Season 11's final episode of Murdoch was melancholy - first and foremost. William and Julia are still dealing with their loss, but not dealing with it together and Crabtree and Nina ponder the next step in their relationship. It's more than a bit of soap-opera tale. Interwoven with the emotional manipulation of the viewer, a pair of unrelated mysteries are worked by disparate detectives. Unfortunately, the who-done-what revealations of the mysteries are either uninteresting or broadcast so far in advance that the viewer is left to simply shrug.
The best parts of this offering are Crabtree's heart, Brackenreid's compassion, and the professional relationship between young John Brackenreid and Detective Watts (the latter detective being equal parts off-key philosopher, detective, and mentor). It is these last three story elements that make the episode even mildly watchable, as the emotional "journey" of our romantic couples is a sticky and uncomfortable mess - the full purpose appeared to be to tidy up this season's story arcs so that they can start relatively fresh in season 12 (wiping Murdoch's chalk board clean as it were). We also had manipulation put forth by one character in particular who has been foreshadowing that behavior all season (and not very quietly - you could see it coming for a mile...). That is, apparently and regrettably, the arc that we get to take with us into season 12, which is a shame as it looks tedious already.
Overall, season 11 was pretty solid: several episodes were brilliant, the vast majority were terrific, and only a couple fell truly flat. This is a real tribute to the writers to give us so much tight and successful storytelling after over a decade of mysteries, and to the actors for giving infusing their characters with so much humanity and delightful familiarity. It is a shame that the final episode of the season ended up being one of the weakest of set. Hopefully, they will dispense with the session 11 left-over story arc quickly when season 12 begins so that we can enjoy Murdoch Mysteries and less soap-opera stories.