As Murdoch Mysteries opens, Dr. Julia Ogden (Helene Joy) and Detective William Murdoch (Yannick Bisson) attend the much anticipated Dinosaur Gala. Both grin ear to ear as they are finally able to dance together in public. Suddenly, they hear the clink of a glass, and attention shifts to the front of the room. Mary Ann McConnell (Kerry McPherson) excitedly introduces Barclay Blake (Geordie Johnson), a prominent paleontologist and academic. Reveling in the attention, Blake pulls a sheet, revealing his latest discovery, a dinosaur femur.
However, a gasp arises from the crowd as a hammer wielding young man rushes the stage. “Blasphemers!” While Murdoch restrains the boy, a curtain behind them falls, revealing the body of Lukas DeWitt (Sean Kaufmann) hanging from the jaws of a large t-rex skeleton.
Later, Julia crouches over DeWitt’s body. From just a quick examination, she ascertains that the man died from a gunshot wound to the head.
The next morning, Blake arrives at Station House 4 to answer some questions. While he claims to be unaware of Dewitt having any enemies, Blake describes how bone hunting can often be a dangerous business. The dinosaur bones they work with are valuable artifacts.
The line of questioning leads Detective Murdoch to the offices of Professor Rudolph Sutton (Matt Gordon). The academic and paleontologist is identified as a bitter rival of Blake and his team. While Sutton buzzes around his office, the man can’t hide his disdain for Blake. However, while he fiercely maintains his innocence, he doesn’t have a solid alibi.
Later, the team once again gathers at the Station House. George (Jonny Harris) chatters excitedly to Murdoch, discussing his theories how dinosaurs could still exists. The constable even cites Loch Ness in Scotland as a location where a dinosaur could live unnoticed. Murdoch cuts the Constable off, Dr. Ogden should have their post-mortem results ready.
Unfortunately, it isn’t that simple. As Murdoch arrives at the morgue, Julia thrusts a piece of paper in his face. It turns out, DeWitt’s family filed an injunction, prohibiting Julia from opening up the body. However, during a quick examination she did find traces of phosphorus on his skin. The presence of the chemical shows that DeWitt actually died at the dig site in Alberta. The killer than presumably shipped his body back to Toronto.
Later, while Murdoch examines Blake’s gun, the prominent paleontologist casually mentions that Dr. Sutton had visited their dig site, only a few days before. However, Dr. Sutton reported that was working in his lab at the time. Who is lying?
Meanwhile, Julia has a brilliant idea. While she still can’t open up the body, nothing prohibits her from x-raying it. Luckily, Dr. Ogden has contacts at the local hospital and it able to borrow the new contraption. With the assistance of Murdoch and Inspector Brackenreid (Thomas Craig), they set to work. As they look at the completed x-ray, they discover the bullet has seemingly vanished.
Searching for any possible clues, Julia takes a sample of some debris in the wound. As she works, Detective Murdoch has an idea. Could the murder weapon have been a geology pick?
Later, Detective Murdoch stares at a map of the dig site with George. It turns out that DeWitt was obsessed with a particular area of the region. Could this hold any significance? When they go to question Blake, Murdoch learns that the man is stepping down. In fact he has already named Mary Ann McConnell, his former assistant, as his replacement.
That night, Julia goes to see Murdoch as he sits alone in his office. She has the results of her tests from the wound and confirms that the murder weapon was a geology pick.
Meanwhile, Constable Higgins (Lachlan Murdoch) recognizes the hammer wielding protester from the gala as a panhandler from his beat. Luckily, the Constable assumed an interview would be important, so the boy is already in the cells, ready and waiting. As Detective Murdoch later questions him, the boy admits that Professor Sutton had thought Blake’s discovery to be a fake, and paid him to destroy it.
Later, Murdoch returns to the morgue and finds that Julia has finally conducted the post-mortem. She quickly reports her discoveries to the Detective. It turns out, DeWitt was wearing a medallion when he was killed. Due to mummification, the shape of the necklace remained imprinted on the body even after the medallion was removed. Looking at the shape on the man’s neck, Murdoch realizes that he’s seen it before.
As a matter of fact, Mary Ann wears an identical medallion. When Murdoch brings her in for questioning, she admits to everything. Like Sutton, DeWitt also learned that Blake’s discovery was a fake. When he confronted Blake about it, the older man panicked and killed DeWitt with his own geology pick. Mary Ann entered the tent at the wrong moment, and saw the murder being committed. However, rather than report the crime, she used it to her own advantage. As such, both are complicit in DeWitt’s death.
As the episode comes to a close, Murdoch flashes forward to an older version of himself prospecting for dinosaur bones in Alberta. He watches his young son play in the dust as his wife emerges from their tent. Her face is not shown. Is the woman Julia?
Murdoch Mysteries airs Monday nights on CBC as well as on Ovation as The Artful Detective.
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