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“ | You think too small. This is my town now. | „ |
~ Ames to Eddie Nero. |
Cromwell Ames is the secondary antagonist in Series 5 of Endeavour, the prequel series to Inspector Morse.
Ames was a reckless and ambitious West Indian gangster who had his sights set on taking over Eddie Nero's crime empire, even if this means burning Oxford to the ground.
He was portrayed by David Jonsson Fray in his first acting role.
Biography[]
Ames was a lead gangster in Oxford with West Indies heritage, and his gang was taking over the town from Eddie Nero's control, thinking Nero was not an appropriate criminal leader. Under the pretense of a car dealer, Ames started as a normal gangster who was originally never being heard of throughout Oxford. However, he gained the attention of the local police force after his series of assaults against Nero's crime empire, which was set to overpower Nero and take over his criminal empire.
Cromwell Ames' crimes had been shown even before his formal introduction within "Quartet". In "Catouche", concurrently whilst Morse was investigating about a retired police officer's mysterious death, there were several reported arsons that broke out one by one in several estates under Eddie Nero's name, through using petrol in letterboxes.
The first fire was associated with an multi-occupancy on Khartoum Street, of where six families of immigrants, being Asians and Kenyans, resided. It was thought to be a hate attack at first. Not long afterwards, the second fire broke out in the Public Advice Center at Watt Court Estate, where Joan Thursday were working here in a part-time job taking care of some admin work. A day before the fire, this place was struck by a racist group where Joan was taking care of a group of Asian family.
After the investigation, Strange informed Bright that the places were all associated with Nero's assets, and Bright was determined to find out whoever that was responsible. Later in an evening, Liam Flynn, an enforcer of Nero who worked to blackmail a café owner and his daughter, was stabbed on the street three times, not long after he gained protection rackets from the father and daughter Nero had been blackmailed. After Flynn was killed, Nero contacted one of his associates, Armand De Vere, to burn down Roxy Cinema in order to fasten its progress of being sold out and demolished by its unwilling owner.
The death of Flynn only marked as the beginning of Ames' plan to take over Eddie Nero's criminal empire. In the next episode, "Passenger", Ames served as a background antagonist of the episode, where he and his minions attacked an innocent driver and hijacked his lorry, plundering its goods. In particular, Ames attacked the lorry driver and brutally beat him with bare fist for several hours until the driver died. After this brutality, the police began to investigate about the gangsters and had gained Ames' information from one of his dealers, Lloyd Collins, who unknowingly spilled Ames' info to the police. Later, Ames confronted Collins on the matter and stabbed the latter, gutting him alive, before Ames left his dying minion to his death.
In the following episodes, the police began to find the West Indies car seller named Cromwell Ames for the series of arson, assault, burglary and murder against Nero's men and property as well as innocent people. In the meantime, Ames gradually had done hiding after evading his initially police arrest. He declared open war to Nero by proclaiming to the latter that, "You think too small. This is my town now." He even went as far as firing at Nero and his wife to assassinate him. Finally, in the Series 5 finale "Icarus", Ames even led his minions, armed, to openly assault Nero's bar which served as the latter's headquarter, in his last ditch to kill Nero once and for all.
In the meantime, DS George Fancy and some police officers were tracking down Ames. He reported to Morse and Bright about the upcoming gang war and led his crew into Nero's bar, but sadly, Fancy was killed by someone else who was dealing with Nero for drug money and exploiting the gang war for their own purpose. Neither Nero nor Ames had won or survived in this crossfire, with Ames and his men being shot dead almost immediately, and Nero was fatally wounded. When the police arrived, they could only find bodies everywhere, and Nero was in his dying breath. However, before Morse could ask him anything about Oxford's heroin supply and drug dealers, Nero died.
The gang war had costed the lives of both gang's members and leaders, as well as DS George Fancy. Devastated by Fancy's death, Trewlove resigned from Thames Valley and moved to Scotland Yard. As for the Cowley Boys, Bright was shifted away to the traffic division with his place was replaced by the more corrupt and more incompetent Ronnie Box, Strange became enraged by Fancy's death and became determined to find his killer, Thursday's relationship with his wife became intensified, and Morse became disillusioned once more and eventually broke up with Joan Thursday, who declined his offer for rebuilding their relationship.
Notable Victims[]
- Victims within Nero's property after Ames burnt them down.
- Liam Flynn, Nero's enforcer
- Bert Hobbs, a lorry driver whose truck was hijacked by Ames's gang, and was beaten to death by Ames.
- Lloyd Collins, a dealer of Ames, who was gutted by Ames after Collins unwittingly talked to an undercover police.
- Eddie Nero and his minions during a shootout between two crime lords' bar, which also resulted in the demise of Ames and his gang as well.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Ames' presence plays a large role that make the entire series drastically turns to its darkest once more since the start of Series 5, which would bring back the exaggerating dark tone in Series 1 & 2. It is notable that during Series 3 and 4, nearly all of the villains and criminals are either sympathetic or being moderate criminals, but Ames' presence and his pointless cruelty shattered this.
- Whilst Nero is the main antagonist of Series 5, Ames is definitely much more active, destructive and pointlessly cruel than Nero, with his actions leaving impact on the whole Series 5 and making him one of the most dangerous criminals in the entire series.
External Links[]
- Cromwell Ames on the Pure Evil Wiki
[]
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