I can't fix a thing if I don't know what it is I'm trying to fix.
The hospital episode.
September 1967. Police informant Terence Bakewell dies in the Fosdick ward of Cowley General Hospital while under Morse's guard, in the same bed where three patients have died over the past five weeks. One of the dead men left a widow who was on dispute with the hospital; she is also found dead.
All of the patients had been operated on by ageing surgeon Sir Merlyn Chubb ,and the view on the ward is that his ineptitude is responsible. However, Morse is puzzled to learn that in each case, white sweet peas had been placed beside the deceased. Additionally, pathologist Max de Bryn discovers puncture wounds on the bodies. A charismatic doctor falls under suspicion until Morse uncovers an incident in his past and a bereaved relative out for revenge.
Morse also locates the missing Joan Thursday, who wants her whereabouts kept from her parents.
This episode contains examples of:
- Badass Boast: Terence Bakewell, when Bert Talbot is trying to ingratiate himself with him.Talbot: What's your line, then?Bakewell: Murder. I get an uncontrollable urge to kill nosey parkers. Ta for the grapes.
- The Bus Came Back: Monica, Morse's old flame from Series 2, reappears — she's now working at Cowley General.
- Call-Back: A few.
- Mrs Bryce-Morgan viciously tells Morse that her late husband used to play golf with the Assistant Chief Constable and that the latter had told them both that he was not impressed by Morse. This would presumably have been Clive Deere, who appeared in "Neverland" and was revealed to be thoroughly corrupt. He was shot in that episode while trying to murder Morse and Thursday — something that was covered up by the authorities, as we learned in "Ride". Morse reacts calmly to her insults, and does not enlighten her about her old acquaintance's true nature.
- One of the books Fagan offers as part of his hospital library service is a thriller by Kent Finn, the novelist who appeared in "Game".
- Call-Forward: A few, including a big one...
- During the investigation, Morse meets the recently-widowed Mrs. Bryce-Morgan; her daughter, Susan, was the love of Morse's life and the end of their relationship led to him abandoning his studies. He gets a glimpse of Susan at the end of the story, although her face is not seen. She will reappear in the original series episode "Dead on Time" in which she has recently been widowed. She reconnects with Morse when he starts to investigate her husband's death, but when he gets close to the truth (her husband had been terminally ill and she helped him to die), she kills herself as part of a pre-arranged suicide pact with her husband, leaving Morse devastated. Susan's husband Henry and her brother William are mentioned in passing; both will also appear in "Dead on Time".
- Also, Bright's hospitalisation with a perforated ulcer mirrors Morse being hospitalised with a similar condition in the original series episode "The Wench is Dead".
- Creator Cameo: A framed caricature of Colin Dexter can be seen on a wall in the hospital.
- Deadpan Snarker: Sir Merlyn Chubb clearly has a low opinion of Dr. Powell:Powell: [as Sir Merlyn is finishing a surgical procedure in the operating theatre] Would you like me to close?Sir Merlyn: No. I'd like my patient's chances of survival to be better than even.
- Headscratchers: How come Mrs Bright doesn't visit her husband when he's in hospital?
- It's possible that she did, but it just wasn't shown - it may have interrupted the flow of the episode.
- Hospital Hottie: Quite a few of the nurses count as this.
- "Not So Different" Remark: from Bakewell to Bright, when they are both patients in the same ward:Bakewell: Don't fool yourself. You might have a nice house and sit on the Bowls Club committee, but, when it comes down to it, we're just two cheeks on the same arse.
- Secret-Keeper: Morse becomes this to Joan after tracking her down, as she makes him promise not to tell her parents where she is. He doesn't.
- Self-Deprecation: Morse does a good line in this:Nurse Mills: Heaven knows we don't get paid much, but one doesn't go into nursing for the money.Morse: It's a calling, I suppose.Nurse Mills: Yes. If you like. And policing? What's that?Morse: A failing.
- Shout-Out: Quite a few...
- At the start of the episode, the hospital radio DJ refers to himself as "the Nightfly". He then gives his name as Lester Fagan. This is clearly a reference to The Nightfly, an album by Donald Fagen about a night-time DJ, serving the town of Baton Rouge, called "Lester the Nightfly".
- Allusions are made to two Sherlock Holmes films, neither of which are based on the stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. Morse's finding of the stem of a bunch of grapes echoes a clue found by Holmes in Murder by Decree, while his discovery of an important detail on the floor of a birdcage recalls The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes.
- According to Mrs Bryce-Morgan, Susan's husband is teaching in America at the University of New Carthage, a fictional institution which features in Edward Albee's play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.
- The characters of Dr Dean Powell and Sister Clodagh McMahon are named for the characters Mr Dean and Sister Clodagh in the book and film Black Narcissus (set in a hospital/school in the Himalayas); the doctor's surname comes from the film's co-director, Michael Powell.
- The name of chief surgeon Sir Merlyn Chubb is a reference to the Doctor... Series, who's chief deuteragonist was the head surgeon Sir Lancelot Spratt. Both characters take their first names from Arthurian Legend characters (Merlin and Lancelot) and their surnames from types of fish (chub and sprat), with the last letter doubled.
- This episode features a plethora of references to the medical entries in the Carry On films:
- Maidenhead Town Hall serves as the exterior of Cowley General, having previously been Borough General Hospital in Carry On Doctor and Longhampton Hospital in Carry On Again Doctor.
- The ward in which much of the episode is set, Fosdick Ward, shares its name with the setting for Carry On Doctor.
- Dr Powell is mentioned as having previously been employed by Longhampton (the hospital in Carry On Again Doctor) and Finisham (the maternity hospital in Carry On Matron).
