I asked you to save me. And you did.
The ghost episode.
July 1966. Elderly genealogist Adrian Weiss is murdered with an Indian ceremonial dagger in an Oxford museum. The only other visitors that day were a party of schoolgirls from Blythe Mount, a boarding school. Morse visits the school, where he finds two teachers and seven girls staying there for the summer holiday. After leaving, he finds a note reading "SAVE ME" stuffed into his pocket.
Morse learns that a century ago the school, then a private house, was the scene of the murder of several members of the Blaise-Hamilton family, former owners of the dagger. Soon afterwards, sensitive pupil Bunty Glossop disappears after hearing ghostly music played in the night. Headmistress Miss Symes tells Morse that the spectre of Charlotte Blaise-Hamilton (the only family member to have survived the murder, and widely believed to have been the murderer) is said to haunt the school; subsequently, both Morse and teacher Miss Danby believe they have seen her.
By studying the earlier case Morse works out who killed the family and discovers that an illegitimate descendant of the Blaine-Hamilton family is now at work in present day Oxford. Morse contacts Stephen Fitzowen, who wrote a book about the murders and who reports that Weiss was keen to see him before he died. Fitzowen and Morse mount a ghost watch, during which there is another murder.
This episode contains examples of:
- Bar Sinister: The coat-of-arms Terence Black has been working with Adrian Weiss on features one of these; he's later revealed to be descended from the illegitimate son of the Blaise-Hamilton family's Victorian patriarch.
- Brotherhood of Funny Hats: At the very end of the story, the ring which links the killer to the Blaise-Hamilton family is opened by an unseen person, revealing that, underneath its stone, there is a Masonic emblem ... thus continuing the Story Arc about Morse's activities being secretly monitored by the Freemasons.
- Call-Forward: Quite a few nods to episodes from the original series...
- This is not the last time when Morse will find himself investigating a Victorian murder. He also does this in "The Wench Is Dead"; although the circumstances are very different, a book about the murder (which turns out to have got it completely wrong) is used as an important plot device, as it is in this episode.
- The descendant of a rich family who's been cheated out what he believes to be his inheritance also features in "Sins of the Fathers".
- A disappearing schoolgirl is reminiscent of "Last Seen Wearing".
- A knife taken from a museum display case and used as a murder weapon? Look no further than "The Daughters of Cain".
- Continuity Nod: Morse walks past a poster of Diana Day, the beauty queen from "Trove".
- Creator Cameo: The man leaning on a display case in the opening scene is Colin Dexter.
- Fair Cop: Morse himself, as far as some of the girls are concerned. One of them comments that: "He could take down my particulars any time."
- Fictional Counterpart: Terence Black is a student at Wolsey College, which is this to the real-life Christ Church in the Morseverse.
- Inheritance Murder: The motive for the murders. Terence Black is descended from the Blaise-Hamiltons via an illegitimate son of the Victorian patriarch (it was this son who committed the original murders, which the father is implied to have covered up by using his Masonic contacts to pin the blame on the gardener, who killed himself). With a change in the law concerning the inheritance rights of illegitimate children, he might be in a position to claim ownership of the family property, which has since become Blythe Mount School for Girls ... but just to make sure, he's set out to kill anyone who might stand in his way.
- Jurisdiction Friction: DI Church of the Oxfordshire Constabulary tries to invoke this, given that the City Police have clearly strayed onto County's territory. Bright, though, is having none of it.Church: This is a County case, sir. I can tell you...Bright: [angry] And I can tell you, we're not going to stand here like Burke & Hare arguing over a murdered child.Church: Sir...Bright: Do not mistake me. One word more, one word, and you will spend the rest of your days on point duty! Am I understood?
- Not What It Looks Like: Morse asks Monica out, then has to cancel on her (and lie about it) because he's previously promised to accompany Strange on a double date with the latter's girlfriend and her friend. The friend turns out to be Joan Thursday. Monica sees them together and draws the worst possible conclusion.
