Station House of Horrors (2024)

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"Station House of Horrors" is the fifth episode of the seventeenth season of Murdoch Mysteries and the two hundredsixty-eighth episode of the series (not including the three stand-alone holiday specials). It first aired on October 30, 2023.

Summary

While sauntering through a street fair, the team is intrigued by a mechanical fortune-teller but warned that any requests they make on it will definitely come true. After Dr. Ogden wishes for fewer obligations, she gets more than she bargained, descending into a clinic of horrors where psychopath James Gillies is alive and waiting.

Chapter One, Julia Ogden in The Brain that Won't Die.

Chapter Two, Violet Hart in Post Mortem.

Chapter Three, Thomas Brackenreid in Family Dinner.

Chapter Four, William Murdoch in The Gift.

At the end in Murdoch's office, William tells Thomas and Violet that Julia has begged off and can't make it. Thomas wanted to see the little one (Susannah) at the fair and has no interest if that's not the case and Violet agrees. But the Inspector gives permission for Higgins to go since the Street Fair is only for one day.

Character Revelations

• Julia Ogden: "I wish I could leave all responsibilities behind."
• Violet Hart: "I wish that I could blend in just like everyone else."
• Thomas Brackenreid: "I wish that the city could be rid of vermin."
• William Murdoch: "I wish that I never put Susannah in danger again."

Continuity

• Julia mentions a new nanny for Susannah, yet she has a new one already (ep.1703).
• Violet Hart is being hounded by the press about the Carmichael family and Arthur's death.
• Julia Ogden's worst nightmare – James Gillies returns with a vengeance.
• Margaret Brackenreid cooks up a new recipe and Maggie's Pies is a success business.
• Toronto Gazette front page story claims "too many prisoners, not enough cells" which could be good for Bobby's next parole hearing, but his mother doesn't want to get her hopes up again. She is off to visit him with a rosary as a gift.
• Just a handful of Season 17 plot lines are referenced as they are trapped inside their wishes, don't panic – this is a Halloween nightmare special (as in the one-off ep.1206).
• Getting the day off, Henry looks forward to The Magnificent Lloyd "...a mechanical man who will grant you your dearest wish".

Historical References

• This episode takes place in Toronto 1911 – George V is King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936.
• The origins of the haunted house date back to 19th-century London which introduced the public to a new form of gruesome entertainment. In 1802, Marie Tussaud scandalized British audiences with an exhibition of wax sculptures and death masks, setting up a permanent London exhibition, dubbed the "Chamber of Horrors”.
• The first mechanical fortune-tellers were made in the 1890s, and the first electric coin-operated machines in about 1910. A fortune-telling machine (also known as a genie machine or mechanical genie) is a automaton, when credited, issues cards that predict the reader's future, often featured in penny arcades, amusem*nt parks and street fairs.
• The first Frankenstein film was produced by Thomas Edison in 1910, based on Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley.
• A zombie, according to pop culture and folklore, is either a reawakened corpse with a ravenous appetite or someone bitten by another zombie infected with a "zombie virus". The Ancient Greeks may have been the first civilization terrorized by a fear of the undead. Zombie folklore has been around for centuries in Haiti, possibly originating in the 17th century with West African slaves – a zombie representing the horrific plight of slavery, mixed with Voodoo (sometimes spelled vodou or vodun) a religion based in West Africa and practiced throughout Haiti and the Caribbean, Brazil, the American South and other places with an African heritage.
• English nursery rhyme: "Sing a song of sixpence a pocket full of rye,Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie…” Urban-myth would have you believe that it was a coded pirates' message to recruit, 'blackbirds' were Capt. Blackbeard's pirates and the 'pie' his ship.

Trivia

• George Crabtree does not appear in this episode and Murdochians wonder what he might have wished for.
• Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion opened in 1969, becoming a cultural icon and then, Hollywood embraced the slasher movies (Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Friday the 13th) - the haunted house industry continues to reap the benefits of the horror boom. But since 2014, the number of jump scares (also spelled jump-scare and jumpscare) produced by Hollywood has fallen precipitously, according to Where’s The Jump, an impressive catalog of over 1,000 movies documenting the time stamps of slamming doors, sudden attacks, and other startling moments that can make viewers jump. This episode's jump-scare count:0X.
• According to the Prop Monkey, "we went through over 180 during filming" from The Pie Commission and a "Sweeney Todd" shoutout, along with "The Monkey’s Paw" and "Chucky".
• Showrunner Mitchell live-tweeted/X: "Really wanted to do a Tales of the Crypt style episode. Most of what we wanted to do no one will sign off on. But Simon McNabb did a great job as did Yannick."
• The use of comic book sketches is reminiscent of the 2011 webseries The Curse of the Lost Pharaohs.
• For the first time, Susannah Murdoch is included in the end-credits of this episode as she spoke her first lines: "Sissy."

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
Daniel Maslany as Detective Llewellyn Watts
Shanice Banton as Violet Hart
Michael Seater as James Gillies
Arwen Humphreys as Margaret Brackenreid
Clare McConnell as Effie Crabtree
Mark Taylor as Isaish Buchanan
Yanna McIntoch as Nanny
Kennedy Bre Hall as Susannah Murdoch
Quinn Rae Hall
Evelyn Wojcik
Lily Anikina

Guest Cast

Julian Richings as Carny
Albert Chung as Reporter
Michael Giel as Mechanical Man
Korina Rothery as Sissy Performance Double
Blair MacMillan as Mathilda
Jack Giffin as Drunk Man
Ryan Oliva as Undead Man

Non-Credited Cast

Gallery