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SPOILERS AHEAD!
Where’s Colin?
A decent reference to Colin this week.
We see this on the Professor’s desk at around the 25 and a half minute mark.
Also a second reference to Colin.
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Directed by Kate Saxon. Kate has also directed the Endeavour episode, Zenana.
Written by Colin Dexter (characters), Russell Lewis (written and devised by). Russell has written all the Endeavour episodes. He also wrote;
Lewis (TV Series) (screenplay – 4 episodes, 2010 – 2012) (story – 1 episode, 2006)
– Fearful Symmetry (2012) … (screenplay)
– Old, Unhappy, Far Off Things (2011) … (screenplay)
– Falling Darkness (2010) … (screenplay)
– The Dead of Winter (2010) … (screenplay)
– Reputation (2006) … (story)
He also wrote the Morse episode, ‘The Way Through the Woods’.
SYNOPSIS
It’s November 1971. Events of murders in February 25th 1963 come back to haunt Oxford. Blah, Blah, Blah.
REVIEW.
(warning, this review will contain some spoilers)
Sorry everyone but I really do not want to spend anymore time on this review than I have to. My original idea was just have the video below on this page and that’s all.
I thought the last two episodes were dull but this really broke me. I felt like a masochist. Not only did I sit through the episode watching the damned thing but then I had to watch TWICE more to write this review.
Russell Lewis’s arrogance knows no bounds. He is showing no respect to the original series because it is obvious he is planning some major two hour special to mark 100 episodes of the three series. Unlike Kevin Whately he couldn’t show respect to the original show and wrap everything up in this series.
So, it looks like he is going to cram the 100th episode with McNutt, the red jag being bought by Morse, why Fred is not mentioned by the older Morse, the marriage of Jim and Joan because it’s definitely going to happen etc etc etc.
That means you can be sure that many questions will never be answered; were any of the characters from previous episodes a young Hugo DeVries: Mason Gull, Kent Finn or the ludicrous Ludo. Will we find out who was stealing the evidence in the Trove and Nocturne episodes? etc etc etc
Apologies but this review is just going to be a series of bullet points
- At last a mention is made of Endeavour’s proposed move to Kidlington which was talked about in series seven. Bright mentions it at around eight minutes to Fred. Why the hell wasn’t this mentioned in the first episode.
- Wasn’t that fortunate that Endeavour’s coat fell on the ground allowing Fred to find the piece of a paper that falls out of a pocket. Could we get any more cliched contrivances in one series.
- Don’t get me started on Endeavour pulling off that piece of wood supposedly nailed to the window of the hotel but he pulls it off with barely any effort.
- WHERE IS THE F*****G CLASSICAL MUSIC??????
- How did Endeavour open the front door of Tafferton to allow the other stranded passengers get in? A key was left in the lock???
- The hotel has been closed for eight years but the owners never came to collect things like the silver, the piano and all the other expensive articles. Surely it would have been looted especially when it was so easy to enter the building. No one tried to steal the contents of the safe in all those eight years?????
- Cheap jump scares.
- What happened to Joan and Jim’s second date at the Carpenter’s concert in the September. Again, Russell Lewis just ignores a storyline he created. Did the date go well? It’s not even mentioned.
- Wasn’t it lucky that there was a snowstorm to help the killers.
- What a coincidence; the killings of 1963 there was a snowstorm and this time another snowstorm.
- The bus driver’s friend is behind a locked door after Hobbs was killed and he doesn’t push the door in to gain entry????
- It was obvious early on that the girl Linda Travers was involved.
- The cavalry arrives in the shape of Fred and Jim as so often happens in the Endeavour series.
- So, Russel Lewis decides to show no respect to the previous two series and make more than 33. It’s obvious there will be at least one more to round up the number of to episodes to 100. So next year expect a full two hour special. I can barely hide my indifference.
The episode had one great scene and could be considered the best scene of the entire series. However, there were only a few contenders for the best scene in the entire series.
Jags out of ten:
MUSIC.
All ‘modern’ music is what was used in the original UK broadcast. For legal and copyright reasons the music may be different in broadcasts in other countries.
Morse and Max talk in the mortuary at 21 minutes. Music is playing on the radio.
At 49 minutes Richard the student is playing something on the piano. Thanks to Alison who informed me that this piece is Beethoven’s piano sonata opus 2 no 1 in F minor.