- Oh, Crap!: Strange and Morse have this reaction when they realise that Strange's date's partner for their double date is none other than Joan Thursday. Fred's daughter.Morse: [to Strange] Where would you like your ashes scattered?
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The usually snarky Max De Bryn is genuinely unnerved by the murder of a child.Max: Adults, one takes the rough with the smooth. But this ... You find this piece of work, Morse. You find whoever did that. For me. All right? You find them.
- Also Bright, still in his Obstructive Bureaucrat phase, is furious when County tries to raise a Jurisdiction Friction issue when his men are trying to solve the murder of a child.
- Red Herring: The Indian dagger is an interesting one; while it was not used to murder Adrian Weiss, it is connected with the Blaise-Hamilton family. Ultimately, the whole ghost story sub-plot is shown to be this. Charlotte Blaise-Hamilton, a.k.a. "Bloody Charlotte", did not kill her family and her ghost does not haunt Blythe Mount.
- Ripped from the Headlines: Since this episode is set in England in the summer of 1966, references to a certain football tournament are unavoidable. Despite being unable to hide his disinterest, Morse somehow manages to draw England in the office sweepstake.
- Shout-Out:
- According to Stephen Fitzowen, the Blaise-Hamilton murders of 1866 were investigated by one Superintendent Cuff; as a Sergeant, he had investigated the theft of the titular jewel in The Moonstone.
- The circumstances of the Victorian murder are reminiscent of The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, a book about a real-life Victorian murder which was made into a TV series for ITV (the channel on which Endeavour is broadcast in Britain).
- When Morse and Thursday visit the College of Arms, the herald they speak to refers to a colleague, "Sir Hilary". This is likely Sir Hilary Bray, the herald James Bond consults (and later uses as a cover identity) in On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
- According to the road signs, Blythe Mount School for Girls is not far from Midwich.
- Not only is Lewis Carroll referenced, he becomes a plot device. Early on, Bunty Glossop quotes from Through the Looking Glass. Later on, when she has a knife at her throat, Morse uses a reference to "Jabberwocky" to provide her with a clue for how she can escape. It works.Morse: "Beware the Jabberwock". What comes next?
- The actor playing DI Church is costumed and made-up to resemble Superintendent Newhouse, the character played by Laurence Olivier in Bunny Lake Is Missing.
- The school's name, Blythe Mount, may put viewers in mind of Bly House, the country-house setting of Henry James's classic ghost story, The Turn of the Screw.
- The movie double bill that Morse, Strange, Joan and Strange's girlfriend go and see consists of two Hammer Horror films, Rasputin the Mad Monk and The Reptile, both of which were released in 1966.
- The Grimsby Pilchards Diana Day poster gets defaced with the words "Tich Thomas", a nod to Philip Larkin's poem "Sunny Prestatyn" which is about poster vandalism. This will continue...
- The school's gardener is called Karswell; a surname all too familiar to those who've read M. R. James's Casting the Runes...
- Mr and Mrs Gardiner are said to come from Kingsport, Massachussetts, a recurring location in the works of H. P. Lovecraft.
- Things That Go "Bump" in the Night: There's something spooky going on at Blythe Mount ... although the whole ghost thing it turns out to be the girls playing tricks; that said, quite a few people are taken in by it.Miss Danby: I know what I saw. It was as real to me then as you are now.
- Values Dissonance: In-universe, in relation to Victorian Britain and the legacy of The Raj. Part of the investigation concerns the murder of several members and servants of the Blaise-Hamilton family in 1866. According to popular legend the murderer was one of the daughters — "Bloody Charlotte" — who was subsequently committed to an asylum, with her face scratched out of every family portrait and photograph. It is heavily implied that the family patriarch used his Masonic connections to cover this up, with an Irish gardener being accused of the murders instead, and hanging himself because of this. In actual fact, the murderer was the patriarch's half-Indian illegitimate son, with the patriarch covering this up. In the end, Morse finds the only unscratched photograph of Charlotte, and realises that the actual reason for her face being scratched out was that she had Down's Syndrome.
- A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: Terence Black, given that the only reason for his relationship with Miss Danby is so he can get into Blythe Mount.
