'Endeavour' Season 6, Episode 2 Recap: "Apollo"
As man lands on the moon, Morse lands in Thames Valley in this week's Endeavour. The world will never be the same.
Morse: How much does it cost, this treatment?
Van Horne: What price freedom?
The second episode of Endeavour Season 6 opens with another historic event. In "Pylon" it was the investiture of the Prince of Wales. This week, it's Apollo 11, and Oxford's astrophysicists are all atwitter over it, especially Professor Adam Drake, a.k.a "The Moon Man." Sadly, he won't live to see Neil Armstrong's famous walk, as he and his girlfriend die in a car crash on the way home from a party celebrating the successful launch.
A single-vehicle crash normally wouldn't land on CID's lap, but the high-profile name means Bright calls it in to be safe. Morse, having arrived at an empty office on his first day, heads over. The car isn't Drake's, making it look like a drunk in a car he's not used to. But the girl was dead before the car went off the road. A murder-suicide? Morse heads back to the office, arriving to find everyone has returned from the stakeout, and his new office is in the basement. (Box and Jago are not pleased someone at Division "pulled strings.") Thursday, meanwhile, took a beating during the raid, causing Box to put him on "light duties." And with Morse looking for assistance on what they convince Box is an easy case, the two are teamed back up.
A visit to Larry Humbolt (Sargon Yelda) confirms the car was his, and that Drake took it at the last minute when his own car wouldn't start. This explains the extra set of car keys in Drake's pocket. Colleague Wingqvist (Oliver Chris) notes Drake was both a ladies man and a math genius who also recognized the power of television, appearing to talk about the Apollo mission on the BBC, but also working as an advisor on a sci-fi puppet show called "Moon Mages." This is clearly a direct reference to Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's Supermarionations of the 1960s, run by Jeff and Hildegard Slayton (Matthew Cottle and Mary Stockley).
