User Reviews

A curious episode to end series 8 which seems to say tribute to a number of classic mysteries and styles. Many have mentioned the obvious similarities of the setting to Agatha Christie (and in particular ten little Indians) which is fair comment.

The story is well acted and I found it entertaining but the episode seemed to have many subliminal hints that this could be the final endeavour, non more so than the final words "starting to thaw".

Not a classic Endeavour then but I still enjoyed it. I just hope I am wrong and this isn't the last ever episode. There are certainly several series threads to tie up, Jim's advancement in the force, Thursdays future and why was he never mentioned by the older Morse, what happens to Joan and of course the transformation of the young Endeavour to the Morse we all loved all those years ago.

Having rewatched the entire series over the last week whilst laid up sick I found a redeeming feature for a TV obsessive such as myself.

When interviewing the bus crew early in the piece there is a sign on the bus station wall which I estimate to be 50 years old.

It's a grand life on the buses with the amendment to its a randy life on the buses appeared in the 1971 movie of On The Buses.

It may not be the same prop but it is identical and can't have been used by accident.

Yes I am a sad man I accept this, but this did make me feel strangely happy!!

This episode opens with an attractive young woman boarding the last bus home; there are a few other passengers aboard. She disembarks at the end of the route and is apparently followed by the bus conductor. The next day a body is found; it is isn't the woman though; it is a university don. Thursday and Strange are on the case as Morse is 'unwell' due to his drinking. Shortly afterwards Thursday tells Morse he needs help and tells him to take four weeks off, starting immediately. As he leaves he spots the woman boarding the night bus again; as she hadn't yet given a statement he boards. The bus doesn't reach its destination. It hits a snow drift. The woman suggests going to an abandoned hotel she worked at eight years previously. The hotel was the sight of a notorious mass murder involving an escaped psychiatric patient... it soon becomes clear that there is a killer there now; were they there already or are they one of the passengers? While all this is going on there is tension and upset in the Thursday household when it emerges their son, who is serving in Northern Ireland, has disappeared.

I can understand why this is a divisive episode; personally I really liked it. The bus load of passengers in the old hotel is classic murder-mystery territory that could have come from the pen of Agatha Christie. The snowbound setting is suitably claustrophobic and the tension is palpable as the body count rises. It does of course require more than a little suspension of disbelief; the hotel is in remarkable good condition for a building abandoned eight years previously... even the bar remains fully stocked! The central mystery should keep viewers guessing till near the end; it certainly provided me with a good surprise. The cast did a fine job; particularly the main cast. Shaun Even was on great form as Morse; a character dealing with inner demons as well as trying to solve a murder and Roger Allum was great as Thursday; particularly in the family scenes talking about his missing son. I enjoyed the 'Halloween' references; they were impressive because they were done in a way that won't leave viewers who haven't seen that film feeling that they are missing something. Overall a really good episode; I look forward to the next season.

A University Don is killed, and a drunken man on a bus may hold the answers. Personal problems, and the weather are stumbling blocks.

The question for everyone, is it 33 and over, or thirty three and onwards into the future. I totally understand the reason to stick to that, but surely there are more stories to tell.

So often with Endeavour, the series finale offers up something a little different, Terminus manages to do just that, incredibly well.

Instantly it's a classic Morse for me, I utterly, utterly loved it, everything about it was first rate, the story and crimes, the opening scenes, The Thursday's plight, Morse's demons, and of course the horror element, absolutely adored the Halloween references, Loomis, Hadonfield etc, top class!

I mean this in the best way possible, but there was something very Agatha Christie about this, the seclusion felt very And then there were none, this had atmosphere, mystery, tension, as well as a strong sense of claustrophobia.

Phenomenal acting, expert production values, including great music and outstanding lighting, I can provide no negative comments here at all, this was genuinely awesome, 10/10.

