Characters / Murdoch Mysteries

Caveat lector! Be warned that here there be major spoilers, both marked and unmarked. As per wiki policy, title of the trope should not be spoiler-tagged on Character Sheets which can reveal whether the character is honest or deceiving, and there are also several romantic resolution tropes, death tropes or twist Tropes. Proceed with caution.s

---

Main Characters

Detective William Murdoch

Played By: Yannick Bisson

A detective at Toronto's station house 4, Murdoch investigates and solves crimes by using what were unorthodox and untested methods. Though his methods raise eyebrows, his results are successful.

---

• The Ace: He's beyond great at his job and everybody either admires him or at least acknowledges the good of his progressive methods and amazing dedication to his work.
• Agent Scully: His usual role, as he has to Scully Crabtree's outrageous ideas. However, Murdoch is a deeply religious man. In one episode, he had a Near-Death Experience and did not try to deny it.
• Almighty Janitor: Despite being one of the higher-ranking officers at Station House No. 4, he's nonetheless overqualified for his position due to politics. Murdoch was once up for a promotion to inspector, however he was passed over because of the anti-Catholic sentiment in predominantly Protestant Toronto during the era. As a result it's highly unlikely he'll ever rise higher than detective.
• Badass Bookworm: He knows everything modern science has achieved, and he can apply his knowledge on constructing various gadgets that help during his investigation. As a policeman, he can also handle himself in a fight when he's called on to do so.
• Been There, Shaped History: Seems to have met every famous person alive at the time and invented several modern inventions, including the lie detector and gear shifts for bicycles.
• Berserk Button: Murdoch hates it when the police's time and resources are wasted by a wild goose chase.
  • When he learns his "fan club" set up a fake murder to watch him work, he angrily arrests them.
  • He gets really mad when Rupert Newsome and Lucinda Helmsworthy try to frame each other for kidnapping and murder. Murdoch arrests them and is not happy when Brackenreid tells him they won't be prosecuted, since the Crown prosecutor and the jury would never believe their crazy story. He reacts with typical Tranquil Fury, but he's clearly seething when he mutters "Mimico" under his breath, referring to the Upper Class Twits that live there.
  • He yells at Terrence Myers that Myers' lies and manipulations have left him "chasing shadows" while trying to investigate a murder in "Election Day."
• Beware the Nice Ones: Murdoch is unambiguously a good, decent human being. He's devout, but wrestles with his faith when unable to cleanly reconcile his belief with his progressive views. He's foremost concerned with justice, and once allowed a criminal to go free by admitting a confession was obtained under physical duress. Ultimately, he's a kind and considerate man. However once he has his suspect cornered Murdoch becomes a very formidable interrogator. And if you push him too far by threatening his friends and loved ones he can be downright terrifying when he finally does lose his temper.
• Bilingual Bonus: Murdoch speaks French as well as English. When Francophone characters occasionally cuss him out, Murdoch snarks right back in French, much to their embarassment:
  Murdoch: Before I investigate the sabotage of your presentation, I must first determine the validity of their claims.
  Captain Bernier: Comment osez-vous insinuer une chose pareille? Vous-êtes idiot ou quoi?^note How dare you suggest such a thing? Are you an idiot, or what?
  Murdoch: Le plus tôt que vous coopérez avec cet idiot, M. Bernier, le plus tôt que vous serez lavé de tout soupçcon.^note The sooner you cooperate with this idiot, Mr. Bernier, the sooner you'll be cleared of any suspicion.
  Captain Bernier: Well...maybe you'd care to see the body?
• By-the-Book Cop: He's very honest and actually ahead of his time, for instance, he would never beat a criminal during an interrogation. He's by-the-book almost to a fault. For example, when asked, he admits that a criminal confessed after beating when the original report claimed it was a voluntary admittance of guilt. Even though he knew said criminal was guilty of rape and murder.
• Character Catchphrase:
  • Often on appraisal of a crime scene,
  Murdoch: What have you, George?
  • When he identifies the killer of the week:
  Murdoch: (Suspect), you are under arrest for the murder of (victim).
• Character Tics: Making the sign of the cross whenever he's confronted to a new dead victim. Happens pretty much Once per Episode.
• Chaste Hero: Due to his deep-held Catholic beliefs and gentlemanly demeanor, he will not act untoward women or give into temptation no matter how willingly it's offered. When forced to spend a night at a hotel with Julia, in order to give her husband grounds for divorce, he comes prepared with a game of dominoes to keep themselves occupied.
• Chick Magnet: Dr. Julia Ogden, Mrs. Enid Jones, Anna Fulford, Sally Pendrick and Eva Pearce all demonstrate more than a passing interest in Murdoch. Various ladies he encounters during his investigations are interested as well.
• The Comically Serious: He can easily fall into this, always staying quite serious even in the most bizarre situations. Inspector Brackenreid once asks Crabtree if he'd ever seen him laugh. Even lampshaded by Charlie Chaplin in "Murdoch and the Tramp":
  Charlie Chaplin: ... but this man, at the centre of everything, stoic in the face of chaos... he's the funniest man in the world!
• Dashingly Dapper Derby: He wears a Homburg. The hat has its level of cool, especially considering the setting.
• Deal with the Devil: While Murdoch is generally a staunch Catholic and law-abiding police officer, in Season 14 he makes a deal with the don of the Black Hand — the precursor of The Mafia — in exchange for a guarantee of Anna Fulford and Harry Murdoch's safety.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": He doesn't like being called "Bill". He's clearly very annoyed when a Jerkass hotel detective keeps addressing him as such.
• Fair Cop: He's a very attractive member of law enforcement.
• Famed In-Story: Several people, usually famous figures themselves, recognize his achievements.
  • In "Murdoch in Toyland", he finds out that he has a fangirl who is fascinated by his work and follows all his cases in the press.
  • The season eight episode "The Murdoch Appreciation Society" introduces an entire fan club. They even try to stage a murder with a cadaver just to watch him work, which, much to their surprise, leads to the discovery of an actual murder when it turns out the cadaver did not actually die of natural causes.
  • His exploits attract the attention of prominent Canadian leaders like Mayor Clarkson and Prime Minister Laurier. A few episodes have them personally summoning Murdoch to deal with particularly grave crises.
• First-Name Basis:
  • Dr. Ogden and he often call each other by their first names, and later in the series they also refer to each other as William and Julia, which reveals their deeper personal relationship.
  • He calls Constables Crabtree and Higgins George and Henry frequently. However, they cannot reciprocate as Murdoch is their superior.
  • He prefers to be addressed as William and does not like being called "Bill" or "Billy". Even when he was a child, he preferred his full name.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Murdoch has invented sonar, a primitive security camera, a gear-changing bicycle, and other gadgets beyond his time.
• Gentleman and a Scholar: Murdoch is a scientific genius, but he's also a perfectly affable and friendly guy.
• Guile Hero: Murdoch can be socially awkward and occasionally have a hard time reading people, but he's repeatedly hatched various clever schemes to trick criminals into providing the evidence that proves their guilt.
• Has a Type: He's by no means a Casanova or seducer who would pursue women constantly, but if he's ever interested in a woman, she's intelligent and usually blond (his deceased fiancée Liza ^note not much is known about her background or personality, Dr Ogden, Mrs Jones, Anna Fulford and Mrs Pendrick). Inspector Brackenreid feels an urge to point it out to him in "Evil Eye of Egypt", saying that he should be careful during an investigation because beautiful intelligent ladies are his weak spot. The lady in question, Dr. Iris Bajjali, is highly intelligent, but a dark Arabian beauty.
• Hates Small Talk: Downplayed, as he doesn't especially despise it, but he prefers useful conversation or talking about science.
  Brackenreid: So Murdoch, how's married life treating you? All well at the hotel?
  Murdoch: I'm happy to report that it's an excellent arrangement. No-one pays you any particular mind.
  Brackenreid: What do you mean?
  Murdoch: Well, sir, at my boarding house, the other residents... I was constantly being pulled into conversations of limited merit.
  Brackenreid: I can only imagine the difficulty.
  Murdoch: Thank you.
• Ideal Hero: He would be a Knight in Shining Armor if he lived in the Middle Ages. The whole reason Murdoch became a policeman was to work for justice and make Toronto a better place.
• Intelligence Equals Isolation: Hinted at in the episode "The Great Wall" when he's let down that not even among police force he can feel as a part of the group. However, he's very much admired and well-liked by everybody at Station House 4.
• The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Detective Murdoch, our hero, is always delighted or thrilled to meet famous inventors and scientists, but he absolutely fan-boys over some of them, like when he meets Nicola Tesla, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Alva Edison, or especially Guglielmo Marconi.
• Limited Advancement Opportunities: His promotion to Inspector was considered in the very first episode, but his being a Catholic in Protestant Toronto means he has very probably reached his top position. This is downplayed in later episodes, as Mayor Clarkson immediately recruits him to deal with an attempt to blackmail the city of Toronto despite his Catholicism. When Brackenreid goes to Central America with James Pendrick, Murdoch is made acting Inspector, whereas Hamish Slorach took the job the first time Brackenreid briefly left the job. In the Season 12 finale, Murdoch is considered once again for an Inspector position, helped in no small part by Crown Attorney Allan Templeton, a fellow Catholic who's working to get more Catholics in positions of power. Brackenreid and Julia even Lampshade how much the times are changing.
• Long-Lost Relative: His younger sister appears for one episode, and he has a brother in the RCMP he never knew existed until they met.
• Manly Tears: He usually holds his emotions hidden, which makes his tears all the more moving. His eyes were filled with tears when Julia tells him her abortion left her barren and strongly implies she wants to end their relationship because she knows about his desire to have a family, and he cries when his sister tells him she is dying and is going to spend the rest of her life in prayer at the convent.
• Mr. Imagination: He's a highly rational version of the trope. He often imagines himself to be a part of the crime scene at the time of the murder, and he likes to wander into imagining his future family life. Also, there are all those Imagine Spots and Daydream Surprise sequences involving his fantasies about Dr. Ogden.
• Neat Freak: Murdoch is almost always impeccably dressed and groomed. When he and Terrence Meyers go undercover to infiltrate a group of anarchists, Crabtree points out that he looks almost too tidy to look like a common labourer. When James Pendrick tries to make a movie about Murdoch's exploits, he raises a fuss about the fact that his character in the movie isn't wearing his policeman's helmet. His alienation from his job in the Season 5 premiere is symbolized by his Perma-Stubble, something he would never let grow if he had peace of mind.
• Noble Bigot with a Badge: Murdoch displays homophobic behavior in the earlier episodes, as was the norm in the time period. Despite this, he's still very clearly a sympathetic protagonist and he mostly lets go of the attitude by later seasons.
• Not So Above It All: Murdoch keeps his playful side very well hidden, but it manifests with the people he's closest to. Julia learned this the hard way at the end of "Keystone Kops" when he plays a practical joke on her, though he has spent the episode telling her he does not see the appeal.
• Once per Episode:
  • In keeping with his Catholic faith, he crosses himself whenever he's in the presence of the dead, usually at the start of the episode.
  • He typically has one Imagine Spot per episode, too.
  • He often says one or both of his Catchphrases once per episode.
• Parental Abandonment: His mother died when he was a little boy, and his father found himself inadequate to take care of his family. He was raised in an orphanage/religious school by Catholic priests.
• Rank Up:
  • Briefly done when Brackenreid goes to Central America with James Pendrick. Murdoch becomes Acting Inspector while Brackenreid is away.
  • Subverted at the end of Season 16. Murdoch starts feeling he's put in his time as a detective and wants to move up in the Constabulary's ranks. When Brackenreid goes on vacation, he confides to Murdoch that he's considering retirement. Murdoch thinks that he might take over as Inspector, and is crushed when Station House One's Detective Edwards gets the job instead.
  • Played straight in Season 17, Episode 23, "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes." Brackenreid becomes promoted to Chief Constable for all of Toronto, and recommends Murdoch for his now-vacant position. Murdoch is named Acting Inspector once again, with every possibility that he'll be permanently appointed.
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: This is a large part of his relationship with Julia. He's much more buttoned-down and restrained, while she's vocal in her beliefs, is active in the suffragette movement and even rides on motorbikes, much to his horror.
• Science Hero: He loves science and knows everything about the current research. He can apply his knowledge and build many devices to help him in his investigation.
• The Scrooge: Downplayed. Murdoch is implied to be somewhat cheap, as hotel aides and cab drivers have been unhappy with his tips. In the Season 16 premiere, he also says that with what they're paying for Susanna's nanny, Julia doesn't need to spend as much time with her.
• Shared Family Quirks: With his half-brother who also works in law enforcement. They meet when they investigate their cases that happen to be connected. They both use science and are extremely particular about details, and they are shown having similar body language. Rather amusingly, Murdoch gets annoyed with him often and doesn't see the similarities. Murdoch wasn't aware of the fact that his father had another family.
• The Stoic: He's very emotionally restrained. He rarely does more than smile when he's happy or raise his voice when angry. He only gets physical when he's really angry.
• Straight Man: Murdoch frequently becomes a Straight Man in dealing with his colleagues or suspects. He has to brush off George's wacky theories about the paranormal in the early seasons or deal with the Inspector's boisterous tendencies. And Toronto seems to have the bottomless supply of suspects who have are simply put, nuts (going from slightly weird with poor social skills to downright crazy).
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: He's fairly tall, has dark brown hair, dark brown eyes and dark-ish complexion. Quite a few women in-universe fancy him.
• The Teetotaler: He hardly ever touches alcohol as he wants to keep his wits about him (because of his duties), and his father is a drunk.
• These Hands Have Killed: He never killed a man in the line of duty until the day he has to shoot and kill a Black Hand assassin pursuing Anna Fulford in "Walk On The Wild Side Part 2." He doesn't take it particularly well, though he avoids slipping into a Heroic BSoD.
• Trademark Favorite Drink: On the rare occasions Murdoch indulges, his drink of choice is a spruce beer.
• Tranquil Fury: Murdoch is almost always calm, even when he's angry. His getting physical is a sign that he's beside himself with rage, such as when he attacked James Gillies for threatening Dr. Ogden or when he punched out a human trafficker keeping a group of captive women in the hold of his ship.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: Detective William Murdoch and Dr. Julia Ogden are clearly attracted to each other. This unresolved tension is made worse by the Victorian setting and the necessary restraint needed by social standards of the time, as the UST was just as strong (if not stronger) whenever their on/off relationship is actually on.
• Will They or Won't They?: He has on-again-off-again relationship with his colleague Julia and intense chemistry with Anna Fulford. He ends up choosing Julia, and after seven seasons, they're finally getting married.
• You Are in Command Now:
  • The second time Brackenreid temporarily leaves his Inspector job, Murdoch takes over until Brackenreid returns. He also takes the lead in a couple of episodes when Brackenreid is missing and in danger.
  • It becomes permanent in Season 17, Episode 23, "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes." Brackenreid is promoted to become Chief Constable for all of Toronto. He promotes Murdoch to his now-vacant Inspector position at Station House Four. While Murdoch is only "Acting" Inspector for now, there's every possibility he'll get the job full-time.

Doctor Julia Ogden

Played By: Hélène Joy

Julia Ogden is a pathologist who works at the City Morgue in Toronto and cooperates closely with the Constabulary. She's a modern and forward-thinking woman. She's very blunt and enjoys dark morgue humour. She shares Detective Murdoch's fascination with science. She is his intellectual equal and one of his most avid supporters.

---

• Action Girl: She's done everything from kill a sequential killer trying to murder her to clothesline a fleeing suspect to use her archery skills to save Murdoch from being kidnapped by Eva Pearce.
• Ascended Extra: She is not nearly so prominent a character in the books, being completely absent in the debut novel Except the Dying, having a voice only appearance via phone call in the second book Under the Dragon's Tail, and being absent yet again in the third book Poor Tom is Cold.
• Buried Alive: James Gillies buries her alive in "Murdoch in Toyland" because he knows it will hurt Murdoch most.
• Combat Pragmatist: She is a Combat Pragmatist to a scaring degree. Is someone attacks or threatens her or people she cares about, she is not above attacking them from behind or using her skill with scalpels to mortally injure those who deserve it (see "Snakes and Ladders").
• The Coroner: She's way nicer than coroners from fiction tend to be, but she loves her morgue humour which makes gentlemen policemen uncomfortable.
• Dude Magnet: Many, many men are interested in her and compliment her looks, intelligence and accomplishments. Some men are vexed that she's a lady doctor, but most people admire her.
• Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Averted. She went through abortion when she was a medical student, and makes no bones about the fact that she did so in order to keep pursuing a career in medicine. She nearly died and it has left her barren.
• Good Stepmother: She tries to be this to Harry Junior, Murdoch's son with Anna Fulford and he appreciates her efforts.
• Hospital Hottie: She's a very attractive doctor performing her duties in Gorgeous Period Dresses. It's acknowledged in-universe that she's a beauty.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Julia's reason for breaking off her relationship with William. Because she cannot have children, she leaves him in the hope that he'll find a woman who can give him a family.
• Passionate Sports Girl:
  • She enjoys archery, and her skills come in very handy in rescuing Murdoch after he's abducted by Eva Pearce.
  • She played basketball in university and uses her skill to join a women's basketball team as part of a case. She continues demonstrating her skills when she helps coach Harry Junior's basketball team.
• Pimped-Out Dress: Anytime she's attending a ball or dinner party, she's sure to be wearing gorgeous outfits.
• Principles Zealot: Averted. She's passionate and outgoing in her beliefs, but she's been known to compromise them for Murdoch's sake. She agrees to be married in a Catholic church despite her lack of religious beliefs because of how much it would mean to William. She also plans to run in the provincial election as the suffragette's candidate, but bows out in favor of Margaret Haile when Brackenreid warns her about the harm it could cause William's career.
• The Profiler: In Season 6, she pursues a career as psychiatrist/psychologist, and she consults Detective Murdoch's team on several cases. In later seasons, she's back at her old job in the morgue.
• Promoted to Love Interest: In Maureen Jennings' book series, William Murdoch married a woman named Amy who died after giving birth to their second child, who was no luckier. Their firstborn, a son named Jack, is twenty-one and serving in World War I in 1917.
• Romancing the Widow: Her husband Dr. Darcy Garland dies in "Crime & Punishment". She's a widow woman of the wonderful category. Murdoch resumes pursuing her romantically — or more like he continues to pursue her romantically, because when Dr. Garland died, Julia was trying to get a divorce.
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: This is a large part of her relationship with Murdoch. He's much more buttoned-down and restrained, while she's vocal in her beliefs, is active in the suffragette movement and even rides on motorbikes, much to his horror.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: She ignores the orders of her superiors several times when she works at Toronto Mercy Hospital. She's vindicated every time she does, but but it eventually gets her fired.
• Second Love: To Murdoch. His fiancée died of consumption and in Season 1, he has to struggle to let his memories go and acknowledge his deep feelings for Julia.
• The Shrink: In "Twentieth Century Murdoch," she decides to become a psychiatrist. She travels to Vienna to study with Sigmund Freud, and she starts working in mental hospital.
• Start My Own: After she's fired from Toronto Mercy Hospital, she helps start her own women's hospital.
• The Suffragette: She's active politically, she's always happy to speak for women's right to contraception (illegal at the time). She joins a circle of Toronto suffragettes and considers running in the Provincial Elections, but declines because even though Murdoch fully supports her, it would have a negative impact on his career.
• Sweet Polly Oliver: She cross-dresses as a man in "Victor, Victorian," and she even fools Murdoch and Crabtree when they meet at a gentlemen's club.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Implied with Julia Ogden and her sister Ruby. Ruby claims Julie was a tomboy as a child, and she still calls her by her tomboyish nickname Jules. Ruby is very feminine and she likely was a girly girl.
• "Well Done, Daughter!" Girl: Dr. Ogden was determined to become a doctor like her father, but she had to go against his wishes. Julia believes he favoured her younger sister Ruby. However, after his death Julia learns from people of Toronto's upper class society that he was very proud of her many accomplishments.
• Will They or Won't They?: With Detective Murdoch. They are very cute together and everyone can see it, multiple people comment on the fact that they are intellectual equals and practically made for each other. Murdoch happily courts Julia who reciprocates, but has a secret which she knows will hurt Murdoch... and so on and so forth. Sometimes their relationship brings out too much Angst. Even when Julia marries another guy, their will-they-won't-they dynamic continues. They get engaged in season 7 and they get married in season 8.

Constable George Crabtree

Played By: Jonny Harris

A Station House 4 constable and often Murdoch's sidekick on investigations. George is also a writer, whose adventure novel based on an Egyptian Curse has made him a modest success.

---

• Agent Mulder: He is the first one to suggest that vampires, ghosts, werewolves, Martians, Venusians, or an Egyptian curse might be responsible for the crimes they're investigating. It's been downplayed in later seasons, but he's still very much more imaginitve in his suppositions than Murdoch and Brackenreid.
• Agent Scully: He and Brackenreid reverse roles in "Loch Ness Murdoch", when Brackenreid is convinced that there's a sea monster in Lake Ontario and Crabree is the skeptical one.
• Almighty Janitor: A bit straighter case than Murdoch. George is probably the best of the Station House No. 4 constables, and therefore works most closely with Murdoch. He has also filled in as detective when Murdoch himself was unavailable, and was actually up for permanent promotion at one point. However he's currently stuck as a constable because of a combination of Murdoch's glass ceiling, while George himself was busted down in rank due to his role in covering up the death of Edna Brooks' husband to protect her stepson. He's currently junior in rank to Higgins who, while capable, is nonetheless The Ditz and not up to George's level.
• Animal Lover: He loves animals. He's always concerned for various dogs, cats or horses the team encounters during their investigation. In one episode he even grows attached to a spider which he names Webster.
• Bulletproof Vest: Crabtree wears a couple of these. In "Big Murder On Campus", he wears one to survive being shot as part of Murdoch's plan to trap the villains. In the tenth-season finale, his body armor saves him from being killed on the spot when the villain's Mooks shoot him. He's still seriously injured and would have bled to death if Rebecca James didn't extract the bullet and stop the bleeding with some Roadside Surgery.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Crabtree is prone to rather bizarre explanations in some episodes, but he's also an ace when it comes to doing legwork and has solved the B-plots of some episodes either on his own or with Brackenreid.
• Butt-Monkey: If one of the characters is going to have to do something particularly embarrassing over the course of the investigation, there's a good bet it's going to be Crabtree.
• Cartwright Curse: A nonlethal version. His longest-lasting relationship (with Emily Grace) ended with her leaving him for Leslie Garland. Edna Brooks, engaged to George, has to flee the city with her stepson. Burlesque dancer Nina Bloom breaks things off because she believes he deserves a more respectable woman. They get back together, but she then opts to leave Toronto for her dream job in Paris. George offers to accompany her and proposes, but she ultimately declines. After a few ups and downs, the curse seems to be broken with his marriage to Effie Newsome.
• Character Catchphrase: Not that frequently, but his preferred exclamation seems to be:
  Oh, for Pete's sake!
• Cloudcuckoolander: He can be very weird. Especially his theories on the paranormal which are extremely far-fetched but he takes them super-seriously. Also, he sometimes presents his perspective on an issue and it starts reasonably enough, but it ends up as something downright insane.
• The Comically Serious: He can begin with a philosophical remark of intuitive brilliance, then suddenly veers off into science fiction.
• A Day in the Limelight:
  • In the episode "Convalescence", Murdoch falls off a ladder and is bedridden for the rest of the episode. Crabtree takes his place and manages to solve the case.
  • "CrabtreeMania" has him pursuing and solving a murder case with little aid from Murdoch or Brackenreid. They are equally impressed by both this and the work he's done through the years that they put in a recommendation for a Detective's position that opened at a neighboring station-house.
• Doorstop Baby: His biological mother left him near a church, and the pastor's family took him and brought him up as their own child. His biological mother appears in one episode.
• Fair Cop: He's a cute constable. Several very pretty women find him handsome or interesting.
• Genius Ditz: It's implied that George may actually be quite brilliant beneath his Cloud Cuckoo Lander tendencies, when he helps Albert Einstein, of all people, with his theories on time and space. Einstein even suggests George come to work with him.
• Happily Adopted: He always talks about his happy family that Murdoch is honestly surprised to hear that George is adopted. His father is a priest who took him when he was left at the door of a church. Crabtree is also happily adopted by his extended group of aunts. They finally appear in Season 7, and it turns out they're a group of prostitutes that Crabtree's preacher father gave housing to, and who helped raise him when he grew up in Newfoundland. When Crabtree and Murdoch go to Newfoundland on a case, they stop by to meet his aunts and they're delighted to see little George.
• Hidden Depths: Crabtree is surprisingly sensitive to others and he's also surprisingly open-minded. And he's not just a copper, but a moderately successful writer, and a shrewd business man while operating a successful garage. His care and concern for animals such as dogs or horses is very modern and very sweet. A Brick Joke in Frankie Drake Mysteries reveals just how foresighted many of his investments are, as he was able to retire from the Constabulary quite young as a result of the windfall. The 200th episode suggests George may even have a genius intellect that just hasn't been properly cultivated and directed.
• The Idealist: Despite having seen no shortage of depravity, shows a reflective, affectionate fascination with the world in general.
• Like Father, Like Son: In "Prodigal Father", George meets his long-lost father, George Crabtree, Sr. Upon discovering they are both men with their eyes on the future and an interest in the supernatural, they get on like a house on fire.
• Love Hurts: He's heart-broken when Dr. Grace breaks off their relationship because she gets interested in young Mr. Garland.
• Malaproper: He sometimes mispronounces a word or a phrase, especially in the early seasons. Haemogoblin instead of haemoglobin is one of the most endearing. Even when called out he insists on standing by his pronunciation.
• Mr. Exposition: Crabtree is typically the one to explain to Murdoch and the audience what the situation is whenever the detective arrives at a crime scene. Murdoch also frequently sends him to look up information relevant to a case, informing both Murdoch and the audience about important background information.
• Mystery Writer Detective: He writes a mildly popular novel. Viewers get to know it in a spinoff web-series. The hero of the book is Crabtree's Author Avatar who investigates mysterious deaths connected with an Egyptian curse.
• Nice Guy: He is a very sweet and polite young man. As well as openhearted and open-minded, George doesn't have one bigoted bone in his body. He treats everyone with respect, regardless of gender, race, sexuality, or social standing, and thinks different cultures and beliefs are fascinating.
• Rank Up: He becomes Acting Inspector due to Edwards being fired, Brackenreid being on leave and Murdoch having quit the force. His first act is to recruit Watts to become his new Detective, since the position is vacant.
• Saved by Canon: As he's still alive in 1922 (via a cameo in Frankie Drake Mysteries), he's safe for the rest of the series.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: George has a one-sided but intense hatred for the Upper-Class Twit Roger Newsome.
• Tangled Family Tree: Over the first six seasons, Crabtree referred to a seemingly endless collection of aunts he had, all of whom were named after flowers (e.g., Daisy, Primrose, etc.) Believe it or not, they're all true —Crabtree's adoptive father was a priest who moved to Newfoundland and set up a ministry. Father Crabtree allowed a large group of prostitutes to live in the rectory to give them a better life, and the women all served as Crabtree's adoptive aunts.
• Those Two Guys: Frequently paired up with Higgins, both during Murdoch's investigations, and his day to day duties as a constable (in fact, he and Higgins have fronting desks). It becomes Those Three Guys when Jackson tags along; including the three of them pitching in together to purchase a motorcar.
• Turn the Other Cheek: When he is abducted, interrogated, and has his foot broken by a woman who turns out to be the long-lost daughter of one of his late aunts, George decides to not press charges after she lets him go, having empathized with her story.
• The Watson: He's Murdoch's sidekick and is often on hand to witness Murdoch's tests and experiments. He's also picked up a few tricks from Murdoch, and is usually the one to solve the B-plot of an episode that has Two Lines, No Waiting.
• You Are in Command Now: When Edwards is fired as Station House 4's Inspector, the Toronto alderman who does the firing gives Crabtree the acting position. Since the station house is still short a detective, he brings back Watts to fill the job.

