There are still some major questions to be explored further in series six. We have a right to have them asked by an officer at least one rank senior.
THE finale of Line Of Duty saw lawyer Gill Biggeloe nearly get her throat cut in the cop-shop loos after being exposed as the traitor in AC-12’s midst.
Sunday night’s bumper-length episode of BBC1’s hit cop thriller also revealed that “H” wasn’t a single person but a network of FOUR corrupt figures — which means there’s still one more left to find.
It seemed Supt Ted Hastings — actor Adrian Dunbar — was going to get framed as “H”.
The revelation that there’s still a corrupt figure out there adds a twist to the gripping “H” storyline that’s set to be explored further in series six, which has already been commissioned by the Beeb.
Here are nine key questions fans will want answered - preferably by an officer at least one rank senior . . .
AC-12 boss Ted was distraught during his interview when he learned that undercover cop Corbett was the son of Anne-Marie McGillis, an informant for the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
The young mother passed on intelligence to Ted when he was in the RUC in Belfast, but disappeared and was presumed murdered in 1989.
His extreme reaction to the revelation raises the possibility that the boy might have grown up to be John Corbett.
There were rumours that the then-married Ted was having an affair with Anne-Marie.
They might have been seeing each other for years, and since John’s grave showed that he was born on June 3, 1979, it could be that he was the product of their affair.
And we still don’t know whether Ted was the person who passed on information about Corbett’s undercover status to the criminals, via imprisoned gangster Lee Banks.
Viewers saw him clutching a brown paper envelope - the missing £50,000? - and watching Corbett’s widow.
Is he trying to ease a guilty conscience over potentially signing the death warrant of his own son by passing money to the family Corbett left behind?
Just because AC-12 proved Gill was the third of the “H” insiders, it doesn’t mean Ted isn’t the fourth — and there is still plenty of suspicion surrounding his actions.
He claims he destroyed his laptop because he didn’t want detectives finding adult movies on his hard drive.
This seems an excessive means to avoid embarrassment.
Det Chief Supt Carmichael noticed that Ted, when communicating with the gangsters, made the same “definitely” mis-spelling that “H” made when he was talking to the mob.
He claimed this was a deliberate attempt to copy the way “H” wrote.
Then there was Ted’s surprising shooting of a bent copper at the end of series four.
It was suggested he killed him because he was keen to ensure he wasn’t arrested and didn’t reveal Ted’s true identity as a traitor.
Plus, we never got to the bottom of his recent visit to jailed gangster Lee Banks. It must be significant, or we’d know the truth already
If we assume the corrupt figure is not Ted — or Kate Fleming or Steve Arnott — we have to wade through other potential traitors.
DS Sam Railston, played by Aiysha Hart, is one of the front-runners. DS Arnott’s on/off lover is in the perfect position to access information from within AC-12 and pass it on to the OCG.
And Police and Crime Commissioner Rohan Sindwhani, played by Ace Bhatti, worked hand-in-hand with Gill. Surely he had some idea she was up to something?
Though he is famous for his “Jed Herrings”, writer Jed Mercurio rarely puts something in a storyline without a reason.
The inclusion of a gangster-run brothel using trafficking victims as sex workers does suggest it must have some wider relevance.
Could the mystery man seen going into the building be Ted Hastings?
And there surely has to be some importance to the “frozen DNA” which the girls working in the brothel kept safely stored.
Kate and Steve, played by Vicky McClure and Martin Comspton, proved Gill was the third Central Police informant helping the gangsters — alongside Matthew “Dot” Cottan and Assistant Chief Constable Derek Hilton, who were unmasked in previous series.
Fleming has just been reunited with her estranged husband and their young son but her home life seems to be crumbling as her job keeps her working late most nights.
Meanwhile, Arnott is still struggling with the pain of injuries from when he was attacked by Balaclava Man in series four.
The incident led to him aborting a bid to bed DS Railston.
It seemed he could not perform between the sheets — either as a result of stress or pain.
Both officers could be heading for hot water. As Ted Hastings’ experiences have proved, personal problems can leave cops in Line Of Duty open to claims of exploitation and an inability to properly see the job through.
The top cop’s grilling of her nemesis Ted Hastings made for brilliant telly — so fans will hope that Carmichael, played by Anna Maxwell Martin, will return for series six.
Since Ted hasn’t entirely cleared his name, she might finish the job she seemed determined to do — prove he was bent.
She’s already been upstaged by Fleming and Arnott, and perhaps outwitted by Ted, so she will be keen to restore her reputation.
But DCS Carmichael could still be revealed as another bad apple herself.
After all, it turned out she was already working with the bent copper who last night tried to kill Gill Biggeloe.
We saw gangster Ryan Pilkington attending a police interview, then marching with fellow trainees in full uniform. But his new job won’t be the result of seeing the error of his ways, will it?
Like Matthew Cottan — aka The Caddy — the gangsters have probably placed him inside the force to act as their mole.
So will Pilkington, played by Gregory Piper, be a sleeper who will only reappear in a potential series seven, or will his storyline be quickly resurrected in series six?
Despite her character building up throughout series five, she remains an enigma.
Lisa, played by Rochenda Sandall, seemed neither like a fully committed gangster nor like an undercover officer.
Many who comment in Line Of Duty fan forums believe she could be the vengeful love child of a wronged cop.
The fact that she was such an important figure whose story never reached a climax suggests writer Jed might bring her back.
Biggeloe was rumbled in the interrogation room and sent out an “Urgent Exit Required” SOS to her mob mates via her burner phone.
But the criminal cavalry never arrived. Instead of getting her out, another bent cop tried to ensure her silence by knifing her in the toilets shortly before she was arrested.
So who told bent copper Tina Tranter, played by Natalie Gavin, to kill Biggeloe to ensure she did not reveal any sensitive info?
And it’s not clear why they wanted Gill executed rather than rescued.
Did she know too much, or was she not valuable enough to the criminals?
And was it the fourth “H” who decided she had to die?
If so, they won’t be happy to discover she’s alive and well and enjoying her freedom . . . for now, at least.
by Andy Halls, TV Editor
THIS was not the neatly finished finale I wanted.
We’re no closer to knowing who “H” is and the goalposts have been moved in that it’s now likely to be four corrupt cop bosses, not one based on a dying man’s twitching hand.
The beauty of Jed Mercurio’s Line Of Duty has always been the unnerving uncertainty that any episode brings – which is why it has become my favourite show on TV.
But the innocence of Hastings, at least for now, had been coming a mile off. There was no way such a central character was going to be thrown to the wolves.
The fact he chucked a laptop away and shot a bloke in cold blood was suddenly ignored. So there was something sadly inevitable about Gill Biggeloe turning out to be leading the corruption from within.
But the speed at which the twist was revealed felt wrong. It was as if this 90-minute special had been written as two separate episodes and then slammed together.
All it did was serve up a cliffhanger for the next series a year from now.
I think many millions tuning in last night will have been left feeling unsatisfied with more questions left unanswered than tied up.
Sadly, I fear this series may have peaked at the moment John Corbett bled out.
