Follows on directly from Three (therefore still 1967) and Joan's departure - Thursday's taking it out on Morse, who's not amused by this nor that his sergeant's exam papers have disappeared, so he's failed. Both Bright and Thursday warn him that powerful figures will attempt to thwart his career at every turn, and to transfer to another district, but he's not being forced out.
'Game' is the one with the murders linked by drowning, and the computer playing chess. 'I should have listened to you,' Thursday finally relents. 'You're always right.'
"And one was fond of me and all are slain" de Bryn quotes from AE Housman 'Ask me no more, for fear I should reply'. And I think Q was right, the computer typo Re: Drum is a reference to The Shining.
'Canticle' is the one with the Mary Whitehouse figure and The Wildwood. I think we see Dexter in a newspaper column. ('Canticle' = a hymn or chant forming a regular part of a church service.) The sub-plot about the Whitehouse daughter having had enough and leaving parallels Joan to Thursday.
Barrington Pheloung's music continues to be inspired.. though Matthew Slater is beginning to come in.
'Lazaretto'. Bed No. 10. Who's bumping off the patients? Who include a potential witness, and DS Bright (note how often Trewlove is there visiting). Also there is Morses' ex's mother, who's an utter bitch (Phoebe Nicholls). I think it's a good job Morse didn't end up with the daughter. But there's perhaps some closure there. 'Lazaretto' = historical - an isolation hospital for people with infectious diseases, especially leprosy or plague.
You half expect the parrot to reveal the murderer's identity - but Lewis isn't that cheesy.
'Harvest'. (The 'mere' referred to is a term for wetland.) How a man's disappearance five years before links to a nuclear accident that's about to be repeated. But really, the episode's all about Joan, who's in hiding because she thinks the bank job was all her fault. She's definitely a bad judge of men, having palled up with another badun. Thursday visits, makes the situation worse, and she's pregnant, for a time... 'Marry me.' So sweet. Whether she throws herself down the stairs or he did, we don't know... Also, Morse was about to leave for a new job in London - it looks like he chose not to, even before realising he'd been promoted, but again it's not really clear.
Morse: 'Snappy' Jenkins?
Frazil: Well, you can be.
Frazil: Girl trouble?
Morse: I don't have a girl.
Frazil: Well maybe that's the trouble.
The chap who writes the fan site https://morseandlewisandendeavour.com/ may be very helpful and interesting but of the above episode he wonders whether Lewis should have other writers come in, considers the hostile village clichéd, and thinks the Joan character should have been 'killed off'. I take extreme objection to all of these. I think it's so cool that Lewis has written every single episode - he is a great writer, constructs each one so cleverly.. I don't know where he gets all his ideas from - and doesn't need any outside help, thank you. The hostile village is obviously there as a gleeful reference to The Wicker Man and English horror films in general - it's there for the audience to enjoy, same as the Jaws references throughout 'Prey'. As for 'killing off Joan', this shows he doesn't really get one of the plot cornerstones of this series, the Morse-Joan-Thursday conflict, and it's in this particular instalment you get some of the most powerful fallout from that dysfunctional relationship. So you can carry on cleverly identifying all the music and art references, Mr. Sullivan, and leave the intelligent stuff to us.
Dexter died in 2017, aged 86. Housman was clearly one of Dexter's favourites as he bought first editions. His dad was a taxi driver. Thursday is based on Lewis's dad.
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