Leaves me Breathless

I didn’t know how much I loved a good detective story until I watched how the Brits create one. They combine suspense, mental twists, intricate arcs, class, a wonderful score, beautiful landscapes, and dynamic relationships. In fact, I have not seen men bond the way they do on American television as they do on Masterpiece Theater. This is why I stay tuned, every Sunday night, uninterrupted. Because no one does it better.

There have been so many shows that I have fallen head over heels with; Grantchester, World on Fire, Downton Abbey, Home Fires, Indian Summers, Hercule Poiret, Mr. Selfridge, Mrs. Wilson, Poldark, My Mother and Other Strangers, The Durrell’s in Corfu, The Collection and Victoria, but if I had to choose one as a favorite it would be hands down, Endeavour. And Downton Abbey was hard to beat.

I absolutely love period pieces. Endeavour takes place in the 1960s and now we are in 1970. Last night’s show was the finale of season 7. There were only four shows this season and it was brilliant writing the way they were strung together.

Endeavour Morse is a young, boyishly good looking detective who is a boy wonder; he dropped out of college and is a genius for putting clues together. He has a taste for refinement and opera. His partner and one-time mentor who he has outgrown is Chief Detective Fred Thursday who is older and stauncher in his observations and opinions.

The story starts with yet another tow-path murder. Thursday is furious. It's the young woman he'd warned in the previous episode, Bridget Mulcahy. He has some strong words for Morse, who remained convinced that Professor Blish was the tow-path killer. The chef, Tony Jakkobsen, was killed in an unrelated incident, Morse thought. But with Bridget's murder, it seems undeniable that the killer is still at large.

Thursday immediately arrests the first victim's boyfriend, Carl Sturgis. Morse, having lost the confidence of both Thursday and Chief Superintendent of Police, Bright, continues investigating the series of freak accidents which Journalist Dorothea keeps bringing to his attention. Nothing connects the dead, it seems. But Morse doesn't have official approval to continue investigating.

But then there's another murder! Thursday was wrong. Carl Sturgis didn't kill this latest victim since he was imprisoned. He's released, whereupon he crows loudly to the media and goes his merry way. The victim, Petra Cornwell, was a student at a local women's college, where a debate is currently underway about whether to become coed. Sexist Magdalena Byrne the college's head mistress, is firmly against it, while others think it's not such a bad idea. She'd complained earlier about Dr. Dai Ferman, who returns, a suspicious reminder of his status as a suspect in the first episode.

Next up, Morse revisits Jenny Tate, the psychic woman who saw glimpses of the tow-path murderer in her dreams. She reveals to him the depths of her psychosis, and the horrifying backstory (a bullying older brother, a fire of which she was the only survivor).

Another freak accident leaves another woman dead at the college, but by this time, Thursday has had it with Morse's cleverness. After a snarled argument over Petra's body, Morse volunteers to transfer to Castlegate, and when he refuses to drop the freak accident line of inquiry, Thursday takes him off the tow-path killing investigation entirely.

Meanwhile, the women of Oxford band together and catch...a copycat killer? Morse sneers at the beat cops' celebrations.

"You stand there and you look down your nose at everyone," Thursday says. "Nobody's good enough."

"Well, there was one person," Morse returns, "but he lost his way."

About this time, Ludo (an Art Dealer who has befriended Morse) reveals that he's discovered his wife Violetta and Morse’s affair, the three of them are together and each man holds out his hand, Violetta places her hand in Ludo’s palm and it appears she chooses money over love.

A few minutes later we find out that, despite seemingly successful cancer treatments, Mrs. Bright (married to the Chief Superintendent of Police) has died in a freak accident.

Creeping up to the hour point, Morse finally reveals that he's cracked the freak accident case. It's a truly clever scheme, explaining why all of the cases are connected while no one seems to have a motivation to kill the victims. This leads to a tense standoff by another Copper by the name of Strange in a creepy abandoned house and a brutal stabbing.

Morse-Thursday are at each other’s throats again and finally, Morse doing the unforgivable: he hurts Bright's feelings (I mean, he does a good deal more than that, but that is the unforgivable sin of Endeavour.)

This places Morse firmly outside the familial bourn. He sends off a letter of apology, to Joan Thursday, to pass on to her father. The letter found by Thursday has strong echoes of respect, in it, he calls Thursday “the best and wisest of men and a better friend to me than I could have wished for or deserved.” Then Morse hurls off to Venice gun in hand to meet his destiny.

In Venice, we get Ludo being a smarmy mustache-twirling bad guy, we get some vague Bond Villain lines about how Morse was set up...but is Morse really faced with a status-quo-altering truth about his behavior this season. Ludo was the master-mind of the Insurance scheme. But Morse has behaved badly, he lost his integrity over his passion for a married woman and has lied, and now he has to grapple with the uncomfortable idea that Violetta never cared for him.

Ludo attempts to shoot at Morse and when Morse pulls out his gun Ludo takes Violetta and holds a gun to her head. Ludo shots Violetta who dies in Morse’s arms, “Ti Amo,” are her final words. Thursday has his partner’s back and fires at Ludo who falls into the canal.

This entire season felt like a declaration of love, but it was also about beautifully rendered understated performances that the Brits do so well, that rip your heart out. And we end with an operatic finale.

If you didn’t catch it, look at the video below.