Nobody wins in the end.
The call girl episode.
April 1968. Ex-boxer Joey Sikes is killed on the night of a failed theft of a Fabergé egg from Lonsdale College, where it is to be auctioned. Next day, lecturer Robin Grey is also murdered. The link between the two is the call girl and artists' model Eve Thorne, who was seen with both men. When the egg is stolen, suspicion falls on another of Eve's clients, Simon Lake — who becomes the third murder victim. Morse, now a Detective Sergeant, discovers that Lake and Grey belonged to an elite dining club and were involved in a scam regarding the egg. In establishing whether the murders were linked to the club or the egg, Morse must cope with a lazy new Detective Constable and the reappearance of Joan Thursday.
This episodes contains examples of:
- Always Murder: Four of them in this episode, all committed by the same person, who subsequently kills herself.
- April Fools' Day: The fact that the attempt to break into Lonsdale College and steal the Fabergé egg happened on 1st April makes Morse inclined to believe that it's a student prank.
- Brotherhood of Funny Hats: The Berserkers, an elite dining club for academics, come across as this, albeit with fancy waistcoats instead of funny hats. That said, a particular aspect of their behaviour — beating up call girls — takes them from being merely boorish to somewhat sinister. They're clearly based on Real Life groups like the Bullingdon Club
. Fred Thursday is not impressed.Thursday: A bunch of middle-aged academics, prancing around in pretty waistcoats, calling each other daft names? I've more time for the Tufty Club note . - Call-Forward: Gerald and Cassie Pickman's young son is called Alec. A grown-up Alec Pickman appears in the Lewis episode "Falling Darkness"; he's one of Laura Hobson's old housemates from university.
- Calling Card: "The Shadow" leaves a red rose at the scene of each of his crimes. The discovery of a bunch of red roses in Lake's flat tips Morse off that he and his friends were planning to fake the theft of the Fabergé egg.
- The Con: The Fabergé egg sub-plot is one of these. Grey, Lake and Pickman had acquired the egg in Germany while doing their National Service. Whether it was genuine or not is moot as they had no way of establishing its provenance, so they bided their time, eventually introducing it as a bequest to Lonsdale College, with Pickman —an artist — forging the documents establishing it as having been owned by the Russian royal family. Their plan to fake the theft and collect on the insurance pay-out is thwarted by the fact that two of them are targetted by the murderer as revenge for their ill-treatment of her.
- Continuity Nod: A couple of examples, both involving Gerald Pickman — he's done artwork for Richardson's (the supermarket in "Arcadia") and Kent Finn (the novelist in "Game").
- Contrived Coincidence: All four of the men responsible for Ruth Astor being raped avail themselves of Eve Thorne's services; as a telephonist working for her answering service, Ruth is thus able to identify them — Sikes, who had driven her to the Berserkers' dinner, followed by the three men who beat and raped her at the dinner — and track them down and kill them.
- The Don: Eddie Nero is introduced as Oxford's latest crime boss; the struggle between him and an as-yet-unnamed rival for control of Oxford's underworld is a Story Arc of this series. Fred Thursday has seemingly known him for some time, but doesn't think that much of him.Thursday: You're a third-division shake-down artist and fourth-rate ponce. Always were, always will be. If there's any comeback over Joey I'll have your cobblers for a key fob. Mind how you go.
- Enraged by Idiocy: It doesn't take long for Morse to embody this trope as far as George Fancy is concerned.
- Food Slap: Eve Thorne throws a drink in Morse's face following a loaded conversation between the two of them.
- She's Back: Joan Thursday returns to Oxford.
- Hidden Depths: Strange, it seems, can play the trombone.
- High-Class Call Girl: Eve Thorne, so very much.Morse: You're a common prostitute.Eve: You've seen where I live. There's nothing common about me.
- Odd Couple: Morse and Strange's flat-share looks like it might head in this direction.
- Police Are Useless: New boy George Fancy comes across as this. Eve Thorne thinks they're all useless.
- Ripped from the Headlines: The formation of the Thames Valley Constabulary (later known as the Thames Valley Police), which happened in Real Life at the time when Endeavour is set, looks set to affect the characters in various ways, with the future of Cowley police station hanging in the balance ... for now. As well as the Oxford City Police, the police forces that were merged to form the Thames Valley Police were the Berkshire Constabulary, the Buckinghamshire Constabulary, the Oxfordshire Constabulary (hitherto referred to as the 'County' force by various characters) and the Reading Borough Police. One of the important parts of the 1960s police reforms was addressing corruption by removing police forces from local council control, making them stand-alone forces answerable directly to the Home Office. There have been (and will continue to be) quite a few references to this in the show.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The motive for the murders turns out to be this. Ruth Astor was brutally beaten and raped at the Berserkers' dinner party, and has tracked down the men responsible, killing them one by one, and then killing herself after dispatching her final victim.
- Ship Tease: Fancy tries to invoke this with Trewlove. It doesn't work. For now.
- Shout-Out: Mention is made of a mysterious international jewel thief called "The Shadow", whose thefts include the Lugash diamond and the dagger of Sultan Mahmud. Morse is disinclined to believe that this is linked to the attempt to steal the Fabergé egg.Morse: It's all a bit Simon Templar.
- New boy George Fancy is quite possibly named after PC "Fancy" Smith, a character in Z Cars who was played by BRIAN BLESSED.
- Wicked Cultured: Ruth Astor kills her victims in ways that powerful men have been killed by women, as depicted in works of art.