At one hour and 8 minutes another piece of music playing when they find the body of Hobbs.
Sorry, but I couldn’t recognise any of the above mentioned pieces.
LITERARY REFERENCES.
Win tells Fred that a Captain Stanhope called to tell them Sam was AWOL. Captain Stanhope is a character in the play Journey’s End by by English playwright R. C. Sherriff. It is also a film from 2017.
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At around the 2 and a half minute mark.
I can’t make out what he is reading. Can you?
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Endeavour confronts Percy Walsh and tells him he knows what the acronym on the letters stands for, WSW3MA. When Shall We Three Meet Again.
When shall we three meet again,
in Thunder, Lightning, or in Rain?
This is from Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
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Is Linda Travers the young woman with the gogo boots a reference to Pamela Lyndon Travers otherwise known as P.L. Travers writer of the Mary Poppins books.
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While the cast go through the exposition near the end, Hilda Bruce-Potter says to Percy Walsh, “You must have thought you were onto a rocking horse winner.”
The Rocking Horse Winner is a 1949 fantasy film about a young boy who can pick winners in horse races with complete accuracy. It is an adaptation of the D. H. Lawrence short story The Rocking-Horse Winner.
LOCATIONS.
Location at the very beginning of the episode.
A big thank you to Coco who found the location. It is Bell St Albans Language School near London.
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The bus comes to a halt at the three and a half minute mark. Thanks to Coco and Vic, who identified the location. It’s St Mary’s Church, Cholsey the burial place of one Agatha Christie.
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Endeavour’s home.
It is a vicarage next to St Paul’s Church, Grove Park Road, Hounslow, London.
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The Bus Station.
Francois found this location and believes it is Oxford Bus Museum.
The museum can be found at HANBOROUGH RAIL STATION Yard MAIN ROAD, Long Hanborough OX29 6LA.
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Police Station.
The location of the Thames Valley Police Station is the St Cross Building, University of Oxford. It contains the English Faculty Library.
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At around 24 minutes we get three views of Oxford. Up first…
Hertford Bridge, affectionately known as the Bridge of Sighs.
Next…
This is looking over All Souls College. The camera is filming from University Church of St Mary the Virgin.
Finally we see…
This is Brasenose Lane. Brasenose College is on the left and Essex College is on the right.
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Tafferton Park Hotel.
Thank you to Francoise who found the location, Wrotham Park , Barnet, Hertfordshire.
PUB LOCATIONS.
Same pub as last week, I still think it might be a studio set.
Actors who appeared in TERMINUS and/or Morse or Lewis.
Matthew Marsh as Percy Walsh
Matthew Marsh appeared in the Lewis episode, Life Born of Fire. Matthew played Henry McEwen the father of Will who commits suicide at the beginning of the episode.
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Marion Bailey as Hilda Bruce Potter.
Marion appeared in the Morse episode, The Secret of Bay 5B. She played Fran Pierce.
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On the seating chart in the hotel we can obviously see Colin Dexter’s name but there is also the name M. Denham at seat one on table 11.
Maurice Denham played Lance Mandeville in the Morse episode, Fat Chance.
CONNECTIONS OTHER THAN ACTORS TO THE LEWIS, ORIGINAL MORSE SERIES AND PREVIOUS ENDEAVOUR EPISODES.
Wrotham Park , Barnet, Hertfordshire that was used as Tafferton Hotel
This location was used in the Morse episode, Ghost in the Machine. It was Hanbury House.
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Richard the student mentions he read a book about the murders at the hotel by someone called Fitzowen. Stephen Fitzowen was a character in the Endeavour episode Nocturne. he wrote a book called “Plighted Cunning: An account of the Blaise-Hamilton murders.”
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When Win is angry with Fred she turns on Joan and says, “You weren’t so clever in Leamington.” Win is alluding to Joan’s pregnancy and subsequent loss of the child in the episode, Harvest.
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Stick with me on this connection. The serial killer is named Flavian Creech. The Flavian dynasty ruled the Roman Empire between AD 69 and 96. The Flavian family are depicted in a painting…
painted by Lawrence Alma-Tadema. That painter was prominent in the episode Ghost in the Machine. Lord Hanbury had many of his paintings in his study. Still with me? The Tafferton Park Hotel’s real location is Wrotham Park , Barnet, Hertfordshire. Wrotham Park was used as a location in the Morse episode…you’ve got it, Ghost in the Machine.
