Secrets and Lies begins with Inspector Thomas Brackenreid (Thomas Craig) in unfamiliar surroundings, searching for a missing person. Within minutes, he’s jumped by several men and knocked flat on his back. When he finally gets back on his feet, he makes his way up a staircase to a one room apartment, and is greeted by a black woman with whom he’s obviously well acquainted. He tells her he still hasn’t found “our daughter”. Then the audience loses its collective mind.
As everyone picks up their jaws from the floor, we get some background on the story, and the next scene takes place two days earlier. Brackenreid arrives in town and meets with Sarah (Raven Dauda) for coffee. She tells him her daughter Nomi has been missing for a month and then gives him the surprising news: “she is your daughter.”
Shocked, Brackenreid asks her: “Even if it is true, why should it matter to me?”
“Because at one time, we meant something to each other,” Sarah replies.
The Search For A Missing Daughter
Angry and confused, Brackenreid tells her: “I can’t help you, I’m going home,” and heads to the train station. But he quickly changes his mind and arrives at her apartment.
“If you want me to help, you have to tell me everything about Nomi,” Brackenreid tells Sarah.
Sarah tells Thomas that Nomi went to secretary school and worked part-time in a laundry. Then she headed to school one day and Sarah never saw her again.
Brackenreid asks her why she had run away, after she had discovered she was pregnant.
“If I had stayed, what would that have done to you?” she says. “A young man with a black child? Your life would have been over before it started.”
“You should have told me,” Brackenreid responds.
“I left you because I loved you.”
An Anxious Margaret Waits For News
Meanwhile, back at Station House No. 4, Margaret Brackenreid (Arwen Humphreys) is getting more worried by the hour. She has no idea where her husband is. Murdoch (Yannick Bisson), too, is starting to become concerned and launches an investigation into the Inspector’s whereabouts.
“I’m sure the Inspector will call in presently and the moment he does, we will notify you.” Murdoch tells Margaret.
With Constable Crabtree’s permission, Constable John Brackenreid (Charles Vandervaart) decides to search for his father in the town of St. Mary’s, knowing his dad had grown up there.
Murdoch scolds Crabtree (Jonny Harris) for letting John go. “The man has his right to privacy.”
Later, Sarah confides in Thomas that she never had never loved anyone else and confesses to him that he is the love of her life. “In all these years, I’ve never met another like you.” The pair embrace, but does Brackenreid give in to temptation?
The next day, a letter is delivered to Sarah, supposedly from Nomi, but she says it’s not her handwriting.
Secrets And Lies
John arrives in St. Mary’s and tracks his father to Sarah’s apartment. When he finds Thomas with Sarah, he is shocked and angry. Thomas tells him he has an illegitimate sister and he calls his father a liar.
Brackenreid follows several leads in the search for his daughter and John agrees to help him. But will they find her? And once he returns to Toronto, what will happen to his marriage if he tells Margaret about his secret daughter?
Secrets And Lies was a heart-stopping, emotional episode with exceptional performances from Craig, Dauda, Humphreys and Vandervaart.
Murdoch Mysteries airs Monday nights at 8 p.m. on CBC. The show is on a holiday season hiatus and returns on January 7. You can watch Secrets and Lies here.
Love me some Murdoch Mystries. …I record the episodes and watch them at the same time……?