I for one enjoy the Inspector Lewis series, and I will be sorry to see him go. I have to admit that a large part of that is due to the reminders of John Thaw's Inspector Morse and his calling out of "Lewis!" Kevin Whately at this point is like a comfortable old shoe that's been in the living room for years. And I like Laurence Fox as his partner, and the relationship he has with Lewis.
In this episode, The Ramblin' Boy (I believe I saw parts 1 and 2 combined), Hathaway goes on leave, and another officer, D.C. Gray, is brought in to help Lewis when a corpse - an embalmed one, no less, is found in a field.
The body turns out to have been taken from an undertaker's and another corpse cremated in its place. But whose? There are two immediate possibilities: Tara Faulkner, whose husband owns the funeral home and has supposedly run off; Jack Cornish, the colleague of Lewis' with whom she ran off. When Tara's brother, Dr. Whitby, is found dead, an apparent suicide, the plot thickens.
Some of this crowd had attended a party at the Faulkners -- Jack Cornish, Dr. Whitby, and Whitby's partner Emma; in addition, Emma's student Jay, who works at the undertaker's was there working as a waiter with his girlfriend. And later on, Jay has something urgent to tell Lewis, but almost doesn't get the chance.
So it's the usual complicated story, in a tradition going back to Inspector Morse, where one has to pay attention. But I found it good watching, and also amusing, as Lewis calls Hathaway on his holiday to ask him to check out the Faulkner's farm house for signs of life.
In the end, missing bodies, missing people, an unstable individual, and illegal activity all play a part in "The Ramblin' Boy," with a little romance thrown in as Lewis attempts to move on with his life.
I can't compare these to Inspector Morse; there was only one John Thaw. I try to go with, "let's not ask for the moon, we have the stars." I believe this is the last season of this series; I hope to see the actors in other things.