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At the end Morse says to Fred, “It’s beginning to thaw.” A nod, of course, to John Thaw who played the older Morse.
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The knots watermarked on a piece of paper Endeavour finds in the Professors rooms…
It reminded of the Lewis episode What Lies Tangled, series nine episode three. The science of knots is part of the Lewis episode.
Miscellaneous.
At the three minute mark the bus conductor says, “Any more for Mrs Moore?” This is a reference to the song ‘Don’t have anymore, Missus Moore.’ sung by Lilly James from 1929.
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Max appears to be wearing a shirt in the style of Rupert the Bear’s scarf.
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The first victim, the professor, had an X shape marked onto his eyelids and eyes.
This could be a possible reference to the Manson and his followers who carved Xs into their foreheads. They said it was to show that they had been “Xed out of society.”
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Max says to Fred and Jim Strange, “Signs and wonders.” Signs and wonders refers to experiences that are perceived to be miraculous as being normative in the modern Christian experience. Albert sent the following addition to the meaning of ‘signs and wonders:’ “Max says to Fred and Jim Strange, “Signs and wonders.” Signs and wonders refers to experiences that are perceived to be miraculous as being normative in the modern Christian experience. — it seems more likely to me that Max is quoting from the Bible. The phrase occurs 23 times in the Bible.
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In a flashback to the multiple murder scene in 1963 we see Professor Stanton’s name card.
We also see Laurence Yaegar’s name on a card to the right of Stanton’s card. Yaegar is on the bus with Endeavour and the rest.
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We see a picture of Bright’s wife on his desk as he talks about, “The men come first, always, whatever the personal cost.”
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We see this sign at the bus station.
The poster is a reference to a God-awful 1970s sitcom called On the Buses which was mainly about two middle-aged men chasing after young girls. I’m not talking from any modern sensibility. I always thought the sitcom was terrible and was certainly never funny.
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At 16 minutes Fred tells Morse that Sam’s friend was killed by a sniper and may have been retaliation for Ballymurphy. The Ballymurphy massacre was a series of incidents between 9 and 11 August 1971, in which the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment of the British Army killed at least nine civilians in Ballymurphy, Belfast, Northern Ireland, as part of Operation Demetrius
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The doctor mentions that the hotel is like the Mary Celeste. This is a reference to an American merchant brigantine discovered adrift and deserted in the Atlantic Ocean off the Azores Islands on December 4, 1872. The Canadian brigantine Dei Gratia found her in a dishevelled but seaworthy condition under partial sail and with her lifeboat missing.
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The student mentions that the killer of a teacher and then one of the killers at Tafferton was called Loomis. Dr. Samuel “Sam” J. Loomis is a fictional character in the Halloween franchise. One of the two main protagonists of the overall series, he appears in seven of the eleven Halloween films, first appearing in John Carpenter’s original 1978 film. The character was played by Donald Pleasence.
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Richard asks Linda at around the one hour mark if she likes Hawkwind. Hawkwind are a group from the 1960s to the 1980s. There biggest hit was Silver Machine where Lemmy of Motorhead was lead singer. I was a fan of Hawkwind back in the Seventies but have to admit I only have a few songs of theirs on my playlists now.
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My friend David Bishop who wrote the Complete Inspector Morse gets a mention in the episode.
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Is Richard Blake’s name a nod to Sexton Blake, a fictional character, a detective who has been featured in many British comic strips, novels and dramatic productions since 1893?
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The number on Endeavour’s bus is 33, the number of episodes of the Morse, Lewis and now the Endeavour series.
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A nod to Covid?
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While the cast go through the exposition near the end, Hilda Bruce-Potter says to Percy Walsh, “You must have thought you were onto a rocking-horse winner.”
The Rocking Horse Winner is a 1949 fantasy film about a young boy who can pick winners in horse races with complete accuracy. It is an adaptation of the D. H. Lawrence short story The Rocking-Horse Winner.
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Thanks to Tom who wrote this, “They used the wrong buses in the episode. They’re London transport Routemasters and were built for and used exclusively by London transport.”
