Spoiler alert: this blog is for people watching series five of Line of Duty (it also contains spoilers from earlier series). Don’t read on unless you have watched episode five.
Oh dear, Ted in trouble is something I never wish to see, but in trouble he most certainly is. Everything came crashing down on Superintendent Hastings here: the shifty looks, the unexplained visits, the brown envelope filled with £50 notes. But is he actually guilty, or is he being set up as he claims? I err towards the latter, though Adrian Dunbar’s performance has contained enough ambiguity to suggest the former could be true. Here’s hoping next week’s 90-minute finale will provide at least some of the answers we crave.
The good guys
Ted’s very bad day kicked off with the news that AC-12 were being taken off the Operation Peartree investigation – a decision that apparently made him lose all ability to think rationally.
Again, there were two clear ways to view his subsequent behaviour: the first is that he really is H and needed to lock down the OCG as quickly as possible. The second is that he decided ‘to hell with it’ after being taken off the operation and attempted to get it all wrapped up so he had a fait accompli to present to Wise. This second explanation fits better with what we know of Hastings, and not just because I find it hard to imagine Ted – a man who tends to say mother of God first and think later – as a criminal mastermind who has so far avoided all detection.
I could, however, countenance a third way: that Kate is right and Hastings did lose it after Corbett delivered the punishment beating to his wife. That he did go and visit Lee Banks and provide the tip-off, and because of that Corbett was killed. This show has always turned on those small moments that change everything, and thus I could believe that Hastings is innocent of being H and innocent of corruption but not innocent of sending Corbett to his doom.
While Ted was busy sealing his own fate, Kate and Steve were suffering personal problems as Kate dealt with her sanctimonious husband (who has clearly never forgiven the affair) while poor Steve found his love life taking a rather deflating turn due in part to his ongoing back issues.
Not that work was looking any easier: not only did they have to dob in their own boss but they have now been co-opted by the fabulously smug and deliciously spiky DCS Patricia Carmichael, played with relish by Anna Maxwell Martin. Her initial face-off with Ted was a gloriously barbed interchange involving pointed uses of Superintendent and Ma’am and a clear clash of ideas. I look forward to next week’s continuation, while crossing my fingers that Steve and Kate somehow save the day.
The bad guys
If the police plot made for addictive viewing, I was less enthralled by OCG business, especially as it seems that Lisa McQueen really is simply a gang member (albeit one who is possibly too squeamish for the career she’s found herself in.)
Mind you, that’s not exactly surprising given that being in this particular OCG isn’t especially good for career advancement. With Corbett dead and Banks in jail, this week saw future graduate (who knew?) Ryan told to lie low, Miroslav killed by the police and Lisa arrested. It’s like the OCG version of And Then There Were None. Who will be the last one standing? My money’s on Ryan, who, like a cockroach, seems built to withstand all possible disasters.
Still, there was one interesting thing about the OCG this week – apart from the revelation that Ryan is going to university – which is that in the middle of all his bluster (or was it?) about airports and corrupt cops, Hastings told Lisa that he was H. Something that will surely condemn him.
Case notes
• As suspected, Corbett’s past involved a father killed by paramilitaries and a mother suspected of helping the RUC who became one of the ‘disappeared’ in a plotline clearly inspired by the story of Jean McConville.
• The punishment beating handed out to Ted’s wife by Corbett suggests the Superintendent’s involvement in some way, although I’d think he was probably the RUC officer who caused her to be seen as an informer rather than the person who made her vanish. I also have no reason to doubt his earlier statement to Steve about the pipe bomb (though perhaps I should).
• Anyone interested in reading more about that period should check out Patrick Radden Keefe’s brilliant Say Nothing.
• Gill Bigelow continues to stick the stiletto in with remarkable ease. I enjoyed her conversation with Ted in which she appeared to offer help before completely withdrawing it. Could she be the one setting him up, if indeed that is what is happening? It’s certainly a possibility.
• I’d say the real key however lies in finding out who employed Mark Moffat to give the money to Ted – because that’s the one part of this we know Ted is definitely telling the truth about.
• Is it just me, or was the way Ted said Lisa interesting given they’ve supposedly never met?
• I stand by my belief that Kate is proving to be a pretty good DI. It wasn’t easy, but she was right to report Hastings – taken at face value, his actions were that of a rogue cop.
• I was pleased poor Terry finally got his freezer back, though the discovery of Corbett’s body and Jackie Laverty’s body parts was particularly grim.
• The unsmiling DS Brandyce is played by stage actor Laura Elphinstone, who reportedly has an as-yet-undisclosed role in the final series of Game of Thrones.
Weasel of the week
It can only go to one man. Can Hastings really be guilty of setting up a murder and remotely overseeing an armed robbery? Say it ain’t so, Jed, say it ain’t so.
Quote of the week
“No one wants to lie, but part of our duty is to uphold public trust and sometimes that means having a non-exclusive relationship with the truth.” Gill Bigelow demonstrates a duplicity that could put even current politicians to shame.
What did you think? Is Ted guilty or being set up? Will Steve and Kate swoop in to save him? And most importantly, when will Tatleen get the credit she so clearly deserves? As ever, all speculation and no spoilers welcome below …