Inspector Thomas Brackenreid

Played By: Thomas Craig

Murdoch's superior and the boss of Station House 4. Married with two kids. Likes scotch. As of Season 17, Episode 23, "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes", he's been promoted to Chief Constable for all of Toronto.

---

• Adaptational Intelligence: In Maureen Jennings' original books, Brackenreid was an incompetent, drunken buffoon who got a lot of Servile Snarker treatment from Murdoch. In the TV series, he runs a tight ship and is a very good policeman in his own right. While he enjoys a good glass of scotch, he's never shown to overdo it.
• Adaptational Nationality: Brackenreid was a Protestant Englishman who hailed from Ireland in Maureen Jennings' original books. In the TV series, he's a Yorkshireman from England itself.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Brackenreid was an alcoholic Jerkass and anti-Catholic bigot in most of Maureen Jennings' original books. In the TV series, he's an affable Boisterous Bruiser who gets along quite well with his subordinates and is indifferent to Murdoch's Catholicism.
• Agent Scully: Brackenreid is typically the one to shoot down Crabtree's ridiculous suggestions whenever he thinks the supernatural is involved.
• Agent Mulder: Usually a skeptic. However, he and Crabtree reverse their typical roles in the season 7 episode "Loch Ness Murdoch". He is convinced that there's a sea monster in Lake Ontario, but Crabtree is skeptical.
• The Alcoholic: Often seen with a glass of scotch in his hand if he's in his office. It troubles his wife a lot as she's worried about him and she actively tries him to stop drinking or get him to practice moderation. However, his drinking never causes him big problems at work (he had problems when he actually tried to stop and was using a powder that contained drugs) and he's never abusive to his family. Played notably straight in Maureen Jennings' original novels, wherein Brackenreid's drinking very much has undermined his performance as a policeman.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: He dismisses Crabtree's theories of the supernatural on a regular basis, yet in "A Merry Murdoch Christmas", he believes he was visited by The Krampus as a boy and that the same Krampus is the culprit in some recent crimes.
• Benevolent Boss: He sure doesn't mind when Murdoch finds a murderer and makes him confesses. Only sometimes does he complain that Murdoch's progress is bloody slow.
• Big Damn Heroes: Arrives just in time to save Murdoch from being beaten by a gang.
• Cane Fu: He has a fancy walking stick which adds a bit of class to his appearance. He's also more than willing to use it in a fight. It's come in handy several times.
• Character Catchphrase:
  • "Bloody hell!" Or: "Bloody hell, Murdoch!" Or even "Bloody hell, Crabtree!"
  • He loves to call people "me old mucker" (meaning "my old pal") or "bugalugs" with irresistible northern accent.
  • He often calls suspects or criminals "sunshine" during interrogations.
  • One of his main credoes for investigations is "follow the money". It's paid off on multiple occasions.
• Character Development:
  • Brackenreid starts off as a Noble Bigot who happily beats confessions out of suspects, but over the course of the series his eyes are opened to the racism and other forms of prejudice rampant in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, leaving him increasingly outraged and disgusted. By the time of Season 16, Brackenreid is willing to risk his job and reputation to protect people he would've previously been disgusted by, and is disgusted by tactics he previously fully endorsed.
  • When his younger son Bobby Brackenreid converts to Catholicism while in prison, Brackenreid—who only begrudgingly tolerated Murdoch being Catholic—is initially outraged, but eventually comes to terms with it, albeit very reluctantly.
• Character Tics: Whenever Brackenreid is in a good mood and wants someone to do something, he'll wink and click his tongue after he's given the order.
• Cigar Chomper: He occasionally has these, although he's much more of a drinker than a smoker.
• Da Chief:
  • In Murdoch Mysteries, he leads Station No. 4. He's at times frustrated with Murdoch's methodical approach, exasperated by Crabtee's Cloud Cuckoolander tendencies, and outright angered over Higgins, but he's also A Father to His Men and is more than willing to bend a few regulations to help them in a pinch.
  • Frankie Drake Mysteries: A Cold Case reveals this eventually becomes literal, as he was promoted to Chief Constable in 1911. We see the promotion happen onscreen in Season 17, Episode 23, "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes.".
• Dare to Be Badass: After being brutally beaten up at the end of Season 7, he tries to stay out of police work and starts painting. Then he gets this from his wife.
• Fiery Redhead: He's very hot-tempered and gets angry easily, but his rage never lasts long. Oftentimes his anger is also quite justified.
• Framing the Guilty Party: 20 years ago, Brackenreid investigated a man who murdered two women but couldn't prove it. When the guy was suspected for another murder, Brackenreid suppressed Maurice Majors' testimony that gave the man an alibi and got the man hanged. Murdoch does not take the revelations well.
• Genius Bruiser: While he doesn't have Murdoch's science smarts, he's still a fine detective in his own right and his suggestions often help point Murdoch in the right direction. He's also a vicious fighter when called on, and is a crack shot with a rifle from his days in the army. Finally he's got quite an affinity for opera.
• Good Parents: Inspector Brackenreid and his wife Margaret are shown to be very caring and loving parents to their sons Johnny and Bobby. John especially appears in lots of B-plot stories and they are usually resolved with a friendly chat with his father who reassures him about his approval. One such bonding moment happens when teenage John gets drunk for the first time. The inspector is mostly amused because he's a heavy drinker himself and copes with it just fine, but when Detective Murdoch and Dr. Ogden remind him that alcohol doesn't agree with many and that his wife is understandably upset, he talks with John and advises him not to drown his youth in alcohol.
• Good Is Not Nice: Particularly in earlier seasons, Brackenreid was temperamental, skeptical about — if not outright contemptuous towards — Murdoch's methods, and saw nothing wrong with beating a confession out of suspects.
• The Grinch: "A Merry Murdoch Christmas" reveals Brackenreid loathes the whole Christmas season. Partially because he thinks the holiday rewards greed and hypocrisy, and partially because of a traumatizing boyhood experience involving The Krampus. He rains on Margaret's festivities, won't allow Station House No. 4 to be decorated, and snaps at his son for wanting a toy train instead of getting a job. Seeing a dark counterpart to himself in the murderer helps him learn the True Meaning of Christmas, and get over his distaste for the holiday.
• Happily Married: He often bickers with his wife and would prefer if she didn't meddle in his affairs and didn't try to make him quit drinking. But they care about each other and their sons are raised in a happy household. However, in Season 12, they have a major argument about Thomas' relationship with a Black woman that resulted in a child he was not aware of and are separated for a year. They reconcile though and are even happier than before because Thomas promises to be more honest with his wife.
• Heroic BSoD: After being beaten up at the end of Season 7, he went into one of these.
• Hidden Depths: He loves theatre, especially William Shakespeare and opera. After his recovery from being beaten up, he's taken to painting. In "Murdoch and the Mona Lisa", he seems to be one of the few people in Toronto who'd heard of the painting before it was stolen.
• Historical Domain Character: Subverted. The inspector at Station House No. 4 in the 1880s was in fact named Thomas Brakenreid. However Maureen Jennings says, name aside, her character isn't directly based on the historic figure, who was a strict teetotaller.
• Horrible Judge of Character: The inspector appears to have a glaring blindspot when the suspects include middle-aged, respectable women.
• Hot-Blooded Sideburns: Though his whiskers are of the time his propensity for shouting, swearing, Drinking on Duty, love of theatre and his liberal use of applied Police Brutality; make this trope.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: He's often seen downing a shot of whiskey to calm himself down when he's angry or when something doesn't go well in the investigation. (Then again, he drinks for celebration when he's happy just as often.)
• Inspector Lestrade: Often presented in a way that evokes the trope at first, but then, refreshingly, his different theories to Murdoch's usually turn out to be related to the case in a different way.
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Unlike Murdoch, he has no scruples to beat criminals up when he needs them to confess.
• Like Father, Like Son: Brackenreid's son John joins the Toronto Constabulary as a constable in Season 11. John proves to have inherited his father's talents as a detective. He's also inherited his father's bluntness and willingness to speak his mind, insisting on playing football his way instead of the way Thomas wants him to.
• Manly Facial Hair: A tough Victorian era police guy? A moustache is a must!
• Meet Cute: He met Margaret two weeks after he joined the Constabulary when he arrested her for fighting with a restaurant owner. He was instantly charmed by her fiery tongue and personality.
• Mistaken for Gay: In Season 16 he accompanies Watts to the early 20th century equivalent of a gay bar, where he is hit on by several of the men there. Brackenreid politely turns them down, but is photographed in an attempt to blackmail him.
• Noble Bigot with a Badge: In one of the first episodes, Brackenreid gleefully makes homophobic remarks about a murdered gay man, and admits that the skin color of a black murder suspect initially led him to believe she was guilty. Later on he arrests a caravan of gypsies for a series of break-ins without any proof, although he later lets them go when he tracks down the real thieves. In the episode "Werewolves", he readily admits that the Native Jimmy McCloud would make a very good policeman, but refuses Crabtree's request to deputize McCloud because the racism of Victorian-era Toronto would preclude any "Indian coppers". He's also initially disdainful of a Persian suspect (though he does view the attempt to frame said suspect as evil) and doesn't seem to think much of the Chinese. His Character Development slowly opens his eyes to the injustices of late 19th and early 20th century society, to the point that he blames himself for Robert Parker's murder, having been browbeaten into firing him by the racist Chief Inspector; and when Detective Watts is outed as bisexual, Brackenreid becomes a Secret-Keeper for him until Watts learns he falsified evidence that got a seemingly-innocent man hung, leading to a falling out wherein Brackenreid threatens to reveal Watts' secret if Watts reveals his. In Season 16 Brackenreid tracks down Watts to apologize, putting his job and reputation on the line to help Watts and his boyfriend keep the latter's son.
• Not Quite Dead: He's had many brushes with death, but comes back by the next episode. The most notable example is in the episode "Cometh The Archer" where his "death" is used as a cover up by Eva Pearce who seems confident that his "death" is permanent.
• Once per Episode: As noted above, pouring himself a drink or drinking while Murdoch or Crabtree update him on the case.
• Oop North: Inspector Brackenreid is originally from Yorkshire. His accent from the North shows up, e.g. the way he pronounces "sunshine" (soon-shine).
• Papa Wolf: He's very protective of his family, and has violent tendencies if anyone tries to mess with his team. When Brackenreid's son John joins the Constabulary in Season 11, Brackenreid tries to dissuade him out of concern for his safety. He later eases off when he sees how determined John is to make it as a policeman.
• Politically Incorrect Hero:
  • Brackenreid manages to qualify for this both by the standards of our own era and the time the show is set in. His disdain of Francophone people from Quebec and France as "garlic-eating Frenchies" and loathing of the Americans qualify him as such by today's standards. His ranting about how "half the world hates the bloody monarchy" in venting his frustrations after dealing with a particularly annoying royal Obstructive Bureaucrat and his ridiculing the idea of eugenics by pointing to a picture of the Gonk Queen Victoria as why he wants no part of breeding the "best and brightest" qualify him as this by his own era's standards.
  • Occasionally subverted; in "Till Death Us Do Part," whereas a rare negative portrayal of Murdoch's religious principles shows an aversion to homosexuality, the Inspector airily refers to Higgins's gay cousin as "a bit of a left footer."
• Power Copying: A downplayed variant of this trope. He doesn't really understand the science behind Murdoch's various "widgets and geegaws", but he knows they work. A few episodes have him take Murdoch's inventions to use in his own investigations.
• Promotion to Parent: Hinted that he had to take care of his younger siblings.
• Rank Up: He becomes Chief Constable of Toronto in Season 17, Episode 23, "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes."
• Reasonable Authority Figure: He gives Murdoch a lot of leeway in pursuing his investigations, and goes along with Murdoch's scientific plans even when he doesn't really understand them. That said, he will give Murdoch hell on those rare occasions when the detective does something to deserve them. Even then, he'll put his anger aside and focus on the case at hand when necessary.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: He's the red to Murdoch and Crabtree's blue. The generally stoic, intellectual Murdoch often has a hard time playing "bad cop" when necessary, and Brackenreid is quite happy to step in.
• Retired Badass: By the time of Frankie Drake he's since retired from the police, having formerly held the position of Chief Constable. However he quickly demonstrates that he's still no slouch.
• Shipper on Deck: In season 2 Brackenreid makes several moves towards pushing Murdoch and Julia together, on several occasions giving Murdoch tickets to an event and suggesting he invite her.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Prone to such salty exclamation as "bloody hell!"
• Strong Family Resemblance: 'A Merry Murdoch Christmas' reveals that when Brackenreid was a child, his father looked identical to how the Inspector does now, save a thicker moustache.
• So Proud of You: He shows this towards his son John both when John insists on playing football his way instead of the way Thomas wants him to, and when John joins the Constabulary.
• Team Dad: His men can depend on him that he will back them up, and he even has Papa Wolf tendencies when somebody goes after them.
• To Be Lawful or Good: Season 13 hits Brackenreid with this dilemma numerous times, forcing him to confront the sexist and racist policies of the early 20th century. He befriends Robert Parker and hires him as an unofficial constable, but is forced to fire him when the Chief Inspector finds out and is outraged that he'd have the audacity to hire a black man; something that causes Brackenreid a great deal of grief when Parker is murdered. Midway through Season 13, Brackenreid fires a cop for being homosexual, which comes back to bite him when Watts outs himself as bisexual in an attempt to save his boyfriend, who had been arrested and beaten by a homophobic Station House 1 detective. Brackenreid decides to hang following the law and has Watts' lover released, later bemoaning to Murdoch how difficult it is to be a good cop while also being a good person.
• Trademark Favorite Drink: He's always up for a good scotch. He keeps a bottle in his office to celebrate or calm his nerves as needed.
• Tranquil Fury: When Brackenreid is angry at someone, he'll get in their face and shout at them. When Brackenreid is really angry at someone, he'll get in their face with a dangerously quiet tone and then start shouting at them even louder.
• Turn in Your Badge: Subverted. Brackenreid tries to do this in "Vengeance Makes The Man", but the Chief Constable refuses his request.
• Unprocessed Resignation: In Season 17's "Vengeance Makes The Man", he attempts to resign from the Constabulary over Framing the Guilty Party 20 years ago. The Chief Constable refuses his request, saying that Brackenreid did the right thing and there's no need to dig up 20-year old dirt to make the police force look bad.
• The Watson: Murdoch frequently updates Brackenreid on the progress of his investigation, and Brackenreid often gives suggestions that help point Murdoch in the right direction.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Gives this to Murdoch for some of the stunts he pulls at the start of Season 4; Brackenreid has very good reason to be angry.
• Written-In Absence: In season 10's "Bend it Like Brackenreid", he travels to St. Louis to coach the Canadian football team at the 1904 Olympics. Though he returns in "Excitable Chap", he leaves again in the same episode to help James Pendrick locate his missing energy drink formula in Panama. He returns in "From Murdoch to Eternity".

Station House No. 4

Constable Henry Higgins-Newsome

Played By: Lachlan Murdoch

Station House 4 constable who often gets paired up with Constable Crabtree.

---

• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: When he realizes he's marrying into a broke family and will need a job, he outright begs Brackenreid for his job as a constable back, a far cry from his previous Acquired Situational Narcissism.
• Alliterative Name: Henry Hieronymous Higgins.
• Acquired Situational Narcissism: During his courtship with Ruth Newsome, Higgins gains a high-and-mighty attitude and flaunts the luxuries his sweetheart's money can buy. He even quits his job when Brackenreid chews him out for insubordination. When the Newsomes lose their riches, Higgins accepts the Humble Pie and begs for his position back.
• The Ditz: Not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer, prone to making foolish mistakes, and mishandling evidence.
• Fair Cop: He's very handsome, though as a minor character he doesn't get too many opportunities to shine.
• Happily Married: Higgins marries Ruth Newsome in Season 12. They love each other very much, to the extent that Higgins adds Ruth's last name to his own.
• Hidden Depths:
  • He understands French, as his mother is from the Gaspé region of Quebec.
  • He also shows himself to be a capable mechanic, which he uses to get a second job to pay for his new wife's expensive tastes.
  • He's also well-versed in musical scales due to his parents owning a piano shop when he was a kid.
• It's All My Fault: Feels this way regarding the death of Roger Newsome, as he was assigned to protect him but fell asleep, allowing him to sneak out and get killed.
• The Klutz: Higgins shows very little aptitude for handling evidence. He means well, but is often clumsy and on many occasions accidentally damages, destroys, or otherwise mishandles whatever he's attempting to help with.
• Lazy Bum: He openly admits to wanting to come in a few minutes late and leave a few minutes early, and can be slow in processing paperwork or getting to the tasks Murdoch or Brackenreid give him. Sometimes Brackenreid has to yell at him to get moving.
• Mr. Exposition: Like Crabtree, Higgins is often sent on fact-finding missions by Murdoch. The information he brings back often gives Murdoch and the audience important background details.
• Pocket Protector: In the season 12 episode "My Big Fat Mimico Wedding", he is shot in the chest while preparing for his wedding, but is saved by a pen case stopping the bullet.
• Saying Too Much: When a boy asks which criminal they are transporting in "Midnight Train to Kingston", Henry replies, "Just a man who needs to be hanged." The boy then says, "Is it James Gillies?" — and all the passengers in the car begin to panic. Brackenreid later berates Higgins for his stupidity, although in fairness the boy and his mother were hired agents of Gillies, already knew that he was aboard the train and probably deliberately said it to mess with the protagonists..
• Serendipitous Survival: A second assassination attempt made during his wedding fails because he steps away from where he is standing to pick up the ring, just barely dodging a falling chandelier.
• Smart Ball: Despite his screwups, Higgins also grabs this when needed for the plot. He's done everything from notice critical evidence that prevents Murdoch from arresting the wrong suspect to deliver the main suspect in a series of murders right to the Constabulary's doorstep when the suspect gets into his cab.
• Those Two Guys: When paired-up with Crabtree. It's probably inevitable for two guys in the very same uniform. It becomes Those Three Guys when Jackson tags along, such as pooling their money to purchase a motorcar.
• Took a Level in Dumbass: For the first nine seasons or so, Higgins was depicted as a relatively competent officer who could be trusted to do whatever Murdoch needed him to. The only way he was likely to screw up for when handling evidence because he is a bit of a lubber. In later years, Higgins seems to have lost a lot of common sense and bungled tasks he would have handled well earlier.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: He's promoted to Constable First Class while Crabtree is in prison for Archibald Brooks' murder. In episode 9x02 he positively lords it over Crabtree, and takes credit for George's finding of the murder weapon.
• Uptown Girl: He's a copper from the working/lower-middle class who courts and later marries Ruth Newsome, a woman brought up in an extremely wealthy family and she is originally thought to be a rich heiress. When they marry, it's found out they are financially ruined and have debts, and Ruth has to adjust to less genteel life. However Henry adores her and thinks Ruth deserves most of the expensive things she was used to having.
• With a Friend and a Stranger: He's friends with his colleagues, Constables Crabtree and Jackson, although Jackson joins the trio much later. They sometimes hang together and purchase a car together. One constable wouldn't be able to afford it; three can.

Constable Augustus Jackson

Played By: Kristian Bruun

Jackson is a constable at Station House No. 5, first introduced as a big and burly slugger that Brackenreid poaches with a transfer in an effort to win the annual baseball game between the houses. A good-natured and dependable copper, Jackson fits right in at Station No. 4.

---

• Anyone Can Die: He's shot and mortally wounded during the ambush at the church in "Hell To Pay". His death is revealed in "Up From Ashes".
• The Big Guy: He's one of the biggest and strongest of the constables, particularly compared to George and Higgins.
• Bruiser with a Soft Center: Jackson is a patient, friendly man. The first Christmas special reveals that he carved a sled to donate to charity and has him excitedly comparing a hunt for evidence to an Easter egg hunt.
• The Watson: Detective Watts conscripts Jackson into assisting his investigation of a group of missing women. The two men bond over this, with Jackson acting as both a confidant on Watts's work and a drinking buddy when they're off duty.
• With a Friend and a Stranger: Jackson forms the third member of the group of friends with George and Higgins, and can often be found hanging out with them. The three even purchase a car together, and he's often partnered with one, the other, or all three when working his beat. They have a similar dynamic as Those Two Guys, except it's Those Three Guys.

Detective Llewelyn Watts

Played By: Daniel Maslany

A competent, if somewhat quirky, detective who is originally assigned to Station No. 1 Watts worked with Station No. 4 on a number of cases, including filling in as Detective while Murdoch served as acting Inspector during Brackenreid's absence. He officially joins Station 4 at the beginning of season 11, and by the 1920s has risen to the rank of Inspector.

