Dessert

I hadn’t watched Morse or Lewis, when I started Endeavour (I came for Shaun Evans and Roger Allam), but I think it adds to the depth and increases The enjoyment to know some of the history. Morse originated in a series of books written by Colin Dexter. Some of Morse’s backstory is revealed in earlier seasons of Endeavour. I recommend starting with the pilot. All of the episodes are available on Amazon Prime. Enjoy!

Glad you’re enjoying the rewatch! ...but Joan wasn’t pretending to be Morse’s wife. A neighbor of Joan’s had found his number and called him. The doctor was making assumptions.

Unpopular opinion here: I’ve actually come to dislike Win. This is no reflection on the actress, who does an excellent job. For me, it started with Joan leaving. I thought Win’s reaction was way over the top. Joan was a grown woman - not a teenager. I can understand Win being worried and depressed, but not to the degree that she was. She was not without recourse. She could have contacted Joan’s friends or brother to see if they knew anything. She could have gotten angry with Joan for scaring them. But she took it out on Morse for not finding Joan, when it wasn’t his responsibility or place, at all. She also took it out on Fred for not finding her, when he was just as worried, and then took it out on him again when he did. The rules of the house were always that Fred would not discuss his work at home and Win was very much an enforcer of that dynamic. When he or Morse slipped and mentioned something from work, she came down on them. It sounds idealistic, but when you insist on not knowing anything about your husband’s work life - just wanting a home life without the dirty details of how it’s paid for - it’s not a big leap for him to leave you out of the loop on other things, as well. Fred made a huge mistake in not consulting her about the loan to his brother. I can understand her being enraged and feeling betrayed, but I feel little sympathy for the petty meanness. She could leave. She could rage, fight, and insist on deciding on a plan of action that includes her. He knows what he did was horrible. There seems to be no way out for him. I suspect they’ll make up in the long run, but I would like to see her take a little responsibility for what has happened to her marriage and family.

She’s always been depicted as having a special relationship with Morse and interacts with him one-on-one more often than in a group. In some episodes she has played a substantial role (Game and Harvest come to mind) - more so than in any I’ve seen this season.

Too bad Morse’s radar about women is so off. He was quite charming on his date with the vet’s daughter. Many women who were not suspects or victims would have fallen hard for him if he acted like that - probably even Joan. This one was pushing all of his buttons. She seemed to be like his mother, a lovely divorced woman raising a young son by herself in a village. I think the boy reminded Morse of himself as a child, and he thought how different things might have been if his mother had remarried a nice, responsible, loving man. She also looked a little like Joan.

Speaking of consistency, in the old series, Morse was a bit of a reckless driver. He was even ordered to take driving lessons at one point. It was important to the plot in several episodes. They don’t seem to be going that route with Endeavour.

Joan and Fred kind of made up last season after Win left, so I don’t know why they’re implying tension. She may just feel awkward because her parents aren’t getting along. In season 4, she made some big mistakes and got herself in a terrible jam. They got in a huge fight and both said hurtful things that are difficult to forget. As much as I like Thursday, he was a very controlling father.

Wow! They completely cut a big scene between Morse and Joan! What are they thinking. I loved the episode, though. It was visually beautiful, too.

I have a different impression of Bright. I think they started to rewrite his character to make him more sympathetic in Season 3. I like Bright and Anton Lesser, but hated the character in the first two seasons. Then, he was very much about not disturbing any powerful people or institutions, currying favor with them, and looking the other way if they committed crimes. He punished Morse for wanting to hold them accountable. A low point came in Neverland when he took credit for the paper Morse had written. I’m glad they rewrote the character. To be true to the later stories, Morse must advance within the police force. It would have been difficult for him to do that if Bright didn’t change.

He’s quite lovely, and is still handsome with the facial hair. The curve of his upper lip is enchanting. I understand the reason for the mustache, but will be happy when it’s gone.

“Pornstache” (often referred to as 70s pornstache) comments have been quite the thing for a while and they are amusing, but, as someone who was a teenager in the 60s, I can’t resist some commentary. In 1969 and the early 70s mustaches like the one sported by Morse were incredibly common - almost universal. They were not porn-specific or porn-inspired. Movie stars, musicians, students, your average Joe - all sported them. No one associated mustaches with porn. In fact, pornographic films were not seen by the majority of people. No one had vcrs yet. To see a film, you pretty much had to go to an x-rated theater or bookstore - not a everyday activity at all. Let’s just say that no one could have imagined the availability of porn that we have today. When I read all of these comments, I can’t help but imagine huge swaths of the population watching and rewatching ancient, grainy porn. Surely this can’t be true! I find it funny, nonetheless.

