S03.E04: Coda

[jjj]

1 hour ago, LisainCali said:

just a note that Amazon Prime carries Acorn TV as a subscription for $5/month.  It works seamlessly with the Amazon streaming site, and my nearly new Samsung TV is not compatible with Acorn. Morse, Lewis and Endeavour have moved there.  

I had no idea we could get Acorn via Amazon!  I will give it a try!  There are other shows on Acorn I wanted to watch this summer. 

[zxy556575]

There's a scene at about minute 34 that shows Morse getting a letter from the bank, then cuts to him entering the bank and speaking to the manager. It seems to have been edited out of the U.S. edition:

Bank Manager: An unauthorized overdraft is a serious matter, Mr. Morse, as I'm sure you understand.
Morse: Yes
Bank: Last month you wrote a check payable to a Mrs. G Morse for 25 pounds while you had insufficient funds in your account against which to draw the sum. We've also had 15 pounds to a Mr. Robey, turf accountant, of Lincoln. And the same to Mr. Robey the month before that and the month before that. Really, Mr. Morse, the Wessex is not here to underwrite a life of vice.
Morse: No. Of course.
Bank: Look, I was a young man myself once, you know. I know what it's like. A fella must have the latest this or that to impress the ladies. But such profligacy will, I'm afraid incur a financial penalty.
Morse: [sigh]

Then comes the scene in the bank with Morse saying Hello to Joan and telling her he saw her at bingo and warns her against Marlock.

[Sonja]

15 hours ago, jjj said:

Did this episode say Morse is a gambler?  I missed that.  Also, where was it noted that he sends money to his stepmother?  He has a sister in the later "Morse" series, but I do not think we have heard her mentioned yet?

Joyce (and very briefly the stepmother) appeared in the ep their father fell ill and then died.

13 hours ago, DHDancer said:

Morse is not a gambler: all the gambling stuff was related to Dr Lorimer (professor) who was a gambler badly in debt.  The carbon copy notebook recorded all his bets (horse names and stake) so Lorimer/Nina needed to get their hands on it to remove the record.

It doesn't make sense for Morse to pay off Dr. Lorimer's debt though.

1 hour ago, lordonia said:

There's a scene at about minute 34 that shows Morse getting a letter from the bank, then cuts to him entering the bank and speaking to the manager. It seems to have been edited out of the U.S. edition:

Bank Manager: An unauthorized overdraft is a serious matter, Mr. Morse, as I'm sure you understand.
Morse: Yes
Bank: Last month you wrote a check payable to a Mrs. G Morse for 25 pounds while you had insufficient funds in your account against which to draw the sum. We've also had 15 pounds to a Mr. Robey, turf accountant, of Lincoln. And the same to Mr. Robey the month before that and the month before that. Really, Mr. Morse, the Wessex is not here to underwrite a life of vice.
Morse: No. Of course.
Bank: Look, I was a young man myself once, you know. I know what it's like. A fella must have the latest this or that to impress the ladies. But such profligacy will, I'm afraid incur a financial penalty.
Morse: [sigh]

Then comes the scene in the bank with Morse saying Hello to Joan and telling her he saw her at bingo and warns her against Marlock.

They edited out this scene? Strange decision that might confuse a lot of viewers in case this is something that will be picked up in the next series. Lincoln is a few hours north of Oxford, so that would point to the family again.

[sugarbaker design]

Quote

Are we to believe that Morse has wanted to be involved with Thursday's daughter?  Was she running away with someone or on her own?  Do we interpret the last scene as Thursday being angry or disgusted with Morse because he believes he knows something or had something to do with it?

It seemed to me that Morse realized the extent of his feelings for Joan when he found out she was leaving (on her own).  Thursday's angry or disgusted because within the space of a week both his children left home.

Edited July 13, 2016 by sugarbaker design

[attica]

All I can say is: Get it Joan! She dodged a bullet there. A man who can't Use His Words is a man best left on the train station platform. Yeah, I know, there's a long tradition of idealizing the strong, silent type, but I'm over it.

Did the score suddenly change into a superhero's triumphal voluntary right after Thursday coughed up his shrapnel? Or was that just in my head?

[fauntleroy]

52 minutes ago, attica said:

All I can say is: Get it Joan! She dodged a bullet there. A man who can't Use His Words is a man best left on the train station platform. Yeah, I know, there's a long tradition of idealizing the strong, silent type, but I'm over it.

Ha this is great. In the same week saw the same idiotic muteness strike both the usually well-spoken Dr Lucien Blake, and our Endeavour, when standing in front of a beautiful woman. Agree it is tiresome. So predictable.

In the case of American heroes, they are going for "laconic" I guess. At least in that case, Gary Cooper/Clint Eastwood-type are laconic on all topics whereas the Brit types are otherwise brilliant conversationalists and only clam up in the presence of ladies they are crushing on.

