Don't join the dots on this one. You won't like the picture.
The TV show episode. First broadcast 5 March 2023.
Morse suspects a connection between a woman's disappearance and her past employer, but another missing persons case demands his attention. This time, it’s an artist whose work adorns the covers of a series of detective novels.
Meanwhile, reports flood in of stolen cars and wanton criminal damage, as a debauched group of upper-class students wreak havoc.
The death of a uniformed copper in suspicious circumstances sees Bright command all hands on deck, but all is not what it seems.
On top of all this, the cast and crew of a popular TV detective show are in town, filming their final series.
This episodes contains examples of:
- Added Alliterative Appeal: Probably what Kent Finn had in mind when he named his fictional detective Jolyon Jolliphant. Played with, though, as everyone knows him simply as "Jolly".
- Always Murder: An aversion — although Paul Baynard was killed by the Debonairs, it was not intentional; they were going for a drunken joy-ride in a stolen car and he was riding his motorbike without the headlight on in fading light. He actually survived the crash, but the Debonairs thought he was dead and so, panicking, they chucked him in a lake, where he drowned. Which would mean they're guilty of manslaughter, not murder. All of the other deaths in this episode are murder, as is standard for this show.
- Ambiguous Situation: Did Jim Strange inadvertently forget that the Thursdays never talk about work at the dinner table, or was he not aware of this? Either way, his future wife and mother-in-law are silently horrified.
- Assassin Outclassin': Ronnie Box is working late in his office when he hears a creak on the stairs. Shots ring out behind a closed door. Later in the episode, Ronnie phones Fred from the airport to warn him that whoever is behind Blenheim Vale is trying to tie up loose ends terminally.
- Blackmail: Attempted twice on Kenny Prior, the lead actor in Jolly for Short. It does not end well for either blackmailer, the first of whom could have just been asking him for some money rather than overtly blackmailing him, which is what the second one does.
- Brand X: The Limehouse Rifles, Fred Thursday's old regiment (in which Hugh Sellers also served), is a fictional British Army regiment. We also have an interesting aversion in that there's a passing reference to Trinity College which, unusually for the Morseverse, is a Real Life Oxford college.
- The Bus Came Back: After appearing in a flashback once again, Jakes re-appears in person at the end of the episode. Averted in the case of Kent Finn, the novelist; the main plot concerns the TV adaptation of his books, but he himself does not appear.
- Cain and Abel: Kenny Prior murders his brother, Hugh Sellers, due mainly to the fact that he didn't want to be embarrassed by the public knowing that he, a famous actor, had a brother who was a vagrant.
- Call-Back: Hoo boy...
- Blenheim Vale, the boys' correctional facility that was at the centre of "Neverland", is once again a major plot point. We learn some more about the cover-up, and Morse eventually finds two bodies in the grounds. Max confirms that one of them is that of Joe Landesman; the other is Brenda Lewis, the missing woman whose case Morse started looking into in "Prelude" and who had worked for Landesman. The initial police report into her disappearance was closed by Clive Deare, the child-abusing senior officer who was killed at Blenheim Vale after shooting Fred Thursday.
- On a comparatively lighter note, the novels of Kent Finn, the author who appeared in "Game" and who has been mentioned a few times since then, feature prominently. Jolly for Short is the TV adaptation of them.
- Continuity Nod: A couple.
- When talking about the Sellers brothers, Fred Thursday mentions his brother Charlie, who appeared in "Cartouche" and has been referred to since — although it's just a passing reference, and the wording is vague enough to make it unclear as to whether Charlie is still alive, as opposed to merely estranged from Fred. Charlie himself will reappear, very much alive, in "Exuent".
- When Sam Thursday goes through some old papers of his, he comes across a programme from an Oxford Wanderers football match. This was the football team that featured in "Striker".
- Crossword Puzzle: Rather symbolically, an empty one of these is on the table as Joan waits for Morse in the pub. She leaves before he arrives.
- Determinator: Morse will not let Blenheim Vale go, orders from on high and beatings from corrupt officers be damned.
- Disappeared Dad: Artist Paul Baynard's disappearance is called in by his daughter.
- Expy: The Debonairs are this to the Bullingdon Club
. They are not the first expy of this exclusive yet somewhat unsavoury student dining club to feature on Endeavour. Of note here is the fragment of a burnt banknote found near the body of the vagrant, which is a nod to Bullingdon members' (strongly rumoured) ritual of burning high-denomination banknotes in front of homeless people. - First-Name Basis: Win Thursday tells Jim Strange that, as he's engaged to her daughter, he can call her by her first name.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: The bespectacled Kenny Prior does not hesitate to kill his own brother in order to avoid having his reputation tarnished. Following which, he kills Raymond Swan after the latter tries to blackmail him about his being related to a vagrant.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: The opening credits of Jolly for Short include a cast list in which Kenny Prior is listed by his real name, Kenneth Sellers, rather than his Stage Name, Kenneth Prior. Which would provide eagle-eyed viewers with an early clue once the name of the dead vagrant is revealed to be Hugh Sellers. YMMV as to whether this was intentional or not.
- Grievous Bottley Harm: Kenny Prior kills his brother with a piece of glass from a broken bottle.
- Headscratchers: Why would Raymond Swan, a supporting actor on Jolly for Short, wear his costume for the show (a police uniform) when he's not working?
- Hollywood Cop Uniform: Averted in-universe by Jolly for Short, as the uniforms used for the show are so convincing that when Raymond Swan's body is found, it's initially assumed to be that of an actual copper by (among others) three CID officers and a Home Office pathologist. It's only when they find that the numbers on his epaulettes don't match those of any actual constabulary that the penny drops.
