New year. New decade. New start. You always hope for better, don't you?
The towpath episode.
January 1970. Morse, on holiday in Venice, strikes up a sexual relationship with an Italian lady called Violetta. Back in Oxford, Thursday investigates the murder of Molly Andrews on a canal towpath and suspects her boyfriend, Carl Sturgis, but he has an alibi.
Four months later, Morse is asked by Chief Superintendent Bright to take a second look at the case, and he is led to scientists researching "latent brain activity" (ESP) using volunteers, one of whom was Andrews. Soon, one of the researchers, Dr Benford, is found dead; she had a highly gifted volunteer, Jenny Tate, who saw the murder in her mind.
Meanwhile, Morse has his wallet stolen in the street. A man claiming to be an old university classmate of his, Ludo, comes to his aid. It later transpires that Ludo is Violetta's husband.
This episodes contains examples of:
- At the Opera Tonight: The episode begins with Morse, on holiday in Venice, going to the opera. He meets Violetta there, and goes to bed with her.
- Call-Forward: In the pub where Morse interviews Jenny Tate, bottles of Radford's beer can be seen. Morse investigates a murder at the Radford's Brewery in the original series episode "Sins of the Fathers".
- Celebrity Paradox: Sally Alexander was John Thaw's first wife and the mother of Abigail Thaw. To make this even more complex, she's played by Molly-Mae Whitmey, Abigail's daughter. Meaning that when Dorothea Frazil interviews her, Abigail Thaw is interviewing her daughter, who's playing her mother.
- Continuity Nod: When Ludo visits Morse's house and checks out his record collection, he comes across a Rosalind Calloway LP. She was the opera singer who appeared in the pilot episode and turned out to be the murderer; after her arrest, Morse failed to prevent her from committing suicide. Which may explain why Morse casually gives the record to Ludo, claiming he hasn't listened to it for years.
- Foreshadowing: The (fictional) opera attended by Morse in Venice is entitled La Sposa Del Demonio ( which translates as "the demon's bride") and is subtitled "The Cure For Love", titles all too appropriate in the light of events which occur at the end of the final episode of this series.
- Headscratchers: Since when have the Thursdays had a cat? It's shown here, but has never even been mentioned before, and is not mentioned in any future episode.
- He-Man Woman Hater: Professor Blish.Morse: There's a don like that in every other common room in Oxford. His experience of the other half of humankind starts with Matron and doesn't get much further. Women are only good for ironing their shirts and making sure the cruet's filled at high table.
- Historical Domain Character: A rare Morseverse example — Sally Alexander, one of the organisers of the Women's Liberation Movement meeting, is John Thaw's first wife, and Abigail Thaw's mother.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Jenny Tate's visions, and the whole extra-sensory perception thing in general.Thursday: Anything in it, do you think? I mean this sixth-sense business. I've always had it down as a load of old baloney. I mean, if you had the gift of second sight, or whatever it is, you'd be down the bookie's, wouldn't you?
- Oh, Crap!: Morse, when he realises that the woman he slept with in Venice is his new friend's wife.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: The absence of Joan Thursday is mentioned in passing. Her actor, Sara Vickers, missed all of Series 7 because she had a baby.
- Remember the New Guy?: Ludo tries this one on Morse after he gets his wallet stolen. It seems to work.
- Shout-Out:
- There are several nods to Don't Look Now. The film involves a man who has second sight without knowing it; this episode involves a girl who may have the same gift, but who is not believed. The film features a woman's corpse being retrieved from a Venetian canal; this episode features a woman's corpse being found by the side of an Oxford canal. At the climax of both stories, a man has his throat cut by someone who is not what he (or she) seems to be. Also, several locations from the film are used for this episode's Venice scenes.
- The friendship between Morse and Ludo (the latter claims they knew each other at university years before, although the former clearly can't remember him) seems to echo the friendship between Tom Ripley and Dickie Greenleaf in The Talented Mr. Ripley, which is also (partly) set in Venice ... and was directed and written by Anthony Minghella, who also wrote three episodes of the original series.
- Fred Thursday's uncharacteristically crude quip — directed towards his wife, of all people — about where he's going to keep the canaries he's just bought refers to the 60s and 70s TV magician David Nixon.Fred: Where are we going to keep them? Up my arse, Winifred! That’s where we're going to keep them. Like David Nixon!
- Story Arc: The investigation into the towpath murders will last for the whole of Series 7.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: No mention is made of the fate of Ronnie Box, who was shot in the climax of "Deguello". We will have to wait until Series 9 to discover that he survived.
