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The Doctor Blake Mysteries Season 2 Episodes
Season 2 Episode Guide
10 Episodes 2014 - 2014
Episode 1
The Heart of the Matter
56 mins
Dr Blake returns from China and finds himself thrown straight into a murder investigation when the newly elected mayor of Ballarat is found dead at the bottom of the town hall steps. But threads of betrayal, adultery and double-dealing lead him to some high and low places, and Jean - kept in the dark - worries for him.
Episode 2
The Food of Love
54 mins
An up-and-coming rock 'n' roll singer comes to Ballarat to perform, and the town goes wild for him. But when the star dies in an alleyway outside the venue, it falls to Dr Blake to investigate the mystifying circumstances, see past the murky intrigue of the singer's life and find the truth. While Blake investigates, Lawson must try to keep the peace as the town is divided, and Charlie encounters feisty young almoner Rose.
Episode 3
A Foreign Field
55 mins
When the body of a well-dressed man is found dead on a picnic blanket in Ballarat's botanical gardens, Blake determines the cause of death as cyanide poisoning. But when attempts to identify the man fail, Blake is left to rely on a mysterious clue trail to attempt to uncover the identity of his killer.
Episode 4
Smoke and Mirrors
55 mins
Cec Drury, the butler at the Colonists' Club, has just closed up for the night when a body appears out of nowhere from above, crashing onto the roof of the car in front of him. So begins one of Dr Blake's most unlikely and remarkable cases. After surveying the balcony Blake realises the railing is too high for this 'fall' to be an accident. Meanwhile, Lawson is caught up in a hit-and-run involving one of his officers. The only clue linking both incidents is a pouch of brandless tobacco.
Episode 5
Crossing the Line
54 mins
Jean is at the cinema when, to everyone's horror, a fire breaks out in the projection booth during a packed screening of Hitchcock's Vertigo. Adam Summers has burned to death and every employee and patron in the cinema is a suspect. Meanwhile, Mattie tells Blake about the wedding of the year - Amelia Yorke is marrying wealthy bachelor Vincent Foster. But when Blake discovers the cinema fire was intended to destroy the films and not Adam he looks to the wedding party for answers.
Episode 6
Mortal Coil
56 mins
Jean attends a local funeral where the coffin is dropped, revealing not one but two bodies. It turns out to be the body of a local rag and bone man - but why would someone kill him, and go to such elaborate measures to get rid of the body? Soon, Doctor Blake realises that he's been asking the wrong questions - there's more than one body waiting to be discovered. A missing man may even still be alive, but can Blake solve the puzzle in time to save him? But finding the answer involves grappling with his own mortality, and Jean worries as his behaviour becomes more and more out of control.
Episode 7
The Silence
53 mins
Joseph Lennox, the headmaster of the local elementary school is found dead in his office from a blow to the head, probably from a school trophy, and a ruptured spleen; the excessive bleeding is at first a mystery to Blake and Alice Harvey. Lennox has warfarin in his blood at high dose. Lawson suspects the deputy headmaster Donald McAvoy, who had bullied him at the same school which McAvoy, Lawson and Blake attended as youngsters. Charlie Davis and Blake search the Lennox house, finding one woman's earring and his medications, one containing warfarin. Blake visits the tuck shop (eatery) run by Mrs Wooton, where he finds a package of the rat poison containing warfarin; it is not allowed in a food preparation location. Lennox got lunch and dinner from the tuck shop daily. Police investigate how the poison was administered and the women involved with the headmaster, including Caroline Palmer, a teacher fired six weeks earlier who had helped at the tuck shop but not since she was fired from the school. Miss Blackwell, secretary at the school, reported that Lennox ate his breakfast at home. A more sinister story emerges from two siblings at the school, Paul and Lisa Wooton. Paul tells Charlie Davies that he heard Lennox and Blackwell shouting at the school that day, when he went back to pick up his school trophy. Blake considers Lennox's diet, and figures he liked tea and cake, not yet analyzed. He takes sweets for tea from the tuck shop and shares them with Jean, Mattie, and Superintendent Lawson. Then he wants to do a blood test on them to test for warfarin; they refuse. Blake ate the coconut cake, a lamington, having found shreds of coconut under Lennox's desk The lamington was the source of the warfarin to Lennox. Blackwell admits to the police the loud argument with Lennox shortly before his death, when Lennox called her a pathetic woman. The tuck