Endeavour

          It’s funny how something you watch or read can affect you.  In the seventh season of Endeavour, whistling down a dark towpath plays a big part of the season’s three episodes.  Not long after I watched these episodes, someone whistled down my street.  This is not a usual occurrence, and it made me jump.  I have to wonder, had I not just watched this particular storyline, would I have been so startled or jumped so high?  Or would I have not thought about it at all?               

             At the end of season five, the police station where DS Endeavour Morse (Shaun Evans) worked was closed, and the team broken up.  In season six, Morse is back in uniform, PCS Reginald Bright (Anton Lesser) is the head of Traffic, and DI Fred Thursday (Roger Allam) is working for a DCI named Ronnie Box (Simon Harrison).  As for DS Jim Strange (Sean Rigby), I’m not fully sure where he was placed, but he is still around on the police force.  Actually, it is Strange who brings everyone back together.

             It doesn’t take long for Morse to get out of uniform.  He goes back to being a detective and working with Thursday again, but his desk is not with everyone else’s.  It’s in what looks to be a basement storage closet, which ends up being a good thing.  The closet gives Morse a lot of privacy.  Privacy Strange uses to his advantage as he tries to get Morse to help him investigate the death of DC George Fancy (Lewis Peek).

            Fancy was killed at the end of season five.  While his death affected everyone, Strange is the only one looking into his death.  Everyone else won’t look at the case at all and have moved on, or are reluctant to get involved.  With Strange always on Morse’s case, Morse falls into the reluctant category.  Still, this does not deter Strange.  Eventually he gets everyone on board to investigate.  Including Pathologist Dr. Max DeBryn (James Bradshaw).

           Everyone except Thursday, that is.  They keep him in the dark, because no one is sure how much they can trust Thursday’s close relationship with Box.  A relationship Thursday begins to question himself.

           Eventually, all loyalties are found again, and corruptions are revealed.  Now onto season seven, where there are other difficulties to deal with.

           While Morse is away on personal time, a young woman is killed in Oxford on a towpath.  Thursday is convinced her boyfriend, Carl Sturgis (Sam Ferriday), is the culprit.  He just doesn’t have the proof. 

          At a standstill, Bright asks Morse to look into the case when he returns from his trip, leaving Thursday feeling undermined.  To make things worse, Morse lords over Thursday how superior he believes his skills are to Thursday’s.

           Morse’s superior behavior lasts through all three episodes.  He tells Thursday how the police wouldn’t be able to solve anything without him, and his ways of investigating are better than everyone else’s.  This creates a tension between him and Thursday that gets so bad the two of them begin arguing while standing over a dead body.

            It is at this point the others have had enough.  Dr. DeBryn takes them both out verbally about their disrespectful behavior.  He will not have them arguing in the presence of a murder victim.

            After DeBryn has his say, Strange takes his turn.  He confronts them about the behavior he has seen lately, and how wrong it is for them to air their disagreements in public.  Strange walks away, leaving Morse and Thursday shamefaced.  It is at this moment Morse decides to put in for a transfer.

           While the transfer is in process, there are still cases to solve.  Morse is convinced a series of accidents are actually murder.  It is a situation brought to him by newspaper editor Dorothea Frazil (Abigail Thaw).  She thinks there is something going on with the number of strange accidents occurring around town.  As Morse looks into the evidence she gives him, he agrees.

          Thursday, however, does not.  He believes Morse is wrong and should leave things alone.

      Morse is certain he is right, though, and keep pursuing the cases.  When he finds something substantial the police can work off of, he tells Strange who is very willing to listen.  Together they look into the accidents, and end up solving a different mystery.  A mystery Morse believed he already solved.

           Despite the revelation of the other mystery, Morse still has the accidents to look into.  As he continues to investigate, he finds the answer was right in front of him all along.

Crooked Crossword/Artwork by Kate Dorsey

          Throughout all of season seven, I really wanted to give Morse a swift kick.  Not to hurt him, but to rattle him out of his high-handed attitude and over-the-top feelings of superiority.  He really does think he is better than everyone else.

            The funny thing is, so many of his ways are the exact same as Thursday’s: instinct and intuition.  Two methods Morse insulted Thursday for using.

             Thankfully, by the end of the season Morse does get a reality check.  However, it will be unknown until next season how much damage has been done.

           I suspect there would be a lot more damage if it weren’t for Strange.  He is the one keeping everything together while everyone else squabbles. 

Well, really just Thursday and Morse squabble.  Bright doesn’t.  Not really.  He has a much more important situation at home to deal with.  A situation that makes the last episode absolutely heartbreaking.

With Bright and Thursday close to retirement, I wonder how long this series will go on for.  There is a lot of time between this season set in 1970 and when the show Inspector Morse started, which was in the 80s.  I have read there is a season eight planned, but after that I don’t know.  I also don’t know when Bright and Thursday will retire.  They could still work for more seasons, and it’s possible to carry the show on after their retirement.  Or possibly end the series at the retirement point.  There are many possible ways this show could continue on, or not.  I am hoping for the continue on.

         One thing I have a feeling will never change, no matter how long this series lasts, is Morse’s bad choices when it comes to women.  It’s been seven seasons, and he still has problems.  His latest incident was with a married woman.  It gets him in all sorts of trouble.  More trouble than I think he ever dreamed.  And yet, I am still not sure he has learned that no matter what, he always makes a bad choice when it comes to women.   

          But then he also didn’t understand why women wanted more freedoms.  So, maybe that’s saying something.