LINE OF DUTY: cop-on-cop action TV procedural that demands analysis

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:0

I am basically doing that "my mouth is opening and closing and no sound is coming out" thing.

so has thandie newton been covering for her husband all along?

at this point i feel like literally any character could suddenly reach up scoobydoo-style and pull off a rubber mask to reveal they're wearing a balaclava beneath it

I don't know. I assume there's some twist still to come about what happened at Ifield's flat - Mr Thandie was clearly there as well, but not quite sure how that all ties in with the murder. But fuck that, I just need someone to tell me that Steve's going to have Roz's powers of recovery from thumping one's head off a hard surface and bleeding out all over the place. I'm not even convinced it was Mr Thandie that did that there at the end - he was scared and cowering, then Steve was attacked by a strong and confident assailant. Wearing different clothes.

maybe it's neil morrissey

Huntley(Mr) was desperately trying to phone someone called Jimmy Lakewell as Steve was approaching(and was shown hovering over his phone number earlier in the episode in a way that suggested THIS PERSON'S NAME WILL DEFINITELY BE PRETTY FUCKING SIGNIFICANT). I'm guessing that was him.

But he gave Lakewell's name to Steve when Steve was on his way to the office. You wouldn't do that if you were sending him to kill him, would you?

impressed at his response time also, if it is him

It's got to be someone who was already in the building. Anyone record it and get a note of who was based on the third floor, where Steve's lift was intercepted on his way up to the fifth floor?

it's on iplayer

Yeah, I might go and have another look. It's definitely not Mr Huntley, even in full-on panic mode he wouldn't be daft enough to kill the copper investigating his wife right outside his own office.

"Vacant for refurbishment". So basically less likely to be disturbed at it then. Hmmmm. I'd make a shite detective.

the firm huntley works for is called WEBBER AND BARCLAY

we don't get much of a look at the other firms -- certainly not enough to suggest they're clues (unlike jimmy lakewell): the floor above is called MCALEER BROS CONSTRUCTION, but it's semi-obscured when we see it plainest, and the one above that says VACANT FOR DEVELOPMENT, the one above that is a bank but i couldn't read its name

why was huntley quizzing roz abt where she was the night she was with ifield if he was with her?

x-post

No, it was a bit of a long shot. But clearly this incarnation of Balaclava Man was already in the building. I'm 100% convinced it wasn't Huntley.

i'm sticking by my scoobydoo theory: it is someone in a rubber mask, with a balaclava over the top of thE mask AND ANOTHER ONE BENEATH IT

WE HAVEN'T SEEN MUCH OF DENTON IN THIS SERIES

^^^OVER-EXCITED

My money's on the ghost of Dot.

YIKES

I had a feeling something bad was gonna happen after they showed Fleming and Arnott having a nice curry together

It's like when a character randomly calls their partner to say "I love you", you know they're a gonner

Under the balaclava is a monkey, then Patrick McGoohan, then Denton

t's like when a character randomly calls their partner to say "I love you", you know they're a gonner

― Chuck_Tatum, Sunday, April 9, 2017 11:20 PM (five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yep. Also when they out-of-nowhere introduced that new member of AC12, something in my brain went "Uh-oh." That was a dead giveaway that someone else was not going to be on the team much longer.

My husband seems to always walk into the room during the last five minutes of Line of Duty, no matter when I'm watching it, so he basically thinks it's the most exciting programme in the world.

Especially last night, when Steve went over the bannisters.
Me: Holy fucking shitballs.
Husband: His leg is not meant to be that shape, I'm guessing.

People in fictional Line of Duty Land be good at recovering from serious head trauma.

That interview scene with Huntley and Hastings was great though. I basically love all those bits.

(also boo to lovely Maneet being somehow in on the wrong side. But jeez, Roz Huntley is a piece of work, isn't she?)

Part of what was so great about last night's episode was how it laid the groundwork for Maneet not being on AC12's side: all that stuff that Huntley says about Adrian Dunbar is kind of true. He does treat women differently to men (by sleeping with some of them, for example). Maybe Maneet hasn't been treated so well since she got pregnant?

"he's got fractured legs, pelvis, back, skull"

*in bed an unbruised arnott has a small plaster on his forehead*

think i'd a be a piece of work if nick huntley were my husband tbr

"we had feelings for each other, we spent the night together" lol

Not particularly a fan of either Huntley, tbh - Roz's casual domestic violence and verbal intimidation towards him was quite unpleasant. Does she really love him as she said to Hilton, or did she just say that so she wouldn't have to get naked and show her icky arm?

I think it was Neil from the Office wot done it. Though Kevin Gill is also now a suspect (in our house at least) because he was a very unpleasant man in EastEnders. But the guy who plays Nick is both bad guys and good guys in stuff, so dunno if my "it's the actor you most expect to be doing it did it" theory will hold up, especially because they generally get killed off with alarming regularity.

assistant chief constable hilton: can't decide if he's implausible or just super-annoying

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C7hXF2bXwAAhClv.jpg

"superintendant, your tone is oppressive"
"she's an sio 20 yrs on the squad, if she can't take it god help us all"

important exchange, will write up shortly, when ep is over

"masons are the mafia of the mediocre" !!!

the topic i was going to write up has now very much entered the building

i have decided balacalavaman is hilton bcz i hate him

I don't think Huntley spurned him because she loves her husband. I think she did it so that AC12 would have as little dirt as possible on her. Also because (apart from the killing and whatnot), she's basically a total pro. She does everything by the book and she got held back when she had her family. Which is why she resents the crap out of her family, and why she was willing to frame an innocent man - because this is her chance to get to the top of the heap she should have got to ten years ago.