shop baked lamington cakes regularly for Lennox; specifically, her son Paul baked them. The earring found belonged to Lisa. Mrs Wooton's husband left her. Caroline Palmer told Mrs Wooton of seeing Lennox abusing Lisa, but Mrs Wooton did not believe her. Miss Palmer tells her own story to Lawson of abuse by her uncle during childhood, when her father did not believe her, after Lawson pulled the trophy used to hit Lennox from her garden waste. Lawson believes her, tells her that Paul had been putting warfarin in the cakes, and then arrests her for the assault. Davis and Blake find Paul and Lisa on the road, where Lisa threatens to jump from the bridge. Blake talks her out of jumping and off the bridge wall. Paul was poisoning the headmaster because of what he did to his sister and will face juvenile justice. Mattie wonders if she should have picked up on the girl's situation. Lawson returns the shoes to McAvoy on his day off, facing him down as he bullies a student.
Episode 8
The Ties of the Past
53 mins
Art student and life model, Virginia McKay, is brutally killed and her keys are used to steal a painting from the Ballarat Art Gallery. But when the stolen painting is dumped and the thief becomes the victim of a hit and run, Doctor Blake realizes what the perpetrator was really after - a painting by his mother, Genevieve Etienne. While unravelling the current mystery, Blake also uncovers insights into the past that reveal he is indeed his mother's son.
Episode 9
The Sky Is Empty
54 mins
The story opens in church with the priest, Cyril Morton giving a wandering Sunday sermon against adultery. Jean comes to church the next day for confession in the morning, and finds Father Morton dead in the confessional. He died the night before. Evelyn Toohey, his housekeeper, thinks she killed him by giving him a new fruit to eat, a kiwi from New Zealand, as he died of anaphylactic shock. She gave it to him as he was called out in the evening by a late-night penitent. At the autopsy they learn from specialist Mr Michaels that Father Morton had a brain tumor, and see that he was stung many times by bees, to which Father Morton was allergic. Superintendent Lawson seems a bit jumpy, and tells Charlie Davis to take charge of the case. At the scene, Charlie and Blake find broken glass, dead bees and a bible with candle wax on one page; their theory is that someone knew of the priest's allergy to bee stings and barred the priest's door after tossing in a jar of bees with him and blocking the door. Ben Lloyd and his wife Celia walked out on that sermon. The church sewing circle, including Jean, Celia and Dorothy Turner, prepare the linens for the funeral. Dorothy walks out on crutches. Celia announces that she is pregnant, but has not told her husband yet. Jean reveals that Celia is angry with Father Morton, as his sermons lately seemed to match her confessions, which should be private. His brain tumor is reaching into the frontal lobe and may have been affecting his judgment. Police at the Lloyd house are restraining Ben, who has injured his wife. Blake is called to treat Celia, wounded in the abdomen by her husband. At the hospital, she and her baby are found to be in good condition. Ben is looking like a suspect for killing the priest. Evelyn gives letters written by new priest Father Emery, which she said were complaints to the archdiocese about Father Morton, and she would not mail them; Lawson will not let his officers open sealed mail without a warrant. Father Morton's recent sermons, in review, were about the commandments, but each one tied to the secrets of one person. The next sermon written, not yet given, has the topic of murder, or the sanctity of life and the philosophy of live and let live. The bees in the confessional were Cyprian bees. The police find a keeper of Cyprian bees outside town and away from home, and visit that scene with Father Emery, who keeps Ligurian bees. They find one hive tampered, and see cigar ash, the way an amateur would produce the smoke that normally calms bees. Blake says, we have found our killer; he and Charlie visit the medical specialist, surgeon Mr David Michaels, who confesses when Blake challenges him. Michaels was the specialist operating on Dorothy's husband after a car crash, and let the husband die, as he had brutally beaten his wife, disabling her, and Micheals had confessed that sin to the priest whose brain was being taken over by a tumor. After hearing that the case was solved, Superintendent Lawson tells them he is going to Melbourne, called there to face a disciplinary board. Blake visits the church in early morning, to ask aloud of God, did he give a sign to Father Morton about losing his mind due to the tumor? Did God think of all those people in the parish? Blake was last in church for a funeral; now he expects no answer from God, and ends by saying, I can't.
