All the big questions from Line Of Duty episode 5

Vicky McClure as Kate Fleming in BBC TV series Line of Duty

Credit: BBC Pictures

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All the big questions from Line Of Duty episode 5

By Gareth Watkins

6 years ago

From Ted going rogue to the resurfacing of Jackie Laverty, we break down the big issues from episode 5 of Line Of Duty

So things are ramping up nicely in the Line of Duty universe. New AC-3 kid on the block, Detective Chief Superintendent Patricia Carmichael (played with buttoned-up ferocity by Anna Maxwell Martin) has a red dot trained directly between Ted’s shifty eyes. Then there’s Lisa and the rest of the bad guys now in custody, all of whom seem to have caught a nasty dose of the “No comments”. 

Finally there’s our faithful duo Kate and Steve who both have, ahem, a few problems at home. Can they steer the treacherous path of work/life commitments better than their gaffer and not end up on the wrong end of a corruption case themselves, or are they about to blow the whole thing wide open? There’s a lot to compute, so let’s just take things one question at a time…

ochenda-Sandall-plays-Lisa-McQueen-in-the-BBC-TV-series-Line-of-Duty

Credit: BBC Pictures

1. Is Ryan going to be a bent copper?

“I feel terrible,” says Lisa as the episode opens. Yeah we get that, you just watched your colleagues lob a body into a skip, even the hardest of criminals have a kernel of conscience somewhere deep inside. But then she turns to Ryan: “I never asked you how your exams went.” Sorry, what? It’s such an incongruously normal interaction juxtaposed with the barbarism happening just a few feet away, she may as have well have said, “So who do you reckon is going to make it through Game Of Thrones?”

Ryan, it turns out, is a smart lad who has a date for an ‘interview’ and so will have to lay low for a while, thus missing out on, quote, “all this fun” – Ryan, you’re terrifying. Now, we’re assuming the interview isn’t for TGI Fridays, so could the OCG be carefully placing the baby-faced assassin into the force – a newly minted bent copper in a long and ignoble line. Why not, it’s exactly what the police do, why not the other way round? A UCG, or Undercover Gangster, if you will.

2. Was Ted going rogue a stroke of genius or the last roll of the dice from a desperate man?

We have no goddam idea anymore. Sorry, we mean, no comment.

Adrian Dunbar as Ted Hastings in the BBC TV series Line of Duty

Credit: BBC Pictures

3. Why was Laverty in the bag as well as Corbett?

First up a quick recap. Jackie Laverty appeared in series one, a corrupt property developer who was working with the OCG and who was also having an affair with DCI Tony Gates. The OCG murdered her in front of Gates and framed him for the murder, which led to him being blackmailed by the gang, investigated by AC-12 and ultimately was the reason he took his own life. Laverty’s dismembered limbs have been on ice ever since, but why have the OCG chosen this moment to get rid of her as well? Corbett’s corpse was enough to incriminate Hastings, why choose this moment to use their particularly grisly bargaining chips? Even Ted seems confused by this.

4. So is Ted really being stitched up?

It’s obvious that Ted is H (or at least has been using the moniker to his own end), but it seems that he really didn’t expect Corbett to have been killed and is crying, “It’s a stitch up! Mother o’ gawd save us!” The gang are closing ranks and not giving anything away, unless Steve and Kate can get Lisa to crack (she didn’t actually commit any of the murders after all). Ted must have known that they would find out he’d visited Lee Banks, thus incriminating himself all too easily (although no one can prove what “this bastard” said to “that bastard”). Plus, there’s the money in his flat, planted by that sly weasel, former DCI Mark Moffatt. Ted, we’re afraid they’ve got you bang to rights.

However, all this just seems like an attempt at misdirection – to return to a phrase we used in our recap of episode 2, it smacks too much of the ‘coin on the shoulder’ con (click here for an explanation of that phrase and an anecdote about how we found out the surprisingly simple way magician Dynamo fools his audience). If we know anything about Line Of Duty, the real criminal is never simply hiding in plain sight.

Martin-Compston-as-Steve Arnott in the BBC TV series Line of Duty

Credit: BBC Pictures

5. So who will make it to the end?

One thing is for sure this series, someone big is going down. But who? Hastings? Now that Steve and Kate are off the case will they go rogue themselves to try and save the gaffer? What were all those loaded looks between Steve and Hastings about? Have they got a plan running in the background? Will Carmichael prove Ted is ‘H’ and take him down, or will a member of the OCG get to him first? Will Daenerys actually turn on Jon Snow now that she knows he’s the rightful heir to the Iron Throne? Will Gendry kill the Night King’s dragon with his hammer? Our theory is, wait for it… ‘H’ is… THE HOUND!

So, what can we look forward to from the series finale? It’s a testament to the genius of Jed Mercurio that we’re five episodes in, no closer to any solid answers and yet we’re still totally and utterly obsessed. The only thing we can say for sure is that the finale will include an uncomfortably long beep from a tape machine as we start an interrogation. The other actors must hate that damn beep. Steals every scene it’s in. Until next week then…

The finale of Line Of Duty is next Sunday, 9pm, BBC One 

Photos: BBC Pictures

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