Don't ruin it. Anticipation's half the fun.
The periodic table episode. First broadcast 14 April 2013.
June 1965. When a young secretarial student dies suddenly, Morse senses there's more to the case than the preliminary medical verdict, heart attack. Now working out of Oxford's Cowley police station, Morse has become "bagman" to DI Fred Thursday ... but newly arrived Chief Superintendent Bright has other ideas, and when a respectable doctor is found shot dead in a public lavatory, Morse's outlandish theories threaten his career, forcing him to investigate from the sidelines.
Through a puzzling haze of deceit and misdirection, involving an Oxford physicist who worked on the atomic bomb and the fate of a vulnerable single mother, Morse is forced to question Thursday's orders and risk his career to avert a family tragedy and solve a pair of violent murders.
This episode contains examples of:
- Always Murder: Subverted in the case of Margaret Bell, who died as a result of taking amphetamines, with the man who supplied them to her being unaware of her heart condition. The second and third deaths in this episode — a doctor shot in a public toilet and a vicar shot in his church — are obvious cases of murder.
- As the Good Book Says...: When Morse asks Rev. Monkford for his alibi on Monday night, Monkford replies that he was working on a sermon based on Matthew 7:7 note .
- Blackmail: Derek Clark, the cashier at the post office where Frank Cartwright drew the ten-shilling postal order and where Pamela cashed it, drew the right conclusions about what was going on and used this information to blackmail Cartwright into supplying him with amphetamines.
- Broken Pedestal: As a result of helping Sir Edmund Sloan with his memoirs, Dennis Bradley (a student of his who had previously looked up to him) has come to detest him, not so much for his work on the atomic bomb but the fact that the remorse he feels for his actions, which led to the deaths of thousands, is only for show.
- Call-Forward: A few to the original series.
- This episode introduces Strange, who will become Morse's boss. Here, he's a uniformed Constable; his first name, never previously revealed, is given here as Jim (after James Grout, who played him in said original series). Their first meeting is somewhat awkward, and they later have a disagreement over the importance of rules and regulations while reading up for their sergeants' exams — foreshadowing their sometimes-turbulent future relationship.Strange: Who are you?Morse: I could have just wandered in for a bit of housebreaking.Strange: [seriously] If you're going to be like that, let's see some identification, matey. Sharpish. [Morse gives Strange his warrant card] Oh. You're Morse. Strange.Morse: [taking back his warrant card] What is?Strange: : I am. Me. My name. Jim Strange.
- Morse and Strange meet for the first time at a house they've both been sent to to investigate the death of Margaret Bell. In Series 6, Morse will buy that very house, it being the one he lives in in the original series.
- The following exchange between Morse and Thursday recalls a scene in "Second Time Around" when Morse is described as a "poor policeman but a very good detective".Morse: I'm a good detective.Thursday: And a poor policeman. No-one can teach you the first. Any fool can learn the second.
- Mention is made of Charlie Hillian, a senior police officer who gets murdered in "Second Time Around".
- This episode introduces Strange, who will become Morse's boss. Here, he's a uniformed Constable; his first name, never previously revealed, is given here as Jim (after James Grout, who played him in said original series). Their first meeting is somewhat awkward, and they later have a disagreement over the importance of rules and regulations while reading up for their sergeants' exams — foreshadowing their sometimes-turbulent future relationship.
- Chekhov's Gun: Chekhov's periodic table, more like — Morse sees it early on when visiting Rev. Monkford, who says he used to study chemistry; it proves to be the key to cracking the case. Sir Edmund's late wife's pistol, on the other hand, is an aversion — it does turn up later on in the story, and is assumed to have been the murder weapon for a short time, but it doesn't get fired at any point.
- Chekhov's Skill: Although Morse comes across as disdainful to it, reading up on the law (essential if he wants to pass the sergeants' exam) does pay off, as he is able to use what he learns to threaten Sir Edmund and Helen into not taking Pamela's child with them to America, specifying the exact law they would be breaking by doing that. He also helps Strange get the paperwork right to ensure the (presumably successful) prosecution of the gas meter thief.
- Closet Gay: Rev. Monkford, this being the reason why he was hanging out at a public toilet at night.
- Comforting the Widow: Dr. Prentiss tries this on Helen Cartwright shortly after the murder of her husband.
