Murdoch Mysteries Season 12 Lossless Best Review

Murdoch smiles, takes the cylinder, and locks it in his desk drawer — not destroyed, but preserved with intention. “Lossless,” he murmurs, “is a lie. We are lossy creatures. And that is what makes us human.”

In a dramatic scene, Murdoch plays the enhanced recording for Brackenreid and the suspect. Mary breaks down, confessing. “He said silence was just sound waiting to be heard. I wanted my silence to stay silent.” murdoch mysteries season 12 lossless

Weeks later, as the credits begin, we hear a faint, crackling recording — not of the lullaby, but of the baby’s first cry after birth, recorded accidentally by a nurse’s new Dictaphone. Julia and Murdoch listen, not with sadness, but with wonder. The episode ends with Murdoch writing in his journal: “Today, I heard a sound that has never existed before. And I let it go.” Murdoch smiles, takes the cylinder, and locks it

The killer is revealed: not Hornbeck, but Finch’s own assistant, a meek woman named Mary Whittaker. Mary was also a test subject. Finch had secretly recorded her private confessions — including one about a past abortion (illegal and scandalous in 1908) — as part of his “lossless” experiments, claiming he could preserve human emotion in audio. Mary, terrified of eternal exposure, killed him in a panic and tried to erase the cylinder, not realizing the “click” was her own act being recorded. And that is what makes us human

But the clues point elsewhere. Finch’s patent application was contested by a rival: Thomas Edison’s representative, a ruthless businessman named Silas P. Hornbeck. Hornbeck claims Finch’s “lossless” claims are fraudulent — that perfect preservation of sound is impossible and dangerous. “If every word, every secret, could be preserved forever,” Hornbeck argues, “there would be no forgiveness, no forgetting. Only judgment.”

This story aligns with Season 12’s exploration of fatherhood (Murdoch), vulnerability (Julia), and the limits of technology. It also serves as a quiet prequel to later episodes involving early forensics and audio analysis, without contradicting canon.