As I'm two weeks behind I've only just watched Trove, and I think I can respond to some of the questions upthread:
1. If I remember correctly, both Captain Battan and Private Spurgis (sp??) were Japanese POWs (which explains the letter being dated after the war), and also the marriage between the original Private Spurgis (sp??) and Frida's mother was "not a love match". Assuming an officer's identity and abandoning a family you didn't want to begin with is not such a stretch, and surviving probably four years as a Japanese POW will physically change a person. Also, it's good odds that most of his original unit were killed or died in captivity.
2. According to the canon, Morse had a lifelong adversarial attitude, if not contemptuous relationship, with the Freemasons. I don't think it started here, but his advice to Strange was in keeping with his later views.
3. That "pinky" ring was a signet ring, almost certainly masonic. Pinky rings in the U.S. vernacular are usually vulgar, blinging things with big obvious gemstones (like a class ring on an acid trip). Signet rings are very posh.
4. I'm sufficiently OCD that I had to look it up. If Trove occurs in line with the 900th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings (October 1066), then Lane Pryce was indeed still at SCDP - his sudden "resignation" (quoting wikipedia) happened about five months later.
Edited July 19, 2014 by kassygreenencG1vNJzZmien6fCrr%2BNqamipZWptq6x0WeaqKVfqbyxtcJoaGloZm56tHyRnmdqZaSnvLexjg%3D%3D