When Murdoch finds himself invited to a meeting of the local eugenics society, which is committed to research on genetic engineering, a dog shows up with a severed arm.
Tropes:
- Been There, Shaped History: At the episode's end, H. G. Wells is inspired by the experimentation to write a story exploring it in more grisly detail - he's obviously referring to the story The Island of Doctor Moreau.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: The Eugenics Society and its beliefs are unthinkable in the modern era, having seen the horrors of actually putting such beliefs into practice on a societal scale by the Nazis. In this setting, decades before the Nazis and their Holocaust, Eugenics is controversial but acceptable.
- Evilutionary Biologist: Dr. Dryus Alger is a prominent member of the Eugenics Society who is abducting dogs and conducting illegal experiments in his attempts to 'perfect' humanity.
- Poor Communication Kills: The murderer killed a man, his fiancé's father, who had discovered that his family was "inferior" by eugenicist standards. His desperation not to lose the woman he loved drove him to beat the man to death in a fit of rage. If he'd heard his victim out, however, it's likely he would have found the the man's commitment to the eugenics cause had been shaken by finding out that their standards cast such a smear upon a man he liked and respected, and that he would have placed his daughter's happiness above the principles of eugenics.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: At one point, Murdoch and Brackenreid discuss the beliefs of the Eugenicists, with Brackenreid commenting that everyone should "know" the effects of keeping the bloodline pure before pointing to a portrait of Queen Victoria: this is a comment on the myriad biological flaws (most prominently hemophilia) suffered by the Royal House of Hanover due to generations of cousin-on-cousin inbreeding.
