Line of Duty Series Six, Episode Six – Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and the wee donkey …!

You do not have to read this.  But, it may spoil Series Six of Line of Duty if you do so.  Anything you do read may be given in evidence.

Car chase!  Steve and Ted still alive!

A calmer (for LoD) episode lets us gather our thoughts, and delivers another great interview scene.

Where do we stand as we reach next Sunday’s finale?  Is Osborne bang to rights?  Will Super Ted make it?  Did Marcus Thurwell suffocate to death on his terrifying fake hair?

Davidson – ‘no comment’:

Given how shifty Jo has been these past weeks, do you believe her story of manipulation rather than greed?  Certainly, the revelation about her parentage distressed her.  Her actions in the interview (nearly 10 minutes of ‘no comment’!) seemed honourable.  She took responsibility for what she could, without fatally ratting on the OCG.

Learning the identity of the bent copper she believed to be her father is surely key to unlocking the story.  Thurwell provoked a reaction when she saw him, and the Spanish connection is strong (assuming they’ve ruled a VPN).  Google says the surname Thurwell is most common in Yorkshire … would a Scottish officer be more convincing as her father?  Dryden maybe?  Or someone we’ve yet to meet?

Either way, she’s in mortal danger, as the tormentors of Denton and Jatri proved with their menacing appearance in the prison.  Cell Block H is missing a couple of inmates there, I reckon.  Could their line about it being like a maze refer to The Maze, perhaps?  (See last week.)

Ryan:

Cheerio, you terrifying psychopath, and good riddance.  Can’t help but wish he’d been the subject of an interview, but nice shot grouping, Kate.

H:

Do we believe Thurwell is dead?  Well, that’s what I guessed would happen last week.  But the night vision was grainy at best, and who’s to say the Spanish officer who named him wasn’t just as bent as Ryan?  If it’s not his body, then who?  If it is, then who killed him?  And what (or, who) is buried beneath the weapons factory?

Carmichael (and as much as I detest the character, Anna Maxwell Martin is great) looked as slippery as a greased eel in a Vaseline factory.  She could be covering for Osborne, she could be H, or she could just be the robotic careerist douchebag she seems to be.  God knows we’ve all met them.

Super Ted has Osborne in his sights, and he does seem like the obvious candidate.  Yet it feels like another twist is coming.  Maybe Hunter is alive.  Maybe Thurwell is.  Maybe Robert Carlyle will turn up, and be the big bad for a Series Seven.  Maybe Buckells is secretly a brilliant, manipulative genius.  I still wouldn’t rule out Fairbanks, Wise, or a senior politician either. Or Ted.  Or Kate.  Or frankly myself, at this point.

Kate:

Bloody hell.

If you saw previews for this (even just the Electronic Programme Guide on Sunday’s TV), it was all about AC-12 coming to terms with ‘tragic events.  I thought for a moment that bent AFOs were going to shoot her in the street, once they got out of Steve’s MX-5 (so what if it’s not a grown-ups car, Kate?  I still want one, it would go very well with my mid-life crisis.)

Seeing her take charge of the MIT investigation at the end was wonderful, although, at that point, I was still convinced someone was going to die.

Steve:

Five days to take a drug test or he’s suspended…

Googling how long Codeine stays in the system, if they use a hair follicle (from that luscious beard, perhaps) then traces remain for three months.  I don’t think Steve has been taking it in the short term – he’s got his teeth into the case, he’s got his mojo back.  But if Codeine is a problem, it’s going to show.

The drugs themselves are probably a minor part of this though.  It’s his back, and his ability to do his job as decided by Occy Health.  And probably Carmichael.  Oh, dear.

Odds are, he’ll get suspended at a crucial point next week and be unable to help a friend in need, which brings us to…

Super Ted:

Line of the week again, but it was hard to take seeing him so distressed.  That, and his sidelong guilty look at Lee Banks’ mugshot.  Surely, for the love of God, he’s not H?  He’s so hellbent on bringing down the Fourth Man (or woman).

It doesn’t look good for the Gaffer, does it?  Will he survive, and what will be left of him if he does?  Adrian Dunbar was top notch again, and it’s hard to watch him coming apart like this.

Enjoy this tribute while we await his fate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xkrs4F6HzBA

Everyone else and the plot:

Carmichael makes my skin not so much crawl, as leg-it to the nearest Uber and demand to go to the airport.  The woman is bloody horrible, but I thought it was strange that she was so quiet during the (great) interview scene.  Despite her blatant suppression of the wider investigation, she wasn’t quite the full frustrated dominatrix she normally is.  That made her more suspicious.  A DCS in sole charge of a single corruption unit would be an ideal tool for the OCG.  But surely, she’s too odious to actually be a baddie?

Predictions:

I got nothing.

At this point, I kind of hope it goes completely barmy next time.  Maybe Joanne Lumley will spin around in a chair, stroking a white cat and laughing maniacally.  Or maybe, Rimmer from Red Dwarf will show up.

Whatever happens, it’s been a great ride.  If it is the last series, then the characters we love are on a gripping collision course.

Get your stab vests ready for next weeks folks, it’s going to be huge.

Foxtrot India Sierra Kilo, Code 11.  Till next time…

For more of my ramblings, check out FiskFilm or Medium.