---

• Ambiguously Bi: His first onscreen attraction is to the Lady of Adventure Fiona Faust, to the extent of not telling her he's found her bike because he wants her to stay in Toronto. His later romantic arcs firmly establish him as gay.
• Ambiguous Disorder: Watts never maintains eye contact for long, is constantly fidgeting with things, has an unusual method of solving crimes, doesn't have many friends and got forced out of Station House One because he wasn't liked enough, is very smart and accomplished for his age (he was already a detective at age 26), and seems to have underdeveloped motor skills (he can't really hold a fork properly and his handwriting is very messy). In an episode when people get possessed and act out of character, George figures out something is off with him because: "Detective Watts is acting as normally as you or I."
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Watts possesses a sharp analytical mind with superb capacity for deduction, making him a fine detective in his own right. In Frankie Drake, Mary gets a little star-struck at meeting him and notes his investigative record is nearly as good as that of Murdoch himself.
• Betty and Veronica: He has a gay version of this in season 15 between his competing love interests. Restrained, quiet homebody butcher Jack Walker is the Betty, while the flamboyant, outgoing Eccentric Millionaire Milo Strange is the Veronica. Watts's conflicted relationships with them comes to a head in Season 15, when Strange isn't happy that Watts still seems involved with Walker and Walker himself has seemingly murdered the woman he married as The Beard and abducted their son.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He's a competent detective, but with some occasionally off-putting mannerisms and Cloudcuckoolander tendencies.
• Character Catchphrase: He often says "With me, (name or title)" when he's leading someone to evidence he's found or starts on a case with them.
• Closet Gay: Given the setting of the early 1900s, Watts is forced to stay in the closet under threat of losing his job and/or being arrested.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Watts often lives in his own world, musing philosophically on the people around him.
• The Dandy: Is always since wearing fancy, colorful suits. In particular, a green plaid suit that is introduced in season 12.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Watts' first onscreen romance is with the female Fiona Faust, but his later romances cement him as gay.
• Fatal Flaw: Inflexibility. Watts struggles with any form of dishonesty, which makes working with him difficult when stepping outside the law is necessary. The main source of his Gayngst is his unwillingness to lead a double life.
• Foil: Watts' disorganized and active style of police work contrasts with Murdoch's more studious approach.
• The Grinch: A very downplayed example. Watts has no attachment to Christmas, since he's a Jewish atheist who often prefers his own company to that of others. He doesn't begrudge anybody else celebrating Christmas, but he also doesn't mind being assigned to cover the station house on Christmas Eve while most of the main cast is away at a party.
• Guile Hero: Don't let his quirky demeanor fool you, Watts is sharp as a tack. His efforts to help bring down Graham must be seen to be believed.
• Happily Adopted: Zigzagged. Watts deeply loved his adopted brothers, to the point of potentially getting hanged for murder when he tries to take the fall for them when he thinks they killed a local bully, but he also always wondered what happened to his sister. He's not happy to learn that she simply abandoned him because she didn't want a Promotion to Parent and knew that their landlady would look after him.
• Innocently Insensitive: Watts is a good man, but he often processes thoughts aloud with little consideration to social mores. As such, he often sticks his foot in his mouth without even realizing it.
• Long-Lost Relative: After his parents died when he was 12, his 15 year old sister disappeared. She showed up 15 years later, and it's revealed she ran away because she didn't want to be burdened with raising her younger brother.
• The Lost Lenore: A familial rather than romantic example. Watts is haunted by his sister's mysterious disappearance. A recurring plotline after he joins Station House 4 is his effort to track down several missing women who he fears have all suffered some grisly fate, including his sister. He eventually finds his sister and the rest of the women, who deliberately abandoned their husbands and relatives to live together in a community without men.
• No Loves Intersect: Watts clearly desires a steady, committed relationship. He made his peace with his boyfriend marrying The Beard to keep his sexuality a secret (which is necessary in a time when homosexuality was illegal) as Jack Walker did, but he's visibly unhappy at Milo Strange dating other men at the same time he's with Watts.
• Omniglot: Can speak French, Italian, German, and Greek, in addition to English.
• Perma-Stubble: Watts is often unshaven.
• Private Detective: After permanently leaving the Constabulary, Watts sets himself up as a private investigator. Murdoch hires him to help investigate a series of killings among Toronto's homeless. Watts is somewhat reluctant, as he's already made quite a name for himself as a private detective.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In the Season 15 finale, Watts leaves Toronto for New York after learning that Brackenreid falsified evidence that got an innocent man hung, and Brackenreid threatens to reveal Watts' sexuality to ensure his silence. He returns to the station house at the end of Season 16, since Crabtree is acting Inspector until Brackenreid gets back and he needs a detective due to Murdoch quitting the force.
• The Stoic: Watts can be blunt and outspoken, but he rarely shows a great deal of emotion. When he does, it's usually because he's very upset, such as when he confronted his sister for abandoning him.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Is excessively fond of baked goods, especially pretzels.
• Transparent Closet: Downplayed, neither Murdoch nor Margaret are surprised to learn of his sexuality, and Brackenreid turns a blind eye to it after Watts outs himself.
• The Whitest Black Guy: A variation in that Watts is uncertain about his Jewish roots. He discovers he's Jewish almost by accident, and has absolutely no idea what that's supposed to mean. He gets a crash course in Judaism from a young Al Jolson, who's performing in Toronto when they meet.

Family Members

Margaret Brackenreid

Played By: Arwen Humphreys

Mrs Brackenreid is married to Inspector Brackenreid. They have two sons, Johnny and Bobby.

---

• Action Mom: Margaret doesn't seek out conflict, but she can throw a mean punch and swing a shovel with the best of them when she has to. She clobbers a few female criminals this way, even saving Thomas's life in the episode "Patriot Games."
• Break the Cutie: Margaret has a few very stressful years due to her family's problems. She briefly separates from Thomas, sees John nearly paralyzed when he's shot on duty as a constable, and loses contact with Bobby when he becomes a fugitive murderer. One Season 15 episode has Thomas warn John against doing anything that might upset her, since she can't take much more stress.
• Bridezilla: Of the wedding planner variant for Murdoch and Ogden's wedding. She drives Thomas up the wall with her perfectionism.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Zigzagged. She gets very annoyed whenever another woman shows an interest in the Inspector, especially when he reciprocates it. When she kicks Thomas out of the house when she learns he had a child with another woman before they met, part of it is implied to be due to jealousy. On the other hand, when Thomas confesses to her that Verna Jones tried coming onto him while they were separated, she simply exclaims I Knew It!. She knew "that hussy" would come after Thomas, and doesn't hold it against him.
• Dry Crusader: She supports temperance and teetotalling, and tries to get Inspector Brackenreid to give up drinking. Nevertheless, she is still put off by Carrie Nation's approach to temperance. Notably, the episode Nation appears in is the last one that Margaret is shown doing any temperance advocacy in, suggesting that Nation may have led her to abandon the temperance movement altogether.
• Everyone Has Standards: Carrie Nation was a real-life temperance activist so radical she makes Margaret look like a libertarian. When Nation takes her crusade to Toronto, Margaret lets her stay at the Brackenreid house. Nation proves to be so obnoxious that Margaret ends up calling Nation a "horrible woman". We rarely see Margaret involved in the temperance movement after that, suggesting that Nation may have turned her off the temperance movement altogether.
• Feminine Women Can Cook: She's a good cook and bakes her own bread. She's complimented on her Christmas pudding. In "Kung Fu Crabtree", she cooks Chinese dinner for her family. Inspector stays at work because he prefers English food (beef or pudding) but she brings him his dinner in a basket to the office. He happens to love it and some of the spices happened to be aphrodisiac...
• Good Parents: Margaret is shown to be a loving, reasonable and responsible mother who values her family and especially her sons above everything else.
• Good Stepmother: After meeting Nomi, Thomas' Black illegitimate daughter, Margaret does her best to make her feel like part of the family.
• Gossipy Hens: In "Do The Right Thing", Thomas gets her to help his investigation of the murder on the ship they're traveling on. He has her act like this trope to get information from some of the other passengers who'd be leery of him questioning them.
• Hidden Depths:
  • In "Kung Fu Crabtree", Margaret finds she likes Chinese food in spite of her hesitation, and figures out the proper way to use chopsticks before anyone else at her table.
  • In "The Future is Unwritten", despite her ususal concern for her social position, she doesn't question whether Thomas should do the right thing at the cost of his job for a moment.
• Housewife: She's a married woman from the middle-class, verging on the upper-middle class. She's at home and takes care of the children and the household. She cooks. The Brackenreids have a big house so presumably she has some servants or hired help. Some episodes show her trying to fit among wealthier Socialite ladies (for example, she tries to organize weddings or pressures her husband to join a posh club).
• Hypocrite: Despite giving Brackenreid grief over his drinking, she has no problem with participating in illegal gambling. Brackenreid is not amused when he finds out.
• Like Parent, Like Child: Margaret and Thomas's son John Brackenreid becomes a constable at Station House No. 4 despite Margaret's objections and Brackenreid's efforts to dissuade him. Thomas says that John inherited his stubbornness from Margaret.
• Happily Married: She has issues with her husband's heavy drinking, but they are otherwise a happy couple. They have a falling out over a former romance of Thomas' when Margaret throws her husband out, but they manage to reconcile when John is shot and almost killed. Since then they are happier than ever and honest with each other.
• Meet Cute: She met the Inspector two weeks after he joined the Constabulary when he arrested her for fighting with a restaurant owner. He was instantly charmed by her fiery tongue and personality.
• My Beloved Smother: A downplayed example. Margaret hates the idea of her son John becoming a policeman because of how dangerous it is and tries to get Thomas to drive him to quit. Her fears are proven justified when John is shot and nearly paralyzed, and she's quite relieved when he recovers and decides to become an actor instead. After her younger son Bobby is arrested for murder and converts to Catholicism while in prison, she laments that her husband being a police inspector and vehemently anti-Catholic means their once-happy family can never truly be together again.
• Phrase Catcher: Thomas has exclaimed "What a woman!" when she's nailed various female criminals.
• Psychic Powers: Implied in "Wheel of Bad Fortune", where one of the fortune tellers at a travelling occult show tells her she has a gift. While everyone else dismisses the travelling show as a bunch of Phony Psychics, at the end of the episode she has a vision of her younger son Bobby fighting and dying in World War I that leaves her screaming in horror and despair.
• Shovel Strike: When a female suspect is about to kill the Inspector in "Patriot Games", Margaret saves him by clobbering her with a shovel.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Margaret is obsessed with outdoing a certain Vera Jones, presumably a rival society lady.
• Social Climber: She is obsessed with being part of the upper-class Toronto society, a failing that almost led to the family being ruined by a Ponzi scheme run by the man himself.
• Stacy's Mom: A young H. P. Lovecraft is briefly infatuated with her. Unfortunately for him, she finds his idea of romance horrifying.
• Stay in the Kitchen: Zigzagged. Margaret has some elements of this, notably that women shouldn't vote. On the other hand, she starts her own wedding planning business and isn't shy about finding customers.
• The Suffragette: Averted. Unlike many of the other female characters, Margaret doesn't support the suffragette movement and doesn't think women should vote. (She does, however, think she should tell Thomas how to vote.)
• Through His Stomach: She's sometimes seen cooking and bringing food for her husband, trying to appease him or indulge him. She's known as a very good cook.
• Your Favourite: Margaret Brackenreid is a good cook and she cooks a special feast with all her husband's favourites for their anniversary. They have been separated for some time so she wants to make it special.

John Brackenreid

Played By: Charles Vandervaart

John is the elder son of Thomas and Margaret Brackenreid. He's a good lad who shares his father's love of theatre. He later decides to join the Constabulary. He's a fine policeman but decides he can't follow in his father's footsteps.

---

• All Gays Love Theater: In "Republic of Murdoch", John's father, a theatre buff himself, proudly anticipates seeing John perform in an amateur theatrical production but afterwards is disturbed that his son portrayed a female character and seemed to "embrace the role". He consults Dr. Ogden and asks her to talk to John and find out if he is, in Brackenreid's words "a nancy boy". Young John does meet with her and says he knows what his father is thinking and insists he isn't gay. He soon visits his father at the station with a black eye and a split lip. Brackenreid learns from John's teacher that he picked the fight with a much-larger boy, and Dr. Ogden suggests John is desperate for the inspector's approval. In the end, Brackenreid has a fatherly chat with his son, reassuring the boy that he can pursue his true interests and will have his parents' love and approval.
• Chick Magnet: As a handsome young actor, he has flings with several beautiful women, including a young MaryPickford. It nearly gets him trouble more than once, as his mother faints when she learns about one of his romantic outings (and becomes convinced it was All Just a Dream when she revives) and he's caught in compromising positions with female suspects. A Season 15 episode has the Inspector leaning heavily on him about his potentially being involved in a murder case, and also warning him against doing anything that might upset his already stressed-out mother.
• Fair Cop: He becomes a constable and he's a very pretty young boy.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: He's the Responsible to his brother Bobby's Foolish. John has grown into a respectable young man, becoming a policeman and then an actor, but Bobby fell in with a bad crowd and became a fugitive after murdering a man.
• Fragile Speedster: John is this when he plays football. He's fast on his feet and very skilled at kicking curved shots, but he's also rail-thin and has trouble with his opponents' tackling attempts. It's no wonder he prefers the Scottish style of football (which relies on speed, curved shots and constantly passing the ball) over the English style his brawnier father likes (which involves the scorer shooting straight at the net and powering through tackling attempts.)
• Kid Sidekick: He's a very young man when he starts out as a rookie police officer. Crabtree forms this relationship with him, mentoring him in policework and working with him on various cases.
• Like Father, Like Son: John borrows different elements of his personality from both of his parents. He inherited his father's love of theater and skill at police work, while he inherited his mother's stubbornness. The latter is amusingly Lampshaded by the Inspector.
  • Zigzagged when it comes to football. Thomas insists on playing football the traditional "English" way of long, straight kicks at the goal and the scorer pushing straight through the defenders, but John can't play this style to save his life. When John joins the Canadian Olympic football team, he insists on playing the "Scottish" way of constantly passing the ball to and from his teammates even if he has to be a "different type of Brackenreid." Thomas says that there's only one kind of Brackenreid, the one who speaks his mind, and gives John his blessing.
• Nepotism: John becomes a constable at the Station House led by his father. He's not in a position of power and actually has no advantages over other cops. If anything, his father is making his job as hard as can be, especially at the beginning, because he somewhat agrees with his wife that it's a tough career and that this job rarely feels rewarding. John however insists it's the best, most honourable job he knows and truly wants to be a cop like his father. The other constables don't seem to hold his status against him, probably because he treats them with respect and tries to learn from them. Crabtree even takes the younger man under his wing and starts teaching him a few tricks of the trade.
• Pretty Boy: He's a teenage slender boy with soft features, fair hair and fair face. When he comes of age, he joins the Constabulary and becomes a very boyish Fair Cop.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When he's shot in the spine and would've been paralyzed from the waist down if not for Dr. Ogden, he decides that he's done with being a policeman. He becomes an actor instead, and his parents are not disappointed at his choice.
• Turn Out Like His Father: His mother is not pleased when John chooses to follow in his father's footsteps and joins the Constabulary. She tries her best to make him change his mind, and eventually succeeds.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: He craves his father's approval, and usually he gets it because he's a pretty great son and his father is a pretty great guy. Seen in episodes when John pursues amateur theatre, plays football, gets drunk for the first time or when he becomes a cop.

Harry Murdoch

Played By: Stephen McHattie

An older drunk bum who happens to be Detective Murdoch's estranged father.

---

• Abusive Parents: Murdoch's father is an abusive alcoholic (or so Murdoch remembers, according to Harry he was actually never actively abusive, more neglectful and unable to cope with the responsibilities); after his mother's death, Murdoch spent the rest of his childhood in the custody of a Jesuit order. Interestingly, Harry's daughter Susannah remembers him as being abusive as well, and she sounds quite unforgiving, especially for a Reverend Mother.
• The Alcoholic: He's always drinking, drunk or hung over. Poor Murdoch is embarrassed and it's one of the reasons he almost never touches alcohol himself. Season 12 reveals his drinking is the result of guilt over his part in a kidnapping gone wrong, leading to the death of an infant.
• Disappeared Dad: After his wife died, Harry Murdoch left his children, small William and his sister Susannah, to fend for themselves. Luckily they were able to go to school, and we know that William had some parental figures and mentors in his life.
• Domestic Abuse: William Murdoch remembers his father as a violent alcoholic who would hit his wife, i.e. William's beloved mother. He even believes that his father is responsible for his mother's death. He claims he isn't, that it was an accident.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Harry never got over his guilt for the part he played in a kidnapping gone wrong, in which a young child accidentally died due to neglect by one of his coconspirators. He turned to drink as a result.
• Parental Neglect: Harry Murdoch views himself as an irresponsible person who was unable to look after his family, and feels somewhat sorry for leaving the family after his wife's death, but he outright denies ever laying a hand on his children or his wife.
• Secret Other Family: Played with in "Anything You Can Do..." Murdoch is surprised to find out he has a half-brother and assumes this trope is in effect, but the truth is a little more complicated. Harry explains that after he left Nova Scotia following the death of Murdoch's mother, he began a relationship with Lucinda Linney in Vancouver. However, Harry insists that Lucinda had no interest in marriage and that she left him when she became pregnant, and he had no idea she'd had his son until Jasper was already a grown man - which Jasper confirms as the truth.

Susannah Murdoch (I)

Played By: Michelle Nolden

Detective Murdoch's younger sister and an abbess.

---

• Long-Lost Relative: She's William Murdoch's younger sister whom he hasn't seen for years. It's not known where she grew up.
• Mama Bear: A non-blood relative example. She is fiercely protective of her nuns.
• Taking the Heat: Confesses to murder in order to protect another nun, knowing that with her illness she'll die either way.
• Your Days Are Numbered: She's terminally ill and decided to spend her days in convent in prayers.

Ruth Higgins-Newsome

Played By: Siobhan Murphy

Ruth Newsome, a member of the comically vapid Newsome family, is the wife of Constable Henry Higgins.

---

• The Ditz: She comes from an entire family of these, and isn't exactly the brightest bulb in the drawer, herself. She once wrote a quite successful book under a nom de plume, but couldn't remember which name she used. That said, she's still smarter and more moral than her brothers.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Blonde Ruth is at times Innocently Insensitive, but she does mean well, and is one of the kinder and more sweet-natured characters in the show.
• Hidden Depths: Much like George, it turns out Ruth has a great deal of talent as a writer, and wrote a quite successful fictionalized memoir. While less of a surprise given her status as a socialite, she nonetheless reveals herself quite empathic and good at helping comfort patients when she takes a job as a candy striper at Julia's hospital. In the third holiday special, Ruth shows a surprisingly in-depth knowledge about confidence schemes due to a few shady figures in her family tree.
• Idle Rich: She and all of the Newsomes are wealthy prominent upper-class socialites.
• Impoverished Patrician: Much to the surprise of Ruth, she learns her family is actually flat broke due to theivery by one of her uncles.
• Innocently Insensitive: Ruth can be this at times owing to her privileged upbringing, but unlike ambitious Social Climbers like Louise Cherry, she's never intentionally a snob.
• The Matchmaker: She tries to play this for George, intending to set him up with her cousin, Effie. Things...don't exactly go as planned when Ruth tries to blackmail George over his best man's speech, and George and Effie develop a mutual antagonism towards each other. However by the end of Season 12 Ruth's instincts actually turn out to be right, with George and Effie agreeing to court.
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: She and Henry are a good bit of this, having no problems with downright mushy verbal displays of affection in public.
• Upper-Class Twit: Zigzagged. She has moments of dimness, but she also shows surprising Hidden Depths. And her brothers Roger and Rupert are both so vacuous they make her look like a genius.
• Very Loosely Based on a True Story: Used In-Universe: Ruth wrote a fictionalized memoir of some of her amorous adventures when she was younger under a nom de plume. When she finally remembers which name she used Julia is flabbergasted, as not only does she know the book, but the exploits she describes were downright scandalous, and she immediately cautions Ruth against revealing her identity.
• Uptown Girl: Ruth comes from the upper-class and her family used to be extremely wealthy. She marries the working class copper Henry Higgins. At least one reason why it took him so long to make his interest in her clear was his self-consciousness over their differences in social class.

Ruby Ogden

Played By: Sarah Gadon

Miss Ruby Ogden is Dr. Ogden's younger sister who travels around the world and writes articles for newspapers and magazines.

---

• Annoying Younger Sibling: To Julia. They bicker a bit and she keeps using Julia's tomboyish nickname "Jules" just to annoy her.
• The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Hinted at in "The Death of Dr. Odgen". Julia is the older smart sister who studied medicine and became a doctor (in late Victorian period!), while Ruby is the pretty younger sister who is slightly careless and pursues adventure.
• In Love with Love: She's always looking to apply the rules of a passionate novel romance to the real world. Rarely does it work out painlessly.
• Intrepid Reporter: She's a journalist. She uses a male pen name, but reconsiders, and Julia is proud when Ruby tells her she's decided to use her real name and publish as a woman journalist.
• Love Interest: In her early appearances, she flirts a lot with George Crabtree and is set up as his potential sweetheart.
• Lady of Adventure: Ruby is a globetrotter searching for adventure and stories. She becomes a reporter and aspires to be a writer. Wanderlust might be one of the things both sisters share because Julia mentioned travelling in her youth and spending some time in Prague.
• Lovely Assistant: She acts as a gorgeous magician's assistant in her first appearance — for Harry Houdini no less.
• Parental Favouritism: Her sister Julia believes that their father preferred Ruby and that he didn't approve of Julia, especially her decision to become a doctor.
• Shipper on Deck: She would be happy if her sister Julia and Detective Murdoch pursued their relationship.

Susannah Murdoch (II)

Played By: Lily Anikina, Evelyn Wojcik, Kennedy Bre Hall, Quinn Rae Hall

William and Julia's daughter, born in season 15.

---

• Dead Guy Junior: Named after Murdoch's sister, who was last seen suffering from a terminal illness.

Toronto Constabulary and Associates

Doctor Llewllyn Francis

Played By: Paul Rhys

A medical examiner who worked shortly for a City Morgue in Toronto.

---

• The Coroner: He worked shortly in the morgue for the Toronto Constabulary. He's very grumpy, just as coroners are supposed to be.
• Dr. Jerk: Murdoch's opinion of him, while others more or less agree. He seems to think Murdoch invents murders and discovers bodies just to annoy him personally. He has a great deal of problems to come to see murder scenes and thinks that doing autopsies is more than enough. He justifies it by claiming that work is not everything for him and that he wants to spend time with his family. Much of his attitude can be put down to colonial snobbery, as he originally came from London and worked for the prestigious Scotland Yard. However, Murdoch's less than gracious treatment of him makes a lot of his behaviour understandable, if not sympathetic.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: The reason he's so cranky is because his wife is originally from Toronto, and he took the coroner job so she could be closer to her family and friends. However, Murdoch's treatment of him (breaking into the morgue to take evidence whenever Dr. Francis wasn't working quickly enough for Murdoch's liking, among other things) becomes eventually becomes too much to take.
• Never My Fault: While Murdoch did cross a line by sneaking Julia into the morgue to make a mold of a murder wound, Frances doesn't acknowledge that when Murdoch asked him, he specifically said "I have never done such a thing and I'm not about to start now" rather than clarify it would have to wait until the following day. When Murdoch asked him why he wasn't going to make it, rather than clarify what he meant, he only said there's more to life than the morgue.
• Put on a Bus: Returns to Wales after Julia decides to come back to Toronto and resume her coronial work.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Once Murdoch crosses the line one too many times, Dr. Francis angrily quits and moves back to the UK. Brackenreid is quite rightly furious with Murdoch, especially considering the hoops he had to go through to get Dr. Francis to come to Toronto in the first place.

Chief Constable Percival Giles

Played By: Nigel Bennett

• Armoured Closet Gay: He is discovered to be gay and to have had a relationship with a man decades ago. He was able to rise to Chief Constable because he kept it secret his entire life. He has been celibate since that one unfortunate relationship.
• By-the-Book Cop: Probably the strongest example in the show. He holds very sternly to the law, and disapproves of Murdoch and Brackenreid's willingness to bend the rules in the name of results.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: He eventually regains his freedom when he escapes from jail to help Murdoch clear an innocent man of murder charges. Murdoch deliberately misleads the bounty hunters after him, and he heads out west to the Canadian Prairies as a free man.
• I Just Want to Be Free: He's understandably miserable in prison, especially since his "crimes" are his homosexuality and killing an Asshole Victim who was a particularly vile Dirty Cop. When he escapes from prison to help Murdoch catch a killer, Murdoch lets him go and even throws the bounty hunters hired to catch him off his trail. Giles heads west to the Canadian Prairies, free to choose his own path.
• Mirror Character: Both he and Murdoch have violated the law and their responsibilities as policemen in the past, because of his homosexuality and Murdoch freeing Ava Moon despite framing him for murder. His antagonizing Murdoch over that is not entirely unjustified, given how Giles's crime harmed no one at all, while Murdoch let a confessed murderer go free.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: His homosexuality is exposed, his life is ruined and he's thrown in jail because he was trying to protect the gay male prostitutes a Dirty Cop was extorting.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: A pleasantly surprising example, given how in previous episodes his habit of fixating on one suspect to the exclusion of others is repeatedly mentioned and considered a problem. But when presented with the potential discrediting of only part of his evidence against Dr Ogden he is fully willing to accept the new findings, works with them to uncover more, and is actually willing to help them break protocol as long as they write a letter apologizing afterwards. For all his strict adherence to the law, he's not going to let an innocent person be framed and executed.
• Sympathetic Murderer: He was a homosexual pursuing Constable Finch, a homophobic Dirty Cop that extorted gay male prostitutes. Unfortunately, Finch got a compromsing photo of him with another man, and Giles's fellow constable John Hodge accidentally killed Finch trying to get it back. They buried Finch's body in the basement of the station house, where a new concrete floor was about to be poured.

Constable John Hodge

Played By: Brian Kaulback

Constable John Hodge is the longest-serving constable at Station House #4. He's a good-natured man who originally served with Giles and Brackenreid when they were all in uniform, but it's implied that he was never promoted due to being a bit dim.

• Accidental Murder: He unintentionally did this while trying to help Giles with his investigation of Dirty Cop Constable Finch. When Finch attacked him, Hodge fought back and accidentally killed him. Giles then helped him bury it in the station house basement, where a new layer of concrete was set to be poured.
• Kindhearted Simpleton: He's a gray-haired constable who joined the police force at about the same time as Brackenreid and Giles. He's a friendly, upstanding copper, but it's heavily implied that he was never promoted due to not being particularly smart. Brackenreid briefly has an Oh, Crap! moment when he realizes that Hodge is alone with James Gillies in "Midnight Train To Kingston". Murdoch gets a confession out of Giles in "What Lies Buried" by threatening to interrogate Hodge instead, saying that Hodge would "stumble over his words, like he always does."
• Good-Guy Bar: Hodge opens a tavern after his release from prison. It becomes a regular hangout for his former fellow coppers. Watts, Dr. Ogden, Brackenreid and Crabtree use his place as a sanctuary to plan how to clear Murdoch of being framed for murder.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: When Hodge unintentionally killed Constable Finch, he was just trying to help Giles with his investigation into Finch's extortion rackets.
• Sympathetic Murderer: When Giles was pursuing the homophobic Dirty Cop Constable Finch for extorting gay male prostitutes, Finch got a compromising photo of him. Hodge accidentally killed Finch trying to get it back. He and Giles buried the body in the station house basement where a fresh layer of concrete was due to be poured. Hodge is not hanged, probably because he didn't mean to kill Finch and he did it in self-defense.

