Da Vinci's Inquest (1998)
Da Vinci's Inquest is a Canadian dramatic television series that aired on CBC Television from 1998 to 2005. While never a ratings blockbuster, seven seasons of thirteen episodes each were filmed for a total of ninety-one episodes. The show, set and filmed in Vancouver, stars Nicholas Campbell as Dominic Da Vinci, once an undercover officer for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, but now a crusading coroner who seeks justice in the cases he investigates. The cast also includes Gwynyth Walsh as Da Vinci's ex-wife and chief pathologist Patricia Da Vinci, Donnelly Rhodes as detective Leo Shannon, and Ian Tracey as detective Mick Leary.
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Episode 1 - Little Sister (1)
Release Date: 1998-10-07A young prostitute's body is retrieved from Vancouver Harbour, and Sunny notes striking similarities to a string of previous deaths. A chance comment to Da Vinci leads him to re-open several cases, causing a further rift with his ex-wife Patricia, who did the original autopsies, and with his boss James Flynn, who ruled the deaths as accidental.
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Episode 2 - Little Sister (2)
Release Date: 1998-10-14Da Vinci reopens several cases, causing a further rift with his ex-wife.
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Episode 3 - Little Sister (3)
Release Date: 1998-10-21Da Vinci is convinced a serial murderer has been on the loose for years.
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Episode 4 - The Quality of Mercy
Release Date: 1998-10-28When television news reporter Hope Martin (Lynda Boyd) breaks a story about mercy killing, Detectives Leary and Shannon start digging around for more details, and Da Vinci calls a Coroner's Inquest to force Martin to reveal her source. The issue of euthanasia is divisive and as the investigation proceeds Da Vinci finds himself at odds with the police and his superiors about the reality and the ethics of what happened. His elderly father's recent debilitating stroke further complicates his response. Danny Leary is back in town, but the reunion with his older brother Mick is far from idyllic. It looks like he is hooked on drugs and, unbeknownst to Mick, hanging around with two hoods that turn up dead.
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Episode 5 - Known to the Ministry
Release Date: 1998-11-04Following a rash of fatal drug overdoses, Da Vinci learns that one of the dead addicts had an infant, who is missing. Manny, a police informer leads Leary, with new partner Angela Kosmo, to the woman's drug dealers. They arrest Todd and Sioux, and through them Larry discovers that the killer heroin came from a French-Canadian supplier who, along with his partner, was murdered, gang-execution style, just days previously.
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Episode 6 - We All Fall Down
Release Date: 1998-11-11The Coroner's office investigates the cause of a devastating fire at a seniors' care facility that left most of the residents dead and an elderly man missing. Arson or accident may have caused the fire but while he investigates with Chief Fire Investigator Henry Whiteside, Da Vinci uncovers evidence of abuse at the home. The harsh realities of caring for the elderly are brought into sharp focus by his own mother's increasing inability to care for his father alone. Mick's partner Kosmo and his brother Danny have struck up a friendship that has the potential for a romance. Danny's club looks like it might get off the ground, although his business partners appear to be mob-connected.
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Episode 7 - The Stranger Inside
Release Date: 1998-11-18When a young woman's dead body is dumped in an underground parking lot with no apparent signs of injury, Da Vinci and the police are intrigued. Patricia's autopsy turns up surprising answers and Da Vinci's investigation draws him into the world of S&M. Someone with a lot of power is trying to manipulate Chief Coroner James Flynn and Da Vinci into keeping the facts and the faces of those involved with Mistress Harriet hidden.
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Episode 8 - Gabriel
Release Date: 1998-11-25When a street kid turns up dead on the dockside Leary is convinced that the young runaway was tortured to death by other kids and Sunny backs up his theory. The killing reminds Da Vinci of a tragedy in his past in which a police investigation proved fruitless. Determined not to let that happen in this case, Da Vinci pursues a suspect who may help him resolve whether police negligence was involved in the boy's death.
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Episode 9 - The Most Dangerous Time
Release Date: 1998-12-02A noisy house party ends in tragedy when a fifteen-year-old teenager is found shot dead. Initially it looks like another death in a recent spate of teen suicides in Vancouver. Rumors soon start circulating around her school that she didn't fire the gun. As the teenagers close ranks Da Vinci, Leary, and Kosmo find it difficult to piece together a clear picture of the unpopular girl. The school counselor describes Jodie as an intelligent, hard-working loner, and a talented writer, whose only close friend was her sensitive, highly intense boyfriend Peter Florick. Jodie's brother, who owned the handgun, had previously warned Peter away from his sister and even Peter's classmates think he killed the girl. Troubled by his own ignorance of his teenage daughter Gabriella's friends and feelings, Da Vinci initiates a thorough investigation. The net tightens around Danny when a mobster's girlfriend, Summer, seems to be getting too close to Leon. It becomes suffocatingly tight when Leon confronts the undercover cop who has been tailing him.
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Episode 10 - The Bridge
Release Date: 1998-12-09Da Vinci has fallen off the wagon in a big way with a drunken evening at the police bar, which he can't remember. A homeless man is critically injured in a hit-and-run accident in the alley behind the bar on the same night, and Da Vinci comes under suspicion. All the enemies he's made over his career come out of the woodwork, anxious to see him implicated in the crime. Da Vinci's current investigation involves the discovery of a buried skeleton found beneath the Burrard Street Bridge. As Da Vinci struggles to piece together what happened to the homeless man, he stumbles on surprising insights into the Burrard Bridge death.
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Episode 11 - Final Chapter
Release Date: 1999-01-13Patricia Da Vinci's career is on a high when she is asked to be a guest speaker at the prestigious Seattle Homicide Conference. Her presentation involves the recent case of the prostitute serial killer Charlie Josephs, who himself was found murdered. Her re-examination of the case leads to the discovery of several discrepancies and uncovers some new clues in Joseph's death, clues that seem to implicate the police. Sioux, who is now a police informant for Kosmo, implicates Danny in the drug trade and Kosmo is forced to examine her feelings for him.
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Episode 12 - The Hunt (1)
Release Date: 1999-01-27Da Vinci, Leary, and Sunny are in Seattle attending an international Homicide Conference. A presentation by San Francisco-based FBI Special Agent Charlotte Turner turns up similar cases across the Pacific Northwest, and appears to include the death Da Vinci is currently working to solve. Turner comes to Vancouver and Da Vinci finds himself coordinating an investigation that has international implications. As more abductions/murders fit the pattern it seems that a couple, Dean and his wife Mona, are responsible. Joanna, a young woman who was abducted but managed to escape, leads Shannon and Leary back to the farmhouse where she was held and they arrest Dean. Mona, however, has managed to sneak across the border into the States and Da Vinci offers Danny a deal if he can find out where she is. Meanwhile Da Vinci finds himself struggling with the ethics of paying Dean for information about other victims.
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Episode 13 - The Capture (2)
Release Date: 1999-02-03Da Vinci, Leary and Sunny are in Seattle at a conference, and are shocked to discover similar cases across the Pacific Northwest, that appears to include the death Da Vinci is currently working to solve.