'Endeavour' Season 7, Episode 1 Recap: "Oracle"

Endeavour regularly opens with staccato clips of murder interspersed with our characters. Still, the opening of Season 7 uses it effectively, unveiling the Thursdays in Oxford while Morse is far away in Venice, while Strange runs the desk this New Year's Eve.

Morse is watching opera and landing in bed with fellow attendee Violetta Talenti (Stephanie Leonidas), and Fred and Win are enjoying chicken-in-a-baskets. While they do, a pair of waitresses, Molly Andrews (Lucy Farrar) and Jenny Tate (Holli Dempsey), work their way through the holiday, Molly harassed by drunk boyfriend, Carl Sturgis (Sam Ferriday) and Jenny watched by boss Tony Jakobssen (Oliver Boot). Both leave after the clock's rung, but only one makes it home alive.

Morse: What is it you're hoping to be liberated from exactly? Just the dishes or light housekeeping in general?
Frazil: Patriarchial hegemony in the main, freedom from the tyranny of the squeezy bottle's just an adjunct.