- Continuity Nod: Morse is shown listening to a Rosalind Calloway record. She was the murderer in the pilot episode.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: If Frank Cartwright had just given Pamela money instead of sending her a postal order, the whole thing would never have happened.
- Creator Cameo: Colin Dexter can be seen in the background of the scene when Morse and Sloan have dinner at Beaufort College.
- Crime After Crime: On someone else's behalf. The first murder was committed to cover up the killer's son's petty criminal activities, and the second was committed to eliminate a witness to the first.
- Crossword Puzzle: Like Morse, the Rev. Monkford is a fan of crossword puzzles but admits to being rather flummoxed with the crossword he is currently trying to solve. The clue for 11 down is: "Running over a dune is an effort". The answer provides a Title Drop. In return, Monkford (rather cryptically) tells Morse that he will leave a message for him — which eventually leads Morse to solve the case.
- Damsel in Distress: Pamela Walters, a single mother who suffers from epilepsy and has been poorly treated by her family because of this. Thursday correctly identifies that Morse (the only person to express sympathy for her plight) has something of a blind spot where attractive but seemingly vulnerable women are concerned; this is the first time in the show that this particular aspect of Morse's character is explored, and it won't be the last.
- Dead Man Writing: The numbers on the hymn board turn out to be a coded message from the Rev. Monkford. What everyone assumed to be a list of hymn numbers turns out to be a list of atomic numbers from the periodic table which, when translated into the relevant chemical symbols, spell out the name of the murderer.
- Drugs Are Bad: Margaret Bell died as a result of taking amphetamines.
- Elmuh Fudd Syndwome: Bright has a pronounced rhotacism. Jakes mocks him for it behind his back.
- Fingore: Wallace Clark loses two fingers when his post office gets robbed — he was tortured for the safe combination. Or so he says; turns out, he cut them off himself to fake the robbery.
- Foreshadowing: Mention is made of the Moonlight Rooms, which will feature heavily later in the series. For this episode, the fact that the Rev. Monkford shows an interest in Morse having been a cypher clerk during his time in the Army foreshadows the revelation that he (Monkford) was a codebreaker at Bletchley Park. Morse and Strange's differing attitudes towards police work also count as an example of this, given that it's Strange, not Morse, who captures the gas meter thief (although Morse is perhaps unlucky in that he encounters an actual gas meter man who is unable to provide the proper ID and who is working out of office hours, meaning that his superior cannot be easily contacted; in those circumstances, it's hard to imagine any other police officer acting differently to how Morse acts in this particular situation).
- Ghostwriter: Dennis Bradley has been typing up Sir Edmund Sloan's memoirs, although it's later revealed that he's actually been getting his girlfriend, Margaret Bell, to do most of the work.
- The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Sloan's daughters, Helen and Pamela, have this dynamic. What it ultimately boils down to is that responsible Helen resents the fact that unstable Pamela is not only the more attractive of the two, she had a baby while Helen did (or perhaps could) not.
- The Ghost: Mrs. Bright, who (we learn) likes to play bridge. She will eventually be seen, but not for several series.
- Groin Attack: Pamela's conviction for assault was for doing one of these on a male attendant at the mental institution she'd been sent to as a teenager. Her side of the story, which was not believed at the time, was that he was trying to rape her.
- He Knows Too Much: The killer offed Frank Cartwright in order to eliminate any risk of him knowing about and exposing Derek's minor criminal activities, and Rev. Monkford for witnessing Cartwright's killing.
- Headscratchers: A few.
- Why did Frank Cartwright go to the trouble of getting a postal order for ten shillings to send to Pamela when he could have just posted her a ten-bob note?
- Did Frank Cartwright know who was blackmailing him? Derek Clark could easily have done so without ever meeting him face-to-face (indeed, the fact that Cartwright left the drugs hidden in the cistern of the public toilet for Derek to collect later is an indication of them not meeting directly). Wallace Clark even admits that he didn't know if Cartwright knew it was Derek or not, but he just couldn't leave it to chance as Cartwright could have easily gone to the police after realising that he had supplied the amphetamines that killed Margaret Bell.
- Does Helen Cartwright know or suspect that her sister Pamela's child is actually her husband's son? She and her father, Sir Edmund Sloan, seem to have taken Pamela's story of her having married a man who was subsequently killed in a car crash (leaving her a pregnant widow) at face value — even though, as Morse proves, the story can be discredited with a fairly normal bit of detective work (the man existed and died as stated, and there are even newspaper reports of his death, but Somerset House has no record of him ever being married).
