The Glass Ceiling

"The Glass Ceiling"
Season	1
Episode	2
Airdate	January 27, 2008
Writer	Jean Greig Cal Coons
Director	Shawn Thompson
Guests	Rick Roberts as Gilbert Birkins Sarah Orenstein as Clara Pollack
Recurring	Lachlan Murdoch as Constable Higgins Arwen Humphreys as Margaret Brackenreid Allan Royal as Chief Constable Stockton
Previous	"Power"
Next	"The Knockdown"

"The Glass Ceiling" is the second episode of the first season of the Murdoch Mysteries and the second episode of the series. It first aired on January 27, 2008.

Summary

A lawyer named Percy Pollack is killed. Then a judge is killed.

William Murdoch learns from Thomas Brackenreid that Brackenreid, the lawyer and the judge were all involved in the conviction of a killer. The killer supposedly later died in a fire, but Julia Ogden determines that the body autopsied could not have been that of the murderer.

Murdoch learns from the lawyer's widow that her late husband was investing in a project being developed by Gilbert Birkins, a doctor who was once a partner of the one who conducted the suspicious autopsy.

Through it all, Murdoch is offered a chance to interview for a position as the inspector of Station House No. 3. He loses the position when Chief Constable Stockton learns that Murdoch is Roman Catholic and reminds Brackenreid that "Toronto is a Protestant city."

Character Revelations

• Murdoch grew up in Nova Scotia.
• Murdoch once worked in the logging industry and lived in Montreal for two years.
• Murdoch has been with the police force for 10 years; 5 as a constable before making detective.
• Murdoch is Roman Catholic.
• Murdoch's father had been a fisherman in Nova Scotia and his mother died when he was "only a lad."
• The name of Murdoch's deceased fiancée is revealed to have been Liza Milner.

Continuity

• First appearance of Margaret Brackenreid and sons, though the children are credited only as "Brackenreid Child."
• First appearance of Lachlan Murdoch as Constable Henry Higgins.
• William and Julia's relationship starts its slow-burn when Dr. Ogden finds out Murdoch may leave for another post.

Historical References

• Invention of the motorcycle.
• Development of Corn Flakes; Kellogg is mentioned

Trivia

• George comes up with the term "tracing".
• George shares with Murdoch that he once had an idea for meat in a can.
• "Three Little Maids From School Are We" from The Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan is playing on Dr. Julia Ogden's Edison phonograph in the City Morgue.
• Director of Photography David Perrault, CSC, uses a 360 degree continuous shot in the Station House when Brackenreid and Murdoch discuss the case.
• "Me Ol' Mucker" Count: 2
• This episode was originally intended to be the pilot episode. 

Errors

• At the beginning of the episode, a Leyden Jar is referred to as a "capacitor". That term did not come into general use until the latter part of the 20th century. In the late 19th century. the device would have been referred to as a "condenser".
• One of the Medal Ribbons worn by Chief Stockton is the General Service Medal issued from 1964 to 2000. This was a UK Medal that was also issued to Canadian, Australian and New Zealand armed forces.
• Inspector Murdoch walks into Dr. Ogden's office as she is listening to a Gilbert & Sullivan melody on her Edison Diamond Disc phonograph. The show at this time is part of the late 1890's; Edison did not create his flat-disc phonograph until 1914. Prior to that, Edison's musical output came from cylinders.
• When Inspector Thomas Brackenreid is cut by a scalpel at the end, he is sliced in the gut and clearly shown holding his hand to his vest (below his pocket watch chain) where a bloody incision opens from his abdomen and through the vest. When Brackenreid returns to the station from the hospital he is inexplicably wearing a sling on his arm, and there is no evidence that the wound was to his abdomen - but rather it's implying that his arm was injured. Especially since he tells Murdoch he's in need of "a good right hand... or left hand man to keep me out of trouble."
• Inspector Brackenreid uses the term "brown-nose", which didn't originate until the 1930s.

Cast

Main Cast

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

Recurring Cast

Arwen Humphreys as Margaret Brackenreid
Daniel Fleming as Bobby Brackenreid
John Fleming as John Brackenreid
Lachlan Murdoch as Constable Henry Higgins

Guest Cast

Rick Roberts as Dr. Gilbert Birkins
Sarah Orenstein as Clara Pollack
Allan Royal as Chief Constable Stockton

Other Cast

James Kirchner as Cabbie
Diane Latchford as Mrs. Gibson
Patrick Stevenson as Delmer Ward
Uncredited as Percival Pollack
Uncredited as Henry Scott
Uncredited as Walter Ayott

References

• Station House Four
• Station House Three
• Montreal
• Mimico
• Birkins Farms
• Mechanized Bicycle
• Telephone
• Union Station
• City Morgue
• Phonograph
• "Three Little Maids From School Are We"
• Lawson's Butchery
• Nova Scotia
• Harry Murdoch
• Elizabeth Milner
• Don Jail
• Self-Pouring Teapot
• Corn Shards
• University of Toronto

Gallery

Chiefs of Police

Delivery for Brackenreid

Have You Missed Me?

Percy's Post Mortem

Greetings From Bobby and Johnny

You Set Me Up!

Interviewing Dr. Gilbert Birkins

June Bugs!

Percival Pollack

Murdoch and Crabtree

The Motorcycle

I'd Like You to Reconsider