Blushing groom Henry Higgins (Lachlan Murdoch) is surrounded by Murdoch, Brackenreid and Crabtree at the Newsome residence, to witness his Big Fat Mimico Wedding as Murdoch Mysteries, season 12, episode 3 begins.
Higgins tells the boys he’s decided to hyphenate his last name, to Henry Higgins-Newsome. But he’s quite concerned that because he’s quit his job as a constable, he’s left Station House No. 4 in the lurch.
“Somehow we’ll muddle through without you,” Brackenreid (Thomas Craig) says, rolling his eyes.
Suddenly a shot rings out and Higgins falls back onto a bed. Is he dead?
Moments later, when Henry comes to, it turns out the pen case George (Jonny Harris) gave him as a wedding gift saved Henry’s life. He hugs George, tearing up. But then he seems more concerned about the fact that he has a hole in his suit jacket. George switches jackets with him: “Crisis averted,” George says.
Meddlesome Matchmaker
George then happens into the wrong room and Ruth Newsome (Siobhan Murphy), decides to once again play matchmaker for George, this time with her female cousins, Geraldine “Gigi” Chumley and Effie Newsome. Poor George is flustered as he leaves the room and drops his best man speech on the floor. In it, he reveals that Higgins was inadvertently responsible for Ruth’s brother Roger’s death. Effie finds the speech on the floor and the two are set against each other for the rest of the episode.
Henry’s snobby new persona continues and he refers to his former bosses Murdoch (Yannick Bisson) and Brackenreid as William and Tom.
“Just because you’re not working for me anymore, doesn’t mean you can call me that now,” Brackenreid says.
“Why not?” Henry replies. Score one for Higgins.
As the wedding ceremony begins, George is obsessed with getting the wedding ring out of his previous jacket pocket (now Higgins’ suit jacket) and the ring pops out, landing on the floor. As the pair forage on the floor for the ring, a chandelier drops from the ceiling. Thus George has saved Henry’s life once again.
Brackenreid has had enough and puts a stop to the wedding so he and Murdoch can begin to determine who is trying to kill Henry.
“George, you’ve ruined my wedding,” Henry says, moments later.
Incredulous, George tells him: “Ruined your wedding? Someone is trying to kill you!”
Newsome Family Squabbles
Besides his best man duties, George spends most of the episode avoiding an over-amorous bridesmaid, and trying to get his speech back from the maid of honor.
As usual, the Newsome family squabbles take center stage during the episode. Ruth’s brother Rupert thinks Henry will ruin their family name. Her cousin Pelham literally stands on his chair during the ceremony, to object to Henry marrying the woman he was meant for.
My Big Fat Mimico Wedding was a highly entertaining episode, with some outright uproarious moments, like when George is trying to escape the clutches of Gigi, while he’s wandering around the Newsome residence in his pajamas.
Do Henry and Ruth finally make it to the altar? You’ll have to watch it to see for yourself.
New episodes of Murdoch Mysteries air Mondays at 8 p.m. on CBC.
As it happens, I’ve been binging on PG Wodehouse’s ‘Jeeves and Wooster’ episodes with Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry.
The women in this episode were pure Wodehouse creations, in the mould of the scheming Stephanie Bing and the drippy Angela Bassett.
Barry Kerry I felt massive Wodehouse vibes when watching the episode too. It turns out, it was completely deliberate. According to a tweet by Simon McNabb, it was written as a “farce in the style of PG Wodehouse.”
I think they did a pretty good job. I caught onto what they were doing straight away.