Find the girl. Find who did this and don't prat about.
The missing girl episode, based on the 1976 novel of the same name. First broadcast 8 March 1988.
Morse and Lewis investigate the disappearance of teenager Valerie Craven who vanished some six months previously while walking home from her exclusive girls' school. Morse is the third detective assigned to the case and is convinced that the girl is by now dead, probably murdered. However, the girl's parents receive a note, purportedly from Valerie. Suspicion falls on a number of people, including fellow students, men named in her diary and some of the teachers at her school. When one of the teachers is killed, the missing persons enquiry becomes a murder investigation.
This episode contains examples of:
- Adaptational Alternate Ending: In the novel, Morse realises that Valerie is alive and that he's even spoken to her without realising who she was — but by the time he's worked this out, she's disappeared again. In TV adaptation, he succeeds in returning her to her family.
- Adaptational Name Change: Valerie's family are the Taylors in the novel and the Cravens in the TV adaptation. They also get upgraded from being a working-class family whose daughter goes to the local comprehensive school to a well-off family whose daughter goes to an expensive private school.
- Always Murder: Averted in the case of Valerie Craven, who isn't actually dead; played straight with Cheryl Baines, who is killed by Donald Phillipson.
- Ambiguous Situation: Donald Phillipson tries to claim that the death of Cheryl Baines was accidental, but he was there when she died and had a strong motive for killing her.
- Blackmail Backfire: Cheryl Baines was blackmailing Donald Phillipson over his affair with Grace Craven; he killed her for it.
- Creator Cameo: When Morse goes to the library to interview Sheila Phillipson, Colin Dexter is seen walking out wearing black academic robes.
- Gilligan Cut: Max tries to get Morse to understand the pain experienced by the parents of a missing child by asking him how he would feel if he lost his only record of the Ring Cycle; Morse glibly replies by saying he has it on cassette too. Cut to Morse driving in his car, listening to Die Walküre.
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Averted, as Valerie had an abortion.
- The Good Old British Comp: David Acum, the French teacher at Valerie's school, has moved to teaching in one of these since her disappearance. One of the pupils at his new place of work is an uncredited Ian Congdon-Lee, who also appeared as pupil Ted Fisk in Grange Hill.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Grace Craven tells Morse that George is not Valerie's biological father. As far as Valerie herself is concerned, John Maguire admits to helping her to arrange an abortion but denies getting her pregnant.
- Red Herring: The notion that Valerie Craven was murdered, no matter what Morse thinks.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: George Craven acts in this way, and it's heavily implied that this is the reason why the police are still making a priority of investigating Valerie's disappearance six months after she went missing. Morse is unimpressed by this.
- Seeking the Missing, Finding the Dead: Averted, although Morse comes across as a firm believer in this trope.
- Shout-Out: Morse is reading Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy.
- Spared by the Adaptation: In the book, Morse takes on the case after the death of Inspector Ainley in a traffic accident. In the episode, Ainley doesn't appear but Morse mentions him as a serving officer who deals with the more difficult cases (but less complicated than those Morse himself handles).
- What the Hell, Hero?: Morse gets an almighty bollocking from Strange for annoying the influential Craven family, forging a letter from Valerie and drinking on the job. Even Lewis tears into Morse after Cheryl Baines is killed.Lewis: Well, you've got your body, sir. You were so keen to have a murder! You should be happy!
- Wrong Assumption: Morse stubbornly believes that Valerie was murdered for most of the episode. At various points, he (wrongly) suspects David Acum, Sheila Phillipson and George Craven of murdering Cheryl Baines.