In Japanese drama, the men take inarticulateness to an absurd extreme. Because manly men do not talk about feeeelings.

Come on writers surprise us - let a fellow say what he thinks for once.

[jjj]

8 hours ago, lordonia said:

There's a scene at about minute 34 that shows Morse getting a letter from the bank, then cuts to him entering the bank and speaking to the manager. It seems to have been edited out of the U.S. edition:

Bank Manager: An unauthorized overdraft is a serious matter, Mr. Morse, as I'm sure you understand.
Morse: Yes
Bank: Last month you wrote a check payable to a Mrs. G Morse for 25 pounds while you had insufficient funds in your account against which to draw the sum. We've also had 15 pounds to a Mr. Robey, turf accountant, of Lincoln. And the same to Mr. Robey the month before that and the month before that. Really, Mr. Morse, the Wessex is not here to underwrite a life of vice.
Morse: No. Of course.
Bank: Look, I was a young man myself once, you know. I know what it's like. A fella must have the latest this or that to impress the ladies. But such profligacy will, I'm afraid incur a financial penalty.
Morse: [sigh]

Then comes the scene in the bank with Morse saying Hello to Joan and telling her he saw her at bingo and warns her against Marlock.

Wow, that is a *lot* of useful background to end up on the cutting room floor!!!  Many thanks, and I will get those British versions of "Endeavour"!

[dcalley]

On 7/11/2016 at 8:04 AM, JudyObscure said:

I now question his taste if he thought the bleach blonde Neanderthal woman was "an angel."

On 7/11/2016 at 8:58 AM, kitmerlot1213 said:

And maybe it's just mean but I hate when the viewers are told about a female character being "angelically beautiful" and instead we're shown a minimally attractive woman with a strange accident--seriously, that bland chick Nina had Morse all twisted up?

On 7/11/2016 at 7:41 PM, lordonia said:

Did Endeavour think Nina was an angel, or was he just quoting Felix? I thought the latter.

I also thought the latter. It never occurred to me that Endeavour thought Nina was angelic.

I haven't watched Morse but accidentally found this connection to one of its episodes:

Quote

The gangland funeral in Kensal Green cemetery is a direct reference to a scene in the 1991 episode, Promised Land, and the dead man on that occasion was Peter Matthews, one of the bank robbers in this episode.

Red letters: Edwin S Lowe, inventor of Bingo!

[lidarose9]

Sorry to be so late, I recorded and am now doing them all in a binge.

Morse had been a very promising student who completely fell apart when his heart was broken by a woman with blonde hair and brown eyes. He first saw her crossing the road and then told his tutor about it when he arrived for his lecture. Seeing her changed his life. He was absolutely sure they belonged together, and when she turned him down, he was devastated. He totally blew it in school, quit, joined the military, became a policeman and eventually found himself back in Oxford, the scene of his heartbreak. All this happened years ago, but it left a mark on him.

The Morse we meet in the late 1980s is an alienated, rather cold man who has lived his life alone because he never got over that first heartbreak. He yearns to connect, he wants badly to be intimate with a women, but somehow it always ends badly. The Morse of the 1980s and 1990s is gruff and distant, but it is because he is so sensitive and vulnerable. Part of what happens in that show is that his younger partner Lewis grows to learn this about him -- as do we, the audience. By then Strange is his superior, an administrative buffoon whom Morse tolerates because it enables him to keep doing what he does so well: solving these crimes like a crossword puzzle.

When that Oxford prof approached Morse at the concert, he knew already that Morse was police. The guy was in trouble and he knew only a cop could get that notebook out of the safe deposit box. "Hm, wait a minute, didn't I hear that young Morse is a copper now?" He remembered Morse's infatuation with the blonde woman and realized he might be able to manipulate him -- and so he did a little homework, planned to attend the concert, and laid his trap. It reminds me of the guy in "Vertigo" who dredges up his old friend to help him with a little problem he has with his wife -- with ulterior motives.

IMO Morse wasn't remotely attracted to the wife. She was brassy and hard and trashy. But he could understand how a man can drive himself mad with love, and so allowed himself to be caught up in this, out of sympathy. (The woman Morse loved was gentle and kind, the opposite of this wife.) (Sorry I can't remember anybody's names.)

In the later IM series, this is one of the tantalizing mysteries: what happened to young Endeavour Morse to make him into the man he was? For a IM fan, all this absolutely in keeping with the later character. We learned then in bits and pieces that his family was Quakers, which left him feeling alienated from organized religion; his mother died when he was young, leaving him permanently aching for feminine warmth; his father remarried a woman who hated him, and so the rest of his youth was very unhappy. It was his love for music that kept him going.

