‘Endeavour’ Series Finale Delivers Shocking Resolutions & Heartbreaking Goodbyes (RECAP)
Spoiler Alert
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the July 2 Endeavour series finale, “Exeunt.”]
Many TV shows are well past their prime by the time they hit their final season. Not Endeavour. The magnificent British series, a prequel to another mystery drama classic, Inspector Morse (1987-2000), bid farewell to American viewers Sunday night, July 2, on PBS with shocking resolutions, heartbreaking goodbyes and even a bit of Shakespeare.
Over nine seasons and 36 feature-length episodes, the Oxford-set show has treated viewers to richly drawn characters, cerebral mysteries and 1960s and ’70s nostalgia. We got new insight into the beleaguered and brilliant Endeavour Morse (Shaun Evans) by watching him evolve from a neophyte detective constable into someone more like the jaded loner played by John Thaw in the original series.
In the last season’s third and final installment, appropriately titled “Exeunt,” Evans’ Detective Sergeant Morse and Roger Allam’s Chief Inspector Fred Thursday finally close the book on one of their most gripping cases. The storyline began way back in the second-season finale, “Neverland,” when they investigated a murder connected to a boys’ home for troubled youths and uncovered a history of child abuse that was perpetrated there and covered up by police.
Shaun Evans and Sara Vickers (Courtesy of Mammoth Screen and MASTERPIECE)
Now, in 1972, Morse discovers that a missing boy named Peter Williams, whom he believed was buried on the grounds of the former facility, hadn’t been killed years ago — he was still alive until just recently. The young man, now known as Tomahawk and part of a biker gang, became one of the episode’s murder victims. And the killer: none other than Morse’s esteemed mentor, Thursday.
That leads to one of the explanations the final season promised to deliver: why Thursday is never mentioned by his former partner in the original series. Of course Thursday wasn’t created by Colin Dexter, the novelist whose mysteries inspired that show. He comes from the ingenious brain of Russell Lewis, the prolific scribe who wrote every Endeavour episode, so he had yet to be invented when the original series was airing.
Thursday stabbed the young man to protect his son, Sam (Jack Bannon, returning to the series after leading the cast of Pennyworth for three seasons). Since coming back to Oxford after going AWOL from the army, Sam has been battling addiction and getting drugs from Tomahawk (Jack Hamilton), who threatened Sam. Now, to keep Sam safe from the biker gang’s revenge, Thursday, his wife, Win (Caroline O’Neill), and Sam will have to go into hiding. Thursday can never see Morse again.
Shaun Evans (Courtesy of Mammoth Screen and MASTERPIECE)
Evans’ and Allam’s performances in that scene were pitch-perfect. Both actors are masters at conveying big emotions with small gestures and subtle expressions that speak volumes, and that was especially evocative as their characters — who aren’t comfortable expressing emotion — tried to keep it together while saying goodbye forever.
As if that parting wasn’t painful enough, Morse promises Thursday that he will keep an eye on his daughter, Joan (Sara Vickers), the woman Morse loves, who has just married his detective sergeant colleague Jim Strange (Sean Rigby). That turn of events will give added poignancy to anyone now watching Inspector Morse (which streams on BritBox). In scenes between Strange, who by then has risen in the ranks to become chief constable, and Morse, “Mrs. Strange” is mentioned, though her first name is never spoken. Decades later, the woman Morse loved so much is still nearby.
References to the original series were numerous, and clever. Earlier in the episode, when discussing a murder victim with the surname Lewis, Morse mentions that the man has a young cousin named Robert who’s a police cadet. Surely this is the same Robert Lewis who will become the sergeant sidekick — played by Kevin Whately — on Inspector Morse and get his own spinoff series, Inspector Lewis, in 2006.
As the episode closed, Anton Lesser, whose character, Chief Superintendent Reginald Bright, retired from the force, recited Prospero’s “We are such stuff as dreams are made on” speech about mortality from The Tempest over a montage of clips of the set and cast members past and present. Young Endeavour Morse drove off in his black Jaguar. Driving in the other direction was a man who looked a lot like the older Morse — in that character’s signature red Jaguar.
So Endeavour, which has been a glorious staple of Masterpiece’s summer season, concludes with a reminder that nothing lasts forever. But as we said goodbye to these characters, I couldn’t help hoping that when not writing the BritBox series Grace, Russell Lewis will find the time to pen a prequel to the prequel featuring a young Fred Thursday, or explore the adventures of Sergeant Jakes (Jack Laskey) in Wyoming.
And like Inspector Morse, which viewers still enjoy more than two decades after it ended its run, I expect Endeavour won’t be leaving our screens anytime soon. Is it too soon to go back and rewatch the pilot?