This whodunit has Morse stuck in a snowstorm at an abandoned hotel, complete with crackling fireplace and glowing candles as he searches for a killer. Add a cup of coffee and background jazz and I could watch this for 8 hours straight. An excellent last episode for season 8, leaving audiences wanting a season 9. While the Thursday family bands together to await news about Sam's disappearance in Ireland, Wyn has a strong scene where she blasts Fred and Joan for the pain she suffered at their hands in earlier seasons. This episode is well written with great twists, complemented by beautiful art direction, and as always, stellar acting from all.

Another cracking Morse, I liked this whole Agatha whodunnit theme, found myself rather annoyed at Morse and his drinking and hoped he would pull out of it. Acting first class. I hope there are more as loose ends abound. What about Sam for goodness sake! Brilliant.

The last episode of series 6 was one of the best TV shows I have ever seen. The climax to series 8 however falls way short of that peak. An Agatha Christie pastiche with a corny plot is not a fitting end to the superb series. Hopefully this is not the last ever. The acting is as always brilliant and overcomes many but not all of the plot's shortcomings.

Loved it! Very different from the previous 98 instalments of Endeavour/Morse/Lewis.

A very disappointing Agatha Christie knock off which rather tarnishes the Endeavour brand imo. I'm a great fan of everything Morse/ Lewis but this is not up to snuff I'm afraid.

I hope we get back on track if there's another season.

Dont understand the negative reviews for this episode, it's one of my favourite ever! Who doesn't love a murder mystery in an abandoned hotel during a snowstorm. Full of easter eggs and I especially love the nods to Halloween.

Far from the expected standard of believable cases and I hope it's the last of this sort of 'experiment'.

Not sure if there was a hidden line. What with the apparent change of the young Endeavour to the more mature Morse but the last line from Endeavour being "It's beginning to thaw" did make me wonder if that was a reference to the John Thaw Morse?

Terminus has received an unprecedented number of negative reviews for an Endeavour episode and it doesn't surprise me. It was sad to see such a drop in standards for my all-time favourite TV series. The makers had stated their intention to end Endeavour after 33 episodes, the same number as the original Inspector Morse and Lewis, as a mark of respect, it would be disrespectful to make more.

If Terminus is the last episode, it's a sad way to bow out. Comparing Terminus with any episode from series 2 makes for uncomfortable viewing. More importantly, it is a sad departure from the traditions and quality of Morse/Lewis, I dread to think what Colin Dexter would think of Terminus. In contrast the excellent Foyles War finished with it's best ever episode.

Russell Lewis is a brilliant writer, series 2 reached a height no other TV series has reached, and standards remained mostly very high until series 6 ended with the outstanding Deguello. For some reason Russell Lewis decided to change the style, it must have been deliberate. Too many times the episodes of series 7 and 8 were filled with caricatures rather than characters, giving a surreal feeling more in common with Midsomer Murders. Midsomer was innovative when it arrived with the bizarre and surreal met with John Nettles playing it completely straight. I don't know why the writer took Endeavour in this direction. Of the 99 Morse/Lewis/Endeavour episodes I would put Terminus at the bottom of the list (with the rest of series 7 & 8 for company) which is sad considering much of the top 10 would be from Endeavour series 1/2/pilot.

Series 7 was an ill-conceived 3 part story not helped by the ridiculous characters of Ludo and his wife. The slanging match between Fred and Morse was a real low point, so out of character after all they had been through together. There were some highs, the outdoor performance of Ave Maria by the final towpath victim and sung by a real opera singer Charlotte Potter would have graced the original series with distinction, there just hasn't been enough classical music in series 7 and 8.

So much of Terminus was poorly done and the plot was, in so many ways, completely ridiculous. What was the point of the Sam storyline?, it wasn't resolved, just to give Mrs Thursday and Joan some scenes?, likewise the Ms Frazil scene seemed to happen just to give a regular some screen time. Win completely losing it at Fred was out of character and didn't ring true. Even fiction needs to convince viewers it is believable, on an evening when everyone was snowed in, Fred was here, there and everywhere!

