F.L.A.S.H.!

"F.L.A.S.H.!"
Season	11
Episode	10
Airdate	January 8, 2018
Writer	Paul Aitken
Director	Eleanore Lindo
Guests	Peter Stebbings as James Pendrick
Previous	The Talking Dead
Next	Biffers and Blockers

“F.L.A.S.H.!” is the tenth episode of the eleventh season of the Murdoch Mysteries and the one-hundred-sixtieth of the series (not including the stand-alone Christmas special). It first aired on January 8, 2018.

Summary

Murdoch investigates a man’s bizarre death which may have been caused by a high-speed travel device.

At the Station House, Brackenreid and Higgins hear a mysterious statement from Bonnie Clement, a switch board operator at the Front Street Telephone and Telegraph Exchange, about two strange telephone calls putting a man in two different places at the same time. Mistaking her for a crackpot, the Inspector dismisses the report at first – until it proves to be critical information for Murdoch's investigation.

Charles Howden’s death was overheard by the switchboard operator who described his cries as being drained of sound and sound waves can't propagate in a vacuum. Murdoch and Ogden’s search for a vacuum large enough to fit an adult human, has Murdoch in for a dangerous ride.

Character Revelations

• Julia is experiencing a possible side effect of the hormone treatment - a unpredictable 'urgency' (to copulate).
• While examining the murder victim, William and Julia find a code word for when the 'urgency' arises so as "to strike while the iron is hot" (to procreate)– lemniscate.

Continuity

• Higgins gets a postcard from George who is in Paris and Brackenreid hopes he is "...annoying the French".
• Thomas and Margaret Brackenreid explore investing in the Pendrick FLASH.
• James Pendrick returns with the Pendrick FLASH and two female assistants on his team. He suits up Murdoch again; the last time was in 24 Hours Til Doomsday.
• Murdoch watches Pendrick kiss Julia again (see ep.1009), on her hand this time as a gesture to return that (memorable) stolen kiss.
• That "very full" husbandry schedule Julia warned William about at the end of Brackenreid Boudoir has gotten even fuller, thus a closet in the City Morgue is now employed.

Historical References

• This episode takes place in Toronto 1905 – Edward VII (Albert Edward;1841-1910) is King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas.
• Darwinian principle that inclination is related to fertile receptivity. Darwinian principle that inclination is related to fertile receptivity.
• In algebraic geometry, a lemniscate is any of several figure-eight or ∞  shaped curves. Commonly, known as the infinity symbol, a mathematical symbol representing the concept of infinity. The curve is also known as the lemniscate of Bernoulli.
• Skate can mean the very slippery fish and is applied to persons who have slippery natures; A slang from the West Country of England (pre-WWI) believed to have been used to describe someone who was a slippery customer. The word is use phonetically (possibly tongue-in-cheek) with 'Lemon' for their code word 'lemniscate' when Dr. Ogden leaves a message for Murdoch with Higgins.
• Robert Goddard is an American inventor generally acknowledged to be the father of modern rocketry.

Trivia

• What F.L.A.S.H. stands for is unveiled 10 minutes into the episode.
• Not the first time a strange telephone call is reported to the Station House, see Dial M for Murdoch.
• Murdoch (with a similar expression) also watched Inspector Marcel Guillaume kisses  Dr. Ogden's hand in Monsieur Murdoch.
• Logograph (or logogram) is a written character that represents a word or phrase. Chinese characters and Japanese kanji are logograms; some Egyptian hieroglyphs and some graphemes in cuneiform script are also logograms. In the final scene, Dr. Ogden uses the term along with their code word.
• The tunnel that the FLASH travels in is loosely inspired by the Channel Tunnel, a 31.35-mile rail tunnel that runs under the English Channel between Folkestone in Britain and Coquelles, near the Port of Calais in France.
• Constable George Crabtree does not appear in this episode.

Cast

Main Cast

Yannick Bisson as Detective William Murdoch
Hélène Joy as Dr. Julia Ogden
Thomas Craig as Inspector Thomas Brackenreid
Jonny Harris as Constable George Crabtree

Recurring Cast

Lachlan Murdoch as Constable Henry Higgins
Arwen Humphreys as Margaret Brackenreid
Peter Stebbings as James Pendrick

Guest Cast

Christopher Leveaux as Sam Trenwith
Blair Williams as Trenton Darling
John Novak as Clyde Spiker
Andrew Robinson as Robert H. Goddard
Aisha Evelyna as Bonnie Clement
Lily Lacey as Gong Fu Chi
Toby Proctor as Fenn Bickford
Kiri Etzkorn as Jaya Bhola
Derek Barnes as Charles Howden
Chris Gleason as Fisherman

Gallery

Stange fish caught...

Strange report by a telephone operator...

James Pendrick returns