Chief Constable Jeffrey Davis

Played By: Richard Clarkin

Arrogant, rude, and greedy, Chief Constable Davis is everything that's wrong with the justice system.

---

• Borrowed Catchphrase: The first time he's arrested, he's forced to take the same job he gave Brackenreid at City Records to avoid going to prison. He says Brackenreid's trademarked "bloody hell" when he sees just how extensive Toronto's records are.
• Dirty Cop: Davis is as dirty as the sewers of Toronto. He has his fingers in everything from protection rackets to embezzling from city coffers.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Despite how much of an asshole Chief Constable Davis is, he doesn't hesitate to have one of his own men from Station House No. 5 arrested when it's proven he raped a Chinese child.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Instead of sending Brackenreid to prison, Davis humiliates him by forcing to take a low-level job at Toronto's city records department. This backfires when Brackenreid finds evidence of Davis's embezzlement in the city paperwork, which later triggers his downfall.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: He's initially caught and exposed by Murdoch and Brackenreid, later reinstated by a corrupt city councilor, and captured again by Brackenreid. This time, he's arrested for good.
• Oh, Crap!: He reacts this way when he sees how extensive the Toronto archives are, which he's sentenced to spend organizing to avoid going to prison.
• Put on a Bus: Doesn't appear again for the rest of the series and is only mentioned in the episode "Shadows Are Falling".
  Murdoch: Station House One has improved since Davis was brought to justice?
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: As an Inspector and Chief Constable, Davis ruthlessly abuses his power to make life hell for anyone who threatens his position, including honest cops like Murdoch and Brackenreid.

Doctor Emily Grace

Played By: Georgina Reilly

Doctor Grace is a young accomplished woman, a protégée of Doctor Ogden. She replaces her as the team's City Morgue's pathologist. She forms a close friendship with Constable Crabtree.

---

• Agent Mulder: Downplayed, she doesn't believe everything, but she believes in the afterlife and in the existence of ghosts, and she thinks it's possible to scientifically prove it.
• Beta Couple: Shaping up to be in a couple with George Crabtree in season 5, though it could have been a healthy friendship only. They later get together and their relationship is more stable than Detective Murdoch and Dr. Ogden's in season 6, but they break up in season 7 when Dr. Grace starts fancying Mr. Garland.
• Brainy Brunette: This pretty brunette is a medical doctor (a woman in the 19th century!) and is very much interested in science — sometimes a little too much, to the annoyance of others. She's fairly down-to-earth, and a Love Interest to George Crabtree.
• The Coroner: She said she wasn't able to maintain a cheerful bedside manner, which is why she chose to work in the morgue.
• Fatal Flaw: Dr. Grace, a woman determined to prove herself in a man's world, can never resist doing anything she has been told she can't do, whether or not it's wise.
• Hospital Hottie: A gorgeous lady doctor who works for the Constabulary.
• Promotion to Opening Titles: Georgina Reilly's name appears in the opening titles in Season 7.
• Put on a Bus: After Lillian's murder in "Double Life", she decides to leave Toronto for London to join the suffragette movement there.
• Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Fair skin, very dark hair, very beautiful. Many a man fancies her.
• Runaway Fiancée: Emily ran away from her fiancé, who did not take it too well, and appeared for one episode to harass her and try to get her back.
• The Suffragette: Spirited, educated and intelligent, Emily becomes politically active and gladly joins the women's movement in Toronto. She's one of the most eager to protest, fight or throw stones.
• Uptown Girl: George Crabtree feels attraction towards Dr. Grace but he perceives her as a woman of from the upper-class and Henry Higgins agrees, thinking that a doctor wouldn't even consider going to a ball with a common copper. However, in Season 6, it's revealed that women in a club consider her a lowly working woman which is quite odd because doctors were highly respected and she must come from a privileged and open-minded family.

Rebecca James

Played By: Mouna Traoré

Rebecca James is a coroner-in-training who started working in the morgue as a cleaner, before Dr. Ogden found evidence of her intelligence and interest in biology.

---

• Big Damn Heroes: George was shot in the tenth-season finale, and his body armor saved him from being instantly killed. He would have died if Rebecca hadn't extracted the bullet and stopped the bleeding, thankfully.
• The Coroner: Julia notices Rebecca's talent when the latter makes some observations while cleaning in the morgue, prompting Julia to take her on as an assistant.
• Hidden Depths: Rebecca obviously has talent as a physician and coroner, but she also has remarkable aptitude as a detective. If the show were set in the modern age, Rebecca could as easily have been a police detective as a coroner.
• Hospital Hottie: In keeping with tradition. A beautiful medical student working in the morgue as Dr. Ogden's protégée.
• Put on a Bus: She left to become a doctor in another town in the eleventh-season premiere, but she returns later in the episode.
• You Are in Command Now: When Julia is injured in a hotel fire, Rebecca temporarily takes over her duties, including working with Murdoch at crime scenes.

Violet Hart

Played By: Shanice Banton

Violet Hart is an ambitious, independent woman whom George Crabtree and Dr. Julia Ogden first meet at the Toronto Medical Exposition, where she is selling nutrition pills. She takes up Dr. Ogden's offer to attend the University and work as her assistant in the City Morgue, proceeds to take charge of the morgue in all but name during Dr. Ogden's absence, and by the end of Season 12, officially becomes Chief Coroner.

---

• Ambition Is Evil: The woman is hellbent on advancing her career, and she will step on anyone who gets in her way. She crosses the line in the Season 12 finale, by agreeing to plant evidence in return for the coveted title of city coroner. In Season 13 she crosses it again when John Lincoln murders Robert Parker using phenol, which enables Murdoch to connect his death to her and finally arrest her. While turns out that Violet was framed, after she kills Lincoln in self-defence she comes clean about her other crimes and is given a second chance.
• "Angry Black Man" Stereotype: A possible very subtle example, and a subversion in that a lot of her anger is justified. It's implied that she deeply resents not being given a fair chance to succeed on her own merits, especially when Brackenreid says to her face that she'll never become Chief Coroner. She has no problem using underhanded means to get the job she covets...but once she actually gets the job she takes it very seriously and works very hard to improve her skills.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: When Violet enters a Fourth-Date Marriage to an Eccentric Millionaire, she loves all the luxuries he buys for her. Unfortunately, she soon realizes she's tied herself down to a spoiled playboy who cares for nothing but having fun, and certainly not her struggles as a Black woman.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She's always pleasant and professional with the other characters, but there are red flags about Violet's lack of moral fibre since her first appearance. It isn't until "Free Falling" that it's revealed she's ultimately out to steal Julia's job and also do whatever (or whoever) is necessary to advance her own career.
• Broken Pedestal: Zigzagged. Violet's success inspires another black woman named Cassiopeia Bright, but she later starts to think that Violet only cares about herself and only got where she is by marrying a rich white man. Violet later averts this by helping Cassiopeia start her own bar, and she's shown to employ a black man as her financial manager and bookkeeper.
• Category Traitor: Subverted. Violet meets another black woman named Cassiopeia Bright, who's originally inspired by Violet's success. However, Cassopeia becomes disillusioned when she thinks that Violet only got to where she is by marrying her rich white husband, and it's implied she considers Violet to be this to the Black commuity. Cassiopeia later tries to open her own bar specifically catering to Toronto's black population, but an Obstructive Bureaucrat buries her in red tape and expenses. Violet then offers her aid, as well as that of her black bookkeeper and financial manager, paying Cassiopeia's business fees and providing supplies from her husband's restaurant. Cassiopeia doesn't want Violet's charity, but Violet isn't offering charity, instead demanding a 25% stake in the business. There are hints of tension between the two, as Cassiopeia doesn't want to have to keep sharing her profits with Violet but Violet isn't keen on giving up a potential source of income.
• Crazy-Prepared: Violet is obsessed with obtaining a steady, reliable income for herself. She becomes the City Coroner, marries a wealthy white man and sponsors the creation of a nightclub in exchange for a 25% ownership stake. It comes in handy when her husband is murdered and his family sues her for his estate. Violet's income from her coroner job and her nightclub ownership keep her out of poverty, but she can't live the high life she used to.
• Create Your Own Villain: It's shown that Violet is very angry about not being able to become city coroner in her own right due to being black. Brackenreid outright tells her that she'll never get the position and that she's "lucky" to be where she is.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Violet is actually a conwoman whose cunning and ambition manages to net her the position of Chief Coroner despite lacking formal training. However, in Season 13 her past catches up to her when John Lincoln — an old associate — blackmails her into helping him cover up a murder he committed, leading to her being arrested after he kills Robert Parker in a manner that implicates her.
• The Dog Bites Back: Although Violet is doing some outright criminal things to advance her career, she's also deeply angry for not being able to advance on her own merits because of her race. One suspects that she wouldn't be committing her crimes if she was actually able to succeed on her own skill.
• Go-Getter Girl: While she uses underhanded methods to get the City Coroner job, she takes it seriously and works extremely hard to develop her skills. When she realizes she made a mistake in the findings she gave Murdoch, she's extremely upset and promises that it won't happen again.
• Gold Digger: Violet starts dating a rich young man named Arthur Carmichael, and buys expensive clothes and accessories on his dime. She openly admits to him that one of the reasons she dates him is because he indulges her expensive tastes.
• Good-Guy Bar: She's a minority owner in a nightclub called the Starlight Room. The other protagonists occasionally patronize it.
• Happily Married: Arthur originally only dated and married her to cause a scandal, Violet was merely with him to indulge her expensive tastes, and she drugged his opium to threaten him into treating her with respect. She's utterly devastated when Arthur is murdered by Maurice Majors when he tries to kill him, indicating that they formed a real bond.
• Henpecked Husband: Violet clearly wears the pants in her relationship with the wealthy Arthur Carmichael. She goes so far as to spike his opium with a paralyzing drug to threaten him into making his servants treat her with respect and otherwise generally dominates him.
• Human Shield: She ends up Taking the Bullet for Brackenreid when she puts herself between him and her father Maurice Majors. She's badly hurt, although she gets surgery and makes a full recovery.
• It's All About Me:
  • Violet believes she deserves to be at the top of her career now, in spite of her lack of formal training. In "Darkness Before Dawn", her attempt to guide the police to a guilty suspect are done in a way to avoid implicating herself, because she bribed the same man into getting her new position. On the other hand, once she actually has her job, she takes it seriously and studies around the clock to build up her skills.
  • There are hints that Violet is determined to ensure she always has a stable income. Besides marrying her rich boyfriend Arthur Carmichael, she also helps another Black woman start her own bar in exchange for a 25% stake in the business. When the other woman seems to want to buy her out, Violet is not pleased at losing a potential source of income.
• Ms. Vice Girl: Violet has expensive tastes and indulges them when she marries her rich boyfriend. She also has a ruthless streak. However, she's also a hardworking public servant and starts using her new fortune to support Toronto's black business owners. Several episodes show that, once she's got past "Can this benefit me?" and "Can this implicate me?" Violet does have a desire to help people.
• Mysterious Past: The show's dropped a few hints about Violet's past, but never revealed the whole story. She had an abusive father, was married at least once before she met Arthur, started learning medicine from dealing drugs, and was involved with some very shady characters before getting into the patent medicine business. In "Vengeance Makes The Man", Murdoch and Brackenreid realize she's likely had a lot of really crappy experiences that she'll never tell anyone about.
• Oops! I Forgot I Was Married: Season 15's "Pay The Piper" Violet's father come back into her life. She's ready to give him her stake in Cassiopeia Bright's club, much to Cassopeia's anger. He blackmails Violet by threatening to reveal she's a bigamist, which would likely cost Violet her job as coroner and her marriage to Arthur Carmichael.
• Riches to Rags: Downplayed. Violet eventually reals that Arthur's family sued her for his fortune, which she inherited as his widow, and won. While Violet isn't living in poverty due to her income as City Coroner and her part-ownership of the Starlight Room, she also can't indulge her expensive tastes the way she used to.
• The Rival: In Season 13 she becomes standoffish and confrontational towards Julia continually offering to help with autopsies, irritably pointing out that she is now the Chief Coroner while Julia no longer works at the morgue.
• Shame If Something Happened:
  • Fed up with Arthur's servants disrespecting her and his indifference to the racism she faces as a black woman, she spikes Arthur's opium with a paralyzing agent. He's completely at her mercy, and she "suggests" certain changes that will happen around the house, with the implied threat that he might get drugged with something worse next time.
  • Violet gets this herself in the Season 15 finale when her father reappears. He blackmails Violet by threatening to reveal that she's a bigamist, which would likely cost Violet her career and marriage.
• Snake Oil Salesman: In her first appearance, Violet plays to the spirit of this trope. She meets Julia while peddling vitamins at an exposition for medical science. When Julia asks if the vitamins actually work, Violet admits she doesn't know for sure, nor does she care. She's only concerned with making money.
• Sympathetic Adulterer: Heavily implied in the Season 15 finale. We learn that Violet was married before she came to Toronto and wedded Arthur Carmichael. Her father tracks her down, threatens and blackmails her, suggesting that she fled because he was abusive.
• Where da White Women At?: Gender Flipped when she dates a wealthy young man named Arthur Carmichael. When they're refused service at one of the finest restaurants in town, Arthur buys the place and fires the maitre 'd who mistreated her. She even announces that they'll be married.

Robert Parker

Played By: Marc Senior

A Pinkerton agent recruited by Murdoch and Brakenreid to serve as a "Special Constable" for Station House 4.

---

• Beneath Notice: As a former Pinkerton man and a veteran of The American Civil War, Parker is skilled at reconnaissance and undercover work in less-than-lawful venues and convincing criminals that they can trust him. One episode has Murdoch "arrest" him and put him in the cells so he can extract information from a hired killer who refuses to speak to the police.
• Cowboy Cop: Almost literally, due to having been a Pinkerton Detective before joining Station House 4. As a result of this, he's unfamiliar with traditional police tactics and often frustrated by how roundabout everything is.
• The Cynic: Parker is slow to trust Station House 4 and quick to pick up on the Double Standards levelled against people of colour even by well-meaning people, being annoyed that his position as a "Special Constable" is both unofficial and unpaid due to him being black. Parker eventually warms up to Thomas Brackenreid and William Murdoch, but this trust is unceremoniously torn down in "Things Left Behind" when the Chief Constable finds out about him and is disgusted that Brackenreid would hire a black man as a cop, threatening to fire Brackenreid unless he gets rid of Parker. Brackenreid reluctantly does so, and Parker is justifiably hurt that neither he nor Murdoch truly stood up for him.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Despite being a major presence throughout Season 13, Parker is murdered by John Lincoln in "Things Left Behind", when he refuses to stop investigating him despite having been fired from the police.
• Pinkerton Detective: Parker was in the employ of the Pinkerton Detective agency but quit after seeing the depths of the agency's corruption. While he was a member, however, he helped track down notorious outlaw Butch Cassidy.

Detective Hamish Slorach

Played By: Patrick McKenna

A detective at Station House No. 5.

---

• Big Fun: Slorach is a rotund, affable man who doesn't mind good-natured jabs at his own expense.
• The Fool: Slorach is a poor policeman who only got promoted to detective because a very detailed witness statement made it impossible for him to not solve an important case. He also survives an attempt on his life through blind luck in "Manual for Murder." While he did help solve the case in "The Murdoch Identity" and "On The Waterfront", his methods are...unconventional.
• Hidden Depths: When Brackenreid has his 10-Minute Retirement during "On The Waterfront", Slorach temporarily takes over as Station House #4's inspector. He warns Murdoch that, despite his easygoing personality, he won't tolerate any attempts by Murdoch to help Brackenreid on the sly when the latter becomes a murder suspect. Slorach is of Hungarian descent, and recognizes it as the language spoken by the first woman Murdoch and Crabtree rescue. He brings his mother in as an interpreter, and she gets the woman to tell the Constabulary about the O'Sheas' sex trafficking ring.
• It Will Never Catch On: Slorach dismisses modern investigative techniques like fingermarks, touching evidence without gloves or hankerchiefs.
• Heroes Love Dogs: Slorach has a dog he is fond of and, for all of his flaws, is an honest, good-natured man.
• Momma's Boy: Played for Laughs. When Murdoch and Crabtree find a woman who escaped from the O'Shea brothers' sex trafficking ring but can't speak English, Slorach gets his mother to be an interpreter. She teasingly tells Murdoch how excited she is to see Slorach at work, leading him to mutter "aw, Ma!" in embarassment.
• You Are in Command Now: When Brackenreid is violently assaulted by the O'Shea brothers and takes a leave of absence from his duties, Slorach briefly takes over as Acting Inspector.

Detective Edwards

Played By: Ben Sanders

The Detective at Station House One, who first appears in Season 13. He works with Watts on a burglary case, and later becomes Inspector at Station House Four while Brackenreid is in England.

---

• Clueless Detective: He asks for Watts's help on his burglary case. He still hasn't solved his first case despite being on the job for three weeks.
• Dirty Cop: An unusual variant. He doesn't take bribes that we see, but he's willing to have some of his officers assault cops who make him look bad or aren't harsh enough for his liking. He's also willing to leave Watts to rot in the Station House Four cells without a trial.
• Heteronormative Crusader: He really, really hates homosexuals, and goes out of his way to hassle the gay Watts. Brackenreid forces him to back off the first time, but when he becomes Inspector he later focuses the station house's efforts on arresting gays and anyone else he considers "deviants."
• Hoist by His Own Petard: He's eventually fired when Crabtree and Higgins point out to a prominent city alderman that the alderman has a lot of friends among music-hall owners, brewers and gambling den managers. The constant Knight Templar sweeps that Edwards is ordering his officers to conduct could run all those people out of business, and they'll blame the alderman for appointing Edwards. That leads the alderman to fire Edwards for his antics. Higgins also arrests him for ordering some of the other cops to assault him.
• Hypocrite: Higgins and Crabtree undermine him by arresting a prominent city alderman and his influential friends who are having a shooting party on the Sabbath in violation of Toronto's Sunday observance laws. They justify the arrests by saying they're Just Following Orders, but these prominent men are pissed off. Edwards is angry too, because he knows Crabtree and Higgins did it to make him look bad.
• Knight Templar: He hates gay people, vaudeville performances, gambling and anything else that would be considered "vices" in his era. He gets his officers to focus on sweeps to shut down gambling dens, bars and music halls, arrest gay people and make life hell for anyone who deviates from what he considers a "moral" Toronto.
• Rank Up: Subverted. He becomes the new Inspector at Station House Four while Brackenreid is briefly away, but is soon fired due to his Knight Templar actions.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: He's this when he becomes Inspector at Station House Four. He focuses his efforts on purging Toronto of "vice", instead of the robberies and murders they should be acting on, and reacts very badly to any pushback. He's no less tyrannical to the citizens he persecutes, ordering bars like the Starlight Room to be shut down even when all its paperwork is in order.

Constable Tucker

Played By: Kenzie Delo

A Constable at Station House Three who is moved to Station House Four during Inspector Edwards' tenure, and remains a part of the Station House afterwards.

---

• The Atoner: After the fiasco at the oyster bar/bordello, Tucker expresses remorse and says that he wants to do a good job to make up for it. It's subverted later on when he is shown doing much worse things in subsequent episodes, and is far less remorseful about them; implying that he never was trying to make amends, only concerned with making himself look good in front of Murdoch and Brackenreid.
• Awful Wedded Life: Despite his initial excitement, Tucker's relationship with his new wife generally gives the impression of being strained at best, and he frequently has trouble at home. One has to assume that the awkward conversation he must've had with her in "Bottom of the Barrel"—in which he celebrated at his bachelor party by getting drunk and sleeping with a prostitute, then was locked up for several days under suspicion of murder after trying to cover this up—did not go over well.
• Being Evil Sucks: Tucker shows some shades of it from time to time. He is generally not trusted and disliked by the constables of Station House Four, and his relationship with his wife seems to be strained at best. This is most evident in "For the Greater Good", where he appears to have some misgivings about endangering Constable Crabtree and assassinating Fabritzio Pullia. It is implied that, despite liking the extra money in his pocket, he is not entirely comfortable with being under the thumb of the mob.
• Consummate Liar: Twists the truth in "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", telling Murdoch that Constable McNabb was the one who left the door open, resulting in a murderer sneaking in to kill a suspect; when in fact it was him, acting under orders from Chief Constable Stewart. Thankfully, Murdoch doesn't believe him, and instead plays along to figure out what he's up to.
• Conviction by Contradiction: He blames Constable McNabb for leaving the door open, claiming that McNabb neglected to close it when he went out for a cigarette. Unfortunately for Tucker, Murdoch knows full well that McNabb, who's never once smelled of tobacco, doesn't actually smoke. Murdoch enlists McNabb in a scheme to catch Tucker and his boss by having McNabb act as though he's been suspended, tricking Tucker into thinking his plan worked.
• Dirty Cop: The first example of a dirty constable within Station House Four.^note Though admittedly he was a transfer from the much less reputable Station House Three. Throughout his tenure, he has been shown to be sloppy, violent, disrespectful towards his superior officers, willfully involved in cover-ups, has little problem taking bribes from criminals, and even seemingly tries to assassinate , and actually assassinates Fabritzio Pullia under orders from a lower member in his gang. It says a lot when Inspector Edwards and Chief Constable Stewart, both of whom are corrupt in their own ways, use him as one of their go-to henchmen. Downplayed slightly in that, whenever he's not actively being a hindrance for the other members of the constabulary, he is mostly a normal cop who does his job like Crabtree and Higgins.
• Drowning My Sorrows: Tucker is shown drinking after a spat with his wife resulted in her leaving to see her sister.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Downplayed. Tucker is shown to have some good interactions with his fellow constables, who even join him for a bachelor party in "Bottom of the Barrel". However, when his nastier traits start to surface, Murdoch, Crabtree, Higgins and presumably the other constables start to become wary of him. Higgins outright tells Tucker that he doesn't like him very much when the two start working together in "Do the Right Thing Part 1".
• Greed: Seems to be Tucker's main motivation. He is willing to take bribes for the sake of enriching himself, explicitly asks Murdoch about being paid extra for prison transport work, and assassinates Fabritzio Pullia after getting paid off by one of his gang members.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: More than once he has attacked people who have gotten on his bad side.
• Just Eat Gilligan: Many problems since Tucker's move to Station House Four would've been solved if Inspector Brackenreid or Acting Inspectors Crabtree and Murdoch just fired him or had him relocated to another Station House when they had the chance. Justified in that they likely wouldn't want to fire anyone from the Station House without explicit proof, and it's safer to keep Tucker around where they can keep an eye on him anyway.
• Just Following Orders: Invokes this while raiding the Starbright Club on behalf of Inspector Edwards.
• Karma Houdini: The only thing he's been punished for so far was trying to cover up his fling with a prostitute in a bordello the night a man was killed there. And that was by far one of the least reprehensible things he's done.
• Plausible Deniability: The main reason he gets off after being involved in Chief Constable Stewart's cover-up scheme. He was ordered by a superior to open a door, but he claims he had no idea that would let a murderer inside.
• The Rat: Serves the role for Inspector Edwards, spying and snitching on Crabtree when he visits the bank with Effie during work hours.
• Token Evil Teammate: The one constable in Station House Four that Murdoch wouldn't trust as far as he could throw him, and the only one explicitly involved in many nefarious deeds.

Government Officials

Terrence Meyers

Played By: Peter Keleghan

A top-level spy working in Canada's best interests. Terrence Meyers is of course not his real name, but he uses it when he interacts with Station House 4.