I’ve lost sympathy with Joan and I think the writing for her interactions with Morse is confusing. In the brief flashback, when she rejects his invitation for “coffee”, she acts as though she has been waiting forever for him to make up his mind, when the opposite is true. In the past two seasons, she turned him down once and then rubbed his nose in it by setting him up with another woman. If she doesn’t want a romantic relationship with him, that’s fine, but she always flirts with him. He was there for her in her darkest hour, when she had no one to turn to. He’s never asked anything of her. She owes him respect and consideration, or at least an honest discussion of their feelings for each other.

Apparently the letters spelled “Anna Sewell”. She wrote Black Beauty.

This art heist seems like a looming disaster to me. It was clever of Craig to figure out how to get the owner to move the piece himself, but surely the art and the truck will have all kinds of tracking devices built into them. Once the truck is highjacked, they’ll still be slowly driving this enormous whale to their destination.

Infuriatingly bad on every level. I didn’t even watch much of because I just couldn’t.

Morse’s parents were divorced and he lived with his mother until she died when he was twelve. Then he went to live with his father and cruel stepmother. I think the sister is a half-sister. She seemed sweet in Home. The evil stepmother was still alive when his father died.

I don’t think Joan is taking sides against her mother. She has probably wanted to end her estrangement from her father for awhile and wanted to comfort him because she knows what it feels like to make a terrible mistake that hurts your family - the shame and regret. It does seem like a plot device. I assume there is some family history there - possibly guilt at being the more successful, respectable brother, or family favoritism - that clouded Fred’s judgement. Sensible people often are oblivious, their emotional buttons easily pushed, when it comes to their families.

I’m happy to tell you what happened. Would you prefer to watch it without any more spoilers? The acting is really brilliant in those scenes! I’ll hide the rest as a spoiler.

Oh, my! Those were the best scenes! Did you miss Morse asking Joan to marry him? I agree about the Harvest plot. FF is my friend.

It’s in Harvest, the PBS version, too. The word “pregnancy” is never uttered. Morse gets a call that Joan is in the hospital. When he arrives, she is asleep, having been sedated after what is described as a fall. The doctor assumes Morse is her husband or boyfriend and assures him that they can “try again” soon. The realization washes over Morse’s face, he kisses her on the forehead and leaves. In Muse, when she returns to Oxford and sees Morse, Joan tells him that she knows her neighbor called him and then says, defensively, that she had fallen. He just smiles. In Passenger, part of the roof scene was cut in the PBS version. Morse doesn’t want to go to the edge of the roof and asks Joan to come to him (part of this may be because he’s developing a fear of heights). She seems a little irritated and tells him she’s not going to jump - clearly a reference to her “fall”.

I don’t think Bright or Thursday are involved in Fancy’s murder at all. That would truly ruin the series for me, but I’m not worried. Bright has always been aware of malevolent forces at play and has warned Morse about crossing them. I don’t think he always knows how far they will go. The murderous cops in Neverland caught him somewhat by surprise. As everyone knows, the resolution of that case was covered up and buried. I don’t think he is an evil man or corrupt himself. He probably suspects some corruption is involved in Fancy’s death and feels helpless to do anything about it. I think those bully cops are behind Fancy’s death, too. I suspect they are vying for control of the Oxford drug trade themselves. I’m becoming increasingly worried about Thursday. I could see someone using that check he wrote his brother to either blackmail him or, even worse, frame him for their crimes. I don’t think we’ve seen the last of Charlie. Speaking of Charlie, I think it’s completely in character for him to drag Fred to London to tell him about losing the money. He’s selfish, London is his turf, he’s in control there, and he doesn’t have to make the long, shameful drive home.

I’m still intrigued by the shootout and how that will play out next season. I can’t, and don’t believe that everyone was killed. The whole thing seems badly planned to an almost absurd degree, but no survivors? Surely some people escaped. If not, this was a trap orchestrated by a third crew (which is what I suspect). I would not be suprised if corrupt policemen were involved - maybe even the murderers. A couple of interesting things: 1. As Nero was dying, he told Thursday “It wasn’t me”. He was clearly referring to Fancy, so he probably saw Fancy murdered there in the bar (or whatever it was). 2. While Fancy was on the radio, Cromwell Ames’ crew was unloading in front of him. At the same time, you can see a figure - probably the killer - approaching Fancy’s car through his rear window. BTW, much of that scene seemed silly to me. Ames’ crew was so obvious carrying their guns around, they might as well have used a bullhorn to tell everyone what they were doing; and Fancy was just planted right there, with no other cars around, in plain view of everyone. So indiscreet! No wonder he got killed.

It’s a wonderful scene! It’s also important because of what it says about Bright’s feelings for Trewlove. Unfortunately, some people had decided that his feelings for her were creepily sexual (as if there is no other reason for caring about a woman). I think this scene clears that up. I still blame PBS for the cuts. They could let the shows run over 5 minutes. Commercial and non-commercial stations do that all the time.

The Prime version I have is the same as PBS, cuts and all!

I have no patience, so I broke down and watched on YouTube. I know they cut things, so I don’t feel too guilty. It’s infuriating. That’s too bad about the DVDs. I was thinking about ordering them.