Investigating a case involving a murdered woman leads Murdoch to encounters with zombies created by the mad psychiatrist, Dr. Luther Bates.
Tropes:
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Harriet Fuller hoped that Dr. Bates' treatment would end the abusive behavior of her husband, Jeremiah. Whilst he stopped being violent, he also went from a hard worker who supported the family to an aimless, near-mindless sheep who just lumbered around all day.
- Blackmail: Harriet Fuller found out about Dr. Bates' illegal experiments when she was working at his "clinic". He agreed to conduct his "treatment" on Jeremiah Fuller in exchange for her not revealing that he was forging death certificates ad releasing prisoners into the city.
- Call-Back: Dr. Bates is working in the prison infirmary due to having been fired in disgrace from his job as a result of his precious encounter with Murdoch, back in the episode "Epilogue-Barclay".
- Death by Irony: Dr. Bates is murdered by one of the men whose brains he damaged in pursuit of a cure for criminal behavior through lobotomy.
- Domestic Abuse: Jeremiah Fuller used to beat his wife, Harriet, and terrorize the neighborhood. She gave him to Dr. Bates in hopes that he would "fix him".
- Foreshadowing: Dr. Bates taunts Murdoch that the "failed experiment" he has just pushed him into the grasp of is a "biter". At the episode's end, that same prisoner kills Bates by biting his throat out.
- Man Bites Man: One of the lobotomized prisoners tries to bite Dr. Grace. Another successfully kills Dr. Bates by biting him to death.
- Metaphorically True: Dr. Bates touts his lobotomy work as a "cure" for antisocial behavior. It does remove violent impulses, but it also removes all drive and assertiveness, leaving them as mindless lumbering hulks who are incapable of caring for themselves or contributing anything positive to society.
- Our Zombies Are Different: The English Revenant and the Haitian Zombi, whose mythologies ultimately gave rise to the cinematic zombie traditions of today, are both brought up and discussed during the episode. The two lobotomized inmates who try to attack Dr. Grace and kill Dr. Bates respectively show some core characteristics of the cinematic zombie.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: When Dr. Bates' experiments escape into Toronto, Breckenridge shuts down Constable Crabtree's idea to unlock the armory and instead sends him to gather nets and recruit the city dog-catcher, pointing out that these aren't monsters, just broken men.
- Zombie Apocalypse: Invoked, when Constable Crabtree theorizes that "Dr. Sabet" is an evil bokor seeking to amass a zombie army, but subverted in practice. Whilst the baker's dozen of Dr. Bates' failed experiments do scare a lot of people, they're shown as being in no condition to actually hurt anyone, save for the last two; one repeatedly walks into a telegraph pole and then falls over, causing the two police officers that had been warily closing in on him to exchange disbelieving looks.