---

• Arch-Enemy: Allen Clegg, a rogue American agent for the government seeking to absorb Canada into the US, develops into his. Clegg is Meyers' Shadow Archetype, embodying the madman Meyers would be if his patriotism was taken too far.
• Boyfriend-Blocking Dad: Meyers does not approve of his daughter's boyfriend, who he considers a pathetic weakling. He's used government resources to do background checks on the boyfriend and his family, and gone so far as to spy on the boyfriend in his sleep, but doesn't find anything to reproach him for. Despite that, Meyers still can't stand him.
• Character Catchphrase: In almost all of his appearances, Meyers claims, in some form, that his business is "A matter of national security" and for that reason Murdoch and Station House Four shouldn't pry too deeply. It's gotten to the point where Murdoch and Brackenreid have gotten truly fed up with him repeating this excuse and are able to spout out his catchphrase before he even has the chance to say it.
• Cigar Chomper: Often seen with a cigar, and he's definitely a tough, no-nonsense guy with power and high status. Though when he's at home as Lyle Anderson, he uses a pipe, instead.
• Consummate Liar: He's able to come up with cover stories at the drop of a hat, such as in Season 15 when he tells his children that their mother ran off with the neighbor without a moment's hesitation.
• Dating Catwoman: We finally meet Meyers' wife in Season 15. She seems to be a respectable British Canadian, but she's actually an Austro-Hungarian spy who was selected to seduce Meyers and access to the British Empire's intelligence network through Canada's weaker security. Meyers' wife goes so far with this as to be married to him for nearly twenty years, birthing two of his children in the process. Though, in spite of that, she genuinely did love Meyers and her family, and sabotaged the plan to assassinate him for that reason. When she's finally exposed, Meyers tries to get her to become a double agent for Britain, but she refuses to betray the country she loves; and is deported to Austria-Hungary in a spy exchange. Upon her return as an assassin in Season 17, she and Meyers spend most of their screen time flirting with one another and catching up on old times.
• Everyone Has Standards: Even Amoral Spies Have Standards — When he intervenes during Murdoch's investigation of the microwave laser gun Sally Pendrick is preparing to sell to a foreign power, Murdoch remarks that Meyers simply wants to get his hands on it so that the Canadian and British governments can use it for themselves. However, after the maser is destroyed, Meyers tells Murdoch that he's personally not unhappy about it and that there are some things even he believes should not exist.
• Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Meyers' ambiguous nature means he could be (and probably is) both parts of this trope. Whatever the case, he does enjoy a good cigar. Or a pipe, whenever he's at home as Lyle Anderson.
• I Have Many Names: In Season 15, Murdoch, Brackenreid and Julia learn Meyers' real name, Lyle Anderson, purely by accident. He swears them to secrecy about it.
• The Men in Black: He's the late 19th-century Canadian equivalent of this trope.
• My Country, Right or Wrong: His work for the federal government leads him to do some pretty nasty things, but he is a loyal Canadian. In one case, when he and Murdoch are working undercover with an American agent, Meyers gets visibly angry when the American starts throwing his weight around.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: He meddles in Murdoch's cases whenever they involve a matter of national security for Canada or the British Empire as a whole. Their first noticeable encounter ends with Murdoch and company being forced to drop the investigation altogether under penalty of being tried for treason if they don't.
• Phrase Catcher: In all subsequent encounters with Meyers, Murdoch says "Terrence Meyers!" in an incredulous, exasperated tone.
• Ridiculously Average Guy: It's revealed in Season 15 that Meyers has a family and runs his own insurance company, making himself look like an average person as a cover for his spy work. He even has a hidden room in his home where he sends and receives important messages.
• Signature Headgear: The top hat he wears suggests his means, motives and methods are beyond the laws represented by Murdoch's shorter, workaday homburg.
• The Spymaster: He's a top-level spy who works for British crown and Canadian government, who reports directly to the Prime Minister of Canada (who, during the show's run, is Sir Wilfrid Laurier).

Wilfrid Laurier

Played by: Brian Paul

The Prime Minister of Canada, who Terrence Meyers reports directly to. He often appears when Murdoch's cases have serious political implications.

---

• Good Is Not Nice: He's "good" in the sense of generally being a responsible and skilled leader, but he doesn't pull his punches against perceived threats. He's convinced that anarchists like Emma Goldman are a serious threat to democracy, condones Terrence Meyers' dodgy actions in the name of national security and is more than ready to see Meyers hang when the latter is suspected of treason.
• The Greatest Story Never Told: In his first appearance in "Confederate Treasure", he thanks Murdoch for saving Canada from being invaded by the U.S. Unfortunately, he says that no one can ever know about the case, since word getting out would still be an excuse for the U.S. to invade.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Planned to do this as a last resort in the episode "Murdoch And The Sonic Boom" when informed of the planned assassination attempt against President William Howard Taft, should Murdoch and the police fail to catch the conspirators on time. Specifically, he intended to be next to President Taft at all times, so that if the sonic weapon was used on Taft it would also kill Laurier, thereby preventing blame from falling upon Canada due to the President's assassination on account of it looking like a terrorist attack targeting both men.
• Historical Domain Character: He was the real Prime Minister of Canada from 1896 to 1911, during almost the entire run of the show.
• Historical In-Joke:
  • When he's leaving Station House #4, the desk sergeant doesn't recognize him. The sergeant is played by Stephen Harper, who's a Big Name Fan of the show and was Prime Minister at the time the episode aired.
  • "Murdoch And The Sonic Boom" centers around an assassination attempt against William Howard Taft when he comes to Toronto to meet with Laurier. Laurier was pursuing a free trade agreement with the United States at the time the episode is set, and he can be heard trying to sell Taft on the merits of such an agreement.
• Reasonable Authority Figure:
  • He's provided political support to Murdoch's cases, including passing along the evidence Murdoch finds of Allan Clegg's treasonous actions to Teddy Roosevelt so Roosevelt revokes Clegg's diplomatic status and Murdoch can arrest him.
  • As a Catholic himself, Laurier doesn't have the same bigotry against the Catholic Murdoch that some local Toronto Protestants do. In "24 Hours Til Doomsday", he immediately enlists Murdoch to help solve an attempt to extort the Canadian government.

People of Toronto

Louise Cherry

Played By: Bea Santos

A woman reporter initially working for the Toronto Gazette, and later the Toronto Telegraph.

---

• Fatal Attractor: All of Louise's romances throughout the series end up dying early deaths. She begins a relationship with George, only to end up pushing him away with her ruthless reporter tactics. She later becomes engaged to a man named Jasper Quinlan, but breaks it off after she finds out that he is actually married, and killed a hairdresser so that she and his wife wouldn't learn about his affair. Most recently, she started courting the director of a film based on the Iverson sisters' murders, only for him to be murdered by an actress jealous of their relationship.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: Buried very, very deeply, but it occasionally pops out. For example, despite her generally hostile relationship with the crew of Station House 4 (and George in particular) she doesn't let that color her review of Murdoch and Julia's book. When she learns that George was a substantial — and substantially uncredited — contributor to the final edit, rather than take advantage of George's tipsy rant about it to publicly humiliate them as frauds, Louise instead makes a subtle point to the duo about crediting good writing when it's due that leads to their fully crediting him on the cover for subsequent releases. She's also sympathetic when Detective Watts is upset about losing his lover, even when she sees through his lies and discovers that he and said lover were both gay men.
• Immoral Journalist: She's a journalist who's determined to succeed in the business. She's willing to manipulate her reports so that her articles sell better or to bribe people to get the best information. In "Murdoch Without Borders", she outs herself as a xenophobe who sees all immigrants as invaders and criminals. Her article unfairly pins a Greek man for murder and it's meant to create violent protests and incite deportation. In season 13, Murdoch issues a standing directive to the constables at Station House 4 not to speak to her under any circumstances.
• Hidden Depths: On top of being a writer and journalist, she has great artistic talents, drawing political cartoons based on rumors or stories that she cannot otherwise write about, although she does not allow herself to be credited for them.
• Intrepid Reporter: Louise works for the Toronto Gazette, later the Toronto Telegraph, and often reports on the doings of the constabulary.
• Karma Houdini:
  • When she fakes letters from a serial killer to generate stories, a furious Murdoch arrests her and tells her employers at the Toronto Gazette. Cherry is immediately fired, but she is later released from jail and hired by the Toronto Telegraph, with a pay increase.
  • Subverted in "One Minute To Murder", in which her past behavior leads one of her coworkers and rivals to attempt to maim her with electric shock during a typing contest. Fortunately for Louise, her hand cramped and she was forced to drop out. Unfortunately, the next contestant (who had a heart condition) received the shock in her place and was killed.
• Jerkass: Louise is smug, abrupt, abrasive, unscrupulous in her reporting, and often cruel in her delivery. And she's unapologetic about all of it.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Louise points out to George in "One Minute To Murder" the reason for much of her personality is because she has to be: Because she's a woman she's not taken seriously as either a reporter or a writer, so she's adopted her savage approach as the only way to survive in her field.
• Manipulative Editing: Louise is unscrupulous in her tactics, with George observing in her first appearance, "she will ask you a question one day and then apply it later in a completely different context." This prompts Murdoch to direct all of Station House 4's constables not to speak to her or answer her questions.
• Married to the Job: Louise is initially attracted to George, but after she falls out with almost everyone at Station House Four she says to Llewellyn that she has no use for marriage.
• The Missus and the Ex: Louise quickly strikes up this dynamic when she meets Effie Newsome who is now courting George, in the episode "In The Company Of Women." The pair spend most of the episode sniping at each other, but eventually become friends.
• Odd Friendship: With Detective Watts. They team up for more than one investigation, and she even keeps his homosexuality a secret when she learns about it.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: In "Murdoch Without Borders" reveals she sees immigrants as invaders and criminals. Her article in the episode, which pins a Greek man for murder, is one of the few times Cherry intentionally incites uproar in the public.
• Romantic False Lead: She begins a brief relationship with George, before her uglier traits led him to realize Nina was a much better match.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: She learns about Detective Watts' homosexuality by accident, and he doesn't know about her knowledge. She keeps his secret even when outing him would probably have made for a scandalous headline.
• Social Climber: Late in season 10 Louise reveals herself to be an ambitions and arrogant social climber, and she views Murdoch and Julia as bores. She wants to introduce George to "more suitable" friends. She's very firmly a snob.
• SoreLoser: When she, Julia, Effie and Violet become part of a volleyball team in Season 15, she becomes obsessed with winning, getting on her teammates' nerves.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Occasionally she'll work alongside Murdoch and crew, such as playing up a key bit of missing evidence while getting a statement from Ralph Fellows that leads him to incriminate himself.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Her journalism has provoked everything from an Accidental Murder (a fellow reporter who hated her yellow journalism tried to sabotage her participating in a typing contest, but accidentally killed an innocent man instead) to Murder by Mistake (she drew her newspaper's political cartoons, which a male coworker publicly claimed were his, which got him killed by someone threatened by the cartoons), to a Greek immigrant nearly getting Wrongly Accused of murder (her anti-immigrant stories turned public opinion against them), and a Copycat Killer (her sensationalized accounts of the Monster Clown murders in "I Know What You Did Last Autumn" provokes a new murderous clown to go on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.)

Edna Brooks

Played By: Tamara Hope

Mrs Edna Brooks, formerly Miss Edna Garrison, is a pretty young woman from Toronto, courted by George Crabtree. She's strong and intelligent, and a kind parental figure to her stepson Simon.

---

• Animal Lover: In the first episode, she objects to the exploitation of animals and is a member of the Toronto Humane Society. She bonds with George over their love of animals. She rescues a dog that was supposed to be killed. She names the dog Violet for the violets she got from George Crabtree. Edna can't keep her, though, and brings Violet to George who adopts her.
• Ascended Extra: She first appears in the very first episode "Power". George finds her interesting and admits to Murdoch that he is "sweet on the girl" who is suspected of murder. She is innocent. Ultimately, the relationship goes nowhere. In season 8 she has a comeback and her role is expanded.
• Domestic Abuse: Her husband, who was presumed dead, returns. One of the first things he does is beat her up.
• Good Parents: She's a great mother figure to Simon. Always supportive and never too strict even when Simon has a reputation of getting himself into trouble fairly often.
• Good Stepmother: She is Simon's stepmother. It's a rather difficult situation because her husband dies and she's Simon's only guardian. Luckily they get on fairly well.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: She's a pretty young blonde and has a sweet temper. She's kind to her stepson Simon, a lovely girlfriend to George and the woman loves animals.
• Romancing the Widow: She's a young widow and very attractive. George Crabtree starts courting her and she reciprocates. She also likes that George is a good influence on her stepson Simon.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Averted. Season 15's "Pay The Piper" has Brackenreid mention that the police have finally tracked down Edna and Simon in another town. They won't be facing any charges since they killed Archibald in self defence. The fact that Archibald was an abusive sleazebag who deserted his brothers in arms during The Boer War likely didn't help anyone care about seeing him avenged.

Simon Brooks

Played By: Percy Hynes White

Simon is the stepson of Edna Brooks and the son of Archibald Brooks. He befriends and admires George Crabtree.

---

• Cheerful Child: He's a fairly normal, happy kid — at least during his happier moments. He's recently lost his father and obviously mourns for him, but he's not too troubled. His stepmother's disbelief when George tries to cover for him implies Simon is mischievous and gets into trouble often. However, he smiles a lot and is interested in games and trips with George; he's excited to play with Bobby Brackenreid when they meet at the Station House (even if they quarrel and want to fight at first).
• Free-Range Children: He's allowed to wander around Toronto, though his stepmother is worried about what he does on his trips as he appears to often get in trouble.
• Karma Houdini: He initially gets away with killing his father Archibald Brooks, fleeing with his stepmother Edna and letting George take the fall for them. The police track them down a few years later, but they're never charged. Nobody really wants to prosecute a child, especially when his killing was in self-defence. The fact that Archibald was a sleazebag who abused his family and deserted his brothers in arms during The Boer War means that nobody's really keen on seeing him avenged.
• Missing Mom: Simon's mother died in childbirth.
• Parental Abandonment: His mother died when he was born. His father went to fight in the Boer War and dies there. His stepmother tries to hide it from him, but he confesses to George that he knows because he saw Edna get a letter that made her cry.
• Parental Substitute: He has a caring stepmother who sometimes doesn't know how to deal with him, but who loves him nonetheless. He also warms up to Constable George Crabtree when George starts courting Edna and spending time with both of them.
• Patricide: Eventually revealed as the one who killed Archibald Brooks, his father. Most likely is he did it in self-defence or defending his stepmother.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Simon is arrested by Crabtree for stealing a man's pocket watch. When he realizes that his stepmother was his former love interest, he covers for him. He later kills his father in self-defence or defending his stepmother. George Cratree helps to cover it up, or at least stalls the investigation. He's on the run with his stepmother. As Murdoch puts it, nobody is too eager to arrest an 11-year-old boy and try (and hang) him for murder.

Archibald Brooks

Played By: David Alexander Miller

Simon's father and Edna's husband. Drafted to fight in the Boer War.

---

• Asshole Victim: It's somewhat hard to pity Archibald, a guy who beats his perfectly lovely wife and threatens his child so much that he pushes him to kill him. The fact that Archibald went AWOL, deserting his brothers in arms, just makes him even more contemptible.
• Backstory: His first wife (Simon's mother) passed away in childbirth. Edna says he was quite lost without her. She also mentions that Archibald had an easy smile. Presumably he was a nice enough guy who she liked well enough to marry.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: He betrayed the military by switching identities with a man who died in battle and then deserting. When he and some other soldiers smuggle a valuable diamond back into Canada, he betrays them and swipes the diamond in hopes of keeping all the profits from its sale for himself.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: He is not pleased to learn that Edna took up with another man when she thought he was dead. He angrily beats her, and then beats Simon when the latter tries to defend her.
• Dangerous Deserter: He and a couple of fellow soldiers went AWOL to smuggle a massive diamond back into Canada so they could sell it and split the profits. They are not shy about betraying or killing each other to keep all the money for themselves.
• Dead Person Impersonation: He passes himself off as dead by switching identities with a soldier who was actually killed, and then deserts along with some of his friends who were legally discharged.
• Domestic Abuse: He beats his wife.
• Faking the Dead: He pretended to be dead as part of a scheme to smuggle a valuable South African diamond back into Canada.
• Legally Dead: His wife gets a letter that he died in the Boer War and was legally declared dead. He switched identities with a soldier who actually died, and used that to sneak back into Canada with a few of his buddies so they could sell a massive diamond they stole.
• Never My Fault: He violently beats Edna for taking up with George. Never mind that the only reason Edna did so was because she thought he was dead due to his faking his own death as part of a criminal scheme.
• Posthumous Character: When we first hear about him, he's presumed dead. Subverted as he's very much alive and shows up at a very inopportune time just as his widow Edna and George become engaged.
• Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Returns from the Boer War to his Toronto home after he was declared dead.

Lilian Moss aka Helen Walker

Played By: Sara Mitich

A young woman who joins in the Suffragette Society. She befriends Emily Grace.

---

• Anyone Can Die: Lilian is murdered, which breaks her lover's heart.
• The Beard: Lilian is a sapphist (in the era-appropriate lingo) and she has an arrangement with a gay man. Occasionally they act as each other's partners in society. She introduces him to Emily as her uncle, but he admits later that he's merely a friend.
  Wayland Porter: Having Lillian on my arm at the right events kept such rumours at bay.
• Dark and Troubled Past: In "Double Life", Lillian Moss is revealed to be an assumed name. Her real name is Helen Walker. She had an affair with a married woman whose husband wanted to kill her during a boat trip. She survived his attack, however, so she and her lover staged an accident and left him for the dead, but he survived. Since then she lived under a new identity. She found out he was not dead and wanted to deal with their unfinished business. That's why she tried to leave Canada for London.
• Faking the Dead: It turns out that Lilian staged her own death and lives under an assumed name in Toronto. Lilian's real name is Helen Walker and the official record says that Helen died in a boat accident.
• I Have No Son!: She was disowned by her family because she refused to marry "the man they picked out for me".
• Love Interest: She begins a relationship with Dr. Emily Grace. They are friends first and fellow suffragettes. It's shown early on that Lilian fancies Emily. It is however Emily who initiates their first kiss.
• Secret Relationship: Dr. Emily Grace and Miss Lillian Moss must keep their romance secret as lesbian relationships are illegal. They pass as friends among their suffragist circle of friends and live in neighbouring apartments. Inspector Brackenreid finds out about them and warns Emily to be careful but he's surprisingly understanding. Most of the team find out when Miss Moss gets murdered. Fortunately for Emily, they are all open-minded and mostly express their condolences and feel for Emily because of her loss.
• Statuesque Stunner: She's very tall and attractive. Emily Grace falls for her and doesn't care one bit that what they do is illegal.
• The Suffragette: Lilian is politically active in the suffragist circle in Toronto where she meets Julia and Emily. She and Emily bond over their interest in women's suffrage and she even persuades her lover Emily to leave Toronto for London and join Mrs. Pankhurst's group.
• Sympathetic Murder Backstory: She tried to kill her lover's husband, but he tried to murder her first, so it was basically self-defence. She and her lover left him for the dead in a staged boat accident.

Freddie Pink

Played By: Alex Paxton-Beesley, Ella Querin (young Freddie)

Winnifred "Freddie" Pink is first seen in Montreal, where she's workig on a divorce case as a Private Detective. Moves to Toronto.

---

• Fiery Redhead: Freddie is a feisty, spunky redhead. Works as a private investigator in the early part of the 20th century.
• First-Name Basis: She knows Detective Murdoch from childhood (one summer camp) and nicknames him "Billy". She continues to use the nickname despite him not liking it.
• Kid Detective: Freddie investigated her first crime at the summer camp she and Murdoch went to as kids.
• Private Detective: Her job. She's a private investigator. Has plans to start her own business in Toronto called "Pink's Detective Agency".
• Tomboyish Name: Winifred who goes by Freddie. Lampshaded. She entered the Young Scholars competition in 1875 under the name Freddie Pink and says she knew she wouldn't stand a chance if she had used her real name.

Doctor Darcy Garland

Played By: Jonathan Watton

A medical doctor who comes from a prominent and wealthy Buffalo family. He works for a Children's Ward in the Buffalo Hospital, and later gains a similar position in Toronto where he moves in his fiancée's sake. He marries Dr. Ogden.

---

• Anyone Can Die: He's murdered in "Crime & Punishment".
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: In "Twentieth Century Murdoch," he seems to realize that Julia doesn't love him and that she will never stop loving Detective Murdoch. He tells her that she should follow her heart. Before this, he also willingly moved to Canada so Dr. Ogden could be closer to her family and friends, taking a job at a Toronto children's hospital.
• Hypocrite: He refuses to grant Julia a divorce and says he wants her back. He accuses her of adultery and calls her a whore while he himself shows off with a lover in hotels. In fact, Julia's relationship with Murdoch has not been consummated.
• Romantic False Lead: Even though he married the hero's one true love, he is still a Romantic False Lead. He might have been a good match with Julia, but she just belongs with Murdoch, her soulmate and intellectual equal.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: He seemed fine with Julia and him going their separate ways. He even agreed with annulment and later with divorce. However, he later realized he still loved Julia and begged her to come back. When she wouldn't, he kept harassing her and wouldn't consent to the divorce as he had promised earlier. He openly had a love affair himself, but called Julia — who did not commit adultery — a whore.

Leslie Garland

Played By: Giacomo Gianniotti

Dr. Garland's younger brother. He moves from Buffalo to Toronto, presumably to study law.

---

• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Seems to be a nice enough guy, enough that Dr. Grace is attracted to him and Dr. Ogden allows him to stay at her house, but he's secretly stalking Dr. Ogden and sending her threatening letters because he blames her for Darcy's death.
• Dead Person Impersonation: Is the one who sent the threatening letters to Julia, signed with James Gillies' name. Partially subverted in that Gillies was actually still alive, but nobody was aware of that.
• Evil Is Petty: "Evil" is too strong a word, but manipulating the lawyer he works for to get Emily jailed because she dumped him is regarded as beyond the pale by the main cast.
• Frame-Up: He falsifies evidence to try and frame Dr. Ogden for murder. This gets him arrested when Julia proves his lies to the police.
• Love Interest: He's interested in Dr. Emily Grace and pursues her romantically. She reciprocates.
• Moral Myopia: He blames Julia for Darcy's death, even though James Gillies was the one who actually killed him. He later blames Julia for "ruining his life" when she and Dr. Grace got him fired from the Crown Prosecutor's office for his Stalker without a Crush harassment of Julia. He blames her for "ruining his life" again when she exposes his attempt to frame her for murder.
• Never My Fault: He blames Julia for "ruining his life" even though he was punished for his own bad choices, namely threatening Julia while posing as James Gillies and later trying to frame her for murder.
• Pretty Boy: He's a handsome youth. When Henry tries to console George over his apparent jealousy and hurt feelings, he says that Leslie is almost too pretty for a man.
• Stalker without a Crush: He's this to Julia when he pretends to be James Gillies and uses photos and threatening letters to try and force her to break things off with Murdoch.
• The Villain Knows Where You Live: A photo of Julia and Murdoch kissing in an alley (which she and viewers recognize happened after they attended a recent opera performance) together with a threatening letter that apparently came from James Gillies actually came from him. There's also a second photo of Murdoch taken inside his office with a second note threatening death if she continues her investigation into the first threat. He knows Julia was still in love with Murdoch when she married his brother, he didn't like the idea of her divorcing Darcy, and once Darcy was dead thanks to Gillies, he wanted to thwart Julia's chance for happiness.

Paddy Glynn

Played By: Ephraim Ellis

Paddy Glynn was a reporter who works for the Toronto Gazette and often crosses paths with Station House 4.

---

• I Just Want to Be Special: He sensationalizes crime articles and invents his Kissing Bandit persona to gain fame.
• Intrepid Reporter: He's a journalist who works for the Toronto Gazette. Some of his articles are investigative, but not all, and mostly he bothers Inspector Brackenried to give him information on their fresh cases.

David Kingsley aka Sherlock Holmes

Played By: Andrew Gower

David Kingsley is a young man who believes he is Sherlock Holmes. Eventually he starts a detective agency in Toronto.

---

• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Despite — or because of — his madness, he is actually a good detective.
• Cope by Pretending: David embraced the identity of Sherlock Holmes, whose stories he loved, to escape the trauma of watching his surrogate father be shot as a boy.
• Crazy Sane: Besides the delusion, David is 100% rational.
• Iconic Outfit: He wears Sherlock Holmes' iconic deerstalker hat, checkered coat and he smokes a pipe.

Enid Jones

Played By: Sarah Allen

A young widow who lives in Toronto with her small son. She used to work as a telegraphist before her wedding.

---

• Feminine Women Can Cook: She's a very pretty and sweet young widow who bakes cake for Detective Murdoch as a thank you gift for helping to find her son, and she brings him some food when he's sick.
• Good Parents: She's a kind mother to her only son Alwyn and she's very supportive of his interests. She even made him a telescope - even Detective Murdoch is impressed with her knowledge and skills.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: She's very young, beautiful, and generally sweet and kind. She looks very timid and feminine, but she can take a good care of herself and her son. She has curly blond hair.
• Love Interest: She's interested in the handsome detective William Murdoch and he reciprocates, because she's pretty, smart and sweet and he had a falling out with Dr Ogden Mrs Jones and the detective last for several episodes, but ultimately, he can't stop thinking about Julia.
• Mama Bear: She is very protective of her son, and she ultimately breaks her relationship with Murdoch who admits he's not completely over Dr. Ogden because she doesn't want Alwyn to get hurt.
• Romancing the Widow: She's a young and very attractive widow with a small son. She's courted by Detective Murdoch. She likes him a lot and would like to be with him. However, she breaks it off with Murdoch because he's not completely over Dr. Ogden and her son Alwyn, who's the most important person in Enid's life, might get attached and hurt.
• Romantic False Lead: It's too bad for the pretty Enid that even though Murdoch was fascinated by her and got on well with her son, he was not completely over his love for Dr Ogden. He struggled to overcome his feelings for Julia, but deep love is deep love.
• Through His Stomach: She bakes Murdoch some cake (actually as a thank you gift) but when he starts courting her, she cooks for him, brings him the food personally and even spoonfeeds him in a gesture of affection.

Alwyn Jones

Played By: Dakota Goyo

Alwyn is Enid Jones' son and befriends Detective Murdoch.

---

• Cheerful Child: He's very cute and enthusiastic about mechanical men, the Moon, telescopes and similar stuff.
• Disappeared Dad: His father died. He really likes Detective Murdoch who no doubt would be a great Parental Substitute (judging from Murdoch's known desire to have a family, and especially a son).
• Free-Range Children: He's a small kid who he's allowed to go fishing alone to the river. When he sees a giant silver knight and hears gunshot, he heads to the police station to report a crime. However, his mother is worried sick that he didn't come back home as usual.

Doctor Roberts

Played By: Paul Amos

Doctor Roberts is pioneering in mental health care in Toronto. He's on friendly terms with Detective Murdoch and Doctor Ogden.