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Thanks to Vic who noticed the following, “Prof Stanton killed in churchyard. Any ref to 1966 film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. STANTON Being the grave that identifies where the gold is buried.”
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David in the comments wrote this; “I think Strangmoor Prison is probably a reference to Stangmoor Prison from the 1971 Dr Who story The Mind of Evil. The “nut hutch” was possibly a reference to the Dr Who story The Green Death which also has a “nut hutch”” Thank you, David. Albert and others believe that Stangmoor Prison — “wouldn’t a simpler derivation be that the word is an amalgam of Strangeways and Dartmoor (rather than Broadmoor, which is a hospital, not a prison)?”
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There are a few more references to the 70s sitcom On the Buses: Gareth mentioned that Cemetery Gates was one of the bus routes termini in the series. Scott, John and a few others mentioned that the bus driver Les Grant is a nod to Bob Grant who played the lecherous conductor Jack in On the Buses?
British Phrases/Colloquialisms
Jim Strange says to Fred in the mortuary at around the nine and a half minute mark, “Bit of a dead and alive hole.” It’s British slang for a miserable, depressing place.
THE MURDERED, THEIR MURDERER/S AND THEIR METHODS.
Professor Patrick Stanton stabbed and died through loss of blood. Killed by Hilda Bruce-Potter, Linda Travers and John Peckett.
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Ben Bishop as Norbert ‘Nobby’ Hobbs’s. Throat was slit. I don’t know which one killed him.
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Lawrence Yeager’s throat slit. I don’t know which one killed him.
CAST
Adam Ewan as Les Grant
Anna Burnett as Linda Travers
William Sebag-Montefiore as Professor Patrick Stanton
James Bradshaw as Dr. Max DeBryn
Anton Lesser as Chief Superintendent Reginald Bright.
Roger Allam as DCI Fred Thursday
Caroline O’Neill as Win Thursday
Ray Emmet Brown as John Peckett
Sara Vickers as Joan Thursday
Matthew Marsh as Percy Walsh
Jennifer Kirby as Dr Gillian Nichols.
Estelle Daniels as Elsie Watson.
Ben Bishop as Norbert ‘Nobby’ Hobbs.
Marion Bailey as Hilda Bruce Potter.
Adam Mirsky as Richard Blake.
Martin Hutson as Laurence Yaegar
Abigail Thaw as Dorothea Frazil.
Anthony Flanagan as Flavian Creech
Hi Chris I’ve been lacking in my twitching recently but I was wondering if there is any word on a one-off movie or perhaps even another series of Endeavour to attempt, at least, to tie up all those loose ends. We were certainly left hanging at the end of Terminus. I can’t find much information on Google but I thought you might have an inside word!
No word as yet on a ninth series or a one off special.
Too many loose ends. Too much of the Morse persona still unformed. Enough to fuel a new series with a fresh cast. And maybe fresh writers less obsessed with obscure references. This was not the best series. I’ve been watching Lewis re-runs, and they are far better in all respects.
Hawkwind are still touring.
I just had a comment on the Joan/Jim situation.
It seems highly unlikely, given the nature of the Strange/Morse relationship in the later Morse episodes, that the romance will blossom. Given Morse’s feelings for Joan, it would have meant that any future relationship with Strange would have been forever tarnished. I don’t see either Morse or Strange being able to handle that complexity.
I agree Jeremy especially in the Morse episodes when Strange mentions his marriage or talks about his wife. If he had married Joan, this would be most awkward for both of them.
Hi Chris,
I just binge watched Season 8. Disappointment doesn’t begin to describe my mood after taking in these three episodes. I won’t analyze/criticize the directing or the acting. To me, the fault lies in the scripts. The moments that shine in Season 8 are those that focus on the interpersonal struggles of and between the characters–Morse, Thursday, Win, Joan, Strange, Gwen, Bright. Those moments are brilliant. But the script bludgeons us with a cliched ending in which the characters lay out the whole plot in a twisty narrative (there’s probably a term for it) meant to tie up all the loose ends. I “hate* that. Russell Lewis has done this in the past and it’s one of the major faults I have with the entire series. I’m too upset to write anything else at the moment.
