Recap / Endeavour S 9 E 03 Exeunt

Nothing stays buried forever.

The last episode. First broadcast 12 March 2023.

June 1972. Morse investigates a death notice in the Oxford Mail which appeared shortly before the person mentioned actually died in what initially looks to have been an accident, and finds a link with an earlier death which was not treated as suspicious. This leads him to an undertaker's, forcing him to confront his own mortality.

Fred Thursday, looking set to move to Carshall Newtown, finds himself having to deal with more trouble from his past, at a time when he has trouble enough in the present, leading him to resort to desperate measures to protect his family.

Elsewhere, Strange is set to marry Joan and transfer to Kidlington, while Bright is looking forward to retirement. Where will all of this leave Morse?

This episodes contains examples of:

• Alone with the Psycho: Bingley confronts Morse when he's on his own in a disused shop. Fortunately for Morse, Strange and a couple of uniformed constables aren't far behind.
• Always Murder: How else could Endeavour end?
  • Neither Dr McMurdo nor Dr Bevin died by way of an accident, although it looks like that at first (to the point where the police only realise that McMurdo was murdered after his funeral).
  • The death of Raymond Kennett (alias "Tomahawk") is a very unambiguous example, as his body is found with the knife that killed him still embedded in his chest.
  • Lott is killed by bikers as an act of revenge.
  • There are also a couple of unsuccessful murder attempts, both of them made on Morse.
• Ambiguous Situation: Morse doesn't tell Thursday that Raymond Kennett was actually Peter Williams — he merely says that instead of being killed at Blenheim Vale like everyone assumed, Peter was secretly adopted. It is not known what he tells Jakes, although given that he unequivocally promised him that he'd find Peter Williams's body, he must've told him something.
  • Also, it is unclear what that gunshot in the churchyard means, if anything.
• Asshole Victim: During his confrontation with Morse at Blenheim Vale, Lott is attacked and killed by a group of unidentified bikers in revenge for him having set up the death of one of their number in Camden.
• Back for the Dead: Of the various characters who return for the final series, Arthur Lott is the only one to be killed.
• Badass Biker: Raymond Kennett, alias "Tomahawk", is one of these, as are the rest of his gang. They're drug dealers who do not like the fact that Sam Thursday is trying to do some small-time dealing on 'their' patch.
• Bait-and-Switch: The episode begins with a funeral, although we are not told whose funeral it is. It's later revealed that it's the funeral of Dr McMurdo, the first murder victim.
• Bookends:
  • During his last encounter with Morse, Fred Thursday addresses him by his first name. The only other time he's ever done this was at the end of the pilot episode. As the episode ends, we see an image of John Thaw in a rear-view mirror, just like in the pilot.
  • Even before this, the ending also bookends the original Inspector Morse; our last glimpse of Shaun Evans' Morse is him leaving a choral performance he has participated in. This mirrors the first appearance of John Thaw's Morse in "The Dead of Jericho", where he arrives late to a rehearsal due to participating in a bust on a chop shop.
• The Big Damn Kiss: Between Morse and Joan, albeit only in Morse's imagination.
• The Bus Came Back: Arthur Lott (the corrupt DS from the pilot episode) and Charlie Thursday (Fred's brother, seen in "Cartouche" and referred to several times since) return for the finale. Both are heavily involved in the Blenheim Vale affair. Also, we see pictures of Trewlove and Fancy, both of whom were last seen in "Icarus" (in which Fancy was murdered and Trewlove left Oxford), in the montage accompanying Bright's final speech.
• Call-Back: To "Neverland", big time. Granted, this has been the case for the whole of the ninth series, but here, we finally find out what happened to Peter Williams. He was not killed but secretly adopted and given a new name, Raymond Kennett. He grew up to become a drug-dealing biker, and is murdered by Fred Thursday for threatening Sam.
• Call-Forward: Hoo boy.
  • Andrew Lewis, the dead man found in the grounds of Beaufort College in "Prelude", is indeed related to Robbie Lewis, described here as a police cadet in Newcastle who's been in touch with Morse as he's sorting out the funeral arrangements on behalf of the rest of the family (that last detail being a nod to the Running Gag in the novels about Lewis having a rather large extended family).
  • When Fred Thursday has a funny turn at Lonsdale College, it's on the same spot where Morse has his fatal heart attack in the last episode of the original series.
