Endeavour Season 9 Ending Explained: At The End, Who Died?

Endeavour is now over. The hit ITV crime drama’s ninth and final season ended with a bang. It also answered some important questions and brought back a big case from the past. The Inspector Morse prequel series was able to wrap everything up nicely, but many viewers were curious about what would happen in the last episode. This is why John Thaw’s Morse never mentions a character called DI Fred Thursday, who was played by Roger Allam.

In this episode, Endeavour is looking into both the riddle of Blenheim Vale and a number of strange death notices in the Oxford Mail. Each notice has a mysterious message, and Endeavour has to go to a number of funerals to figure out what they mean.

But he comes dangerously close to becoming a victim himself when the killer, who we find out is local handyman John Bingley, puts an obituary for Endeavour in the Oxford Times. When Bingley tries to hit Endeavour with a hammer, Strange comes to the ship’s aid.

We find out that Bingley has a deal to keep shops and offices in good shape, so he knew which ones were empty. He put notes in the Mail with the phone numbers for the homes and pretended to be the funeral director when the Mail called to confirm the death.

He also used his wife’s flower shop to swap cards with his own secret notes written in Latin. He killed someone because of his own bigotry, homophobia, and racism. He didn’t show any remorse and said he was doing the job that the cops should be doing.

Blenheim Vale, Joan and Strange’s wedding, Sam’s defiance, Fred’s changing moods, and, of course, the state of Fred and Endeavour’s friendship were all going on in the background of this last episode. Joan Thursday (Sara Vickers) and DS Jim Strange’s (Sean Rigby) wedding is bittersweet for many fans, because Endeavour and Joan’s relationship has been hinted at throughout the series, but it seems like it was just never meant to be for these two.

And the wedding of Joan and Jim just proves that. Instead, we see Endeavour in a dream attending the wedding dinner. In the dream, Endeavour finally tells Joan how he feels, which leads to a passionate kiss between the two. But in fact, before Joan and Jim leave for their honeymoon, Endeavour gives her a big hug and wishes her well.