- How did the gun end up in Pamela's flat? Chances are she stole it, but why?
- How exactly were the police able to contact the gas meter man's superior at night, and how did this lead to Mrs Bright's bridge night being ruined? One would have thought that in an age before mobile phones, they wouldn't have been able to get hold of the superior until he turned up to work the following morning, following which the meter man would've been apologetically released after a night in the cells.
- More to the point on this particular subject, why the hell wasn't the meter man carrying the proper ID, given that everyone working for the gas board must be aware that there's a thief posing as a meter man? And why was he working at night?
- Insufferable Genius: Morse quickly rubs Bright up the wrong way by being one of these.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Bright, when he points out that Morse, a mere Detective Constable, shouldn't be Thursday's bagman as that's a job that's supposed to be done by a Detective Sergeant. Morse, in his view, is too inexperienced — an attitude that's reinforced by Morse making two big mistakes, namely arresting an innocent man (the gas meter man) and overlooking the fact that Pamela Walters, a suspect in the murder investigation, has a criminal past.
- My Local: Morse and Strange go for a drink in the White Horse — a real-life Oxford pub that made several appearances in the original series.
- Leave No Witnesses: Rev. Monkford was unfortunate enough to witness Wallace Clark (who he knew because he had officiated at his wife's funeral) murdering Frank Cartwright. Therefore, Wallace had to kill him too.
- Never One Murder: Two in this episode.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: Chief Superintendent Bright, who is introduced in this episode. No mention is made of Chief Superintendent Crisp, his predecessor in the pilot episode, although it is safe to assume that he was obliged to resign due to his corruption.
- Papa Wolf: Wallace Clark killed Dr. Frank Cartwright to protect his son Derek, who he knew was engaging in minor criminal activities. He was afraid that Cartwright, who had been blackmailed into supplying the amphetamines that killed Margaret Bell, would go to the police which would in turn incriminate Derek further. Wallace did not know that Cartwright was unaware that Derek was the man blackmailing him, but he couldn't take that chance.
- Red Herring: The notion of Margaret Bell dying of natural causes is this. So is the pistol in a desk drawer in Sir Edwin's home, which turns out not to have been the murder weapon.
- Running Gag: After working closely with Fred Thursday for a few months, Morse has picked up the pattern in Win Thursday's sandwich-making, and is therefore able to tell Fred what's in his sandwich before he takes it out of the wrapper.
- Serious Business: Mess with Mrs. Bright's bridge night at your peril.
- Sherlock Scan: Morse does this with the bicycle found by the public toilet, oblivious to Bright's fury and Thursday's hints that he ought to keep quiet. The fact that all of his deductions prove to be correct (the bike really does belong to a left-handed, frugal and slightly forgetful vicar) does not help the situation.
- Shout-Out: A rather mild one compared to what would follow; at one point, Jakes quips "I know it's not Gideon's Way" — referring to an ITV crime series broadcast between 1964 and 1966, based on the novels by John Creasey. The title character, George Gideon, is a dedicated senior police officer who's also a pipe-smoking family man ... not a million miles from Fred Thursday.
- Morse reads Alfred, Lord Tennyson's "The Lady of Shalott" to Pamela.
- Sympathetic Adulterer: Morse sees Pamela, a lonely and troubled young woman who had an affair with her sister's husband (and had his baby as a result), as one of these.
- Thinking Out Loud: Morse does this when he uses his knowledge of the periodic table to decipher the Rev. Monkford's hymn board message. The numbers refer to chemical elements, each of which has its own chemical symbol; these spell out the name of the killer.Strange: [laughs] Bloody hell, matey. That's...Thursday: [stunned and impressed] Elementary.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Nothing is mentioned of several characters from the pilot episode, although their fates can be guessed at.
- Chief Superintendent Crisp and DS Lott have presumably either resigned from the police or transferred elsewhere. Lott will return in the last episode, in which it is revealed that he transferred to London.
- DC McLeish has probably gone back to Carshall Newtown.
- Dr. Stromming has probably left Oxford, given that his wife murdered his underage lover and her boyfriend before killing herself after getting arrested for those crimes.
- Alex Reece is no doubt still at Oxford, as he will be a senior academic there by the time of the original series.
