Endeavour
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| Endeavour Season 8 Shaun Evans and Roger Allam |
Soccer can be a dangerous game
The first episode of the eighth
season, “Striker,” forces Detective Sergeant Endeavour Morse (Shaun Evans) into
a world he has zero interest in. That is the world of sports.
A threat has been put on the life
of star soccer player Jack Swift (Julian Moore-Cook). The threat is if Swift
plays in an upcoming game, he will be killed. The police take this threat
seriously and decide to put a guard on Swift. Chief Superintendent Reginald
Bright (Anton Lesser) chooses Morse to be the guard. Bright knows Morse is the
only person who will not get distracted by all that is going on in the soccer
world. He is not enamored with it as others are. Because of this, Morse is the
only person Bright can fully rely on to keep his mind on the task at hand.
Or at least that is the
expectation if Morse manages to remain sober.
Ever since Morse returned from Venice, where a woman he loved was killed, Morse has been drinking to excess.
He shows up late to work, if he shows up at all. Drinking is more important
than anything. This makes it hard for others to believe he is fully capable of
doing his job.
Morse is not happy about being
the guard. He would much rather be working on the other case the police are
looking into.
That case is the death of a
secretary at the University of Oxford. She was killed by a bomb. This is far
more interesting to Morse than following Swift around to soccer practice and a
fashion show.
The Swift case becomes more
urgent when an up-and-coming player is killed. He was expected to be the new
star of the soccer world, replacing Swift. Now the young player is dead and
Swift is missing. Was this other player killed by mistake, or is something else
going on?
(An interesting note on
“Striker.” Depending on who was speaking, soccer was referred to as either
soccer or football. I fully expected only the word “football” to be used, and
was quite surprised to hear Bright use the word “soccer.”)
For Morse, there is only one side of the coin
Morse really starts to lose
his sight of humanity in “Scherzo.” Part of the reason for this may be
instigated by the arrival of his step-mother, Gwen (Lynda Rooke). She shows up
out of the blue and declares she is staying with Morse until her new house is
ready. A very negative, nasty woman, Gwen is the reason Morse’s father left his
mother. She and Morse clearly do not get along, nor have they ever.
The case Morse is working on
involves the death of a taxi driver. He was killed near a naturalists’ retreat.
Two other people are killed after him. Then there is an apparent suicide.
When the culprit is found,
Detective Chief Inspector Fred Thursday (Roger Allam) understands why the
person did what they did. Morse doesn’t believe there should be any
understanding. The world is black and white. Right and wrong. There is no need
to understand why anyone does anything. It is a rigid view of the world that
concerns Thursday.
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| Cracked Brick Kate Dorsey |
Thursday can no longer turn a blind eye
By “Terminus” Morse’s drinking can
no longer be ignored. He is a potential witness to a crime but was so drunk he
did not realize he was the drunk witness everyone was looking for.
Thursday figures it out when he finds a bus ticket confirming Morse was on the
same bus as the murder victim. This forces Thursday into delivering an
ultimatum: get help, or don’t return to the job.
Furious at his abilities being
questioned, Morse boards the bus the victim was last seen on. When this is
discovered, no one knows if Morse is trying to prove himself or is simply
trying to get home. To make matters worse, Morse, and everyone else on the bus,
end up missing.
The reason everyone is missing is
because there is a snowstorm. Something broke down in the bus in the middle of the
storm, and the passengers decided to walk to a nearby abandoned hotel. It was
abandoned because of murder.
Stranded at the hotel, more
people are killed. It is all too similar to what happened eight years earlier,
when the hotel was forced to close. Morse tries to investigate the new killings
without revealing he is a detective. Eventually this is found to be impossible,
and Morse must reveal who he truly is.
Morse is also forced to face his
drinking head on. With Thursday’s words on his mind, and a bar in front of him,
Morse must talk himself out of drinking so he can investigate. It is a hard
thing for him to do, but it makes Morse aware he needs more help than he
previously thought.
Love is in the air for Joan and Strange
While Morse deals with his
struggles, other characters have more positive things happening in their lives.
One of those people is Thursday’s
daughter, Joan (Sara Vickers). She has returned to town and is working with
women who are escaping their abusive husbands. After some time away from
everyone, Joan is able to see things more clearly than she used to. She is
getting along better with her parents, which is good. And she has realized
leaving her problems does not solve them.
