Watching the Detectives: the pace didn't relent in episode two of Line of Duty, and it's left us with burning questions we need answering in episode three of this year's most-watched TV show.
It's official: Line of Duty is the most-watched TV programme of 2019 with more than seven million of us tuning in to see what AC-12 is getting up to.
Having got to grips with (most of) the lingo, we 100 per cent have not got to grips with what's really going on - writer Jed Mercurio always leaves us with questions, and there are plenty after episode two. If you've not watched the episode, turn away now, or you might drown in a virtual sea of spoilers.
Is John Corbett a good cop pretending to be bad?
So Corbett joined Operation Peartree to root out the links between organised crime and corrupt police officers (isn't that AC-12's job?) but he feels his boss wasn't allowing him the freedom he needed, so he has gone rogue while simultaneously continuing with his brief. He refuses to be upset about the loss of life because those who died are 'bent coppers' – in a second raid on police officers, he actively stopped one of the gang killing an armed officer, so this may be true. In this episode we saw a whole new side to John – in addition to being a ruthless gangster, he also cries on the phone to his wife and listens to his children sleeping. He explained to Steve why he hasn't stopped corrupt officers being killed in, er, the line of duty: 'they're vermin, the lot of them, right to the top…everything I've said is the God's honest truth and I'll prove it…' and he's organised for Lee to be set up as he pays off Cafferty, but doth he protest too much? Is he a lone wolf on the side of good or is it all a smoke screen? Don't ask us…
Just who did Jane Cafferty point out as the person who recruited her to work for them?
After revealing during interview that she had been involved in the ambush by the balaclava men and had been assisted by other officers in the same team, Cafferty also told Fleming and Arnott that she had been recruited into her dodgy dealing by a police officer who had blackmailed her with photographs of her having an affair. Kate left the interview to grab a selection of images off the walls and others from a drawer which she laid out in front of Cafferty and asked whether or not the person who had recruited her was amongst them. She said yes, but who was the mystery man or woman?
Is Mark Moffatt as dodgy as he seems?
As Hastings made his way to the budget hotel he doesn't seem to be able to afford, he was approached by former DCI Mark Moffatt (the man who represented naughty Roz Huntley from series four during her AC-12 interviews) who said that he was working for a friend's property company in Ireland since retiring from the force. He claimed to Hastings that he was there to talk about compensation for an investment in a property development which has gone down the tubes, but every fibre of his being set off the WRONG 'UN KLAXON. What is the investment? Why doesn't Hastings want to talk about it? Is Moffatt speaking in code? Is Moffatt actually conducting his own investigation? Why does LoD make us SO SUSPICIOUS OF EVERYONE?
Is Lisa McQueen starting to question Corbett?
Although episode one led us to believe that Corbett was the OCG's big cheese, in episode two we discovered that actually, McQueen has been working for the gang for far longer while Corbett is the relatively new boy on the block. Actually, McQueen is the filling in the Corbett/H sandwich although it's Corbett that's running the gang – proving there are glass ceilings in OCGs, too.
Did Lee share any suspicions about Corbett with anyone else before being set up with Cafferty?
We think he probably did, in which case Corbett is playing a dangerous game. But we knew that, right?
Who deleted the key information about John Corbett?
It's one thing to be a UCO (undercover officer) and maintaining your cover, but it's quite another to stop communicating with your team back at the cop shop while you go back to the job you used to do back in the day, printing (albeit this time, false passports). Corbett, or John Clayton as he's known to the OCG, was in contact with his team up until a few months earlier but, he tells Steve, at around the time he started to find out information about the mysterious H, all his files were deleted. By whom? By H? His commanding officer DS Alison Powell (Susan Vidler) is definitely up to something.
Is Steve Arnott getting in too deep?
Not telling Kate about his contact with John Corbett is, in anyone's terms, Not A Good Idea. Surely Steve isn't steaming about Kate's promotion? Although we are sure that Steve's motives are good, keeping Kate out of the loop is an appalling decision. Steve is in a rock and a hard place, but can you really trust an undercover cop gone rogue? And in other news, why the sudden interest in Kate's child and family? It didn't bode well for Maneet, is Kate the next in the line of fire?
Is lovely Ted a bent copper?
I'm not sure it would have been possible to be shadier than Ted Hastings in episode two if I'd been under an umbrella during a total eclipse. There was high level skulking going on throughout this episode, including an unprecedented level of interest about who Jane Cafferty was picking out as her recruiter. And that was just the tip of the iceberg. We also had:
a) Kate – when she still thought that Maneet was working for the OCG – saying: 'You work right beside someone…' as Hastings walked into the room.
b) Corbett actually accusing Hastings of being caught up in corruption and covering up the links between the police and crime gangs.
c) And pointing out *that* shooting of Balaclava Man at AC-12's headquarters despite the fact there were '…a dozen AFOs (authorised firearms officers)' waiting to shoot him.
d) That dodgy property dealing – if that's what it is.
e) The fact that Hastings computer at his hotel was open and running with the same kind of messaging programme that we'd previously seen used as a method of communication with Corbett and the OCG.
f) We are led to believe that Hastings picture is one of those shown to Jane – Kate pulls one picture to show Jane from a drawer: remember when Ted ordered Kate to take down his picture from the wall of H suspects?
g) The divorce and fact that Ted's wife has a new love interest: has it driven him to crime? And why is Gill Biggeloe (Polly Walker) back on the scene?
Personally, I don't believe it for a moment. It's just TOO obvious. My money is still on H being that bloke from Steps.
* Line of Duty continues on BBC1 on Sundays at 9pm.
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