Could easily be Hilton. That bugger will do anything to stop Stone Cold Steve Arnott.

ok so this is no longer going to strike readers as percipient after that hastings-huntley confrontation but what i was going to suggest was that this series is a kind of counter-prime-suspect (or possibly playing with this idea)

a) throughout s4, there's been a LOT of girl-on-girl exchange of glances re (actual instances of) sexism, inc.hastings's "darling" but also just a general sideye-the-masons-and-the-mcps exasperation
b) i think the series is taking the line -- maybe for reasons of good drama, maybe for more "old fashioned" reasons -- that Political Correctness is anathema to Good Coppering etc etc
c) of the corrupt policeman to be taken down, so far TWO have been black* -- adding just this ep jamie desford (not very good at his job) and maneet (gender-loyal to huntley?) as weak reed
d) denton! (tho denton is actually the zombie jane tennison of this entire franchise: viz i think LoD's long game is subtle and playfully complex and ambiguous, rather than merely revanchist BLM-is-the-real-racism)
e) hastings! he may be a sticky old paisleyite old-skool bastard but he is a good copper and an honest man, therefore sticky old paisleyite old-skool bastardry = good coppering
f) hilton! the weak liberal is the worst sexist perve of all (also clearly balaclavaman, since there are no villains in this franchise who are not actually policemen or onside-woth-policemen)
g) kate is the xander

*drama-wise this is excellent news, of course, it gives black actors access to complex, meaty memorable roles

(rewatched the original prime suspect a week or three back: "you're being bing-bonged all over the station" is still the standout u-go-girl moment of exasperated female solidarity in that groundbreaking series, "mafia of mediocrity" is a perfect description of nearly all jane tennison's (male) senior officers BUT ALSO HER TOTAL WEAK-REED HUSBAND WHICH WHY DID SHE EVER MARRY THIS DISLOYAL LUMP????)

^^anyway the makers of LoD s4 were also imo rewatching prime suspect a lot, to look for stuff they could repurpose and play with 20 years later

I also think Huntley spurned Hilton because icky arm would be a bit tricky to hide when naked.

also surely bcz ICKY HILTON NAKED* (plus she knew she would have to kill him unobserved which might be tricky right now)

*she may be a piece of work but she has standards (even if low-bar nick h suggests otherwise)

I wonder was Maneet turned towards helping Hilton & Huntley discredit AC-12 because she feels guilty about helping Dot last year (also surely that's the mother of all charges to bring up against AC-12 when trying to discredit them rather than "Ted's a bit of a dinosaur"?)

that will an excellent turning of tables in s5

hastings: so what do you have to say to that, evil copper of s5?
ecos5: er um oh uh
hastings: so i put it to you that YOU are the evil one here
ecos5: ALL COPPERS ARE BASTARDS, had you thought of that?
hastings: er um oh uh
ecos5: hence AC-12 is WORST OF ALL, so i put it to you that YOU are the evil one here ted so-called hastings

xpost - lol great point re: dot

Also, yes, Neil from The Office is a good call - he's pretty much the perfect dramatically satisfying "hidden in plain sight" candidate - and he's the only other one who knew about arnott's visit last week. Maybe his office is above th husbands - they're both lawyers? That would explain how quickly he turned up.

Anyway this ep was a bit of a rehash of earlier "Denton turns the tables" scenes but very well done. What's letting the side down this season are Hilton and the husband (both pretty crap actors)

Not sure the shows is taking a "political correctness is an anethema to good coppering" line, if only because Hastings and Arnott's screwups generally make things worse for their cases.

i refer m'lud to the "oppressive" exchange

but i agree we can't yet tell if it's taking this line or pretending to flirt with it to set up a future table-turning (feel that arnott has been tossed down one of the more slithery snakes this series; hastings still hanging on in there)

firms in the building (as established last week)

top was some bank (couldn't read name)
below that VACANT FOR DEVELOPMENT (floor nick h's office is now on)
below that MCALEER BROS CONSTRUCTION
below that WEBBER AND BARCLAY (nick h works for them) (but maybe jimmy lakewell also does, tho why wd he then run out into the street)

(floors anyone's guess tbh, but this is what was displayed as arnott read it)

Have to assume from past precedent that somebody is already working with or against somebody in a way that we aren't privy to - e.g. Hastings leaking info via Maneet (why? dunno), Hilton working to back at Roz for manipulating him, etc etc

Have a feeling she may get away with it in the end - mostly just for a bit of variety in the context of previous series. We will definitely get a flashback to Tim Ifield's flat at some point, it will be interesting to see who else might have turned up to help out (Jodie? Jimmy Lakewell?).

http://i4.birminghammail.co.uk/incoming/article8934666.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/Neil-Morrissey.jpg

One option, perhaps, that Huntley got the right person to begin with, and all this palaver has been pointless.

Only Neil Morrissey knows.

I've never seen S1. Is there anything from it I need to know to make sense of S4? e.g. the detective that was brought in to take over who recognised Kate from before - is he from S1?

Forgive the thread spam, but I wanted to note that this show's 2021 season is nominated in the ILX TV poll, with voting ending this weekend:

ILX's Best Television of 2021 Poll / VOTING AND CAMPAIGNING THREAD / Voting Ends After January 31, 2022

If you like this show and you'd like to see it have a good showing in the poll (running in February) all you need to do is submit a ballot including it and your other favorites (3 minimum, 25 maximum, ranked by your favorite to least favorite) to forksclovetofu at gmail. It'll take five minutes; get to it!