Murdoch and the Temple of Death

"Murdoch and the Temple of Death"
Season	8
Episode	10
Airdate	January 12, 2015
Writer	Paul Aitken
Director	Harvey Crossland
Guests	Billy MacLellan as Enoch/Steven Hayes
Recurring	Athena Karkanis as Dr. Iris Bajjali
Previous	The Keystone Constables
Next	All That Glitters

"Murdoch and the Temple of Death" is the tenth episode of the eighth season of the Murdoch Mysteries and the one hundred-sixth episode of the series. It first aired on January 12, 2015.

Summary

Detective Murdoch finds himself exploring a mysterious temple in a search for the Holy Grail.

Detective Murdoch and Constable Crabtree investigates the death of a man found in the river by Inspector Brackenreid while out fishing with his boys. The man had been shot in the forehead by a metal rod shaped like an arrow. A receipt in the dead man's pocket directs them to the town of Markham where the dead man is identified as someone who was searching for a mythical Taj Mahal-like temple that is supposed to exist in the woods somewhere west of town and is guarded by a "troll". This troll, however, turns out to be just a brain-damaged man, or so they think.

They locate the temple, quickly identify the murder weapon and learn why local legend calls it the temple of death. Eventually, Murdoch and Iris dodge the trap-filled temple in order to seek the Holy Grail, which may be lying underneath the very temple.

Meanwhile, Julia, Dr. Grace and their friends continue to pursue their political aspirations with confidence.

Evading a trap

Continuity

• Iris Bajjali returns in her second, and final, appearance.
• Crabtree describes the protagonist of his new novel as a "swashbuckling archaeologist", but one with an Achilles' heel: butterflies (revealed as Murdoch's phobia in Murdochophobia) rather than snakes.

Historical References

• This episode takes place in Toronto 1902 -  Edwardian Era (1901-1910) when King Edward VII rules of the British Empire.
• The legend of the Holy Grail is one of the most enduring in Western European literature and art. The Grail was said to be the Holy Chalice of the Last Supper and at the Crucifixion to have received blood flowing from Christ's side. It was brought to Britain by Joseph of Arimathea, where it lay hidden for centuries.
• The Taj Mahal was commissioned in 1632 by Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan, in memory of his Persian wife and designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983 for being "the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage".
• Hagia Sophia is a former Greek Orthodox Christian patriarchal basilica (church), later an imperial mosque, and now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey. From the date of its construction in 537 until 1453, it served as an Orthodox cathedral and seat of the Patriarch of Constantinople, except between 1204 and 1261, when it was converted to a Roman Catholic cathedral under the Latin Empire. The building was a mosque from 29 May 1453 until 1931. It was then secularized and opened as a museum on 1 February 1935.
• The reference of The Last Supper in the plot will be used again in Barenaked Ladies.

Trivia

• Filmed at Foster Memorial outside Uxbridge, north of Toronto; Built in the mid 1930s by former mayor of Toronto Thomas Foster, it was inspired by the Taj Mahal following a trip to Agra. Foster built the memorial for his deceased wife and daughter, in the Byzantine-inspired style.
• Billy MacLellan (Enoch/Stephen Hayes), previously played Walter Lacey in Let Loose the Dogs.
• The entire episode is an homage to the Indiana Jones franchise.
• The title of the episode is an allusion to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Crabtree even warns Murdoch, "Sir it's called the Temple of Death, not the Temple of Doom."
• The episode itself is based on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Specific elements paid homage include:
  • The various traps, including blades, which protect the grail.
  • The elaborate decoy grail which protects the unadorned true grail.
  • The female companion who meets her end after trying to make off with the grail.
  • The arrow and boulder traps may be a reference to the opening sequence of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Errors

• Both Murdoch and George say that the Temple of Death is "full of booby traps." But when they say that, they have only seen the one trap, the one that killed Bashar Kaba. It is only later that they discover the other traps.
• When Murdoch is investigating the stone pedestal and lifting part of it you can clearly see 2 coins on it, but in the shots before and after there is only 1 coin because the other slid off. After lifting there is also sound of only 1 coin falling down.

Cast

Main Cast

Yannick Bisson as William Murdoch
Hélène Joy as Julia Ogden
Thomas Craig as Thomas Brackenreid
Jonny Harris as George Crabtree
Georgina Reilly as Emily Grace

Recurring Cast

Lachlan Murdoch as Henry Higgins
Charles Vandervaart as John Brackenreid
Jayden Greig as Bobby Brackenreid
Nicole Underhay as Margaret Haile
Sara Mitich as Lillian Moss
Athena Karkanis as Dr. Iris Bajjali

Guest Cast

Billy MacLellan as Enoch/Steven Hayes
Alec Stockwell as Milton Webb
Dan Willmott as Ernest Dilton
Ed Chaplin as Proprietor
Alexander Choat as Store Clerk
Cyrus Faird as Bashar Kaba
Durward Allan as Museum Worker

Gallery