If it's turned from cattle to human flesh, there'll be no turning back. Believe me, I know.
The tiger episode.
June 1967. Ingrid Hjort, Danish au pair to Dr Hector Lorenz, goes missing after her evening class. Thursday suspects a link with an earlier case in the same vicinity which left a girl in a coma. Ingrid's sometime boyfriend is Philip Hathaway, who works as a groundsman for the wealthy Mortmaigne family, but he has an alibi.
Shortly afterwards, student Ricky Parker is found dead with his hand severed. There is evidence that a big cat is on the loose, particularly after two grisly deaths on the Mortmaigne estate and the news that a family member hoped to open a safari park in the grounds. Morse and his colleagues must prevent further fatalities as they face danger in a maze.
This episode contains examples of:
- Bilingual Bonus: Hjort, the surname of the Danish girl who is killed by the tiger in the forest, means "deer".
- Call-Forward: Crevecour Hall, the home of the Mortmaigne family, also appears in the Lewis episode "The Dead of Winter". One of the staff, Philip Hathaway, is the father of James Hathaway.
- When Morse and Strange are drinking in a pub, Morse notices that Strange is drinking lager and comments that he used to drink Farmer's beer. In the original series episode "Sins of the Fathers", the Farmer's Brewery is trying to take over the smaller Radford's Brewery.
- Cryptid Episode: This is Endeavour's one. The mysterious deaths that Morse and colleagues are investigating are eventually found to have been caused by an actual tiger that's on the loose in rural Oxfordshire. Bright has a
Moment of Awesome when he shoots it. - Curse: Julia Mortmaigne seems to believe that her family is in some way cursed.Julia: We're bad blood, the Mortmaignes. Rotten. Through and through.Morse: What, do you count yourself amongst that?Julia: Of course. I must be bad, mustn't I? I've been punished enough.Morse: Your husband? I'm sorry. Tragic as it was, it was an accident, not divine judgment.Julia: I thought... when I fell in love... that it would be some kind of fresh start. The slate wiped clean. All sins forgiven. But there can be no absolution without true contrition.Morse: Why? What do you need to atone for?Julia: I don't know. You know, I've tried to be good. But ... it must just be ... something inside of me.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Attempted by Morse, who is using his body to shield Julia and her baby when the tiger attacks them. Narrowly averted, as Bright shoots the tiger.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Morse doesn't usually need an excuse, but after he's almost been killed by a man-eating tiger...Thursday: Drink, then?Morse: After today, several.
- My Greatest Second Chance: When he was in India before the war, Bright and a colleague had to hunt down a man-eating tiger; he killed the tiger, but couldn't save his colleague. This time, he kills the tiger and saves Morse.
- Police Brutality: Thursday beats up Hodges, who he suspects of having killed Ingrid. Seeking to explain away Hodges's bruises, Bright proposes that the usual excuse — he fell down the steps on the way to his cell — be given out.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: One of the Mortmaigne family's plans is to turn part of the grounds of Crevecour Hall into a safari park — which is why one of their gamekeepers has secretly been looking after the tiger. Longleat, Britain's first drive-through safari park (situated within the grounds of a stately home) had opened the previous year.
- Shoot the Dog: In order to save Morse and a mother and baby, Bright shoots the tiger dead. While knowing it was a neccessity, he feels vocal sympathy for the animal.
- Shout-Out: A few...
- A body is found with marks suggesting an attack by a tiger or similar big cat. Morse raises the possibility that a weapon specially made to leave such marks could have been used. The Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger" note includes such a weapon, though in both cases the marks turn out to be from an actual animal attack.
- Bright recalls being in India near Pankot, and mentions there being trouble with the Thuggee cult — implying that the events of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom are historical fact in the Morseverse.
- Characters say "It's in the trees...." "It's coming" — confirmed by
Word of God as a reference to both Kate Bush's 'Hounds of Love', and the film Night of the Demon. - The land agent, named Craven, is revealed to have been a big game hunter. This is a reference to the Marvel Comics character Kraven the Hunter.
- When Craven is hunting, the tiger pulls the "clever girl" raptor trick, which Craven acknowledges with "clever kit" before the tiger kills him.
- The maze in the grounds of Crevecoeur Hall is reminiscent of the one in the grounds of the Overlook Hotel in The Shining.
- Ricky Parker is named after the tiger in Life of Pi.
- Given the presence of a tiger, it's worth noting that this episode is set in 1967 — the year The Jungle Book was released in cinemas. Morse's sparsely-decorated flat is described as having just the "bare necessities".
- Stress Vomit: Morse throws up after being saved just in the nick of time from a charging man-eating tiger. As he was shielding a woman and baby, this came very close to being a Heroic Sacrifice.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Bright tears Thursday a new one after he beats Hodges up. He's especially annoyed as they had the man bang to rights over the disappeared girl from '63 without having to resort to some Police Brutality in order to get a confession.
- Whole-Plot Reference: The whole episode can be seen as a retelling of Jaws, albeit set in rural England, with a man-eating tiger instead of a man-eating shark.Max: This was no punting accident! It wasn't a boat-propellor. And it wasn't Lizzie Borden!
