The episode in which Morse's first name is revealed, based on the 1996 novel of the same name. First broadcast 19th November 1997.
Rachel James, a physiotherapist, is shot through a window of her own home while drawing the blinds one Friday morning. Meanwhile, Sir Clixby Bream, the Master of Lonsdale College, is due to retire — leading to a bitter contest between his two potential successor, Julian Storrs and Denis Cornford. Morse and Lewis begin the murder investigation by interviewing Rachel's neighbours and her colleagues at the clinic where she worked. Morse soon discovers that she'd been having an affair with Storrs. The following morning, Geoffrey Owens, Rachel's neighbour, is found shot dead in his house in similar circumstances. Because there is no house numbered 13 on that street, Morse concludes that Rachel was mistakenly killed and Owens had been the intended victim. Morse uncovers that Owens supplemented his reporter's income by blackmailing unknown victims. Among Owens' papers, Morse finds a slip of paper in a file with an article he had written about the retirement of Bream. Morse's subsequent trawl through the archives ultimately leads to the wife of one of the candidates for the Lonsdale Mastership.
This episode contains examples of:
- Adapted Out: Janet McQueen, the nurse with whom Morse became romantically involved in the novel, does not feature in the adaptation. Instead, Morse gets romantically involved with Adele Cecil (whose work as a writer of erotic fiction does not carry over into the adaptation).
- Age-Gap Romance: Between Dennis and Shelly Cornford.
- Blackmail Backfire: Geoffrey Owens had found out that Angela Storrs had previously been Alice Martin — who, along with her daughter, had murdered her first husband because he was going to run off with a younger woman. He tried to blackmail Angela about this, leading her to kill him too (but only after she killed Rachel by mistake).
- Card-Carrying Villain: Sir Clixby Bream, the outgoing Master of Lonsdale College. The fact that he's played with obvious relish by Richard Briers definitely helps.Sir Clixby: I don't see the point in having power if one doesn't abuse it.
- Contrived Coincidence: Angela killed Rachel — her husband's lover — by mistake.
- Crossword Puzzle: Knowing that Adele is also a crossword fan, Morse tells her his Embarrassing First Name by way of a crossword clue ("My whole life's effort has revolved around Eve (9)"). It takes her a while to figure it out, as she gets the answer but cannot quite believe that anyone would name their child Endeavour.
- Dirty Old Man: Sir Clixby, so very much.
- Driven to Suicide: Shelly Cornford kills herself after being coerced into having sex with the loathsome Sir Clixby, who got her into bed on a promise that he would back her husband's candidature for the Mastership of Lonsdale College, only to reveal immediately afterwards that he never intended to do this — he did it purely to get revenge on Cornford, who once had an affair with his wife.
- Last-Name Basis: On learning of his first name, Adele decides that she will just call him "Morse". He is visibly happy about this.
- Murder by Mistake: Rachel James, the first victim, was killed because of this — Angela Storrs meant to shoot Geoffrey Owens (Rachel's next-door neighbour) but got the wrong house; she saw a silhouette of someone with a pony-tail through the blind and, knowing that Owens had a pony-tail, took aim and fired. Morse realises that Rachel was not the intended victim when he finds out that the street has no house numbered 13 — the builders had just gone from 11 to 15, which caused Angela, who was approaching the house from the back, to get the wrong one. By then, though, Angela has already realised her mistake and killed Owens too.
- The Reveal: Of Morse's first name. He tells it to Adele and Lewis in the pub. The silence that follows is broken by him asking them why they are not laughing.Lewis: You poor sod.