The interpersonal struggles of and between the characters–Morse, Thursday, Win, Joan, Strange, Gwen, Bright. Well, at least four of those characters were created by Russell Lewis, and he devised the interpersonal struggles, and wrote the dialogue. I, too, was disappointed in series 8. While it was only a wee bit better than the dire series 7, it was (for me) acceptable. I get the feeling that Russell Lewis *knew* that ITV would want to see the loose ends tidied up. I am sorry if you’re upset: have a nice cup of tea and look forward to getting angry about series 9.
I too was disappointed with season 8. Although that season was actually an improvement over season 7. I thought some of plots (especially in the last episode) was contrived. The Jim/Joan thing doesn’t bother me. Morse never had any “great love” He would be falling madly in love with woman after woman, and nothing would come out it. And he wouldn’t even remember them. Certainly in the original series. In the original series, it was just the Susan Character. And it was delt with here. So I’d be delighted if Joan marries Jim. I predicted this would hapen at the end of series 6.
A minority view here. I think Chris and many reviewers are being way too critical of Terminus, it seemed to me clearly far superior to S8E1 and E2, and a great improvement on the disappointing S7. Quite gripping and evocative (totally over the top, but that’s part of the fun). Enjoyed Evans and Allam thoroughly in this one, as in most of the better Endeavours. I watch little television, so perhaps my tastes are not so surfeited.
Terminus is ludicrous, and I am *not* being “way too critical,” by the way. Were it presented as a parody, it would work, but this is just a bad episode of Endeavour. I can just see Roger Allam and Anthony Flanagan (the ham bone actor who played the serial killer) bursting out laughing at the goofy dialogue in their scene.
Agree, Terminus was absolutely terrible and ludicrous. The plot and setup was poor.
Hi y’all-
Well, this episode REEKS. It’s on right now, halfway over, and for the first time, I don’t even want to finish it. Terminus was the worst of the three in Season/Series 8. ‘Nuff said.
Russell Lewis has always been so good. He wrote many episodes of Lewis, several of the Sharpe series, several of The Last Detective, and all of a new series I’m liking, Grace. Plus he wrote the first Hornblower movie, The Duel. When I see his name, I expect good things! He really dropped the ball here.
Unlike many people, I hate the Inspector Morse series and the John Thaw character. He was a rude, smug, cocky, arrogant bully, and I hate to see Endeavour, whom I love, deteriorate into him. It hurts to know at the end of this episode that he doesn’t kick the alcohol.
Couple of comments:
1. The quotation from Macbeth “When shall we three meet again” was also spoken by Laura Hobson in the Lewis episode “Falling Darkness.”
2. Also, Chris said above, “When Win is angry with Fred she turns on Joan and says, ‘You weren’t so clever in Leamington.’ Win is alluding to Joan’s pregnancy and subsequent loss of the child in the episode, Harvest.”
I think Win is only referring to Joan’s leaving home and subsequent aberrant behavior back then. I don’t think Win knows about the pregnancy and miscarriage. I believe only Morse knows. It seems to me that Joan and Win haven’t gotten close enough since Joan’s return for her to share the nitty-gritty truth with her mom. I could be wrong.
The only way to get the bad taste out of my mouth is to go back and binge-watch the Pilot and season one all over again for the umpty-umpth time. Those were some brilliant episodes.
Another reference to MACBETH is the typed list of names pertaining to each table (ie: the school houses) at the hotel do. This lot in question are ‘House Cawdor’.
Chris, in general I agree with most of your comments on Terminus. However, I don’t feel as you do about Win’s outburst. I found it entirely out of character, even within the context of her distress about her son. I hope there is resolution and healing for the Thursdays in Season 9. I really do not want this to be my lasting memory of Win. I have surprised myself by accepting the relationship developing between Jim and Joan. I found his comforting of her very sweet, and almost the only redeeming part of the epeisode.
Totally agree!
It seems suggesting that the defaced eyes of victims is related to the Manson murders is looking far afield for an answer that is already there. The winners announcement that Morse finds in the first contemporary victim’s room shows the big winner listed as “Mr C” and the photo of him is printed with stars over his eyes – two ways to shield his identity. When “Mr C” (Churchyard) was killed years earlier his murderer had defaced the eyes to tie him to the published photograph and warn the other conspirators that he knew who they were. The revenge crew used the same device to throw fear into those they hadn’t got to yet but Thursday figured it out in time to at least save the bystanders.
