@bratface said: As for Strange, my dislike started in season three, maybe four. He did something I thought was horrible, although for the life of me I can't remember what it was. He was still in uniform & I think it was something he did to Morse? But I just can't remember. 👵 Old brain.

We need input from wonder2wonder, who knows everything, to answer your question.

Since Strange joined the Freemason in S2E1 "Trove", the relationship between him and Endeavour hasn't been quite the same. Thanks to his new influential 'brothers' Strange was promoted to sergeant in series three and he has been somewhat smug about surpassing Endeavour in rank and becoming his superior.

Boy's night out at the pub.

DC Endeavour: "So what's, what's that?"

DS Strange: "Oh, er... Double Diamond."

DC Endeavour: "Since when? You've always been a Farmer's man."

DS Strange: "Ah, it's for old blokes, bitter. If you want to be with it, it's got to be lager."

DC Endeavour: "Is that what they swill up at Division? Or down the lodge? Thought Jakes was bad with that muck."

DS Strange: "I know that's how you think I got it."

DC Endeavour: "I didn't mean..."

DS Strange: "Well, maybe that's part of it. It's nothing you couldn't do. Rank's not about brains. It's about playing the game. Or not, in your case. You rub people up the wrong way."

DC Endeavour: "Not intentionally."

DS Jim Strange : "No? It just happens, does it?"

DC Endeavour: "Look, you don't need to buy me records, or take me for a drink."

DS Strange: "Maybe. All the same. Just wanted to say, we're still mates?"

DC Endeavour: "Yes. Yes, we are."

In S4E1 "Game" Endeavour failed his Sergeant's exams, because his paper mysteriously went missing. Was Strange involved in this or did he know who was?

DC Endeavour: "My exam paper never reached Division. Automatic failure."

DS Strange: "Oh. Bad luck, matey. Still, what was it you said? Uhmm ...if at first... eh?"

Ironically it might have been Endeavour himself who gave PC Strange a leg-up in S1E4 "Home" when he recommended him for the position of "Acting Detective Constable" in his absence. And so Strange quickly outranked Endeavour and Thursday starting beneath them from PC (Police Constable) to the top: DCS (Detective Chief Superintendent).

DC Endeavour: "I don't want to leave you a man down."

DI Thursday: "You let me worry about that."

DC Endeavour: "Actually, sir, there is someone I suppose you could look to."
...

...

PC Strange: "I won't forget this."

DC Endeavour: "It's only Acting Detective Constable. It's not permanent."

PC Strange: "Little acorns, matey."

Strange didn't forget and he has been a friend, sometimes, when it doesn't involve the higher powers.

More about Endeavour and the Freemason here.

@wonder2wonder said:

Since Strange joined the Freemason in S2E1 "Trove", the relationship between him and Endeavour hasn't been quite the same. Thanks to his new influential 'brothers' Strange was promoted to sergeant in series three and he has been somewhat smug about surpassing Endeavour in rank and becoming his superior.

Boy's night out at the pub.

DC Endeavour: "So what's, what's that?"

DS Strange: "Oh, er... Double Diamond."

DC Endeavour: "Since when? You've always been a Farmer's man."

DS Strange: "Ah, it's for old blokes, bitter. If you want to be with it, it's got to be lager."

DC Endeavour: "Is that what they swill up at Division? Or down the lodge? Thought Jakes was bad with that muck."

DS Strange: "I know that's how you think I got it."

DC Endeavour: "I didn't mean..."

DS Strange: "Well, maybe that's part of it. It's nothing you couldn't do. Rank's not about brains. It's about playing the game. Or not, in your case. You rub people up the wrong way."

DC Endeavour: "Not intentionally."

DS Jim Strange : "No? It just happens, does it?"

DC Endeavour: "Look, you don't need to buy me records, or take me for a drink."

DS Strange: "Maybe. All the same. Just wanted to say, we're still mates?"

DC Endeavour: "Yes. Yes, we are."

In S4E1 "Game" Endeavour failed his Sergeant's exams, because his paper mysteriously went missing. Was Strange involved in this or did he know who was?

DC Endeavour: "My exam paper never reached Division. Automatic failure."

DS Strange: "Oh. Bad luck, matey. Still, what was it you said? Uhmm ...if at first... eh?"

Ironically it might have been Endeavour himself who gave PC Strange a leg-up in S1E4 "Home" when he recommended him for the position of "Acting Detective Constable" in his absence. And so Strange quickly outranked Endeavour and Thursday starting beneath them from PC (Police Constable) to the top: DCS (Detective Chief Superintendent).

DC Endeavour: "I don't want to leave you a man down."

DI Thursday: "You let me worry about that."

DC Endeavour: "Actually, sir, there is someone I suppose you could look to."
...

...

PC Strange: "I won't forget this."

DC Endeavour: "It's only Acting Detective Constable. It's not permanent."

PC Strange: "Little acorns, matey."

Strange didn't forget and he has been a friend, sometimes, when it doesn't involve the higher powers.

More about Endeavour and the Freemason here.

