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 one.
Welcome back everyone. It’s been a bit of a wait, but the gang from AC-12 are finally back and caught up in what promises to be another complex story of betrayal, lies and, yes, videotape. This time round, the focus is on organised crime and our main antagonist is Stephen Graham’s DS John Corbett, an undercover cop who may just be so deep undercover that he’s gone over to the other side.
But first, let us raise a toast in silence to the season’s first death: poor, out-of-her-depth PC Maneet Bindra (Maya Sondhi), who simply wanted to protect her useless cousin and now leaves a newly born baby motherless.
The bad guys
It could be that I read too many crime novels or indeed spend far too much of my life watching crime dramas, but I can’t have been the only one who knew Graham’s Corbett was the undercover cop and not Rochenda Sandall’s Lisa McQueen from early on. For a start, DS Steve Arnott automatically assumed it was her, and we all know that when young Arnott jumps to conclusions, they are generally wrong.
More importantly, it was notable that despite Corbett’s air of suppressed violence and apparent control of the gang, it was McQueen who was being asked to do most of the actual criminal work, from taking out a police officer to setting up the drugs handover.
Ultimately, however, I don’t think it matters whether you saw the twist coming or not. What’s interesting here is the very complicated dynamics in play: is Corbett a crooked cop, or a decent undercover officer who is about to bring down an entire crime network? Or does the truth lie somewhere in between?
Did he start out with good intentions but get sucked in? Was he always a bad guy? Given this is Line of Duty, he has to be playing a con of some kind but is it a con on the crooks or one on the police?
McQueen, meanwhile, is arguably even more interesting. She spared Cafferty (Sian Reese-Williams) despite being asked to shoot her, she’s clearly nervous about her position in the crime gang and was shown shaking with nerves in the toilet.
I’m fascinated by her back story. Is she someone sucked into a criminal lifestyle and not sure how to get out, or is her story more complicated? Might she also be undercover? Or does she have her own suspicions regarding Corbett – is she perhaps trying to flush him out?
The good guys
It might be the first episode, but already some of AC-12 are feeling the strain. Most notably Supt Ted Hastings, who is living in a shabby hotel, clearly strapped for cash and still estranged from his wife.
No wonder he seemed under pressure this episode, storming out of the interview with Maneet and rushing to label the late unlamented ACC Hilton as H, a move that I saw as born of desperation rather than guilt (yes, as far as the “Hastings is H” theories go, I remain as deep in denial as Ted is about his wife having left him).
DI Kate Fleming, however, is made of far sterner stuff and thus continues to suspect that her boss is not being entirely straight where H is concerned. Does she really think Hastings might be the evil criminal mastermind, or is it more that she worries he’s cutting corners and risking heading down the wrong path? The jury is currently out.
Kate’s home life appears considerably more straightforward, judging by the brief glimpse we got of her with a man and child. I would say that this means she’s reunited with her husband, but Kate’s personal life is so shrouded in mystery I’m not absolutely sure.
No such mystery surrounds the third member of our intrepid trio. Steve Arnott is back on active duty (although hiding the occasional back twinge from his colleagues), still wearing the dapper waistcoats, and, most excitingly of all, he has grown a beard, presumably to add gravitas. I, for one, am not convinced.
Still, the beard is clearly not hindering his Tinder chances, even if he wasn’t in the mood to swipe right. More interestingly, the end of the episode threw him back into contact with his ex, DS Sam Railson (Aiysha Hart), with whom he still has a certain chemistry …
Case notes
We were introduced to yet another new department, the mysterious deep undercover group running Operation Peartree, headed up by Det Supt Alison Powell (Susan Vidler), a woman I really don’t trust.
The fact that the hapless Malhotra (Maanuv Thiara) had a gambling habit and that’s why the gang had leverage is an interesting one – I can’t help wondering if Ted might be hiding a similar problem.
Anyone keeping tally of this show’s obsession with hands should note that McQueen spent a lot of time trying to get control of hers, particularly in the toilet scene where she was forcing it to stop shaking.
Curse you Jed Mercurio – I’m now going to spend an unnecessary amount of time worrying about Maneet’s baby. This is heading the way of Lindsay Denton’s cat.
Weasel of the week
Poor Maneet, condemned to death by her desire to help her cousin. Yet Ted was right – she had made a mockery of her position on AC-12, which is why she’s this week’s weasel even though her death broke my heart.
Quote of the week
“Right, so we have a betting shop robbery, the recruitment and blackmail of a civilian administrator. We have a hijack. We have narcotics traded. We have a rival organised gang framed. We have three police officers murdered and one seriously injured and the whole time your UCO has failed to pass on any intelligence that would have prevented these offences …” An incredulous Supt Ted Hastings sums it up for anyone struggling to keep up at the back.
So what did you think? Are we back with bang? Did you know Corbett had to be the undercover, or were you sure it was McQueen? And what do you think of DS Arnott’s new beard? As ever, all speculation and no spoilers are welcome below …