Hi David, thanks for that explanation. I hadn’t made that connection when I watched the episode. I guess because I disliked the episode so much I didn’t dwell on the details.
MarIon Bailey also plays the Queen Mother in the Crown…funny remark when they are introducing themselves when one of the pther passengers says she sounds like the Queen mother…
That was intentionally and an ‘in-joke’ by Russell Lewis the writer of the episode.
Yes, I thought so sorry. I didn’t see it mentioned anywhere here. I thought it nice.
Found this when I was trying to find out what the red letters in the credits meant (Blythe Mount School for Girls).
From https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/EndeavourS8E03Terminus:
One of the passengers on the bus is seen reading a book by Stephen Fitzowen, a character who appeared in the Series 2 episode “Nocturne” in which he had written a book about the Victorian murder that happened at Blythe Mount. According to Blake, he also wrote a book about the Tafferton Park murders.
We in the UK don’t get the ‘red letters.’
I read on a trashy gossip site that the final episode of Endeavour will reveal that the entire series was a dream ! They didn’t specify whose dream, though. I doubt that the “gossip” has any truth to it. But one never knows.
Ha Ha – normally I would just laugh that off completely but after S8 – not so sure….. I think that Lewis has run out of ideas about how to explain Thursday (and in fact all of the Thursdays) and really Frazil and Bright (equally never mentioned or referenced in the future)
Although I think that may have been a fan’s idea – someone suggested similar to explain away the dreadful S7 – that Morse wakes up and the whole Venice thing had just been a nightmare – THAT I may have bought into….
It doesn’t bother me that Thursday isn’t mentioned later. Do Morse and Lewis go into that much detail about who Morse worked with? Or any other women, other than his first college love, that he dated? I never noticed.
Ha ha Sheldon. Well that worked for Dallas! Series 7 and 8, though, was more like a nightmare
I am wondering if CGI will be used to “morph” John Thaw’s “Morse” into the final episode.
They can always do a reprise of that moment in the Pilot when Endeavour looks in the rearview mirror of the Jag and sees John Thaw’s face looking back at him.
Evelyn, I was thinking the same thing! Could make an elegant bookend to the series.
Ok, I’ve got it! Needs CGI. Find a scene of John Thaw driving the Jag, and HE looks in the mirror and sees Shaun Evans’ face looking back at HIM! Hehe.
Brilliant. 😉
I’m late to the party here, but this ep. appeared heavily influenced by Stephen King’s The Shining, as well as by And Then There Were None. Ghastly murder-haunted hotel, brutal isolating snowstorm and help that will never come in time, a scary masquerade ball from the past (“Unmask, unmask! 😈😈), uber-lethal
bar and ballroom, ax-murders, a finicky generator/furnace…everything but Redrum giving Morse grief. 🙃🙃 (And the percussive newspaper articles detailing the original murders was a lift from the first Murder On The Orient Express’s credits.) That said, this would have been a much tighter episode if there wasn’t so much ridiculous folks-wandering-off-alone-for-no-good-reasons mess. Even before the killings started, who in their right mind would be strolling around an hotel abandoned for almost a decade? In an area with winters as rough as that, it’s a good bet there was a fair amount of structural damage. Lewis did address the stick-together thing somewhat, but it’s a shame he let things deteriorate into Too Stupid To Live cliche.
“Too Stupid To Live” – yup, thought the same thing. Why are people wandering off constantly? Given that they do, why doesn’t anybody question where Hilda Bruce-Potter wandered off to? She shows up in the jester costume, as probably most of us predicted, but she was missing for quite a while.
I’m with you: really awful episode, never did figure out what the darn thing was about. As usual, however, captivated by the back story of Morse and Thursday
I wanted to chime in to say that one of the things that has been bothering me about season 8 was Bright’s hair! In the 60’s people’s apparel and hair were polarized — the “hippies” had long hair for both sexes and loose, casual pants and shirts. The “squares” had very conservative hair and clothes. Certainly Chief Superintendent Bright would have been in the latter category, yet his hair in the back is long enough to be untidy and certainly out of character for such an authority figure. (For reference, see every other male in this episode with the one exception of the male student.) This Bright is too “with it” for my taste.