His family was lower middle class and so for him to get the opportunity to go rub elbows with "his betters" in Oxford was a great chance to move up in the world (back then class was everything).  And so when he is greeted warmly by these old school pals, it always plucks on the strings of his insecurities. The later Morse is a TERRIBLE snob about the corrupt upper classes. He refuses to kowtow to them (which infuriates Strange).

That is one of the fascinating things about the character of Morse: the city of Oxford was strictly divided between "town" and "gown" -- at times this has erupted into violence. The police of course are "town" and so are treated disparagingly by the college people. The town people resent the college people who think they deserve special treatment. Morse is always the odd man in the middle -- he is both town and gown. He is well educated, he knows the ins and outs of college politics, and he still knows some of the major players. So he's ideal as a vehicle for "cross-cultural" crimes.

Myself as a longtime Morse fan, I find it fascinating that this series is showing us Baby Morse, before he has become so encrusted with his own personality. His ready smile, his desire to connect, momentary flashes of humor or warmth -- you can see all of that here before the years took their toll on him.

Also in defense of the character, what is now a tired old cliche began in many ways with the character Colin Dexter created for us in the original Morse novels and later TV show. So I cut them a lot of slack. It would make no sense at all if young Endeavour Morse suddenly found his tongue and was able to articulate his feelings to a woman.

Also, I think it was the trauma of the experience that made him decide Joan was meant to be his. He wants so desperately to be part of that family. He almost feels like he is, and if he married Joan, he would be. (Twenty years later he views his sidekick Lewis with similar feelings: how can one be a good detective and still have a "normal" family life? He can't figure it out.) His protective feelings are in overdrive and he is terribly afraid of losing Thursday, either to death or to this manic anger that is transforming his father figure into an ugly monster.

Also he is shattered realizing he had been manipulated by this professor, someone who knew his secret (the long-lost love) and used it against him. He is baffled that someone he admired could turn into such a dick all for the sake of this trashy woman. He is deeply wounded by Thursday's reaction to him, and Joan seems terribly important in that vulnerable moment. For all his intellect, Morse is impulsive at times, and can be maddeningly wrongheaded. He is learning that he sees what he wants to see when he looks at people, and that is what makes him become more guarded as the years go on. 

Edited August 26, 2016 by lidarose9

[SusanSunflower]

Rewatched last night when my local PBS #2 station re-aired ... still baffled by Joan's "motivation" for her stealthy (and seemingly "guilty") departure and reviewing comments here and elsewhere, not alone in this ... 

I had thought that she was avoiding admitting to her father her involvement with the bingo-caller who used her for info on the bank operations ... On first viewing, months ago, I had though she was running off to be with him (but he was under arrest at the time of her departure for "parts unknown") 

I'm suspicious that the actress got another gig and needed to be "written out" .. it makes no sense to me that she would be running away from home, when her very loving parents probably would have quickly supported her decision rather than lose their daughter. I've seen suggestion that she was pregnant, but saw nothing to suggest same. If she was feeling "goldfish bowl" exposed by being a notorious copper's daughter, seeing dad in a new and ugly light, and nearing being killed to spite her dad, I think her parents would have again quickly "understood" and accommodated.  I think that the professor, rather than assuming Morse would fall for his estranged wife, assumed that Morse would be favorably inclined to help him as a love-struck, love-sick friend in need and the wife as a "damsel in distress" although Morse actually never seemed to like or trust the wife ... oh well, I'll sort it all out in a re-watch next year some time. 

[Mom x 3]

On July 10, 2016 at 10:22 PM, beadgirl said:

That was a tense episode for me, especially since I saw from previews the bank robbery would happen, but we had to wait most of the episode for it.  I hate hostage situations in fiction, especially since they all have the same elements (the bad guys are vicious bullies, someone panics, a hostage tries something stupid, another hostage is particularly vulnerable, yet another hostage is contrarian and gives the good guy a hard time, etc.)

In keeping with the movie theme, I immediately thought of Die Hard, where the wife's colleague pretends to know John to try and strike a deal with the bad guys, only to end up dying due to stupidity.  

I too thought Joan felt guilty for not being more guarded about the bank information, but I can hand wave that she probably looked at her near death experience and thought, "Here I work at a bank just waiting for a husband, which will be hard because of dad.  I've got to get out of here!"  I do wish Morse had told her his feelings though.  

[SusanSunflower]

Funny, I thought Morse was "slayed" to realize that Joan was someone much more complex than the young woman he mostly knew as the beloved daughter of his rock-solid boss ... He realized that Joan did things her parents didn't know about (this had come up before) , but most important that while he might envy her secure and loving family (given what we know of his own), in fact, she was conflicted and complicated (and hung out with questionable young men who ... used her). 

If nothing else, Morse is exquisitely sensitive to other people's pain ... Joan may have been chastely "off-limits" before ... Suddenly she was a real person with complexity.