  • The often-tetchy future relationship between Morse and Strange may have a lot to do with the fact that Morse was supposed to be Strange's best man, but bailed on the wedding.
  • Morse's last words to Fred Thursday ("Goodbye, sir") are the same words spoken by Lewis over Morse's body in the last episode of the original series.
  • Towards the end of the episode, Morse is seen in black tie performing with a choir. He was also seen thus in the first-ever Inspector Morse episode, "The Dead of Jericho".
  • When Morse drives his black Jaguar Mk. 1 away from Blenheim Palace, he passes a red Jaguar Mk. 2 going in the other direction. It is, of course, the one from the original series ... which appears to be being driven by his older self.
  • Blenheim Palace has appeared (as itself) as a Morseverse location before — in the original series episode "The Way Through the Woods" ... which was the first Morse episode to be written by Russell Davies, who's written every episode of Endeavour.
• Chekhov's Gun: Thursday's pistol gets fired a few times during his encounter with Lott. Later on, he hands it to Morse, who takes it to the churchyard — and a shot is heard, but we don't see what he was shooting at.
• Clothes-Eating Wager: When Max DeBryn finds a large bag of white powder on the dead biker, he comments, "Won't know what we're looking at till it's been tested — but if it's powdered milk for his Home Economics night class, I'll eat my bow-tie."
• Continuity Nod: A few.
  • Jakes mentions that he briefly dated Joan, although he didn't get very far with her as he was looking for some casual sex and she's not that sort of girl. We saw this in "Home".
  • At the stag party, Strange recalls how Morse got him into CID as an Acting Detective Constable. This also happened in "Home".
  • When Bright clears his desk, we see a photo of his wife, who was killed in "Zenana". Later, he visits her grave.
  • Once more, it's suggested that Morse should become the bagman for DCI McNutt once Thursday moves on.
  • Thursday mentions his old colleague and former friend Commander Len Drury, who appeared in "Scherzo", as one of the corrupt officers Lott is probably working with.
  • The old lady who Strange hugs at the wedding is his grandmother, who had dinner with him and the Thursdays in the previous episode.
• Continuity Snarl: Lott and Strange greet each other as though they've always been on first-name terms. However, Lott was only in the pilot episode and Strange made his first appearance as a uniformed constable in "Girl". Granted, they probably were acquainted professionally as Strange is not presented as a brand-new recruit in the latter episode and so would have been around (albeit unseen) at the time of the Mary Tremlett investigation which happened a few months earlier, but Lott came across as the sort of CID officer who holds his uniformed colleagues (and junior CID colleagues for that matter) in low regard.
• Crossword Puzzle: Morse comes across an unfinished one on Dr Bevin's table and notes that the setter's pseudonym is "Codex" — which was the one Colin Dexter used to use when he compiled crosswords!
• Dark and Troubled Past: A couple of characters have plenty.
  • Fred has to deal with this when his old bagman Arthur Lott and his brother Charlie come up from London to warn him off from investigating Blenheim Vale.
  • Raymond Kennett, alias "Tomahawk", had way more than his fair share of this, as prior to being adopted he was Peter Williams, one of the boys who was abused at Blenheim Vale. He grew up to be a murderous, drug-dealing biker.
• Dirty Cop: Lott, who's now a DI in the Drugs Squad in London. Turns out, he transferred to the Metropolitan Police after Fred Thursday got rid of him at the end of the pilot episode. He turns out to be the man behind the Blenheim Vale cover-up, using his connections with other, more senior corrupt cops to keep the child abuse scandal quiet, be it by way of threats or (failing that) violence. He was even behind the loss of Fred Thursday's life's savings in Series 5, which not only left his former boss looking over his shoulder (lest the cheque to his brother be used to link him with organised crime) but also led to him flirting with the more dishonest side of policing in Series 6. Which makes Lott one of the most corrupt coppers in the whole show, and that's really saying something.
  Lott: People want what they want. I make no moral judgment.
  Thursday: No. Just a tidy profit, like any ponce or pusher.
• Everyone Went to School Together: Arthur Lott and Clive Deare, the ACC who was at the centre of "Neverland" and whose death at Blenheim Vale sparked the original cover-up, were in the same police college intake. Thursday finds this out because Lott tells him, while Morse finds out by checking Deare's file.
• First-Name Basis: A couple of examples here.