I also thought the way the madman Flavian Creech was portrayed was brilliant! Both in the flashback as he went about killing people, and present day, when Thursday visited him in prison, his dark, dark eyes looked like black holes into his corrupted soul, just what I assume a madman looks like. It caused shivers here!
Agreed, Mr. Bright has needed a haircut for several episodes. What’s up with that?
Just before I watched the Thursday interview with the Flavian Creech character, I saw Lee Marvin confess to Sgt. Friday on Dragnet in the 1952 S2 Episode “The Big Cast” (at the 20 minute mark). Not all that different. I like this plot line the least. I had to press the “I believe” button too many times . . .
Possibly the actor may have had their slightly longer for another role that they were filming around that time. Just a thought.
When watching this for the first time, I felt his appearance was to indicate that Bright has become somewhat unkempt following the death of his wife, a small way perhaps of spelling out the great change from his previously well managed life.
Hi Julie, I thought the same thing about Bright. His well-ordered life was turned upside down when his wife died and that could reflect itself on his appearance and his everyday life.
Ah, Julie that hadn’t occurred to me. Thanks, that makes much more sense than my supposition!
Terminus may have been the worst Endeavour episode, so far. It’s a shame how this series has strayed from its promising beginnings.
Absolutely agree, Jane.
I went as far as saying I thought it was the worst episode across Morse/Lewis/Endeavour. I will re-watch this series ahead of the final one, but I’ll be surprised if this changes my view.
My thought exactly. The worst of all. I can’t think of another episode, although there were a few not-so-good, in any of M,L,E series as awful as this one.
Let’s hope the final series will be better.
I really bristle at the exaggerated Jamaican accents every Black character has. ‘Straight outta Trenchtown’!
I know we are closer in time to the Windrush arrivals back then, but even so, I don’t think every single Black person in England was necessarily a crypto-Rasta. Certainly wasn’t my experience then.
This bus driver here is a flipping Minstrel caricature
Can’t help feeling there’s a thread of (probably unacknowleged in the writer) racism in it all.
Black MALE character, thst is.
I thought that too. I thought it was Captain Tobias Wilcox from Coconut Airways.
It seems many people have their own reason to dislike this episode. For me, it was the idea that just because someone is good with numbers, they are therefore able to win the football pools. A contrivance as daft, if not dafter, than any other ridiculous part of this messy episode.
I used to work in a bookies, and whilst the pools have generally been replaced by the Lottery, any bookmaker worth their salt still pushes ‘acca’ (accumulator) bonuses. The reason being, the more outcomes of football matches you try to predict, the bigger the odds, but the harder and more unlikely it becomes to actually win. Ask any punter daft enough to still be taken in by these offers, and I’ll guarantee you’ll get at least one hard luck story each about how a last minute goal or a bad refereeing decision robbed someone of a big windfall. Large acca wins are very, very rare and almost always down to luck, but mug punters love a bad beat story – and you never see a poor bookie!
So the idea that someone ‘good with data sets’, even with the intellect of Newton, Einstein & Hawking COMBINED, could predict 8 draws (the toughest football outcome to predict) across multiple football divisions, is as daft as saying someone could see 100 years into the future because they’ve got good eyesight.
It’s that ludicrous.
Good comment, lucidly put. It’s just this sort of implausibility in a lot of TV writing that makes me think the writers continually underestimate the intelligence of their audience.
Probably a coincidence but where they’ve filmed Endeavour’s home is a stone’s throw away from where John Thaw lived while filming Morse, also on Grove Park road.
The picture of the building said to be the exterior of Tafferton Park Hotel doesn’t really match the scenes in Endeavour. The steps don’t appear to be in the right place.
There is another literary reference in Terminus. Early in the episode Thursday tells Morse to go on leave and get some help with his drinking problem. He suggests a place in Sussex run by a man called Wain. This is a reference to Shrublands in Ian Fleming’s James Bond novel Thunderball. It is a health resort where Bond is sent by M to detox.
Welcome Peter. Thank you for the reference and well spotted. I will add it to the review.
Watched this episode again last week. Yes, it’s still dreadful. The only acting is in the scenes involving the Thursday family. The rest is dreadful.
It has been raised before but I wonder what does Win know about what happened in Leamington? Does she know the full story, or just that Joan had taken up with an unsuitable (married) man? Does Joan tell her everything at some unseen time. In another episode Win refers to Joan having secrets – I think it’s when she is angry and leaving Fred after having found out that all his pension is gone – possibly in Icarus is it?