Thanks wonder, I think that was it? I remember at the time how I thought he was a sneaky 'little' weasel considering how Endeavour had treated him quite well up till then!

Please tell me how you did that (figure out what I was talking about)?

Another point about the Thursday/Endeavour tension is that, although matters were patched up in the finale of Season 6, the rift began earlier when not only Endeavour but also Strange, Bright and Dr. DeBryn sensed that Thursday had gone over to the dark side. And while the standoff at the end of "Deguello" proved he was back in the good guys' fold, I wonder how easily it would be for Endeavour, or anyone else, to totally forgive and forget when he came so perilously close to being framed AND assassinated by the dirty cop ringleader Jago, one of Thursday's heretofore buddies?

@bratface said:

Please tell me how you did that (figure out what I was talking about)?

I suspect @wonder is a counterintelligence agent in her regular life!

w2w is The All-Knowing One

I just finished watching the season finale - and to considerable extent, it went over my head.....

So, did the Tate girl's brother - formerly known as Johnny - commit all the towpath murders, or did anyone else commit some of them? Who was the guy who got hit by the car after he whistled and attempted to attack the college woman on the towpath? (As far as I could tell, he was someone we'd never seen before.)

Meanwhile, I didn't understood how the insurance scheme worked. Ludo bought policies - but then who murdered (via supposed "accidents") the various people who sold them? Did Ludo murder them, or did his wife (or did they both)? Also, what, exactly, was Violetta's role in things? Was her sole thing snaring Endeavour? (If so, that was quite a stretch, as how would anyone have known Endeavour would attend that particular New Year's 1970 opera in Venice, also that she'd catch his eye there - let alone that he'd act on it?)

At any rate, the "answers" to certain things just wound up leaving me quite confused. This was a season finale I found difficult to "get" - though I liked it, nonetheless.

RIP Mrs. Bright. It was nice seeing her looking and seeming so well - while it lasted.

I'm watching it right now (just started). I wasn't sure if I was able to stream today, but yes I can. I'll be back later.

Yeah genplant, my head's spinning, as there were several unanswered questions about the Talentis. Ludo claimed his hands were clean which if true (a big, gigantic IF), means Violetta did the dirty work. But would Violetta climb on a roof and sabotage the pulleys that caused the elderly black man's death? Although, when I watch it again I'm going to try to ascertain where the sabotage occurred -- maybe it wasn't on the roof. She likely caused the death of the girls' school don -- since we were led to think there were mostly man-hating teachers there (the "comfy shoe" set, as the boorish Dr. Ferman called them). Mrs. Bright said someone named "Robin" checked the Christmas lights which apparently electrocuted her. If she didn't use a male gender identifying pronoun, then "Robin" could've been a female. That'll be another thing to pay close attention to upon subsequent viewings. I'll have to re-watch Ep. 1 too to see if Ludo is apparent as one of the faith healers. That was a big surprise!!!

And genplant, your gaydar seems to have been correct in that Ludo said at the end that Endeavour was supposed to be HIS creature, not Violetta's. Were the Talentis even really married? That's yet another question about them. And I agree wholeheartedly that the Venice opera set up, while it certainly seemed like it could be a set up, is far fetched in being a trap that could be credibly successful in execution.

As far as the towpath murders go, it was claimed the last one (Petra, the girl who sang "Ave Maria" in the schoolyard) was a copycat killing, done by a guy named Clemens who found the first victim's (Molly Andrews) body, and who was hit by the car after his second attempt at copycatting. The rest (total of 3 - including the flasher and Bridget, Win's fellow cleaning lady) were done by Carl Sturgis, the ex-boyfriend of Molly Andrews and estranged brother of the psychic girl Jenny Tate.

Am I dreaming or was there a reference at some point this season to Kipling's poem, "The Female of the Species"??? That's the poem in which the refrain is, "The female of the species is deadlier than the male". Maybe I just imagined an allusion to it when I was trying to figure out if Ludo or Violetta was more dangerous.

@genplant29 said:

RIP Mrs. Bright. It was nice seeing her looking and seeming so well - while it lasted.

So true! It made me happy to see her robust and vigorous! Her death was a TOTAL shock - no pun intended. Anton Lesser is truly great in his role. Gosh, he blew me away in the finale. I hope neither he nor Roger Allam get killed off next season. We know for sure Strange won't since he's a character in Inspector Morse. BTW I've also enjoyed Sean Rigby's performances, particularly tonight when he heard Carl Sturgis whistling - and knew he was the towpath killer. Such a great ensemble, not to overlook Caroline O'Neill and Abigail Thaw... I HATE to see it end!!!!!

Personally I thought it was a bit scattered. There was a time jump again between the end of episode 2 & the beginning of 3 (5 or 6 months)?

Still too much acrimony between Morse & Thursday, It seemed to have been eased in episode 2? But then back hotter than before.

I don't believe Ludo meant Morse as a 'paramour' when he said he was supposed to be my creature. I'm pretty sure he meant that he would be able to control him. Ludo was one of the faith healers, he was the one who took her head in his hands & then did his little bit of hocus pocus.