---

• Cloudcuckoolander: He says he's considered a weird one in the medical community, but he's ok with that assessment as long as he's allowed to practise and deal with mental health problems.
• Human Popsicle: His family helps him to get frozen with the hopes that in the future, people would know how to cure his illness.
• The Profiler: Murdoch consults him in several cases when he needs to understand what's going on in a suspect's head.
• The Shrink: He's a pioneer in mental health care, but he's still the awesome variety of the trope. He's very understanding and manages to get help to several people. Sometimes he uses hypnosis. Inspector Brackenried refers to him as "Murdoch's favourite head doctor".
• There Are No Therapists: He tries very hard to defy this trope. He offers Inspector Brackenried to counsel him after he shot a man while on duty which obviously shattered him. Dr. Roberts recognized that he could use some help and that talking and sense that somebody cares helps. In the episode "Me, Myself and Murdoch", he agrees to provide psychiatric care to a suspect with multiple personalities who's suspected of murdering her father, but is in fact innocent. During the episode "Murdoch In Toyland", he also hypnotizes Murdoch to help the detective remember where he previously heard the voice he's trying to recognize.
• Your Days Are Numbered: He has Huntington's disease, which is very degenerative. His pain is excruciating.

Nina Bloom

Played By: Erin Agostino

Nina Bloom is a dancer at a Toronto burlesque house who catches George's eye when he begins frequenting the establishment.

---

• Burlesque: She's a dancer at one of the local burlesque houses.
• Heroic Seductress: When she believes George was killed after the season 10 finale, she cozies up to Graham, the man whom Murdoch was investigating and arranged both that attack and the murder of her best friend, for which Murdoch was framed. She seduces him with ease, intending to murder him in revenge.
• Hooker with a Heart of Gold: It's implied that Nina, along with the rest of the girls at the burlesque house, may at times sleep with their patrons either at the house or when hired out for private parties. She certainly fills the "Heart of Gold" part, however, as she's a very sweet, kind woman. And some characters consider burlesque dancers to be of morally ambiguous character.
• I Just Want My Beloved to Be Happy: She breaks off her budding relationship with George when she mistakenly believes he's interested in Louise Cherry, as believes he deserves a more respectable woman. Although George does begin courting her, by the end of season 10 he realizes that it was really Nina he wanted, and they begin to reconcile in "Hell to Pay."
• Ms. Fanservice: Often appears scantily clad (for the standards of the time) whenever the scene is set in the burlesque house.
• Of Corsets Sexy: Given her profession, she's often seen wearing a corset and little else. Nina fills it out quite admirably.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: When George was reported killed in the ambush to close out season 10, she takes it upon herself in the season 11 premier to exact revenge on the businessman who arranged the hit. She's only prevented from carrying out the killing when George arrives, revealing he was still alive.

Effie Newsome

Played by: Clare McConnell

Effie Newsome is a distant relative of the Newsomes of Mimico. She's a young divorced woman who appears to be bitter about love. She studies law and aspires to become an attorney.

---

• Adaptation Name Change: While George is married in the books and does eventually marry Effie in the series, the name of his literary wife is Ellen.
• Damsel in Distress: Effie is kidnapped and almost killed by Amelia and Dorothy Ernst, who hold her hostage in order to threaten George into marrying Amelia.
• Love Interest: Ruth introduces Effie and George Crabtree, hoping they might become a couple. The apparent love birds take an instant dislike to each other... but later they indeed get together and start 'courting'.
• The Missus and the Ex: Effie quickly strikes up this dynamic when she meets Louise Cherry, who had formerly dated George, in the episode "In The Company Of Women." The pair spend most of the episode sniping at each other.
• Statuesque Stunner: Effie is an attractive woman, and on more than one occassion people have commented on her above-average height.
• The Suffragette: Effie Newsome is a bright young woman studying law. She's seen at a suffrage event in "Troublemakers", wearing a sash which reads Votes for Women.

Nurse Kate Sullivan

Played by: Stephanie Belding

The nurse anesthesiologist at Toronto Mercy Hospital, where Julia starts working in season 12.

---

• "Eureka!" Moment: She's initially furious when Dr. Ogden explains her suspicions that somebody is murdering patients at their hospital. Dr. Ogden's words stay with her, though, and she later realizes that several previous deaths are all related.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She seems cold and brusque to Dr. Ogden when Julia first joins the hospital. She also takes it very personally when she thinks Dr. Ogden is accusing a nurse of negligence or murdering patients. She's faultlessly dedicated to the well-being of her patients, and helps Julia with her investigation when she realizes that Julia is right about patients being murdered.
• It's Personal: In "The Killing Dose," she and Ogden treat a close friend of Sullivan's after an attempt on her life.
• Spotting the Thread: When Julia begins investigating the death of a patient against their boss's orders, Nurse Sullivan is initially hostile, but then realizes that several other patients may have also been murdered.

Mr. Clements

Played by: David Reale

The head of a small local publishing house, which is a subsidiary of a larger New York firm.

---

• Enlightened Self-Interest: Clements is introduced when Murdoch and Julia summon him to the station house to complain about how a book he helped published about new police methods includes none of their methods. Clements acknowledges the accuracy of what they're saying and convinces them to write a book of their own to remedy this. A book which he will publish of course.
• Hire the Critic: An In-Universe example. When Clements hears Murdoch and Julia's criticisms about the problems of a book on police methods he published, he offers them a publishing deal to write a better one.
• Let's See YOU Do Better!: Clements accepts Murdoch and Julia's criticisms of a lacklustre book he published on police methods, so he invites them to write a book of their own that corrects the flaws of the original.
• No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: An In-Universe example. He doesn't seem at all unhappy that Murdoch and Julia's book is apparently inspiring a real-life Copycat Killer, since the book is now flying off the shelves.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Clements tends to appear in a nice suit, as befitting his status as a businessman.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The information in the book Clements suggests Murdoch and Dr. Ogden publish ends up being used by Ralph Fellows to commit several murders.

Dilton Dilbert

Played by: David Hewlett

A supervisor at Toronto's records hall. Brackenreid has the displeasure of working under him following a temporary demotion.

---

• Alliterative Name: His names both begin with Ds.
• Badass Bureaucrat:
  • It isn't apparent at first, but not even being pinned against the wall by a streetcar and knowing that he has severe internal injuries can keep Dilton from issuing instructions to a subordinate to hurry to an official meeting and deliver his findings about a company's corruption (when he noticed a wrong name on a letter).
  • When he's attacked by Davis's thugs for noticing Davis's embezzlement scam, he's livid and more than ready to help Murdoch and Brackenreid take them down. More generally, when Dilbert finds evidence of corruption at city hall he doesn't rest until he gets to the bottom of it.
• Beware the Honest Ones: Dilbert is faultlessly honest and thorough, which is very bad news for anyone involved in corruption at Toronto city hall.
• The Bus Came Back: He vanishes from the show after Brackenreid gets his old job back, but makes a second appearance two seasons after his first one when he's targeted by a killer. He doesn't survive the injuries he receives early on, so he's Back for the Dead.
• The Comically Serious: His unimaginative nature, fondness for the record room, and maintenance of a Swear Jar make Dilton a humorous character.
• Determinator: Nothing will stop Dilbert from doing his duty to the people of Toronto, and doing it very well. When he finds evidence of corruption at Toronto city hall, he is diligent in figuring out what the problem is and gathering proof of it.
• Fire-Forged Friends: He and Brackenreid are initially opposites who are forced to work together, but they develop a sense of mutual respect when they stumble across a conspiracy and help Murdoch solve it. When Dilbert reappears, he and Brackenreid are on good terms l, regularly meet socially, and discover that their backgrounds and beliefs are more similar than they thought.
• Hidden Depths: He seems like an Obstructive Bureaucrat but becomes invested in an investigation after he's attacked by thieves. When he reappears, he's quite brave while facing near certain death, and also reflects on his dreams and mistakes. It's revealed that he and a coworker have sweet and longstanding crushes on each other, but have a mutual case of Cannot Spit It Out. He also gets contemplative about how he once filed away death certificates without bothering to think about the people themselves.
• Married to the Job: He has no real life outside of work, and experiences keen regret about this after his life-threatening accident.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: His investigating Brackenreid's allegations of corruption get him violently assaulted by the people responsible. Later, his investigation into a contractor's Blatant Lies about the device they're trying to sell the city gets him killed.
• Precision F-Strike: Humorously downplayed. When Murdoch asks him if he's willing to help Murdoch and Brackenreid take down the corrupt men who assaulted him, he says "you're damn right!" The fact that Dilbert is willing to use a word that Brackenreid uses fairly casually illustrates just how angry he is.
• Swear Jar: Anyone who swears in Dilbert's office has to put a nickel in a jar. Dilbert holds himself to these standards too.
• Tap on the Head: He is knocked over the head by men stealing incriminating records and has a pool of blood around his head, but he suffers no serious effects.

Mayor Clarkson

folder: David Huband

The stern mayor of Toronto.

---

• Artistic License – History: Besides the fact that Mayor Clarkson is an original character created by the writers, he's shown to have been Mayor for several years, appearing in episodes as many as seven years apart. As the link under Historical Domain Character below shows, Toronto had annual municipal elections during the time the show was set, and there's no indication of how many times Mayor Clarkson has been re-elected. The real Toronto had nine separate mayors during the roughly 15 years the show is set in.
• Historical Domain Character: Averted, which is rather surprising for this show. Mayor Clarkson is an original character who serves as Mayor for several years. The real Toronto had nine separate Mayors during the show's era, in part because municipal elections happened every year.
• Man of the City: Mayor Clarkson can be stiff-necked and abrasive, but he values the city's economy and industry enough that when he is stuck in a noise-activated Death Trap by a man who wants the city to be quiet, Clarkson is willing to sacrifice his life to keep the city's noisy but important companies from having to shut down.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: He's usually a Reasonable Authority Figure who values the city over himself, but he also loathes the idea of women in politics.

Allen Templeton

Played by: Sebastian Spence

A Crown Attorney who is interested in seeing more Catholics get positions of authority.

---

• Kingmaker Scenario: Templeton openly acknowledges that he's a kingmaker, helping people that he expects great things of (although not necessarily for himself) to positions of power they might not pursue on their own.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: When Murdoch is framed by Ralph Fellows, Templeton hears his pleas of innocence and gives him six hours to find evidence, but is prepared to arrest him at the end of that period if he can't prove his innocence.

Eddie Crawford

Played by: David Reale

A bookie and fence who appears in several episodes as a suspect, witness, or potential victim.

---

• Animal Motifs: Crawford is compared to a weasel for being small, thin, cowardly, and untrustworthy.
• Butt-Monkey: Brackenreid and Murdoch lean on him several times for information under threat of arresting him as a fence. He's also targeted for murder, is extorted by Dirty Cops and is generally pushed around by others.
• The Informant: Nobody likes him, least of all Brackenreid, but he's a useful snitch. The Constabulary occasionally threaten to arrest him as a fence unless he gives them the information they want.
• Noodle Incident: Even in his debut episode, it's clear that Eddie and Brackenreid have a history, likely due to Eddie being a fence.
• Saying Too Much: In his second appearance, when Brackenreid threatens to arrest Crawford, he misjudges the inspector's seriousness and says that he’s not going to pay the cops off twice. He quickly tries to cover that up, but this causes Brackenreid to realize he’s been bribing a Dirty Cop.
• Shame If Something Happened: The protagonists occasionally threaten to arrest Eddie, or even tip off more violent criminals about his dealings that would anger them, if he doesn't give them information they want.
• Throwing the Fight: In one episode, Crawford is targeted for murder because he convinced a poor man to spend the last of his money betting on a fixed boxing match but lied to him about which fighter was being bribed to throw the fight.

Aldous Germaine

Played by: Jeremy Legat

A prominent antique dealer who occasionally gets involved in Murdoch's cases.

---

• Ambiguously Gay: He discusses George's "eyes of a doe" while saying he could mingle at an undercover gathering, and he tells Watts (a closet gay man) that it was "good to see you the other night" during a chance meeting. He also has several Camp Gay mannerisms.
• The Dandy: He's a well-dressed man with a lot of flair who gets excited dressing George up.
• Expert Consultant: On two occasions, Murdoch consults him for expert insight about stolen art.
• Pacifist: He describes himself as so pacifistic that he doesn't like even associating with men of violence.

Ruby Rosevear

Played by: Katherine Barrell

A tea room waitress who follows Murdoch's exploits in the news and eventually starts a fan club dedicated to him.

---

• Ascended Extra: She first appears as a minor witness in a genuine investigation and departs the episode after a couple of minutes, but in her second and so-far-final appearance, several seasons later, she is part of a club of Murdoch fans that drive the plot of that episode.
• Ascended Fangirl: Ruby and her fellow members of the Murdoch Appreciation Society exploit this by staging a murder with a body that they think died of natural causes so they can spy on Murdoch at work. Murdoch is not happy when he finds out, but they end up getting involved in a real murder case and Ruby and one of her friends take a picture of a suspect planting evidence.
• Pimped-Out Dress: Her wardrobe is made up of stylish period dresses with lots of trimming and frills.
• The Pollyanna: She has a constantly cheerful and excited countenance that never disappears for very long.
• Stalker with a Crush: Downplayed and played sympathetically. She cheerfully admits to finding Murdoch handsome, devoutly follows reports of his cases, and takes part in her friends' plan to set up a fake mystery so they will be involved in a Murdoch case. However, she doesn't harbor any illusions about getting together with Murdoch, isn't the originator of the fake mystery plot, and cares about Murdoch's detective work rather than seeing him just as a Lust Object.
• Sudden Name Change: She is called Marley in her first appearance and Ruby in her second.
• Those Two Girls: In her second appearance, she shares most of her screentime with fellow fangirl Annie Cranston and their scenes are mostly used for humor.

Dr. Forbes

Played by: James Mc Gowan

The chief surgeon at Toronto Mercy Hospital, and Julia's boss in season 13.

---

• Dr. Jerk: He originally comes across as a reasonable and encouraging boss, but he eventually shows himself to be more concerned about the hospital's reputation than the quality of its care. When he reappears in season 17, he deliberately tries to scare wealthy donors out of supporting Julia's women's hospital.
• Pointy-Haired Boss: Zigzagged. He originally comes across as one, being skeptical about female doctors. While he gradually shows more trust and kindness to Julia and empathy for his patients, he later shows himself to be more concerned with ensuring male doctors aren't embarrassed than with the quality of care patients receive. A male doctor dismisses a female patient's pain as hysteria without doing a full examination despite Julia's protest. Julia correctly suspects the woman actually needs ovarian surgery, and performs it herself despite Dr. Forbes's orders not to. Julia protests that the patient nearly died due to the male doctor's negiligence. Dr. Forbes is only concerned that she disobeyed him and made the male doctor look bad and fires her.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: He continually reproaches Julia for disobeying him, even though she's always proven right when she does. He finally fires her when a male doctor misdiagnoses a female patient and she does her own correct diagnosis and performs a life-saving surgery despite Dr. Forbes ordering her not to. When he reappears in Season 17, he deliberately tries to scare some wealthy donors from supporting Julia's women's hospital.
• Took a Level in Kindness: He starts out as a Pointy-Haired Boss, but gradually shows more trust and kindness around Julia, while also having more opportunities to show empathy to his patients.

Dr. Andrew Dixon

Played by: Sebastian Pigott

A doctor who works with Julia at Toronto Mercy Hospital.

---

• All Love Is Unrequited: He develops feelings for Julia, but she's Happily Married. He makes one attempt to kiss her, but she moves away from him and afterward he apologizes and settles for being friends with her.
• Bully Turned Buddy: He's initially aloof toward Julia and tries to upstage her, but they get several bonding moments during tragic moments and he later acknowledges they bring out the best in each other.
• Hidden Depths: He's a talented singer and lived in a botanical garden while studying in France.

Lydia Hall

Played by: Katy Breier

Nina Bloom's best friend and fellow dancer.

---

• Beta Couple: Or rather, tetra couple, as she and Henry are the third most prominent couple in the show for most of a season but lack beyond superficial attraction.
• Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: Lydia is a demure burlesque dancer, but she also enjoys rollerblading both for the exercise and to keep her legs looking shapely.
• He Knows Too Much: In her final appearance, she seeks police protection after overhearing some corrupt officials planning a criminal scheme. It doesn't save her.
• The Mistress: Lydia is desperate for a better life and in her first episode, she's romantically involved with a married man who tells her he's about to leave his wife for her. She eventually accepts that he's stringing her on.
• Took a Level in Badass: Lydia is a nervous burlesque dancer, but in her penultimate appearance, she stabs a masked potential rapist in the hand.

Nate Desmond

Played by: Jordan Johnson Hinds

Rebecca's boyfriend and later betrothed.

---

• Raised by Grandparents: He lives with his grandmother.
• Understanding Boyfriend: Zigzagged. He is initially uncomfortable that Rebecca cuts up dead bodies but supports her efforts to become a medical doctor even though it means the two of them will be living on a reduced income.

Arthur Carmichael

Played by: James Graham

Violet's high-society husband.

---

• Awful Wedded Life: He and Violet quickly clash due to Arthur's commitment to racial issues not running too deep. He becomes a lot more subservient to Violet once she makes it clear she could kill him without much trouble, but this doesn't exactly make them more lovey-dovey.
• Chekhov's Gunman: He first appears as the rich, spoiled son of the Chief Crown Attorney, who's involved in a plot to frame John Brackenreid for murder. He becomes much more important when he starts dating and then marrying Violet Hart.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He's more of a Jerkass than full-on evil, but he lies to the police about being in Toronto the night a woman named Lucille Palmer was murdered when he actually wasn't. He intends to take the fall for his sister, who was the real killer.
• Failed a Spot Check: He tried to sneak up on Maurice Majors and shoot him, but he somehow missed the mirror Maurice had set up to keep anyone from getting the drop on him. Arthur's mistake costs him his life.
• The Gadfly: He originally only dates Violet to scandalize high-society Toronto, which like the rest of white Canadian and American society did not approve of interracial romances. When she spontaneously says they're going to be married, he goes along with it because it'll be even more shocking.
• Happily Married: Even with their conflicts, and the fact that he only dated and married Violet to cause a scandal, they grew to honestly love each other. She's heartbroken when he tries to kill Maurice Majors and Maurice kills him first.
• The Hedonist: His main goal in life is to live in debauched luxury. He gets arrested for his drinking binges, fistfights and vandalism, but he's never punished due to his family wealth and connections. Besides his heavy drinking, he also indulges in drugs like cocaine and opium. While he buys the fanciest restaurant in Toronto, he quickly gets bored with it after he fires the maitre'd who was racist towards Violet. He's also utterly indifferent to the racism Violet faces for being Black...right up until she drugs his opium to "persuade" him to pay more attention.
• Idle Rich: His father is one of the wealthiest, most powerful men in Toronto. This leaves him free to indulge himself as a drunken, debauched playboy.
• Jerkass: He's such an arrogant, self-centered prick that he even angers the usually-calm Murdoch. The detective warns him to wipe the smirk off his face, or Murdoch would do it for him.
• Killed Off for Real: When he tries to shoot Maurice Majors, Maurice notices him sneaking up and drives a knife into his chest. Maurice then leaves his corpse in the chair for Violet to find.
• Refuge in Audacity: Interracial romances were heavily frowned upon in white Canadian and American society when the show aired. Arthur not only dates a Black woman, he goes so far as to marry her, all for the horrified reactions it'll provoke among his class. He gets away with it due to his wealth and influence.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Effie Newsome finds in Part II of "Darkness Before The Dawn" that he's been arrested for numerous lower-level offences like vandalism, assault and battery and public intoxication. He's never tried for any of his crimes in part due to his father being the Chief Crown Prosecutor for Toronto.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Another reason he's never tried for any of his crimes is because he comes from a very rich family.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: He didn't originally plan to marry Violet, but when she preemptively says they're going to be wed he agrees to it.
• Too Dumb to Live: He tries to sneak up on Maurice Majors while the latter is relaxing in a chair, but he didn't notice that Maurice had set up a mirror to alert him if anyone came into the room. Maurice quickly turns the tables and stabs him to death.
• Upper-Class Twit: He's a well-off man who isn't good at thinking things through or ingratiating himself to people.

Adversaries

James Gillies

Played By: Michael Seater

A young genius, a brilliant student of physics. He becomes Detective Murdoch's arch-nemesis.

