Roddy Grimesby is found dead from a lethal ingestion of varnish. When the police show up at the crime scene, the victim’s son Harcourt – a ventriloquist – is found hiding in the closet with his look alike dummy Mycroft. Even more disturbing than the similarity, is the roiling bond between the two – much like hostile brothers.

Murdoch inadvertently upstages Brackenreid at a meeting of police chiefs and catches the attention of Chief Constable Stockton who invites him to apply for an Inspector position at Station No. 3.

After his victory against Sully Sullivan, underdog, black boxer Amos Robinson is found dead in his hotel. The suspect is his wife Fannie who was found standing over his body.

Detective Murdoch’s hero Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes is in town to give a lecture on spiritualism.

Wendell Merrick was killed in the church meeting room on the day he was to marry Eunice McGinty.

John Delaney was on his way home from a ratting match at Vincent Newcombe’s pub and somehow ended up face down in the river. Nearby, Murdoch finds the prone drunken body of Harry his estranged father.