  • Vi Bingley, the florist, rarely uses her surname — to the point of not even divulging it to Morse, which means that he doesn't link her with John Bingley, the workman he encounters while investigating the false phone numbers.
  • When Dorothea Frazil meets the just retired Bright at Joan and Jim's wedding she greets him as "Chief Superintendent" and he replies that he's "just Reginald now".
  • Later on, the newly-married Joan confronts Morse about the fact that he has never addressed her by her first name. After imagining what might happen if he were to do this, he addresses her as "Mrs Strange".
  • Finally, Fred Thursday addresses Morse as "Endeavour", only to be corrected that he prefers "just Morse".
• Foreshadowing: Upon learning that Jakes was one of the boys who was abused at Blenheim Vale, Thursday remarks to Bright about Morse's ability to keep a secret. This will turn out to be very important at the end of the episode.
  Thursday: The soul of discretion, is Morse. If a secret wants keeping, he'll take it to the grave.
• Gainax Ending: A downplayed sort, but there are nevertheless a few mildly surreal touches in the final scenes, such as the gunshot in the graveyard and the fact that the very last scenes would appear to be Morse driving past his future self.
• The Ghost: McNutt, the officer who featured in the original series as Morse's old mentor and was referred to several times in this series, ends Endeavour as an unseen character.
• Headscratchers: A few.
  • If John Bingley has a mate who works as a typesetter for the Oxford Times, why didn't he just use him to put the bogus death notices in that paper, as opposed to going through the rigmarole of faking a death notice (including tricking the sub-editor by providing a fake phone number for a local undertaker which he then answered when she called to verify the information, etc) for the Oxford Mail?
    • Presumably said mate would not be OK with being an accessory to multiple murders and so would have ratted Bingley out to the police as soon as they started asking questions about how the obituaries got into the paper without the sub-editor confirming them, which would surely have lead them to whoever prepared the physical type. Bingley probably passed it off as a one-off joke to prevent the man from getting suspicious.
  • Why does Morse go to the wedding reception instead of getting his stab wound seen to?!
    • Stiff Upper Lip, coupled with his desire to see Joan one last time after everything that's happened.
  • Surely Morse should have insisted on Vi giving him her surname as he was questioning her in the course of a murder investigation? Although if he had got her surname, the investigation would have been a lot shorter as he'd've spotted a link when he subsequently encountered to John Bingley (her estranged husband) when following the lead on where the phone calls were answered.
  • What was Morse firing the gun at in the churchyard?
  • Charlie Thursday's absence from his niece's wedding is understandable given the circumstances, but what about his daughter Carol? Would she not have wanted to go to her cousin's wedding even if her father did not?
    • Carol and Joan may not be particularly close. In the one episode in which Carol appeared, the two were not seen to interact. Perhaps this is just as well, as Strange might have recognised her as one of Morse's former lovers, which would have been awkward.
• Imagine Spot: The only one in the show. The Morse-Joan kiss at the wedding reception happens only in Morse's imagination.
• The Informant: Alluded to; Morse tells Thursday that he's going to put the word out that Tomahawk was one of these, in order to make it look as though his death was the result of inter-gang feuding.
• Make It Look Like an Accident: John Bingley's modus operandi for his killings, so much so that no-one even realised that McMurdo, the man whose funeral is shown at the start of the episode, was murdered until Morse finds the link between him and the second murder (that of Dr Bevin).
• Nice Guy: Strange makes it clear that he'll put Joan first over his career, and gives her the opportunity to back out of the wedding should she so wish.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Morse goes to visit Thursday at home (ostensibly to update him on his investigation, but actually to see if he's OK), a clearly very annoyed Thursday snaps at him. His surprisingly angry demeanour is later explained by the fact that he's just murdered Tomahawk after seeing him threaten Sam.
• Papa Wolf: Fred Thursday's violent tendency in this area, a character trait of his throughout the show, reaches its climax as he quite literally commits murder in order to protect Sam.
• Put on a Bus: The Thursdays end up having to move a lot further away than Carshall Newtown in order to protect Sam.
• Red Herring: A few.
  • Not for the first time, Sam Thursday becomes a murder suspect (the previous time was in "Colours").