---

• Ambiguously Gay: As James and his best friend Robert Perry depart from the police station for the first time, he touches Robert's back in a manner which may suggest that there is a greater intimacy between the two of them. Brackenreid wonders out loud, "Just good pals, or something more?" It makes perfect sense that James and Robert would want to keep their romance a secret, as homosexuality was a crime in late 19th-century Canada. He then adds to the mystery by kissing Murdoch during his escape in "Midnight Train to Kingston".
• Arbitrarily Large Bank Account: He comes from a rich family, but it's not clear how he manages to keep funding his schemes despite being a fugitive.
• Arch-Enemy: In "Murdoch in Toyland", he becomes a nemesis to Detective Murdoch.
• Ascended Extra: He's just another criminal of the week when Murdoch busts him in "Big Murderer on Campus". Three seasons later, he returns and is considerably more dangerous than in his first appearance.
• Big Bad: In his debut episode, he was one of the criminals of the week, although Dr. Ogden was especially horrified that the motive for the professor's murder was just to see if they could carry out their elaborate plan using applied physics. In Seasons 5 and 6, he appears again and taunts Detective Murdoch with his twisted, criminal mind games.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: Gillies' obsession with outdoing Murdoch is ironically what allows Murdoch to beat him:
  • In his original case, it would have been much harder for Murdoch to track him down if he hadn't involved himself with Murdoch's investigation and enabled Murdoch to drive a wedge between him and Robert Perry;
  • In "Murdoch In Toyland", he deliberately lures Murdoch to him as part of a larger chess game when he could have walked away a free man, something Murdoch Lampshades at the end of the episode.
  • In "The Murdoch Trap", his luring Murdoch into an elaborate deathtrap, when he could just as easily have had Dr. Ogden be hanged, gives the detective the opportunity to let the Constabulary know where he is.
• Break Them by Talking: He loves to provoke people, and in "Midnight Train to Kingston," he manages to get under the skin of Murdoch (who was tempted to hit Gillies for pointing out that the detective should thank him for getting rid of Darcy, Brackenreid (who puts his hand around Gillies' throat after the young man notes that his officers are incompetent for allowing a murder to take place) and Dr. Ogden (who slaps Gillies hard for threatening her life).
• Call-Back: His hanging in his final appearance is followed by a Gilligan Cut to Julia weighing and dissecting his brain, just as she said she would in "Midnight Train to Kingston".
• Character Catchphrase: He frequently says, "I'm flattered" whenever someone tries to insult or intimidate him. It's his way of showing to his opponent that he cannot be emotionally shaken by verbal means.
• Character Death: Quite undramatic for a Joker level villain. His body was found and identified in "Kung-Fu Crabtree".Later subverted after it was revealed in "The Devil Inside" that he had faked his death, but played straight when he is executed at the episode's end.
• Creepy Crossdresser: He cross-dressed as a lady in one episode to confuse the investigators. They were looking for a woman, not for a man, which gave him time. In Season 6, he disguises himself as Julia, and tells Murdoch that he enjoyed playing her due to the many admiring looks that he received.
• Creepy Doll: He used several of these as part of his Evil Plan in "Murdoch in Toyland".
• Criminal Mind Games: He frequently plays these on Murdoch. It bothers him deeply that the detective is smart enough to thwart his plans. He knows that Julia is Murdoch's sensitive spot, and he exploits this weakness as much as he can.
• The Dandy: He's always fashionable and immaculately groomed. While most men on the show wear ties, his most distinctive accessory is a flamboyant bow tie.
• Depraved Homosexual: Is strongly hinted to be one. In "Midnight Train to Kingston", he plants a big "Take That!" Kiss on Murdoch! Moreover, when the detective is physically aggressive towards him in "Murdoch in Toyland", Gillies' enthusiastic response is, "Ha ha! This is fun!" Even when Murdoch is about to punch him, the young man still has a big grin. His joy at being "manhandled" is reserved solely for Murdoch, however, as James becomes fearful the instant Brackenreid takes over the violent interrogation. Gillies' glee at being subjected to Murdoch's rough treatment in this episode suggests that he is attracted to the detective because he doesn't enjoy being beaten up by anyone else.
• Despair Event Horizon: Implied in "The Devil Inside" when he talks about watching Murdoch build a happy life with Dr. Ogden, and also mentions the agony he's in from the spinal injury he suffered in "Midnight Train To Kingston". This time, Gillies' scheme involves forcing Murdoch to kill him. Subverted when Murdoch is ready to do so, only to find that Gillies took the bullets out of the gun first. He then seems to be ready to live again, when Murdoch subdues him by shooting him with a rubber bullet.
• The Dreaded: Is treated as a massive threat by everyone after his second and third escapades. Julia herself admits that she's scared of him due to the fact he tried to kill her twice and came damn close both times.
• Escape Artist: He was being transported to be executed at least twice, but managed to escape.
• Expy: Michael Seater has stated in this featurette that Gillies is the Moriarty to Murdoch's Holmes.
• Faking the Dead: He made a deal with a prison guard who was dying of brain tumour to take his stead in the execution. The two men looked similar when they both grew a moustache.
• Faux Affably Evil: He tries to appear friendly and charming, and he frequently smiles and laughs, but he's a sick, sick bastard.
• Foe Romance Subtext: With Murdoch towards the end of "Midnight Train to Kingston".
  Gillies: For the last time, this is it for us. Doesn't that make you just... a little bit sad?
  Murdoch: No.
  Gillies: Not even a teensy bit?
  Murdoch: [shakes his head]
  Gillies: Come now, Detective. You and I share something, something... special. I'll miss you, you know that.
• For the Evulz: His motive for the first murder was "because I could", and he later torments Detective Murdoch apparently just because. He also really enjoys challenging Murdoch who is his only intellectual equal.
• I Surrender, Suckers: When Brackenreid and Crabtree find his hiding place in "The Murdoch Trap", he extends his hands out as if allowing himself to be handcuffed, but it turns out that he has a small gun concealed beneath his right sleeve. Before he can use it, though, Crabtree shoots him in the shoulder with his rifle.
• Joker Immunity: He manages to escape police custody several times. It's finally revoked in "The Devil Inside, where Murdoch finally captures him for good and he gets hanged onscreen.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: The final scenes of "The Devil Inside" show Gillies being hanged on-screen for his crimes. The episode ends with a scene of Dr. Ogden in the morgue, opening Gillies' head and taking out his brain, the way she promised in "Midnight Train To Kingston".
• Latex Perfection: In "The Murdoch Trap," it's revealed that he had used a latex mask of Dr. Ogden's face to impersonate her.
• Make Sure He's Dead: Murdoch and Julia are on scene for his execution. This doesn't stop Constable Crabtree suspecting he's responsible for putting the main characters in a Saw-style deathtrap four seasons later, on the basis that if anyone could survive having his brain in a jar on Dr Ogden's desk, it's Gilles.
• Manipulative Bastard: He managed to manipulate his friend into a dangerous game with the first murder of their professor. He later makes a dying guard to take his place in the hanging for a nice sum of money. He knows a lot about forensic methods and tampers with the evidence to frame other people.
• Never Found the Body: When he's arrested for the second time, the carriage that was transporting him was knocked over on a bridge. The coachman and guards were dead, but his body was not found. He then appeared again in Season 6. Happens again when he escapes by jumping off a train trestle into a shallow river in Season 7.
• Nightmare Face: Half of Gillies' face is heavily scarred, as shown in "The Devil Inside". When he jumped off the bridge in "Midnight Train To Kingston", he hit a rock face-first when he landed in the river. Murdoch and the viewers see it in the penultimate scene of the episode.
• Not the Fall That Kills You…: The river he jumped into at the end of "A Midnight Train to Kingston" didn't seem to agree with him. Although he didn't survive the fall, his body wasn't found and identified until nearly three months later. Many viewers however suspected that this trope was at play and that Gillies, being the escape artist he is, survived and would appear to torture Murdoch some more. They were later proven right with Season 10's "The Devil Inside".
• Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: He's a university student in his first appearance, so he would be around 20 years old in Season 2, while Murdoch approaches middle age.
• Practically Joker: Gillies borrows heavily from the Joker. He's got the colorful attire, flamboyant, outgoing personality, blatant Ho Yay with his stoic, reserved Arch-Enemy, Psychopathic Manchild obsession with toys and games, tendency to be a Villainous Crossdresser, Joker Immunity in most of his appearances, and in his final appearance even a Nightmare Face.
• Pretty Boy: He's pretty for a man, which no doubt helps him to pass off as a woman when he chooses to do so.
• Psychopathic Manchild: He exudes a childish glee, has a boyish voice, and used dolls in one of his crimes.
• Psychotic Smirk: Smirks at the very end of "The Murdoch Trap" when he was held by the police force. It's creepy and unnerving.
• Revenge:
  • His motivation for wanting to destroy Murdoch; James hates it when someone manages to outsmart him.
  • He gets back at Robert Perry (who betrayed Gillies to avoid the noose and receive a much lighter jail sentence) by cutting his former accomplice's head off with a fine-tooth saw while Robert was still alive.
• Sissy Villain: James Gillies is a recurring villain who murders people For the Evulz (and later to get revenge) and to prove that he's smarter than Detective William Murdoch. He's somewhat effeminate, soft-spoken, occasionally wears women's clothes (he did it to disguise himself first, but later admits he likes it), and he used dolls in one of his schemes.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Bribes his way out of prison by hiring a dying guard to be executed in his place in exchange for $3000 — which was a lot of money at the time — which was given to the man's family.
• The Sociopath: Heavily implied by Dr. Ogden. In "Midnight Train to Kingston", she tells him that she wants to study his brain after he's been hanged, since she's convinced that there's some sort of aberration in it that makes him what he is. He also fulfills another classic sociopathic trait in that he's a master manipulator.
• "Take That!" Kiss: He forces a rather passionate kiss to Murdoch in "Midnight Train to Kingston".
• Too Clever by Half: As noted above under Bond Villain Stupidity, Gillies' obsession with outsmarting Murdoch leads him to draw the detective into his plans, which also allows Murdoch to ruin them. And then there's "Midnight Train To Kingston", where his elaborate plan to escape the noose succeeds...but it also involves him getting seriously maimed in the process.
• Troll: With a mocking smile, he greets Crabtree with, "You're the one who shot me, aren't you? Didn't do much of a job of it, did you?"
• Villainous Crush: It's implied that he has one on Murdoch after he kisses the detective on the mouth for a full three seconds. Although Gillies, who was pinned to the ground, certainly used the unexpected physical contact as a distraction so that he could free himself, it has been hinted throughout the series that he's gay, and it seems natural that he would be attracted to a handsome, intelligent man like Murdoch.
• Voiceover Letter: His voice is heard as Dr. Ogden reads the letters he has sent to her in "Unfinished Business" and "The Murdoch Sting".
• Wicked Cultured: He is always well-dressed and eloquent. He's also a murderer who enjoys sadistic mind games.
• Would Hurt a Child: As shown when he threatens baby Roland with heroin to force Murdoch to kill him.
• You Monster!: Several characters have called him a monster, as the term psychopath hadn't been coined yet.

Sally Pendrick

Played By: Kate Greenhouse

The beautiful wife of James Pendrick. She's interested in art and science, and she has refreshingly modern opinions.

---

• Back for the Dead: She goes into hiding abroad after Murdoch reveals she's the actual perpetrator of various crimes. She comes back a decade later as an even bigger villain but Murdoch burns a literal hole in her head with a microwave laser.
• Big Bad:
  • In Season 3, several cases lead to the Pendrick household. Murdoch becomes sure that it's Mr. Pendrick who is responsible for frauds, dangerous scientific experiments used for stealing, or even mysterious murders. It turns out he's quite innocent, and his beautiful wife is the one to be blamed. She would be perfectly fine with him being hanged for her crimes. She says she's doing it for the thrill of it.
  • She masterminded the kidnapping plot of the show's 200th episode.
• Boom, Headshot!: Inflicted on her by Murdoch with Fricken Laser Beams.
• The Bus Came Back: After a decade since she disappeared, Sally comes back for the show's 200th episode.
• For the Evulz: Builds a microwave death ray and plots to sell it to foreign powers just because she enjoys the challenge.
• Karma Houdini: She's wanted in New York for a long string of frauds, but she escaped scot-free to Canada. She then manages to escape Murdoch with all of James Pendrick's money.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: Sally returns as the villain of the 200th episode, and she's painfully killed off onscreen.
• Offscreen Villain Dark Matter: Sally somehow constructed an underground bunker in the middle of nowhere, fully equipped with all the equipment and supplies any scientist could ask for. She had a decade to gather the funds she would have needed.
• Villainous Crush: When Murdoch tracks her down, she teasingly invites him to join her and says that they don't have to be enemies. Murdoch, of course, will have none of it.
• You Have Failed Me: She shoots the first one of her Mooks who was overcome by the heroes.
• Would Hurt a Child: Threatens to kill Marie Curie's daughters if she doesn't cooperate with her plans.

Eva Pearce

Played By: Daiva Johnston

Eva Pearce is a beautiful and manipulative woman, thief, con artist, kidnapper and killer. Dangerous opponent to William Murdoch. Her original goal was to climb up the social ladder and marry a wealthy man.

---

• Asshole Victim: It's hard to argue that Eva didn't deserve what happened to her especially after she made William believe Brackenreid, Crabtree, and Julia were "dead" and the three of them would never find him. She also goes as far as considering Julia's "death" to be a good thing. Julia, Brackenreid, and Crabtree all eventually found him though.
• Fatal Flaw: Pride. Eva is so assured she has everyone wrapped around her little finger that pandering to her ego is the easiest way to get one over on her.
• Freudian Excuse: As revealed in "Cometh the Archer", Eva's father killed her mother when he discovered her infidelity. Eva sees her father as the blameless victim and her mother as the villain in that story. She wants to be the woman her mother was not, and thinks murder is a suitable punishment for all those who do not "love" her back.
• Gold Digger: She's very attractive but of lower class. We first meet her as a shop girl and her goal is to marry someone rich. It doesn't quite matter whom. She also impersonates other women and tries to pull off elaborate cons to get herself that meal ticket.
• Haunting the Guilty: Eva shows up as a hallucination during "Great Balls of Fire" to taunt Julia over her death. It isn't until Julia finally lets go of her guilt over killing her that Eva's ghost leaves her alone.
• Manipulative Bitch: She manipulates many, many through elaborate schemes. One of those is her posing as a woman named Cassie Chadwick and she copies another con artist and her methods. She puts out a rumour that she is the illegitimate daughter of a Wealthy Philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Which leads to her engagement with Mr. Worthington.
• Narcissist: Nothing dissuades Eva from believing she is the most gorgeous, desirable woman who ever walked the Earth.
• Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Eva is a beautiful woman with fair face and black hair. She uses her appearance and sex-appeal to manipulate people. Considering she's a murderess, she crosses fairly into Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette.
• Sanity Slippage: Heavily implied. In "Murdoch In Ladies' Wear", she's a Manipulative Bitch but she's also calm and collected enough to Know When to Fold 'Em. In "The Murdoch Sting", she becomes unglued when Murdoch cons her into thinking she'll lose her chance at $500,000 inheritance and frantically tries to find the corpse she needs to receive the money. In "The Incurables", she's revealed to have been put in a mental institution. In "Cometh The Archer", she's deluded herself into thinking that Murdoch is in love with her, and that they can marry once she murders the hypotenuse.
• The Vamp: Eva's power comes from using her looks and charm to get men to do her bidding.
• Unconscious Objector: Of the silent variety. In order for her to not know that Brackenreid and Crabtree were alive the whole time, she is unconscious for the purpose of their arrival.
• Villainous Crush: She tries to manipulate and seduce Detective Murdoch during her very first interrogation. She wasn't the actual culprit, but the one who manipulated him and compelled him to kill. In her final appearance, she kidnaps Murdoch and attempts to rape him in order to "give him the child he has always wanted".
• Yandere: For Murdoch. She's completely convinced he's in love with her, no matter how many times he tells her otherwise. It comes to a head in "Cometh the Archer", when she shoots Ogden, and kidnaps and tries to rape Murdoch.

Ralph Fellows

Played By: Colin Mochrie

Ralph Fellows is the former hotel detective at the Crown Windsor Hotel. He originally dreamed of being a great detective, but he never gets the chance. He is jealous of Murdoch's status as a detective, and things quickly take a darker turn.

---

• Alcoholic Parent: He says his father was a pathetic drunk. He considers himself lucky he stayed with his mother after the divorce. However, his older sister got lumped with their father.
• Apologetic Attacker: Downplayed. He apologizes to Julia while strangling her in "Why is Everybody Singing?", but it's unlikely he's remorseful.
• Arch-Enemy: He's become this to Murdoch ever since James Gillies' death. As of Season 15, his body count and number of appearances rivals Gillies'.
• Berserk Button: Dr. Ogden calls him a failure in "Rawhide Ralph", and he has to visibly restrain himself from attacking her. He's seething when he says that he's just had a run of bad luck, and Dr. Ogden says that's exactly what a failure would say.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Fellows seems like an incompetent crank when he first appears on the show, but he's much more dangerous than he first seems.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Subverted. Fellows didn't initially seem as vile as he turned out to be, but he was always an unpleasant, abrasive Jerkass who openly sniped at Murdoch. Murdoch is generally too polite and reserved to respond, but Brackenreid threatened to finally punch his lights out if he didn't shut up.
• Born Lucky: As a child, everything seemed to go Ralph Fellows' way. When his amateur detective work revealed his father's infidelity and caused his parents' divorce, he got to live with his loving mother while his older sister was stuck with their abusive father.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To James Gillies, the previous Arc Villain. Gillies was a wealthy Psychopathic Manchild and flamboyant dandy who was always immaculately dressed, much younger than Murdoch, had a Villainous Crush on the detective and committed his crimes For the Evulz. Fellows was a working-class police and hotel detective with a restrained fashion sense who was much older than Murdoch, had nothing but loathing and jealousy for the detective and committed his crimes specifically to avenge his spiteful grudges.
• The Chessmaster: Fellows routinely manipulates people and events both directly and behind the scenes as part of his schemes to take revenge upon his enemies. The only reason he ever seems to fail at this is because he can hardly keep his own ego in check.
• Crazy-Prepared:
  • In Season 14 it turns out that he had a back-up plan in place in case his plan to frame Murdoch failed; he'd already planted evidence framing the victim's wife, and then convinced her to target Murdoch in a plan that would also kill her.
  • In Season 15's "Rawhide Ralph", it's heavily implied that he uses the corpse of an older man who looks like him to trick the Murdoch family into thinking that he's dead. They can't examine the pseudo-Fellows because the real Fellows tossed the corpse into a vat of acid that's disfigured the body.
  • In Season 17, Fellows orchestrates a scheme to kill Murdoch before he can investigate the disappearance of the man whose body he used to fake his own death previously, and sets it up so that the wife of a criminal Murdoch arrested will take the fall. What he did not prepare for was Murdoch surviving this attempt, and deducing his scheme through a musical formed by his subconscious.
• Evil Counterpart: Fellows is this to Murdoch. He's an incredibly intelligent and skilled detective and Gadgeteer Genius who always wanted to be a police investigator, but his spiteful sister ruined every chance he had to do so. Murdoch grew to have the respect and reputation Fellows wanted so badly for himself, which made Fellows despise and want to kill him.
• Evil Is Hammy: Fellows hams it up in many of his appearances by joking and taunting Murdoch during his schemes, and revels in the chance to monologue about his brilliance. He turns up the theatrics in "Rawhide Ralph" by taking Murdoch's family hostage while dressed up as a wild-west outlaw. He even gets his own Villain Song about how much he's going to enjoy killing Murdoch.
• Evil Is Petty: He kills people for relatively worthless or unimportant 'reasons'. Fellow murders everyone who he feels either prevented him from realizing his dream of being a detective, or who actually succeeded as detectives themselves, such as Murdoch and Hamish Slorach.
• Faking the Dead: Heavily implied in "Rawhide Ralph." He seemingly falls into a vat of acid, but the audience sees him talking to the corpse of an older man who looks like him, saying that the man will "come in handy." Fellows likely threw the corpse into the vat, knowing that it'll disfigure the body and the Murdoch family can't closely examine it. This is confirmed when he returns in Season 17.
• Fatal Flaw: Pride. The Toronto Constabulary catches him by making him think they believe Murdoch's neighbour is responsible for framing the detective. Fellows is desperate to be taken seriously as an intelligent man, and his anger at their assumption makes him walk into their trap. In Season 17 his reasoning for returning to Toronto and targeting Murdoch again is that the detective was on the point of discovering that he faked his death, but Murdoch points out that even if he had, it would still have been beyond the Toronto Constabulary's abilities to track him down. The implication is that his pride meant he was looking for an excuse to return and finish the job.
• Frame-Up: Fellows murders Murdoch's extremely annoying neighbor and frames Murdoch for it in "Kill Thy Neighbour".
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Fellows repeatedly insists that he is merely a victim of unfortunate circumstances. Nobody ever really seems to buy it.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Fellows is nearly as good at this as Murdoch, rigging a death trap to kill Murdoch's neighbour and frame him for it, and later rigging multiple death traps to kill Murdoch, Dr. Ogden, Brackenreid and Crabtree all at once.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Fellows is openly jealous of Murdoch's "perfect" job and wife, and is desperate to for the same kind of respect.
• Hidden Depths: Fellows initially just seems like a burned-out hotel detective. He's actually a genius to rival Murdoch, who either worked for or was nearly hired by the Pinkerton agency, the Toronto Constabulary and Scotland Yard.
• Jaded Washout: Fellows is extremely bitter at not being able to realize his dream of being a policeman. He was fired from the Pinkerton agency, could have worked for Scotland Yard and an injury forced him to retire from the Toronto Constabulary. He deeply resents Murdoch for having the kind of career he always wanted.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: Fellows escapes Murdoch at the end of "Manual For Murder". When he reappears in "Kill Thy Neighbour", Murdoch finally catches him and he's sentence to hang for murdering Murdoch's neighbour. He gets away with it with help from Goldie Huckabee — who he manipulates into seeking revenge against Murdoch and Julia for her husband's death, and taking the fall for the crime. He is again arrested in "Why is Everybody Singing?"
• Kid Detective: Fellows used to play detective as a child, as part of his dream of becoming a real-life policeman. The truth is his "detecting" amounted to tattling on his sister's mischief and outing his father's adultery, ending his parents' marriage.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Unfortunately, Fellows' detective work led him to reveal his sisters' disobedience, which led to them being harshly beaten by their abusive father. He also inadvertently broke the family up when he exposed his father's infidelity, which led his parents to divorce.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Fellows seemingly leads an obvious trail telling the Toronto police where he intends to flee to, but it's all a smokescreen. He repeatedly plays up his bumbling, unthreatening exterior to either garner sympathy or make himself appear far more ignorant than he actually is.
• Outlaw: Becomes one by the end of "Murdoch Escape Room" and decides to start dressing the part when he returns in "Rawhide Ralph", for no particular reason. Julia calls him out on this by remarking that he's a hotel detective who's dressing himself as a cowboy.
• Master of Disguise: Disguises himself as a blind violin player in "Why is Everybody Singing?" to discretely assassinate Murdoch. Later disguises himself as a constable in order to sneak inside Murdoch's hospital room and finish the job.
• Missed the Call: Fellows' dream was to become a police detective. Unfortunately, his embittered sister ruined all his hopes of becoming a policeman, so that he's forced to work as a low-ranking hotel detective.
• Private Detective: When Fellows returns in "Kill Thy Neighbour", he's shown to have started his own private detective business. He uses this position to orchestrate a murder and frame Murdoch for it.
• The Reveal: Fellows thought that his luck went sour as he grew up, but in truth his spiteful sister went out of her way to ruin his life because his revealing her disobedience got her beaten by their abusive father.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Fellows goes on a killing spree targeting several of the people who ruined his life's dreams, culminating in framing his sister for their murders. He also tries to put one over on Murdoch by tricking him into arresting the wrong person.
• Schlubby, Scummy Security Guard: Fellows is introduced as simply the Hotel detective for the Crown Winsor's Hotel, thus despite his pomposity is little more than a glorified security guard. Whilst he initially appears a smug but otherwise harmless crank who fits the mold of the overzealous and delusions of importance guard to a tee, he proves to actually be a genius able to rival Murdoch and far more dangerous than he appears.
• Too Clever by Half: Like Gillies before him, his obsession with Murdoch leads to him drawing the detective into many of his schemes, which would've otherwise gone perfectly if he wasn't involved.
• Tranquil Fury: Fellows displays this when Murdoch refrains from arresting his sister for the murders he committed and is also subtly shaken when Murdoch reveals that the plot to capture him in "Murder Thy Neighbour" was conceived by Crabtree.
• Villain Song: Gets his own in "Why is Everyone Singing?", in which he delights at being able to kill Murdoch and bring their rivalry to an end.
• We Will Meet Again: When Murdoch sees through Fellows' plot and refrains from arresting his sister and having her hanged for the murders he committed, Fellows calls Murdoch and admits that he wins... for now. After he escapes in Season 14, he sends Murdoch a mocking postcard gloating about his escape.
• Villainous Breakdown: Fellows brags about being a Worthy Opponent to Murdoch, but in keeping with his Tranquil Fury he is subtly but seriously shaken when he realizes that the plot to capture him was masterminded by Crabtree.
• Would Hurt a Child: In "Rawhide Ralph", he abducts Harry, Murdoch's son by Anna Fulford, and Dr. Ogden, who's pregnant with Murdoch's other child and is quite willing to kill them.

Allen Clegg

Played by: Matthew Bennett

An American government agent who repeatedly crosses paths with both Murdoch and Terrence Meyers. He eventually goes rogue and tries to enact his ambition to have Canada conquered by America.

---

• Category Traitor: He considers U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt to be one because Roosevelt doesn't have the same dreams of conquest that he does.
• Diplomatic Impunity: Uses diplomatic immunity to get out of charges that would get him executed several times over, it eventually gets revoked.
• Even Evil Has Standards: When Clegg and some sympathetic scientists develop a highly contagious and lethal virus, Meyers asks him if he plans to conquer the world with it. Clegg says that kind of scheme is too ambitious even for him. He "only" plans to infect President Roosevelt's children with the virus as a way of forcing Roosevelt to follow his organization's lead and back off on his trust-busting efforts against the robber barons.
• Everyone Has Standards: Inverted. Even many of his fellow Americans think he's a fanatic and want nothing to do with him.
• Evil Counterpart: To Terrence Meyers.
• Evil Cripple: When he reappears in Season 16, he's shown to be in a wheelchair.
• Eye Scream: He lost an eye due to his injuries in "The Great White Moose".
• False Flag Operation:
  • He tried to blow up New York and make it look like the attack came from Canada as a way to provoke a war between Canada and the U.S. When Murdoch finds proof of it, he and Prime Minister Laurier pass it on to President Roosevelt. Roosevelt immediately revokes Clegg's diplomatic immunity and Murdoch arrests him.
  • When William Howard Taft comes to Canada on a state visit, Clegg tries to assassinate him with a Make Me Wanna Shout sonic weapon. The U.S. nearly invaded Mexico after an armed man got too close to Taft during his last visit there, and if Taft is actually killed in Canada, the U.S. will almost certainly invade.
  • It's implied that he triggered the Spanish-American War through one of these operations.
  • He tried to have Prime Minister Laurier assassinated by a disgruntled backbench Member of Parliament and frame Terrence Myers as the mastermind.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Clegg mentions that he's part of a larger organization called the Soldiers Of Columbia who are fanatically devoted to the idea of Manifest Destiny. They hate the legitimate American government for not going far enough in their view to enforce Manifest Destiny, and are willing to betray their country with everything from scheming to assassinate their President to blowing up New York in a False Flag Operation that would provoke a war between the U.S. and the British Empire.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: He's finally undone by killing the scientist who helped build the sonic weapon he plans to use as part of his latest scheme. Murdoch reveals this to the scientist's assistant, who was like a son to him, and the assistant rigs the weapon to kill Clegg instead.
• Hypocrite: He considers Roosevelt a traitor for not wanting to take Manifest Destiny as far as he does. His own acts of treason, from trying to assassinate his own President to plotting the murder of thousands of his fellow Americans in a False Flag Operation, are far worse than anything Roosevelt ever did.
• Joker Immunity:
  • Even moreso than James Gillies, "The Trial of Terrence Meyers" reveals that he not only survived being shot in the head he had himself vivisected so he could fake his death with a convincing post mortem autopsy photo.
  • It's finally revoked in "Murdoch And The Sonic Boom", when he's killed by his own sonic weapon.
• Karmic Death: He's killed by his own sonic weapon while trying to start another False Flag Operation and killing the scientist who helped build the weapon.
• Killed Off for Real: He dies in "Murdoch And The Sonic Boom" at the hands of his own sonic weapon. It even gets a Call-Back to "The Devil Inside", the episode where James Gillies was killed. "The Devil Inside" ended with Julia preparing to dissect Gillies' body in the Toronto morgue, and "Murdoch And The Sonic Boom" ends with Murdoch and Julia watching as Violet Hart prepares to start an autopsy on Clegg.
• Knight Templar: He believes that due to climate change the territory currently occupied by America will be uninhabitable in about a century while Canada will have an ideal climate, he plans to remedy this by starting a war between America and Canada with the former conquering the latter.
• Made of Iron: He survived not only having an eye blown out, but being hanged and vivisected as a way of faking his death. He's still out there, unknown to Murdoch or Meyers.
• Make Me Wanna Shout: He tries to kill William Howard Taft with a sonic weapon but he ends up being the one it kills when his scientist assistant turns on him for killing the assistant's father figure.
• Rogue Agent: He becomes persona non grata among the American authorities for his attempt to blow up New York in one of his False Flag Operations, but that doesn't stop him. He starts targeting Presidents Roosevelt and Taft, and Prime Minister Laurier, for assassinations as a way to provoke the U.S. invasion of Canada he craves.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: He's generally immune to the Canadian authorities arresting him since he was appointed the U.S. ambassador to Canada. When Murdoch gets proof of Clegg's False Flag Operation, he turns it over to Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier. Laurier then passes it on to U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt, who promptly revokes Clegg's ambassadorship and clears the way for his arrest.
• The Dog Bites Back: In "Murdoch And The Sonic Boom", he steals a powerful sonic weapon created by the Canadian government, aided by the German scientist and his assistant who designed the weapon. The assistant agreed to betray Canada in exchange for the German scientist, who was a Parental Substitute to him, not being harmed. When Murdoch reveals that Clegg betrayed the assistant, he reworks the sonic device to kill Clegg instead.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Clegg does this to a German scientist who helped develop the weapon he plans to use to assassinate William Howard Taft. The scientist's assistant, who was like a son to him, pays him back in spades.