Endeavour might yet see Series 9, there are unresolved storylines, but already Fred and Bright are too old to be convincing working policemen. We were told that Morse's great mentor was McNutt, it would have been so much better if the writer had called Fred McNutt but Morse's promotion to Inspector can't be too far away so that doesn't leave much time with McNutt.

It's been a great journey with Endeavour but it probably should have ended with series 6.

Best episode for while,had e everything that a good crime drama should have murder mystery at its best well done to the cast ,very enjoyable end to the series 8.

This was very well done and quite frightening to watch! I love Endeavour.

A twist on the classic creepy house 'And then there were none' type story. Loved it.

In the 1st place "Tafferton Park" looks like the same place where Morse would have investigated in "Ghosts in the Machine" a superior episode to this one and "Terminus" to be fair would probably not have appealed to John Thaw. These 3 episodes are especially dark and given in the main media at the time we have the issue of a policeman murdering a woman-yet here whilst you are led to believe the murderer is male......it shocked me, a Morse fan and I am unclear as to whether the modern writer is able to truly capture how a younger Morse would have behaved and the type of cases he would have handled during the 60s/70s. This would NOT have been the type of case, it would have been more applicable to an Agatha Christie, which clearly this has taken some of the ideas from. Disappointed.

The first two episodes of Season 8 were below the very high standards of the show. Still great but with plots that were far less watertight than usual and seemed to rely more on twists-for-twists-sake than substance.

Maybe it's a sign of desperation or a need to breathe new life into the show but this, the third episode, the show takes a very different path to the usual Endeavour episodes. Less puzzle-solving and more a tense thriller with a bunch of people stuck in a dark, foreboding mansion that was the scene of a gruesome massacre while they get picked off one by one by an unseen murderer.

It's incredibly intriguing and tension-filled and has the hallmarks of a great horror-thriller. It reminds me of Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians / And Then There Were None with a bit of modern day horror thrown in.

Add in a few personal issues in Morse's and DCI Thursday's private lives and it's an excellent episode, doing its job of resurrecting the show after the first two episodes seemed to spell a decline in quality.

As many, MANY other reviews have stated, this season/series has been sub-par compared to the first six, this episode in particular. While I didn't despise it as much as some, Terminus felt like a cheap parody with unnecessary melodrama with the Thursdays mixed in.

I'll risk using this word incorrectly but (literally) every aspect of this episode was contrived. Why was a hotel that's been closed (not quarantined or anything) for eight years still almost fully stocked? Why include the Sam subplot and not go anywhere with it; so Winn can have an out of character moment? Why wouldn't the conspirators encourage someone with a gift with numbers rather than use him once and throw him away? Why would seemingly normal people form a murder pact that takes eight years to enact their plan instead of getting the police, a lawyer, or even a safecracker involved much sooner? With the evidence they had it would've been an interesting case for Morse, instead of this Scooby do mystery.

Speaking of Endeavor, the writers evidently couldn't be bothered to research alcoholism. Even if you only watched one episode of old Morse, one could see he liked his beer but wasn't an alcoholic. Series 8 made it clear he was now a full-on drunk, yet at the end he accepted a 4-week hiatus to get clean. It doesn't work like that, even if caused by a trauma, which wasn't brought up anyway.

Overall I'd say I liked season 8 better than 7, but that's not a high bar. Between the lazy plot and out of character moments makes Terminus the weakest of the three in my opinion.

Surely Thursday is the most forgiving, optimistic, and worn out detective ever..How many more murder cases has he got in himself, wife going round the bend, Morse becoming unreliable?

Can't wait for next series for a bit of a laugh.

The acting is great as usual from Evans and Allam but the murders? Writing, directing, and music all mediocre. Barrington Pheloung's music is solely lacking. Sad. Hope next concluding season gets back to its high standards.

I always look forward to a new episode of Endeavour, but this one is totally unbelievable, verging on the ridiculous. Let's just hope that the next ones are back to form.