Episode 10
An Invincible Summer
56 mins
Jack Beazley, Jean's 24 year-old son, wins a running race, which is how his mother learns he is in town. Charlie Davis is also running in the race. A window washer sees three dead people at the Dennison home. The police find the Dennison parents and one son dead. Another son ran in the race, and the daughter's whereabouts are not known. Acting Superintendent Doug Ashby is at the scene when Blake arrives. Blake finds the terrified daughter, Aileen, in a cupboard. She is blind, and reports to Blake and Ashby what she heard, three shots, but the police know five shots happened. Her brother Owen returns from the race. Cameron Dennison, his wife Lorna and son Samuel are identified by Cameron's brother Clyde, who tells the police there is a third son Albert, a disgrace to the family who goes by Corrigan. The Dennison family are wealthy, old money per Tyneman, and generous; they sponsored the race that day. Patrick Tyneman demands Ashby explain who has been arrested, as people are calling the newspaper for information. Charlie gets Albert to the police station; Albert gets upset and violent when told his mother is dead; Blake sedates him. Albert tells police he last saw his father a week earlier, when it was made official that he was not in his father's will. They had fought earlier, and Albert was injured, leaving a scar. Charlie reveals to Blake his injury from Jack hitting him during the race, when it seemed that Charlie would win. At home, Jean explains that Albert was cut off because he wanted to marry a Catholic girl; she dislikes Clyde Dennison. Jack stays at Blake's home, where he meets Mattie. Ashby questions Clyde Dennison, who has been in court to take control of the family's many assets in the prior year, and he lost. Ashby has the court records opened before he questions Clyde, who will inherit. Police are called to intercept people driving into town after an armed robbery. There is a fierce shoot-out between them and the police. Ashby kills Ray Banford, the man trying to kill Charlie. Ivy Douglas survives the shoot out; she is pregnant, and Jack is the father. Ashby calls Jack in for questioning as a long ago friend of Ray. Jack was arrested ten years earlier by Ashby, and sent out of town at age 14, soon after his father had died. Ashby orders Blake off the case once Jack is suspected. Blake still worries about lividity of the corpses, the changing appearance of the body after death. The dog bowl is full of dinner scraps. Studying the photos, it appears that the morning newspaper was placed on the table after the shootings, staging the appearance; the blood on the newspaper is not human blood. Blake deduces that the murders could have happened up to 12 hours before the morning discovery. Tyneman publishes where Jack is living in the morning paper, and a crowd of men appear at Blake's house, and attack Jean. Charlie and Blake intervene. Charlie takes Owen Dennison in for questioning, while Blake deals with Aileen who faces him with a gun and makes clear that she aligned with her uncle Clyde, that her father was giving away the family wealth, and directed her brother Owen to do the shooting. Blake gets the gun out of her hand, and she too is arrested. Blake tells Jack how his mother stood up to the crowd of men for him. Jack replies with accusations, then goes home and packs his bags to leave. Blake makes it clear to Jean that she lives there, and her son is welcome in the future; they are always our children.