The O'Shea Brothers

Played By: Jonathan Llyr (Mick) and Nick Nolan (Tim)

The O'Shea brothers present themselves as militant leaders of the Toronto dockworkers, advocating on behalf of the waterfront's working class. They're much, much worse than that.

---

• Blackmail: They line their pockets by extorting money from Toronto's dockside businesses.
• Character Catchphrase: "We own the waterfront." They're more than willing to assault and kill anyone who threatens their claim.
• Co-Dragons: They're the right-hand men of the true mastermind behind the extortion and sexual trafficking on Toronto's docks, namely Toronto harbormaster Cecily Mackinnon.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Brackenreid arrests Mick in one episode for his role in starting a dockside riot, and does a Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique on him when he's a murder suspect. Mick nurses a special hatred for Brackenreid because of that.
• Fighting Irish: They're a pair of violent Irish thugs who viciously beat anyone who threatens their operations.
• Hate Sink: Their beating one of the main protagonists nearly to death is reason enough to hate them, but depicting them as sex traffickers makes them all the more disgusting.
• Human Traffickers: They smuggle women from Eastern Europe into North America in ships. It only gives you another reason to hate them.
• Hypocrite: They claim to be fighting for the dockworkers, but all they care about is bleeding Toronto's merchants for every penny they can.
• Karmic Death: They get shot by their boss when she tries to frame Brackenreid for murder.
• Malevolent Masked Men: They viciously beat a waterfront businessman to death in a high-class restaurant while wearing masks.
• Shame If Something Happened: They blackmail money from Toronto's waterfront businesses while threatening this, and follow through on anyone who investigates them. They also visit Brackenreid at his home, and have a friendly chat with Margaret under the pretense of asking for directions...while staring directly at the wounded Inspector.
• The Villain Knows Where You Live: The brothers beat Brackenreid to within an inch of his life, then show up at his house to show him that they know where he lives, and that he has a family, as a way of "persuading" him to stop investigating them.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Their boss Cecily Mackinnon, Toronto's harbormaster, shoots them both when she has no more use for them and wants to frame Brackenreid for murder.

Amelia and Dorothy Ernst

Played By: Sarah Swire

Amelia Ernst is a fan of George Crabtree who falls madly in love with him and attempts to torture him into being in a relationship with her. Her twin sister Dorothy is introduced as Effie Newsome's secretary, but is eventually revealed to be in league with her sister.

---

• Ambiguously Gay: Dorothy is shown romancing her female lawyer in "Sweet Amelia". However, it's never made clear whether or not she has an actual attraction to her, or was just manipulating her as part of her plan to get revenge on George.
• Creepy Twins: They play mind games with George by making him wonder if they're two sisters or just one woman with a split personality. This even applies to the audience, especially since they're both played by the same actress.
• Driven to Suicide: In Season 15, Dorothy reveals that Amelia hung herself out of despair at being repeatedly rejected by George. Dorothy makes one final attempt on George's life to avenge her, but is ultimately thwarted.
• Expy: Amelia is originally one of Nurse Annie Wilkes from Misery, with George in the Paul Sheldon role. She injures George's ankle (in reference to Wilkes chopping Paul's foot off in Misery) and demands that he write a new story to her liking, much as Annie forced Paul to write a new "Misery" book. George is even dressed similarly to Sheldon from The Film of the Book.
• Identical Twin Mistake: When George first meets Dorothy he assumes she is Amelia in disguise. While he's wrong about her identity, he's right that she's just as malevolent as her sister.
• Knight of Cerebus: Any time either Amelia or Dorothy show up in George's life, things almost always take a more serious tone.
• Loony Fan: Amelia is introduced as one, kidnapping and torturing George in an attempt to force him to love her.
• The Mentally Disturbed: Amelia has an unspecified and undiagnosed mental disorder that makes her prone to intense jealousy, extreme possessiveness, and even violence. Her sister Dorothy is more stable, but no less willing to use violence and torture to get what she wants.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: Amelia and Dorothy attempt to kill Effie Newsome in order to ensure Amelia has no competition for George's heart.
• Revenge: Amelia blames George for her sister's suicide and continues to be a problem in his life because of it.
• Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: Dorothy gaslights George into alienating Effie with his seemingly-paranoid belief that she is out to get him... and not long after he apologizes for thinking the worst of her she reveals her true colors and that he was right all along.
• Yandere: Amelia is madly in love with George and is more-than willing to kidnap and torture him and his loved ones to force him to marry her.

Joe Falcone

Played By: Austin Di Iulio

The son of Black Hand don Giuseppe Falcone, who intends to take over his father's business and has a grudge against Anna Fulford.

---

• The Don: He takes over his imprisoned father's role as don of the Buffalo chapter of the Black Hand, but the other dons are dismissive towards him due to his inexperience and braggadocio drawing unwanted attention.
• Inadequate Inheritor: The other Black Hand dons clearly don't respect him, and consider him a poor replacement to his father.
• Like Father, Unlike Son: Giuseppe Falcone was an ice-cold Soft-Spoken Sadist who was a master of making people fear him with subtle hints. Joe is a short-tempered loudmouth who draws way too much police attention with his petty grudges, such that the Black Hand's other leaders have no problem throwing him under the bus.
• Revenge: He orders a hit on Anna Fulford for her role in his father's imprisonment.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The other Black Hand dons decide that Joe is stirring up too much trouble with law enforcement. They agree to let Murdoch arrest Joe and call off his hit on Anna Fulford in exchange for Murdoch steering clear of the proto-Mafia's business.

Frank Rhodes

Played By: Brendan Murray

A hitman working for the Black Hand mobster Joe Falcone, and is sent to assassinate Anna Fulford and her son Harry.

---

• Character Death: In "Dead On Arrival" he attempts to poison Murdoch. When his scheme fails, the final scene of the episode is of the prison guards taking him to the gallows to be hanged.
• Deal with the Devil: He strikes a deal with Murdoch, turning on Joe Falcone and agreeing to leave Anna Fulford in peace in exchange for not being arrested. Murdoch — having cut another deal with the other Black Hand dons — reneges on his end of it, leaving Rhodes furiously swearing vengeance. Murdoch even has nightmares of Rhodes as Satan as a result of their bargain.
• Hired Gun: He's a hitman working for the Black Hand crime syndicate, a precursor to The Mafia.
• Oh, Crap!: When he realizes that he's been Out-Gambitted by Julia, he slumps down against the wall of his cell, looking utterly defeated.
• Revenge: After Murdoch breaks their deal, Rhodes executes a complex scheme to break out of prison and kill him and his loved ones.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The Black Hand washes their hands of him because his boss Joe Falcone is a liability. In "Dead On Arrival", one of the Black Hand dons even implies to Murdoch the only reason they haven't had Rhodes killed is because he's already in jail and due to be hanged for murder. The don also becomes a Spanner in the Works to Rhodes' attempt to poison Murdoch by giving him the name of the chemist who helped Rhodes.

Maurice Majors

Played By: Roger Cross

Violet Hart's father, who reunites with her in Toronto. It turns out there's a very good reason she left him behind.

---

• Abusive Parents: Heavily implied. When he confronts Violet alone in the morgue, his threatening approach suggests that Violet fled to Canada to escape his abuse.
• At Least I Admit It: He doesn't consider Brackenreid any better than he is. When Brackenreid points out the murders he committed, Majors simply replies that he's not the one portraying himself as a paragon of law and order.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: He's naturally filthy when he emerges from his fake grave in the Season 16 premiere, but he not only gets himself cleaned up but strolls into Arthur Carmichael's restaurant wearing a classy evening suit fit for a king.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Subverted. He successfully gets Brackenreid to confess to Framing the Guilty Party 20 years ago, but Brackenreid keeps his job because the Chief Constable refuses to accept his resignation.
• The Big Easy: He spent time in New Orleans before following Violet to Toronto. While he was there, he learned the techniques he used to fake his death and trick Violet into thinking he was dead. He also learned to cook jambalaya while he was there, and cooks it for Violet and Arthur when he holds them hostage.
• Bullying a Dragon: Arthur Carmichael tries to kill him, but Maurice is a much smarter and more experienced criminal. Maurice sees him coming and stabs him to death.
• Buried Alive: He deliberately does this to himself in the season 16 premiere as part of his plan to trick Violet into thinking he's dead.
• Canine Companion: He somehow trained a gravedigger's dog into leading its owner to to his fake grave. After he kills both the gravediggers who freed him, he takes the dog with him.
• Cigar Chomper: Once he takes over Arthur and Violet's home, he spends their money on luxuries for himself, inluding fancy cigars.
• Covered in Gunge: He's very dirty when he first climbs out of his fake grave, but it doesn't take long for him to get cleaned up.
• Faking the Dead: His will states that he wants his body returned to New York if he dies. The coffin sent to New York is full of straw and dead weight to trick Violet into thinking he's dead, but he's still alive and in Toronto.
• Faux Affably Evil: He has a friendly, cheerful demeanor even when he's threatening to publicly humiliate or kill whoever he's dealing with.
• Genius Bruiser: He's not only very clever and resourceful, but very, very strong.
• Hostage for MacGuffin: He threatens to murder Margaret Brackenreid unless the Inspector signs a confession about Framing the Guilty Party two decades ago.
• The Hedonist: When he sets himself up in Arthur and Violet's home, he spends their money on fine clothes, cigars and alcohol, living the high life and forcing them to wait on him.
• Hollywood Voodoo: He doesn't really practice it himself, but while he was in New Orleans a Voodoo practitioner taught him various techniques to make himself seem dead and then revive himself. He puts them to good use in tricking and then entrapping Violet.
• Karma Houdini: As of the Season 16 premiere, he not only completely evades Murdoch but holds Violet Hart and Arthur Carmichael prisoner in their own home, making it clear he'll kill them if they anger him, all while considering what other crimes a supposedly dead man could get up to in Toronto. Despite attempting to frame Brackenreid for murder, he later escapes Toronto with all of Violet's money.
• Neck Snap: He gets out of his fake grave with the help of two cemetery workers. He grabs them each by the throat and snaps their necks with just one hand.
• No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine: He cooks Violet and Arthur a meal of jambalaya while he explains how he faked his death and tricked them. They initially think he's planning to poison them, and he eats the first big spoonful to show it's safe.
• Not Quite Dead: He's seemingly killed, but is revealed to have faked his death.
• Offing the Offspring: He's more than ready to shoot Violet when she tries to stop him shooting Brackenreid.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: He absolutely despises Brackenreid for Framing the Guilty Party, a friend of his who'd murdered two women. Half the reason he's come to Toronto is to profit from Violet's efforts, and the other is to ruin or kill Brackenreid.
• Scary Black Man: He's a very large man who's killed multiple people with his bare hands. His Faux Affably Evil demeanor, where he's both friendly to whoever he's speaking to while making it crystal clear he'll murder them if they don't do what he wants, makes him all the more disturbing.
• Shame If Something Happened: He does this to Violet several times:
  • When he first tracks her down in Toronto, he points out that revealing her to be a bigamist would cost her her career and marriage.
  • When he strolls into Arthur's restaurant, he makes it clear that he's willing to murder Arthur on the spot if Arthur doesn't immediately do what he says.
  • When he invites himself into Arthur and Violet's home, he keeps them quiet by pointing out that he could have them arrested for harboring a fugitive.
  • When Arthur tries to kill him and he kills Arthur in turn, he warns Violet that her prints are all over the knife and that he could frame her for murder.
  • When he demands that Brackenreid sign a confession about Framing the Guilty Party, he threatens to kill Margaret when Brackenreid refuses.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: He spends a fortune of Arthur and Violet's money on fancy clothes for himself, along with fine liquour and cigars. Even before he meets them, he not only cleans off all the filth of his fake grave but somehow acquires a finely-tailored suit to match any high-society toff.
• The Thing That Would Not Leave: He holds Arthur and Violet hostage in their own home, forcing them to not only fire all the servants so no one will reveal his presence there, but also to wait on him hand and foot.
• The Undead: Subverted. Some people think he's a zombie because he climbed out of a grave and looks incredibly dirty. Murdoch scoffs at this, and Maurice is in fact very alive. He even makes a morbid joke about what kind of crimes a "dead man" can get up to in Toronto.
• The Villain Knows Where You Live: He breaks into the Brackenreid house to steal Brackenreid's old military revolver to frame him for murder. He also points out to Brackenreid that he can easily find and kill Margaret if Brackenreid doesn't confess to Framing the Guilty Party.
• We Will Meet Again: Zigzagged and discussed. Murdoch thinks that Majors won't return, since he's now a wanted fugitive across Canada. Brackenreid isn't so sure, saying that Majors could turn up again like a bad penny.

Others

Anna Fulford

Played By: Lisa Faulkner

A young English woman who comes from Bristol. She's an owner of a pub she inherited from her deceased father, and later decides to relocate to Canada.

---

• The Bus Came Back: She was given a new identity and was sent to live in hiding in Season 4, but she returned to Toronto for two episodes in Season 5.
• Break the Cutie: She realizes that a man she loves has deep feelings for another woman. Later she gets engaged with another man she could love, but he's murdered by "Black Hand", a sinister organization who her fiancé worked for and stole from them. And it gets worse, as they target Anna as well as a punishment and warning for other members of the Mafia.
• The Cutie: She's a very sweet and very kind young woman. Even Julia, who should be jealous of her, says that she is lovely and seems to mean it.
• Death Faked for You: The police tricks a Mafia organization that has a prize on her head. They prepare an elaborate performance when she appears to have been shot and is sent away with a new identity.
• English Rose: She's a young middle-class English woman from Bristol. Anna is a pretty pale-skinned blonde with big dark-brown eyes. She's sweet, kind and lively.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: She's a very young and very beautiful blonde. She intuitively recognizes that Detective Murdoch is a good man, even though he is pursued by the police or roguish agents, and she decides to help him. She's a bit livelier that this archetype tends to be but she fits the trope.
• Love Interest: To Detective Murdoch. Anna and the detective appear to be a great romantic match. They have wonderful chemistry and share one or two kisses, but their relationship just is not to be.
• Put on a Bus: She was sent away to start a new life under a new identity. Twice.
• Romantic False Lead: She was wonderful and had great chemistry with Detective Murdoch, but he just belongs to Dr. Odgen.

James Pendrick

Played By: Peter Stebbings

A brilliant inventor and businessman from Toronto.

---

• Big Bad: In Season 3, several cases lead to the Pendrick household. Murdoch is sure that it's Mr Pendrick who is responsible for frauds, dangerous scientific experiments, or even mysterious murders. Subverted, as it turns out he's quite innocent, and his beautiful wife is the one to be blamed. She would be perfectly fine with him being hanged for her crimes. He did truly love her.
• Big Damn Heroes: Double Subverted in an episode where he saves Murdoch by shooting the criminal that is about to kill the detective. At first it seems like Pendrick only did it to prevent the criminal, who Murdoch suspected was working for him, from ratting him out. It turns out that Pendrick was in fact innocent, and framed by his wife Sally for the crimes. His claim about simply being in the right place at the right time was quite true.
• Butt-Monkey: After he loses his original fortune, Pendrick tries several times to rebuild it. While he comes up with some impressive inventions, including an electric car engine, a flying machine and film sound technology, the latter of which ties into his becoming a film director, his attempts are ruined by everything from corrupt business rivals to American and Canadian government agents to his own arrogance and pride. He also keeps being arrested for murders he didn't commit, eventually reaching the point where Murdoch acknowledges that he's almost certainly innocent, but there's so much evidence to the contrary he can't not arrest him.
• Fallen Prince: After his thieving wife Sally steals his fortune, Pendrick is forced to try and make his fortune all over again. Murdoch runs into him occasionally with some of the new inventions he's pursuing.
• Honest Corporate Executive: Murdoch originally suspects him of orchestrating various criminal deeds, but Pendrick was actually framed by his wife and his own corporate dealings are all above board, from what we see in the show.
• Honor Before Reason:
  • He won't let the Government use his inventions for military operations and destruction, even if it means he must demolish his own work and face a trial for high treason. Bashing Terrance Meyers in the process is a bonus.
  • There's his encounter with Thomas Edison when he tries his hand at directing films. Edison is impressed enough with Pendrick's skills that he offers Pendrick a role in the movie business he's planning to build in California, but Pendrick arrogantly refuses, saying that he'll make Canada the world's film mecca. An infuriated Edison reminds Pendrick that he owns all the theatres in the United States, and he'll block Pendrick's films from ever being screened in the U.S. Pendrick says that he'll make up for it by screening them in Europe, but Edison just laughs him off.
• Insufferable Genius: He's very confident and satisfied with himself, and he feels superior to everybody. He's also a member of a eugenics society, which wouldn't be seen as a negative thing at the time, but still highlights his inherent arrogance.
• Self-Made Man: Pendrick made his original fortune through a combination of scientific brilliance and clever business acumen.
• Steampunk: He's an eccentric entrepreneur and his inventions have definitely steampunk aesthetics with lots of gold, brass and metallic surfaces embellished with clocks, gauges and measuring instruments. The inventions include an electric carriage, a proto-aeroplane, a gliding suit, a rocket intended to reach outside the atmosphere (carrying a man no less) or a hyper-train called the Pendrick FLASH (flash being an acronym for Frictionless Levitated Accelerated Subsurface Hyper-train).

Svetlana Tsiolkovsky

Played By: Christine Horne

A brilliant daughter of a Russian scientist. She's in a relationship with James Pendrick whom she admires and helps him with his research and inventions.

---

• Sensual Slav: A very attractive young woman from Russia. Statuesque and blond. She moved to Canada because of her love for James Pendrick.
• Steampunk: James and Svetlana work on a space rocket that is supposed to take James on the Moon. The rocket is very steam-punk-y. She also wears a slightly masculine outfit (pants instead of a dress or a skirt) and she has a mechanical assistive device on her leg.

Elva Gordon

Played by: Lauren Lee Smith

Miss Gordon is a female explorer. She is a believer in the Hollow Earth theory, and would love to prove it, but she lacks funds for her research.

---

• Boyish Short Hair: Miss Gordon makes quite an impression on Emily and Julia with her boyish haircut and clothes. Dr. Emily Grace compliments her on the hairstyle, but Elva replies she wears it because it's practical and mentions that any woman who must spend weeks in jungles and underground caves without a place to wash would cut off her hair as well.
• Chocolate of Romance: Elva has an anonymous suitor who has been sending her roses and bonbons for months.
• Flowers of Romance: Elva's mysterious suitor has been sending her roses and bonbons for several past months.
• Lady of Adventure: Elva Gordon is a rather famous explorer who works at the Ontario Provincial Museum. Drs. Julia Ogden and Emily Grace attend her lecture and they are impressed by her accomplishments, her personality as well as her unconventional looks. Elva talks about her adventures in Yucatan, where she explored some of the deepest caves known to mankind.

Fiona Faust

Played by: Kelly McNamee

Miss Fiona Faust is a cyclist attempting to the complete the Bicycle World Tour 1905.

---

• Alliterative Name: Both her names start with F: Fiona Faust.
• First-Name Basis: Detective Watts asks her to call him Llewelyn, which she gladly accepts.
• Lady of Adventure: Miss Fiona Faust is a young lady who has travelled nearly the entire world on her bicycle. She was particularly impressed by Constantinople, a city half in Europe and half in Asia. George eagerly asks her about Egypt. She answers she camped under the Great Sphinx; luncheoned by the pyramids of Khufu and swam in waters of the Nile river. She says she hopes to see it again.
• Love Interest: Detective Watts falls for Fiona almost immediately. She is very much interested in him as well but she wants to finish her goal first.

Roger Newsome

Played by: Cyrus Lane

An insufferable hobbyist and the first member of the Newsome clan to appear on the show.

---

• Anyone Can Die: Roger prominently appears in three episodes (providing comic relief), and the show's writers acknowledge him as one of their Creators Favorites, but he still dies in his fourth appearance. The only reason his death doesn't count as a Shoo Out the Clowns example is that the rest of the episode is played for Of Corpse He's Alive comedy.
• Cheaters Never Prosper: Roger cheats at everything from puzzles to birdwatching and almost always gets away with it for a while, only to fail anyway or eventually get exposed.
• Dirty Coward:
  • When Roger sees George being attacked and overpowered by a murderer, he runs away.
  • In his final episode, Roger is very rattled about the idea of testifying against a mob boss in court after witnessing the man commit murder. He's right to be worried, but his demeanor isn't very impressive.
• Fatal Flaw: Pride. Newsome's obsession with appearing to be successful at his hobbies constantly makes him cheat in ways that get him involved in police investigations, and his reluctance to admit the truth about his cheating makes him a murder suspect in two episodes, in his final appearance. His pride also keeps him from volunteering evidence which might have made his testimony in a murder trial less important and kept the murderer from targeting him. In his last appearance, he also sneaks away from his police bodyguards to get a haircut so he'll look nice while testifying in court, which gets him shot.
  Murdoch George. You think Mr. Newsome confessed to a murder in order to cover up the fact that he cheats at golf?
  George: Yes.
  Murdoch: That would be mad.
  George: Yes.
  Brackenreid: He could be right, Murdoch. That twit values his pride over everything. I was once ready to hang him over a bloody maths puzzle.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: The other members of his auto, golf and puzzle clubs can't stand him. Even Crabtree, the biggest Nice Guy on the whole show, utterly despises him despite Roger thinking they're friends.
• Instant Expert: Subverted. Roger seems to experience instant success at his various hobby clubs, but this is due to trickery like taking credit for a puzzle someone else filled out, using rigged golf balls, and planting a stuffed bird for him to "discover" in front of other bird-watchers.
• Of Corpse He's Alive: After Roger is killed by a mob assassin, Murdoch places his body in a wheelchair and (hoping to draw out the killer) claims that he was only wounded and will be staying with Murdoch until he recovers enough to testify at the trial of the assassin's boss. Hilarity Ensues.
• Oblivious to Hatred: Roger treats George like a good friend even though George loathes him with a passion due to how he obstructs police investigations and refused in a cowardly manner to help George fight off a dangerous killer in one episode.
• Skewed Priorities:
  • In his first and third appearance, Roger would rather be suspected of murder than admit that he's cheating at one of his hobbies.
  • In his final appearance, Roger is fatally shot by an assassin after leaving his guarded hotel room during a murder trial to get a haircut.
• Too Dumb to Live: Roger knows full well that a mob boss is trying to kill him, and the Toronto police are keeping him in a guarded hotel room for his own safety. He still heads out unescorted in broad daylight to get a haircut. He's predictably shot before he reaches the end of the street.
• Upper-Class Twit: He's a vacuous playboy who only gets anywhere in life due to his family fortune and a lot of cheating. He's such a Jerkass that none of the other members of any of his social clubs can stand him, and he's oblivious to their loathing. It's heavily implied the only reason they tolerate him is because of his belonging to a rich, respected family. He also has a very bad case of Skewed Priorities and being Too Dumb to Live.

Rupert Newsome

Played by: Cyrus Lane

Ruth and Roger's even stupider brother.

---

• Always Identical Twins: Rupert is identical to his late twin Roger, by virtue of being played by the same actor.
• Beware the Silly Ones: After his family fortune is embezzled, the foppish Rupert chases the perpetrator across the lawn while armed with a sword.
• Henpecked Husband: After finding his first hour of poverty unbearable, Rupert quickly gets engaged to Lucinda Helmsworthy, a neighbour whose family are long-time rivals of the Newsomes. He can't stand Lucinda's abrasive personality (the thing she likes most about Rupert is how easily bossed around he is), but Rupert goes through with the marriage just to be rich again.
• Karma Houdini: "The Lady Vanishes" has Rupert and his wife Lucinda hatch a ridiculous Gambit Pileup that sends the police on a wild goose chase. When Murdoch finally sorts the mess out, he badly wants to see Rupert and Lucinda charged, but Brackenreid points out that the jury will never understand their plots or why they're being prosecuted. This only disgusts Murdoch further and reinforces his hatred of Mimico.
• Oblivious to Hatred: George dislikes him even more than he did Roger, and he's even more convinced that they're friends. George suspects that he doesn't know what having an actual friend is like.
• Slap-Slap-Kiss: His relationship with his wife Lucinda is a particularly toxic version of this trope.
• Stepford Smiler: In his second episode, Rupert tries to bribe Henry so he won't marry Ruth. At first, Rupert nonchalantly claims it's because Henry would embarrass him in front of his friends, but later, he admits that it's because he doesn't have any friends and is afraid of being all alone once Ruth marries Henry.
• Upper-Class Twit: Rupert is a very dim bulb, and while he is a cardiac surgeon on paper, he cares only about the title and doesn't do any work.

Dr. Iris Bajjali

Played by: Athena Karkanis

An Egyptologist who is a person of interest in two of Murdoch's cases and has some UST with him.

---

• Action Girl: She braves a booby-trapped temple Adventurer Archaeologist style while looking for the Holy Grail.
• Smite Me, O Mighty Smiter: She's struck by lightning right after trying to claim the Holy Grail for herself in a Moment of Weakness after an archeological hunt and saying there is no God when Murdoch tries to dissuade her.

---