For some of us, it's horror season all year round.
The cinema episode.
May 1968. Ronald Beavis, a former police officer, is found dead in his flat from what appears to natural causes. However, Dr. DeBryn discovers that he was poisoned. Another poisoning soon follows. Both deaths are connected with the Roxy, a local cinema that is preparing to welcome Emil Valdamar, a famous actors who is promoting his latest horror film.
Morse is still finding it hard to warm to George Fancy, but George finds a friendly ear in the form of WPC Trewlove. Fred Thursday, meanwhile, has guests — his brother Charlie, sister-in-law Paulette and niece Carol.
In the background to the above, racist attacks are being carried out, with properties owned by local gangster Eddie Nero being particular targets.
This episode contains examples of:
- The Alcoholic: Ronald Beavis, and to a lesser extent Leslie Garnier.
- Always Murder: As per usual with this show. It initially looks as though ex-copper Ronald Beavis died of natural causes, but it turns out he did not. He was poisoned, as was cinema organist Leslie Garnier — although the former was poisoned with strychnine, the latter with cyanide. Cinema manager Armand DeVere is shot. Cinema concierge Edmund Gordon killed all three of them, although he was after Emil Valdemar; Gordon subsequently dies in the fire in the cinema. The question of who stabbed Liam Flynn (one of Eddie Nero's enforcers) is unresolved by the end of the episode.
- An Arm and a Leg: Cinema concierge Edmund Gordon lost an arm in World War I. It becomes a crucial plot point as Thursday and Morse are able to deduce that the murderer has to be a one-armed man.
- Badass Boast: Morse, when Carol asks if they're allowed in the cinema.Morse: I'm a policeman. I'm allowed anywhere.
- Blackmail Backfire: Leslie Garnier found out that Edmund Gordon was up to no good. He tried to blackmail him, with fatal results.
- Broken-Window Warning: Racist thugs attempt to throw a brick through the window of a public advice centre helping migrant families, but it bounces off the toughened glass.
- Call-Forward: A couple:
- The murderer's motive, revenge for the wartime death of his brother, is taken from a part of the Morse novel The Riddle of the Third Mile that was Adapted Out of the original series episode "The Last Enemy" (one of two episodes not to have the same title of the novel on which it was loosely based).
- Morse's explanation of how Edmund Gordon poisoned Ronald Beavis's drink carton is very similar to how he shows Lewis how the title character was killed in the original series episode "The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn".Morse: I just killed you.
- Ronald Beavis was a former police officer who took to drink; at his autopsy, Max comments that it was a toss-up as to whether his heart or his liver gave up first. At the end of the episode, Morse wonders if that's what will happen to him. Thursday tries to reassure him, but we know that, give or take a few details, it will.
- Car Cushion: Played for comedy when DeVere is poisoning the local pigeons, and then throwing the corpses off the cinema roof. One of them lands on the bonnet of Thursday's car, occasioning blank looks from both Thursday and Morse.
- Continuity Nod: Carol mentions a film starring Diana Day — the beauty queen from the Series 2 episode "Trove" who has evidently moved up in the world.
- Cool Car: Charlie's Dodge saloon, evidently imported from the States as it's left-hand drive.
- Curse: Emil Valdemar's classic horror movie The Pharoah's Curse is said to have been, well, cursed because genuine Ancient Egyptian artefacts were used as props. Over time, Valdemar — the last surviving member of the cast and crew — has come to believe it.
- Foreshadowing:
- Charlie asks Fred for a loan. This is the start of the latter's financial worries, which will cause friction between him and Win, and lead him down a very dark path in Series 6. Also, given what happens in "Exuent", the mere fact that Charlie is stated to have London Gangster connections counts as an example of this.
- There is mention of racial tension in Oxford, which will feature in later episodes, notably "Colours" and "Raga".
- Gift-Giving Gaffe: It initially looks that way when the DeVere presents Valdemar with an Ancient Egyptian artefact, prompting the latter to react with barely-concealed fear and fury. Turns out, the gift was supposed to be a watch; Gordon substituted it for the artefact (which he got Beavis to steal from the Pitt-Rivers Museum) in order to scare Valdemar by reminding him of the curse that he believes to be associated with The Pharoah's Curse.
- House Fire: Well, cinema fire. Armand DeVere sets light to the place, just at the same time as Morse and Thursday are racing over there to try and stop Gordon from killing Valdemar; he fails, though he kills DeVere instead. Thursday is convinced that Eddie Nero is behind the fire as part of a plan to have the cinema demolished and the site sold to property developers — but with DeVere dead, he cannot prove it.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Morse is behaving like a Jerkass towards George Fancy, but it's hardly undeserved. His prediction that sending Fancy out to make enquiries in the pubs near the cinema will merely result in him getting drunk turns out to be on the mark when Fancy does indeed come back somewhat worse for wear.
- London Gangster: Charlie has links with several, including the Krays...Fred: No-one's leaning on you? The twins?
- Oh, Crap!: Morse has this reaction when he realises that Carol, the pretty young lady he has recently spent the night with, is Fred Thursday's niece.
- Protection Racket: Eddie Nero is running one of these, although someone is trying to get to him by attacking his properties and killing one of his enforcers.
- Red Herring: A few plot details — the curse apparently put on Valdemar's original film, Dr. Shoukry's protest about the exploitation of his country's history, Leslie Garnier's apparent falling-out with Armand DeVere, Beavis's past arrest record — all turn out to be examples of this.
- The Remake: In-universe; veteran horror actor Emil Valdemar is visiting the Roxy to promote The Pharoah Rises, a remake of an old classic of his, The Pharoah's Curse. In the remake, he is Acting for Two — which lampshades the fact that in addition to playing Morse, Shaun Evans also plays one of the archaeologists in the clip of The Pharoah's Curse.Valdemar: Two Valdemars for the price of one! I should have a word with my agent.
- Scenery Porn: There are a few more lingering shots of Oxford than is usual for an episode of Endeavour, as Morse shows Carol around Oxford.
- Shout-Out: A few:
- Max greets Morse as "Nayland Smith".
- As a child, Fred Thursday used to love going to the cinema with his brothers to watch Maroon Cartoons and Laurel and Hardy films. He tried to get tickets for the latter's 1953 tour of Britain, but was unsuccessful.Fred: B-I-It me. Bit me.
- Betty Perske, the usherette at the Roxy, shares her name with a famous actress better known by her stage name, Lauren Bacall.
- Cinema organist Leslie Garnier is mentioned as having been a performer on the Happy Wanderer, the ship from Carry On Cruising.
- As well as the scenes from The Pharoah Rises being reminiscent of the Hammer Horror films, we also see posters for two of them — The Devil Rides Out and The Vengeance of She — outside the Roxy when Thursday and Morse go there.
- Shout-Out to Shakespeare: Max quotes from Hamlet, which is lost on Fancy.Fancy: Who's Horatio?
- Stage Names: In-universe; Emil Valdemar's actual surname is Roberts.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: George Fancy is sent to make enquiries in the pubs near the cinema. He gets drunk.
