‘Endeavour: Series Two’

     

Two years almost to the day after its American debut, the ITV detective series Endeavour, the prequel story to the popular Inspector Morse mystery series, returned to PBS this evening, concluding just minutes ago. This episode, titled “Trove,” sheds further light on the eponymous detective’s disdain for a particular “ancient fraternity.”

Roger Allam as D.I. Fred Thursday.

Long story short: Oxford police investigate two homicides and a burglary that are linked. Of course it is young Morse who breaks the cases and brings the guilty to justice. The guilty are shown to be Freemasons who rely on one another for criminal conspiracy. A third character, a police sergeant, confides to Morse that he has been tapped to join the local lodge; it is thought that this man makes a certain crucial piece of evidence disappear early in the inquiry into the first murder. Morse cautions him: You cannot serve two masters. Eventually, you’ll have to choose.

In one of the final scenes, one of the killers desperately appeals to Morse, first suggesting it’s not too late to make more evidence disappear, but then warning him that he’s making powerful enemies who will destroy everything he holds dear.

Hmmph! The notion that a Mason would be unethical, and that another Mason would cover for him is… is preposterous.

It’s a great television program Check your local listings, or view here.
     

'Endeavour!'

  
Among the anti-Masonry in the entertainment media is the prejudice of one Inspector Morse, the eponymous character in the long-running (thirty-three episodes!) detective series from ITV. One story in particular, titled "Masonic Mysteries," from 1990, shows the Chief Inspector framed for a murder, seemingly by Freemasons. There's even a sub-plot concerning the staging of Mozart's The Magic Flute.

The origins of Morse's anti-Masonic leanings went largely unexplained, other than the general, perennial fear of Masonic conspiracy inside the institutions of justice in Britain, but this also lands squarely during the period of real life suspicion of Masonic inspired corruption of British institutions, leading up to Jack Straw's edict in 1997 mandating judges and magistrates to declare if they held Masonic membership.

Anyway, tonight on PBS, the prequel to the Inspector Morse series just concluded a moment ago. Titled "Endeavour," it depicts Morse on his first case, the murders of two young people near Oxford, with a related prostitution ring led by an automobile salesman. Confronted by Morse, the car dealer warns the young detective, bragging of having very important contacts in his circle of friends. "Or square," as he put it.

And thus, the viewer is given a glimpse into how the inspector came to his jaundiced view of the Craft.