  • The use of Latin in the death announcements and on the flower cards leads Morse to assume that the academics have been killed by another academic — which would hardly be surprising given how many murderous academics exist in the Morseverse! However, it's later revealed that Bingley (the actual murderer) merely knows some Latin phrases thanks to his having been apprenticed to a stonemason who specialised in gravestones.
  • Bingley himself gets in on the act with the death notice which names the still-living Dr Fortescue, leading the police to rush over to protect him ... exposing his actual target, Morse.
• The Reveal: Peter Williams, the boy everyone thought was killed at Blenheim Vale and buried somewhere in the grounds, was actually sent elsewhere and adopted, upon which he got a new name ... Raymond Kennett. So ultimately, he was the drug-dealing biker who was killed by Fred Thursday.
• Riddle for the Ages: What's in Fred Thursday's sandwiches on a Wednesday?
• Running Gag: Win Thursday gives Morse a sandwich, referencing how he always correctly predicted what was in Fred's sandwiches as Win consistently varied the filling according to which day of the week it was. The sandwich in question is referred to as a "Wednesday special" — Wednesday being the only day of the week for which the filling has never been named.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Sam Thursday tells Morse that Strange has pulled a few strings to enable him to join the police; normally, they wouldn't even consider an applicant who'd been dishonourably discharged from the Army. It comes to nothing, though, as Sam has to "disappear" for his own safety, lest the bikers ever link him to Tomahawk's death.
• Secret-Keeper: Morse. Turns out, he never told anyone about Jakes having been abused as a child as he was told this in confidence. And he will keep silent about Fred Thursday having killed Raymond Kennett. And the fact that Raymond Kennett was actually Peter Williams (not even Fred is told that one).
• Ship Tease: One more for the Morse-Joan ship, her marrying someone else and the whole Doomed by Canon thing be damned! At the wedding rehearsal, Morse turns up after Joan but before Strange, leading the vicar to assume that Morse is the groom. And then, after missing the wedding, Morse turns up at the reception, Joan asks him why he's never called her by her first name ... and Morse tells her he loves her .. and they snog. Big time. And then it cuts back to the conversation they were having. Yup, Morse imagined the kiss.
• Shout-Out: A few subtle ones.
  • The name McMurdo is taken from The Sign Of Four.
  • Claypole, the undertaker, shares his surname with the undertaker in Oliver Twist.
  • Lott's way of obtaining a false identity is exactly how it was done in The Day of the Jackal. Right down to the child's gravestone in the churchyard.
• Shout-Out to Shakespeare: Two of them.
  • When Morse tells Thursday "I know thee not, old man", he's quoting from Prince Hal's final speech to Falstaff in Henry IV, Part 2. The fact that Roger Allam has not only played Falstaff but won an Olivier Award for it is not coincidental.
  • The speech recited by Bright towards the end ("Our revels now are ended...") is Prospero's speech from Act IV Scene I of The Tempest.
• Stag Party: A somewhat downplayed example for Strange — most of the male members of the regular cast, plus a few extras who are presumably meant to be other cops, are seen in a pub. The wildest thing that happens (by some distance) is Sam Thursday throwing a punch at his father after being questioned about his drug use.
• Theme Serial Killer: For the final episode, we have a killer who ensures that a bogus death notice is listed in the local paper, naming his victims on the day he intends to kill them. Then he kills his victims in a way that looks like they died accidentally ... and is so good at this that no-one realises that his first victim was murdered until after his funeral.
• Wedding Episode: Jim Strange and Joan Thursday get married. Morse is meant to be the best man, but goes off to confront Lott at Blenheim Vale instead. Jakes covers for him.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Charlie Thursday is last seen during the shoot-out between Fred Thursday and Arthur Lott. When Fred goes back to look for his brother, he's gone, and he's not seen again. In a more downplayed example, Jakes says nothing about the woman he left Oxford to go to the USA with (the only time she was seen was in "Arcadia" in which she was expecting his child following a whirlwind romance).
• What the Hell, Hero?: Morse calls Thursday out on this over a pint when he tells him that he's deduced that he killed Raymond Kennett in order to protect Sam.
• Women Are Wiser: Alluded to when Joan insists on driving the car away from the wedding reception on account of the fact that her new husband has been drinking.