When it comes to the insurance thing, think of 'J. G. Wentworth'! They buy a person's life insurance policies, annuities, lottery winnings, structured settlements, etc. for a fraction of what they are worth by IMHO taking advantage of desperate people that need quick money. That's what Ludo did, but he hurried the deaths of those people. I'm not sure if he actually physically helped anyone along except for Mrs. Bright. He was the one who got her Christmas lights down from the attic. He did say that his hands were basically clean when it came to the others, although he mentioned that he reminded them about the defects in the things that eventually killed them. I was right about the 'smarmy' aspect of Ludo. Also, his desperation at the end was weird.

As for Petra's killer, didn't Thursday say that maybe seeing Molly dead brought out the latent tendencies to kill in Clemons (the guy that was hit by the car)?

I also think having Sturgis be the Towpath killer was lazy writing & to me a very unsatisfying ending!

I agree the writing left something to be desired - for the entire season. First of all there were too many murders! While as fans we're always willing to suspend disbelief to some degree that so many murders occur in these otherwise placid, small-town settings, this season was over the top. However, unlike bratface, I thought Sturgis as the towpath killer was fairly well done and actually an exception to the overall subpar writing: he didn't just appear out of the blue as a suspect -- he was on the radar from the first murder; like a true nutcase he was arrogantly defiant when released after the copycat killing; and we got pretty much of a backstory on him which explained his psychopathology. BUT was he a would-be werewolf or vampire??? We kept seeing full moon production shots, and Jenny's depiction of the image that haunted her looked like a hairy beast, YET Sturgis' behavior [d]evolved to bloodsucking, mixing the metaphors! Weird.

The the whole Ludo/Violetta aspect of the plot left me scratching my head. What DID they need Endeavour for??? After all, they were also operating in towns outside his jurisdiction (had she seduced cops there too???), plus, how were they to know he would defy rules and bring home evidence that Ludo could catch mere glimpses of? How did that really help them? I guess I just don't see why Ludo said at the end that Endeavour was his "useful idiot" -- how was he useful??? Having trysts with Violetta didn't thwart his investigation of the insurance scam, Thursday did, by being dismissive of Endeavour's theory that the "accidents" could be murders. I'd love it if someone chimed in who could make more sense of it all, but I don't know how it's possible! I'm generally not one to nitpick the gory details of these types of mystery shows, but I'm not quibbling with gory details, rather, the bigger picture.

I'm still going to re-watch the season though. It's always fun to look for clues that were missed. And even after complaining about the writing/plot, I nevertheless very much enjoyed the oily Ludo character -- he was a compelling villain, well-characterized and well-acted.

@merryapril said:

I agree the writing left something to be desired - for the entire season. First of all, there were too many murders! While as fans we're always willing to suspend disbelief to some degree that so many murders occur in these otherwise placid, small-town settings, this season was over the top. However, unlike bratface, I thought Sturgis as the towpath killer was fairly well done and actually an exception to the overall subpar writing: he didn't just appear out of the blue as a suspect -- he was on the radar from the first murder; like a true nutcase he was arrogantly defiant when released after the copycat killing, and we got pretty much of a backstory on him which explained his psychopathology. BUT was he a would-be werewolf or vampire??? We kept seeing full moon production shots, and Jenny's depiction of the image that haunted her looked like a hairy beast, YET Sturgis' behavior [d]evolved to bloodsucking, mixing the metaphors! Weird.

The whole Ludo/Violetta aspect of the plot left me scratching my head. What DID they need Endeavour for??? They were also operating in towns outside his jurisdiction (had she seduced cops there too???), plus, how were they to know he would defy rules and bring home evidence that Ludo could catch mere glimpses of? How did that really help them? I guess I just don't see why Ludo said at the end that Endeavour was his "useful idiot" -- how was he useful??? Having trysts with Violetta didn't thwart his investigation of the insurance scam, Thursday did, by being dismissive of Endeavour's theory that the "accidents" could be murders. I'd love it if someone chimed in who could make more sense of it all, but I don't know how it's possible! I'm generally not one to nitpick the gory details of these types of mystery shows, but I'm not quibbling with gory details, rather, the bigger picture.

I'm still going to re-watch the season though. It's always fun to look for clues that were missed. And even after complaining about the writing/plot, I nevertheless very much enjoyed the oily Ludo character -- he was a compelling villain, well-characterized and well-acted.

I thought so too, until the end, his desperation in the last few scenes just seemed out of character.

I might try to watch all three episodes again if PBS's streaming channel allows it.

Before I forget, anyone who liked the actress, Stephanie Leonidas, who portrayed Violetta, she'll also be in the next series, Van der Valk, that PBS Masterpiece will be airing; she'll be in just one episode (I think with short hair), portraying a character named Eva Meisner.

Incidentally, she's London born and raised, therefore the accent she did in Endeavour was acting. I caught a couple brief glimpses of someone I thought looked like her in the Van der Valk promo, so checked and, indeed, it's her. (I gather that series begins next weekend on PBS.)