Endeavour, Season 9, PBS app and PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel
Conversation31 Comments
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O
One of the best series endings ever! The two Jags passing each other was epic!
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J
I didn’t understand why Morse fired a single shot from the gun he got from Thursday.
29 2
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R
Me either.
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S
What was the significance of Morse loading one bullet in Thursday’s gun and shooting it? Russian roulette to decide if he wants to go on with his life?
20 4
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B
If it was Russian Roulette, wouldn't Morse have held the gun to his head and fired? We heard a shot, not the sound of an empty chamber, so he'd have killed himself. I truly don't understand the ending.
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C
what was the gunshot for? meaning?
20 5
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G
The best series ending ever! Not one second in the whole episode was irrelevant. The last touch of the two cars passing was expected and rewarding.
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O
Any ideas as to what that gunshot was when Endeavor loaded the pistol Thursday gave him on that bench outside the church at the end of the last episode? Obviously couldn't have been suicide as he drives off (and, of course this is a prequel to the series featuring the older Morse in later years); so, whar was up w/that random shot?
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P
I thought he was playing Russian Roulette with the gun ... and he spun one bullet which was by luck not in the chamber when he fired. Very heartbreaking ... he has to live on without the Thursdays in his life ...
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B
If there was no bullet in the chamber, the gun would not have fired.
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O
Great way to end the series!!
7
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R
Magnificent series, and unexpected ending, no happily ever after for Morse and Joan but realistic resolution of unspoken love.
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O
Did Morse really kill himself with that gunshot heard at the end?
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B
It's a perplexing finish, but the Morse of advanced years is played by John Thaw in the original series, so Endeavour did not end his life. But what did he fire that gun at, and why? Will we ever know?
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G
"I couldn’t help hoping that...Russell Lewis will find the time to pen a prequel to the prequel featuring a young Fred Thursday, or explore the adventures of Sergeant Jakes (Jack Laskey) in Wyoming." OK,&/or maybe Hathaway, older, training the next newbie in the line.
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D
I know that I'm a nobody and my opinion means nothing but the series finale ending made no sense to me at all. Adding the possible suicide of Endeavor at the end of the program seems to me to be unnecessarily overly dramatic.
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R
Yes, the gun shot was out of place and a poor choice to have in the final episode
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C
One of the best shows on tv anywhere god bless.. did anyone else notice the guns were different. Thursday gave morse a smith and wesson 1917 . Yet morse loaded and fired a wembly i believe,
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B
wow..I hated to see it end'
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G
My favourite TV progam ever.
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P
Agree
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P
I agree. Confusing. My initial reaction was he had killed himself because he was now alone. But then I realized he couldn't have because Morse continues...
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O
That was foreshadowed when Dr DeBryn said suicides often change their minds, at the scene where the guy fell out of the factory building.
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O
Good point. So maybe he chose to live, moved his hand, shot the gun. When it went off, he realized he would have been dead.
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P
Morse is shown as not liking Mrs Strange at all in Inspector Morse, and Lewis is also not overly fond of her. So seems Joan changed for the worse, or she died and Strange married someone else.
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P
Given we see Morse dying in his 60s years later in the Inspector Morse series, no he doesn't die. Endeavour is a prequel to that show
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O
Reminded me of the Sopranos ending. Unsettling. Maybe Morse did commit suicide. He lost the love of his life, He now takes all the sordid details to the grave such as his failure to arrest Thursday for the killing of Tomahawk and coverup But it was one bullet Russian roulette.so maybe he lived.
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G
But, did Morse actually kill himself?
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O
Since Inspector Morse is alive in the earier series, and as Morse is shown at the choir practice and in the Jag leaving the performance hall, Morse would seem to be alive. Now what did he shoot at? Different question. Was he checking that the rounds were still live (i.e. not too water logged to be used), in case he needed a functional gun, soon.
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P
Although the sound of the gunshot made me gasp, I knew he couldn't be dead. Endeavor is the prequel. A suicide would destroy more than two decades of brilliant storytelling! I think it was a shot out of anger, pun intended. His entire life has been blown up: he lost Joan, Fred, Bright, Win, his tenuous sobriety, and he will always have a target on his back because he can't let things go! I'd say shooting the gun was as close to displaying outright emotion we have NEVER seen! And they didn't show it.
Just an aside, I did LOVE the "dreamy I love you and kiss" between Morse and Joan!
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R
Thank you for this explanation of the gunshot in the church yard. It really confused me. Now it makes sense.
This finale was brilliant. But I am still so sad the series ended.
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