- Innocently Insensitive: Jim Strange becomes this by riding roughshod over the Thursdays' unwritten rule about not talking about work at the dinner table. The Thursdays are horrified, but don't say anything.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Joan Thursday has this reaction following Jim Strange's disastrous dinner with her parents. Subsequently, Sam's somewhat puzzled reaction to her being engaged to Strange and her own inability to come up with coherent answer to the question of why she's agreed to marry him lead her to arrange to meet Morse for a drink, although nothing comes of this as he doesn't show up.
- My Greatest Second Chance: Bright, who acquiesced in the Blenheim Vale cover-up last time around, decides that this time, he's not going to call his officers off.
- My Local: Joan arranges to meet Morse in the Eagle and Child, a Real Life Oxford pub that has been mentioned before (sometimes by its nickname, the Bird and Baby); unlike the situation with colleges in the Morseverse, the pubs are usually real. Dorothea Frazil is also there, interviewing people from the TV show.
- Not Me This Time: The Debonairs are a group of entitled upper-class thugs who have committed assault, theft, criminal damage and manslaughter. But although they did administer a severe beating to Hugh Sellers, they didn't kill him, and they didn't murder Raymond Swan either. That said, the fact that they were in the vicinity of both deaths, coupled with their arrogant attitude, doesn't help their case.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Thursday has this reaction when he realises that the dead copper is actually an actor from the TV show. After most of the officers at Castle Gate police station have refused overtime to help investigate the death of "one of their own".
- Also experienced by the members of the Debonairs when they're being interviewed by Thursday and Strange and realise that neither man is remotely intimidated by their titles and connections; it is implied that these have helped them to avoid the consequences of their crimes in the past, so the fact that they come up against two coppers who don't even remotely care about that sort of thing comes as a shock.
- Police Brutality: Meted out to Morse by two uniformed officers, formerly of the County force, who are evidently under instructions to get him to stop digging at Blenheim Vale.
- Prisoner's Dilemma: After arresting the Debonairs, Fred Thursday interviews each of them individually and tells them that if they don't talk and one of the others does, it won't go well.
- Public Secret Message: Morse deduces that Paul Baynard's artwork for Kent Finn's books gives vital clues about Blenheim Vale and the fate of Brenda Lewis.
- Raised by Grandparents: Jim Strange was raised by his grandmother, presumably because both of his parents died when he was young (quite possibly during the war, although it's not stated). Fred Thursday expresses surprise that he has worked with Strange for seven years and was not aware of this until he had to know more of Strange's family background due to the guy getting engaged to his daughter.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: The Debonairs invoke this to avoid being arrested and charged with their crimes, the implication being that they've done this before. Fred Thursday is very unimpressed, and arrests them anyway.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Morse, big time. This rubs off on Thursday and, ultimately, Bright — who, unfazed by the usual constraints from on high thanks to his impending retirement and still guilty about the cover-up, allows for the digging to continue at Blenheim Vale in defiance of orders from Division.Bright: I have orders from Division to see this business stopped and the excavation shut down at once. [long pause] But they're not here, and I am. I can buy you until the end of the day. After which, I fear, we will all swing together.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: As the new investigation into Blenheim Vale deepens, Ronnie Box is threatened by a person or persons unknown. Although he gets the better of them, he is subsequently in fear of his life; he calls Thursday and warns him of the danger before fleeing the country.
- Seeking the Missing, Finding the Dead: As ever with Endeavour, Paul Baynard is reported as missing, and later turns up dead. The same goes for Brenda Lewis.
- Shout-Out: As always.
- The Debonairs are an expy to the Real Life Bullingdon Club, but visually they reference a few Stanley Kubrick movies. When intimidating students to vote for one of their number in an upcoming election, they dress like Alex and the Droogs from A Clockwork Orange; one of them even carries a cane in much the same manner as Alex and is seen applying eyeliner and mascara to one eye. Meanwhile, their masks are reminiscent of Eyes Wide Shut, while the military costumes are suggestive of Barry Lyndon.
- When not dressing up and causing mayhem, they adopt more of a Brideshead Revisited aesthetic. One of them is even named Archibald Ormsby-Gore, the name of the teddy bear belonging to John Betjeman which was the inspiration for Sebastian Flyte's bear Aloysius in Brideshead Revisited.
- Jolly for Short is a rather meta one to Endeavour itself, being a long running detective series based on characters from a successful series of detective novels which is currently filming its last series.
- Jolyon "Jolly" Jolliphant (the main character in Jolly for Short) is in the habit of Breaking the Fourth Wall in the manner of George Dixon from Dixon of Dock Green. When "Jolly" talks about there being "nothing lower than a bent copper", he is using one of Dixon's introductions (from an episode televised in the late 1960s) almost verbatim.
- Kent Finn's original Jolly novels are themselves shout-outs to any of the long running series of detective novels that have Theme Naming based on the protaganist's name. Titles include Jolly Hard Luck, Royal Jolly, etc.
- When Morse first enters the costume/joke shop, the proprietor is dressed very similar to the shopkeeper from Mr. Benn. Which is appropriate, given that Mr. Benn himself has already been referred to in this show!
- Show Within a Show: Jolly for Short, the TV adaptation of Kent Finn's series of detective novels. The main character is, in appearance at least, not a million miles from Fred Thursday.Kenny Prior [in character as Superintendent Jolliphant] It always starts with a body. Then come the questions. That's where I come in. Jolliphant's the name. Detective Superintendent Jolyon Jolliphant. Jolly for short.
- Stage Name: In-universe; Kenny Prior is using one of these. It's only when Dorothea Frazil reveals to Morse that his real surname is Sellers that the police link him with the dead vagrant, who has been identified as one Hugh Sellers.
- You Never Asked: Ronnie Box says this word-for-word when Morse asks him why he hadn't previously divulged that he had a photograph of Brenda Lewis in his files.