Fred knows about the married lover obviously but nothing else. Endeavour knows the full story but doesn’t tell anyone so far as we know.
Hi – I watched it again last week as a rewatch of series 8, and like you still found it dreadful.
I think there are gaps in Joan’s life that only Morse knows the full story. Whether this becomes part of a sub-plot to either cause a rift or be yet another thing between the Thursday’s and Morse we’ll have to see in Series 9.
I always thought Win knew about Joan’s pregnancy and subsequently her fall which ended it, although I think we can assume Joan did that on purpose. (I remember that could be a so-called remedy for an unwanted pregnancy back then.) She had said to Fred that he didn’t even know about his own daughter but Fred certainly knew Joan was living with a married man and being “kept” by him as he visited her in Leamington. That seems to be the whole story in that chapter of Joan’s life.
Has anyone else noticed that the official ITV DVD release of Series 8 suffers from a drop in picture quality compared to the other series’ DVDs? No idea why, but it’s very disappointing.
Not much good to say about this episode. I always enjoy the characters, sets, costumes, 1970’s vibe, etc., which is why I watch “Endeavour”, but this episode was tiresome to watch. Can’t say much about it that hasn’t been said, but will point out some odd things. Why does it look like that hotel is frozen in time? Ok, so there were multiple murders there, but at some point the police teams leave and you clean up the place. The dining room is still set for a dinner that took place 8 years ago? The bar is still stocked? Nobody has ransacked the place yet? What was this gang’s plan? If the bus hadn’t went off the road, was the driver going to drive to the hotel? Why did the driver try to talk people out of heading to the hotel on foot when that is exactly where the gang wanted to end up? Why hasn’t anybody at Castlegate taken Morse to task for his drinking, appearance, and shoddy work habits? What’s up with Mr. Bright’s hair? (Ok, maybe that’s grief). Why does Mrs. Thursday call Fred call Fred a coward? In what way is his behavior cowardice? Ok, she’s upset and angry, but calling Fred a coward, really? Fred is a lot of things, but not a coward.
Anyways, Season 9, here we come.
“It’s St Mary’s Church, Cholsey the burial place of one Agatha Christie.” Where are the other Agatha Christies buried? 🙂
Hi Chris – just to point out another reference to the “Halloween” movie: the bus was on its way to ‘Haddenfield’ and this the name of the small town where the action takes place in the movie. Have to say, I agree with you and everyone that Series 8 has been a low point in the ‘Endeavour’ canon, and this episode was dire, with so many plot holes and unbelievable contrivances…!
Best wishes,
Chris
Thank you Chris for the additional information.
I didn’t like this episode, it was silly. The only thing I was interested in is where’s Sam, and worrying about Morse and his drinking.
Yes this was the most awful episode of all in the entire Morse Lewis Endeavour universe.
Is the boy in the photograph on the professor’s desk a young Colin Dexter?
Hi Nora. I mention that photograph in my review under the section, ‘Where’s Colin.’
Late to the party here, and as terribly disappointed in series 8 as anyone, especially “Terminus,” which has such a ludicrous climax with the flood of arriving coppers that I burst out laughing, even if the intent was to echo all those 1930s-1940s British Murder mysteries where the Plod arrive just in time for the reveals — also, see Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, which ends in a frozen tableaux of coppers in Mrs Lovett’s basement. Russell Lewis doing The Old Dark House/Seven Keys To Baldpate by way of Halloween, The Fog, and The Shining.
Which brings me to the big Easter Egg most miss — the music in the episode gradually starts pastiching John Carpenter’s music for Halloween and The Fog. It’s pretty subtle, but the bass tones and sone drones are on point, right down to tempo and rhythm. The arpeggios are left out, however.
Flavian Creech is a double, again a horror film reference and a game reference (FINAL GIRL: THE HAUNTING OF CREECH MANOR.)
There’s a decent amount of clever referencing going on, but very sad that it’s in service of such twaddle.
I didn’t hate it but there was a lot of silliness.
Max’s comment that the cadaver’s stomach contained “a surfeit of mints” was, I think, a reference to Ngaio Marsh’s A Surfeit of Lampreys, published in 1941.