There are things in the world older than we know. We come and go, but the land endures.
The nuclear episode.
September 1967. A body is found during an archaeological dig is presumed to be that of a botanist, Matthew Laxman, who disappeared in the area five years before. When his glasses are found, Thursday wants to reopen the cold case.
The disappearance of Matthew Laxman leads Morse and Thursday through beautiful countryside, a nuclear power plant and the seemingly sinister village of Bramford.
Meanwhile, Joan Thursday is found by her father and she must make decisions as to where her future lies.
This episode contains examples of:
- Always Murder: Lampshaded by Bright, who finds that a body has been discovered shortly after he has returned to work.Bright: Well, there we are. Not half an hour in the station, all back to normal. Carry on.
- Ambiguous Situation: Did Joan Thursday have an abortion or was it a Convenient Miscarriage brought on by her lover's violence? The hospital doctor is inclined to believe the latter, although he says it was because of an accident — quite possibly because he's speaking to Morse, who he believes to be Joan's lover. Only Joan herself knows the truth, and she's not telling anyone.
- Bombproof Appliance: Not exactly an appliance, but still ... in the denouement, Morse dumps the grenade inside a lead-lined drum intended to hold nuclear waste. The heavy drum acts as a sump, funnelling the blast upwards.
- Call-Back: A couple of examples.
- When Thursday and Bright discuss the incompetent handling of the Laxman case five years earlier, the former refers, with obvious distaste, to his former bagman Detective Sergeant Lott, who appeared in the pilot episode.
- The computer controlling the nuclear power station is said to be "the latest Joint Computer Nexus model" - in other words, a JCN computer like the one featured in "Game".
- Creator Cameo: A bust of Colin Dexter can be seen in the professor's office.
- Domestic Abuse: Joan is shown to be suffering from this at the hands of her married lover.
- Jurisdiction Friction: Hinted at more than anything else, given that the original investigation into Laxman's disappearance was carried out by the Oxfordshire Constabulary (a.k.a. "County"), not the Oxford City Police.Thursday: County couldn't find its arse with both hands and a map!
- The Nicknamer: Dorothea Frazil decides that an undercover Morse posing as her photographer should be called "Snappy".Frazil: Well, you can be.
- Police Brutality: Combined with Papa Wolf as Fred Thursday deals with his daughter's married lover in his own, inimitable way, complete with authentic British police/criminal slang.Thursday: If you ever see her again, I'll fit you up for a nonce note and have you in chokey note so fast you won't know what hit you!
- Rank Up: Having been denied it earlier in the series when his exam paper went 'missing', Morse finally gets promoted to Detective Sergeant.
- Real Award, Fictional Character: At the end of the episode, Thursday and Morse are both awarded the George Medal for preventing an act of terrorism at the nuclear power station.
- Red Herring: The paganism sub-plot. Despite the obvious nods to The Wicker Man, the prospect of Morse becoming the subject of a pagan sacrifice was always going to be remote, thanks to his being Saved by Canon.
- Scary Scarecrows: Morse sees one of these in a field. On closer inspection, it's wearing Laxman's jacket. And a radiation badge.
- Secret-Keeper: Morse. When Fred Thursday tracks her down, Joan assumes Morse told him where she was but Fred replies that he had not, and he used his own detective skills to find her. Later, Thursday calls Morse out on being this, reasoning that he could have told him and Win where she was as they've been really worried about her.
- Shout-Out: A few, as ever.
- Brampton could be a shout-out to many cop/mystery dramas — but, given the villagers' overt paganism, the most likely is The Wicker Man. One of the villagers in this episode shares a surname with a character from that film (Morrison) and the novel on which The Wicker Man was based, David Pinner's Ritual, was published in 1967 — the year in which this episode is set.
- The nuclear power station, meanwhile, is reminiscent of the ones in Quatermass II and The China Syndrome.
- Selina mentions that, on the day Laxman disappeared, she went to a cinema to see a film about "the Borstal boy who became a runner". That's The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, in which John Thaw starred in an uncredited role.
- One of the policemen helping Morse and Thursday is Sergeant Troy Martin — presumably a reference to the TV writer Troy Kennedy-Martin, who created Z Cars and Edge of Darkness.
- The talk of Morse possibly transferring to a unit in London based at Tintagel House could be an Arthurian Legend reference ... but it's more likely to be a shout-out to The Sweeney, as it's where the Flying Squad used to be based in real life.
- Professor Bagley is said to be the author of an influential book about nuclear energy called Prometheus Unbound. This is also the name of a play by Percy Bysshe Shelley on the subject of Prometheus, a character from Greek mythology who stole fire from the gods and gave it to mankind. As punishment for this, Zeus had him bound to a rock for eternity.
- Uncanny Village: Brampton, so very much.
