‘Endeavour’ Season 9 Episode 1 recap: What happened in ‘Prelude’?

The last ever season of Endeavour began in the UK tonight!

Shaun Evans is back as the young Inspector Morse in ITV’s spin-off series, which first aired in 2012 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the character’s television debut.

He’s joined once again by Roger Allam (Murder in Provence) as DCI Fred Thursday in the three brand new feature-length episodes.

Set in the early ’70s, Season 9 finds Endeavour and Thursday entering a new era of change both professionally and personally with the return of some familiar faces along the way including Sam, played by Jack Bannon (Pennyworth), who arrives back from Northern Ireland following his service in the British Army.

Also returning are Anton Lesser (Killing Eve) as CS Reginald Bright, Sean Rigby (Gunpowder) as DS Jim Strange, James Bradshaw (Close to The Enemy) as Dr Max DeBryn, Abigail Thaw (Miss Scarlet and the Duke) as Dorothea Frazil, Caroline O’Neill (The A Word) as Win Thursday, and Sara Vickers (Watchmen) as Joan Thursday.

Endeavour‘s final season will air in the US later this year on PBS as part of their Masterpiece Mystery season.

Here’s a plot recap for the first episode, ‘Prelude’, which premiered on ITV1 at 8pm on Sunday 26th February 2023:

It’s spring 1972 and Endeavour’s return to Castle Gate coincides with another homecoming, that of the celebrated Oxford Concert Orchestra, led by illustrious composer Sir Alexander Lermontov.

A gruesome discovery in a College garden leads Endeavour and Thursday to the orchestra’s door, and when a second tragedy hits, they uncover a web of secrets.

Meanwhile, grisly London business turns up in Oxford and a criminal from the Smoke is brutally murdered in a derelict warehouse.

As the mystery unfolds, Endeavour and Thursday realise there are some unsettling ties to a case the pair had hoped was long since behind them.

Endeavour is available to watch on Amazon Prime Video.