mystery with quiet determination. Classic Murdoch Mysteries, delivered with assurance.

Intricate Designs

The plotting is intricate and layered, with enough subtext to reward close attention without ever getting in the way of the mystery itself. Anais Talbot’s (Victoria Baldesarra) choice to dress as Pheme, the goddess of gossip, rumor, fame, and renown, foreshadows her role as the one secretly photographing Effie and feeding stories to the Toronto Tattle. The story and the characters’ places in it are as carefully constructed as the costume design – and the costume design is extraordinary. More on that in a moment.

Lutchmedial finds clever ways to move the plot along: Murdoch recognizes Edwyna Fisher (Krista Sutton) as the woman who was erased from the portrait; Higgins (Lachlan Murdoch) finds the manufacturer of the button; they need someone old enough to remember the previous owners, so they throw a party and invite the neighbour. Plus, any excuse to put Murdoch in an outfit, am I right? (And yes, his montera or traditional torero hat is a great addition to my Murdoch’s Hats collection.) The direction is equally thoughtful – I particularly loved the shot of Murdoch bending down to retie his shoelaces just as Effie slides the Toronto Tattle under his nose, and the varied angles on the hole in the wall are genuinely striking.

A few nice writing touches worth noting: Mr. Donelly (Hardee T. Lineham) listing the various entrances efficiently conveys the scale of the Hobbs house; the detail that electrical wiring was installed during the timeframe of the murder becomes a key plot point rather than mere period colour; and the dispute with the mason, resolved with Mr. Donelly assisting for a few days, is the kind of subtlety that only reveals its significance later.

Enough to Work With

Old Mr. Hobbs (James Millington) and his dementia are handled with care: his prejudice and violence are on full display (his remarks about dirty Irish and his disowning of a daughter who wanted to marry a Jewish man are presented without commentary – the episode trusts us), and his confusion about who he’s speaking to gives Murdoch an opening to play a role and draw out a confession (or rather, the realisation that it wasn’t Hobbs who killed Edwards and sealed him in the wall). The one missed opportunity: I would have loved for Murdoch to be in that flashback himself, Murdoch Vision-style.

With the notable exception of Inspector Choi (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, underused) all characters are given enough to work with. Murdoch’s face shows the horrors of being trapped inside a wall – although funnily enough only when he talks about the victim, not when it happens to him. He casually invents the Infrared Reflectography technique for seeing under a painting, looks dashing as he escorts Effie, and is funny in his scenes with Watts (Daniel Maslany). Effie is given two storylines that converge neatly: her developing friendship with Murdoch, and her competition with Davenport (Cooper Levy) . She also shows us that, try as she might, she is no femme fatale (remember The Star of Mandalay?). She is ambitious, though, and sees no reason to hide it. Higgins is definitely earning that pay raise he got a couple of episodes ago. And Watts is everything in this episode: funny (I’m all ears), quick-thinking (tossing that dime), romantic (quoting poetry), friendly (aiding Miss Hart (Shanice Banton) in catching Effie’s paparazzo), and sympathetic (gently pushing Hallie Hobbs (Emma Elle Paterson) to talk to her sister). And, if it weren’t for Murdoch’s montera, the hat of the episode would definitely go to Watts’ adorable clay-sculpted hat.

Fancy Dress Indeed

Costume designer Joanna Syrokomla’s work this episode – and indeed this season – hits high note after high note. The fancy dress ball – themed extraordinary couples from history and the written word – is a reminder of just how much fun this show can be when it leans into spectacle and colour. Murdoch arrives as Escamillo, the dashing bullfighter from Bizet’s Carmen – with a vest and tie, because of course he does. And Effie as Carmen, his fiery and tragic lover. As the episode is careful to remind us several times: they’re just work colleagues. Of course. Roy Davenport appears as a Roman centurion – and the costume choice seems particularly apt for a man who’s clearly insecure about the position he secured over Effie. You can see the hours of work that went into creating an entire ballroom full of historical and literary couples, each costume telling its own story. This isn’t dressing up for the sake of dressing up; the costumes enhance and even tell the story.

Another Brick in the Wall reminds us why Murdoch Mysteries has lasted nineteen seasons and counting. It’s an episode that knows exactly what it is and delivers on every front – mystery, character, spectacle, and heart. In the hands of newcomers Lutchmedial and Harris, it feels both comfortably familiar and surprisingly fresh. If this is what we can expect from the show’s treasure chest of elements, and if showrunner Peter Mitchell’s promise on Twitter that the final three episodes go koo koo bananas holds true, then we’re in for quite a ride to close out the season. Only three episodes left!