Something else Joan sees clearly
is how much Morse has changed. She knows something is wrong and does not
hesitate to say so. In retaliation, Morse makes it out to be that Joan is the
problem and that she is the one who has changed for the worse. Because, of
course, in Morse’s mind, nothing he does could ever be wrong.
While Joan’s friendship with
Morse strains, Detective Sergeant Jim Strange (Sean Rigby) begins to come
around. He needs a date for an event and asks Joan to go with him. To his
surprise, she agrees. The date goes well, and both seem pleased about where
their relationship could be headed.
For a while now I have wondered
if Joan and Strange were going to get together. Strange is a kind, sweet, and
caring man. Joan is someone who fights for those who have been harmed and
forgotten. They may look at things differently sometimes, but I could see them
easily talking things out when they disagree. I really hope in season nine they
officially get together.
Worry in the Thursday home
While a possible relationship
between Joan and Strange is good, not everything is good for the Thursdays.
Thursday’s son and Joan’s brother, Sam (Jack Bannon), is missing. He was
serving in the military in Ireland, and now no one knows where he is. Win (Caroline
O’Neill), Thursday’s wife, is distraught. She is especially angry at her
husband because instead of looking for their son, he is out looking for Morse.
Joan tries to be the calm and reasonable one, but that is the last thing Win
needs from anyone. She lashes out at her daughter, almost revealing a secret
Thursday knows nothing about. It is only when Win sees Strange support Joan’s
emotional collapse that she begins to see she is not the only one upset by
Sam’s disappearance. They all just show it in different ways.
(Note: The support Strange gives
Joan is further proof to me that he and Joan would be a good match. Morse said
he would be there if Joan needed anything. Strange told Joan he had her,
meaning he would be her support however she needed it. Two very different and
telling statements when you think about it.)
Bright tries to move on with his life
The death of Bright’s wife was so
incredibly sad last season. Now, despite missing his wife, Bright is trying to
move forward. While cleaning items out of his home, Bright came across some old
water color paintings of his. It inspires him to take an art class where he
meets a young woman with a rocky past. Nothing romantic happens between them.
Instead, what we see is the very kind, caring, and understanding side of Bright
that only sometimes comes out. We saw it with Constable Shirley Trewlove
(Dakota Blue Richards) in earlier seasons. Then we saw it with his wife. While
I will not say Bright is mean or lacks understanding with the men he works
with, there is something about women that fully brings out the goodness in CS
Bright.
Always listen to Ms. Frazil
In some ways I don’t know what
the police department would do without newspaper editor Dorothea Frazil
(Abigail Thaw). She is always helpful, sometimes realizing there is a case
before the police do. In many ways, I think Morse would be lost without her.
With this season it was Thursday
who needed Ms. Frazil the most. When the snowstorm was raging, and Thursday was
at home worrying about Sam, Ms. Frazil came to Thursday’s home with articles
and notes about an old case in hopes it would solve a current case and help
find Morse. Without this help, who knows how much longer it would have taken
Thursday to put everything together, and bring Morse home.
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| End of the Road Kate Dorsey |
Endeavour will soon come to an end
It has been announced that season
nine will be the final season of Endeavour. I am sad to see it go, but I
understand if the creators feel it is time. It is better to end a series when
the stories are working well versus when they are struggling.
I am curious to see if Ludo (Ryan Gage) is going to be brought back for the final season. To my knowledge his
body was never found. One of the big rules of TV, especially soap operas, is if
there’s not a body, never believe someone is actually dead.
I’m not saying Endeavour
is a soap opera, but the same philosophy can work here. There is a lot of
unfinished business between Morse and Ludo. It could all resurface and be
resolved in the final season.
It will also be interesting to
see if there is any mention of Robert Lewis (Kevin Whately) in the final
season. I’m thinking the ninth season will be set in 1972 which may be a little
early for that character. Inspector Morse, the show Endeavour is
a prequel for, started in 1987 when Lewis was a sergeant. So, I don’t know.
It’s possible Lewis could have already been on the police force fifteen years
earlier, but I’m not sure.
I’m also wondering what we will learn
about the fate of the characters. Morse, Strange, and Dr. Max DeBryn (James
Bradshaw) are all in Inspector Morse for some period of time. As for
everyone else, I’m am very eager to find out what happens to them. Hopefully
they all get good endings.
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