Line of Duty, season 6 episode 4 recap: the rats are piling up – but it's marching orders for Ted Hastings

Now that was an episode of Line of Duty.

“We’ve got her – she told us a pack of lies”

The dizziest of all cliffhangers – AC-12 has discovered that DCI Joanne Davidson (Kelly Macdonald) is related to somebody significant and, presumably, nefarious. But who? When processing the samples found at Farida Jatri’s house, they discovered Davidson’s DNA there – no surprises. But they found something else. A DNA link from Davidson to someone in the police databases.

“Mother of God,” said Ted Hastings (Adrian Dunbar). “Mother of God!” we all shouted, as the credits rolled and we realised it would be another seven days before we would find out. Arnott seemed to suggest that Davidson’s blood relative was not a copper, so the smart money would be on Tommy Hunter, the OCG kingpin killed in series two (and a fellow Glaswegian). If so, what does that make Davidson? A long-term OCG plant, like Ryan Pilkington? Or have the OCG been blackmailing her, an otherwise honest copper, because of her links to Hunter? And if it’s not Hunter… then who? Leave your theories in the comments below, please.

“There are some people there’s no protection from”

Welcome back, Jimmy Lakewell (Patrick Baladi), the smoothy lawyer we last saw being banged up in series four for colluding with an OCG. And, erm, farewell, Jimmy Lakewell… Finally twigging what we suspected a couple of weeks ago – that the voice heard on the recording of the interview with Gail Vella belonged to Lakewell – AC-12 saw a rare opportunity to gain some intelligence on the OCG.

There was an enjoyable callback in Steve Arnott (Martin Compston) and Lakewell’s first interaction – Arnott reminding Lakewell that the last time he saw him he was in a wheelchair, and Lakewell making a quip about Arnott’s height. It was, of course, Lakewell who tipped off the Balaclava Man who tipped Arnott down the stairs, causing his long-term back injury. However, Lakewell made it clear that prison was not a safe place for people with loose lips, so AC-12 needed another plan.

The scene in which Arnott sprung Lakewell from Blackthorn Prison to freedom via witness protection (if he talked) was an instant Line of Duty classic – we knew the armed convoy would get nobbled, yet it was still edge of the seat stuff, as bullets rained down and poor old Jonesy was killed in the line of duty. Lakewell survived the mayhem, but had been duly warned – his lips were more sealed than ever.

“I’m a coward,” he said, “not a fool.” However… There was significance in his exchange of looks with Arnott towards the end. “They’ll know I didn’t talk… That’s right, isn’t it, DI Arnott?” Steve nodded, significantly. This means, while we cut away to the excitement of the gunfight, it’s just possible that the cowardly silver fox solicitor gave AC-12 what they wanted after all. Lakewell, predictably, was greeted back at Blackthorn Prison by being throttled to death by a fellow inmate. Hats off to a fine performance from Baladi.

“You are being investigated, Superintendent, investigated without fear or favour”

DSI Ian Buckells (Nigel Boyle) got his day in front of the AC-12 VLB (Very Long Beep) and, as we expected from the wobbly cobbler, he duly wilted under pressure. The tricky thing with Buckells is we know that he’s corrupt, but we also suspect that when he says he’s being set up, it’s probably true. He’s become the OCG’s fall guy. Arnott, Hastings and DC Chloe Bishop (Shalom Brune-Franklin) laid out all the charges: that he delayed the arrest of “Ross Turner”; that he ordered the wrong type of surveillance on Turner, causing a three-hour delay, meaning that the OCG could abduct Turner (aka Carl Banks) and replace him with the innocent Terry Boyle; that he brought the corrupt Ryan Pilkington (Gregory Piper) into MIT; that he hid the files belonging to the Gail Vella case that suggested her murder was committed by an OCG.

Most amusingly, they accused him of fitting up Boyle, via the “witness”, Deborah Devereux, who it seems Buckells had a history with (erm, Deborah, that is not how you spell truncheon). Buckells is a bad lad. Boyle’s performance was excellent in this interview scene, moving gradually from eye-rolling sarcasm to floundering defeat. Why on earth did he, the senior detective on the case, not know why Vella’s murder hadn't been investigated properly? Buckells was toast. “I don’t know why I don’t know,” he said, sadly. You almost felt sorry for him. You definitely felt sorry for him when he was in his new abode – Blackthorn Prison – watching Jimmy Lakewell be strangled to death. “Now you watch what happens to a rat.” Oh, he was watching.

“You spend your life nicking bent coppers, you start believing they’re everywhere”

They are everywhere! Particularly in MIT, which, until recently, boasted the corrupt trio of Buckells, Davidson and Pilkington. With Buckells gone, Davidson was made acting DSI and, it seemed, her troubles were over. Perhaps the OCG would release her from her duties? Alas, with Pilkington around, she’s not safe. I did wonder last week why Kate Fleming (Vicky McClure) was just letting Pilkington swan around, despite knowing his links to OCG, but she made it clear to Hastings that they still needed to watch him. Watch him they did and discovered he has been spying on Davidson, something Hastings told Fleming not to tell Davidson (Fleming thought Davidson should receive an “Osman warning”, which is when someone’s life is under threat).

Fleming has learnt from the best, however (ie Hastings), and wasn’t going to let something like a direct order from a superior officer stop her. Fleming duly warned Davidson, who then attempted to transfer the smiling psycho-robot Pilkington to another team, something Pilkington did not take kindly to. A late-night trip to Davidson’s doorstep, with gun, changed Davidson’s mind about the transfer. The death of Lakewell – cause of death? “Being a rat, ma’am” – will surely have sharpened Davidson’s mind. Lakewell, Buckells, Davidson – the OCG are cracking down. “Job done. I’m finished,” Davidson wrote on the naughty OCG chatroom. Alas, Jo, you are not.

“We rule nothing in, we rule nothing out”

In among all the excitement, it would have been easy to miss out on the fact that MIT, via Fleming and DS Chris Lomax (Perry Fitzpatrick), are still trying to investigate the murder of Gail Vella. The careless hitman – likely Carl Banks – did not retrieve the bullet cartridge from the scene of the crime and that, plus the bullet retrieved from a nearby wall, told MIT that the weapon was “workshopped”, ie modified from an existing weapon or replica. Essentially, it’s untraceable.

However, could they link that weapon to the armed robbery on the bookies from episode one? The weapons used there were not workshopped, but Fleming had a hunch…. And that hunch led to teeny armed robber Jake (who, I presume, will be the chief of police by series 13) admitting that while they used their own weapons, a mysterious OCG type offered them a crate of workshopped guns. So! What does all this mean? I’m not sure, but Fleming and Lomax stated two or three times in this episode that they were trying to find the gun workshop. We can bet our bottom dollar that they’ll find it in a later episode.

“When did we stop caring about honesty and integrity?”

Well, Ted, as DCC Andrea Wise said, you can’t say you weren’t warned. Hastings received his third mahogany-office dressing down in as many weeks, with PCC Rohan Sindwhani (Ace Bhatti) bubbling with rage as he asked if Hastings was trying to embarrass him. Hastings was supposed to be on a tight leash, but did not inform them that AC-12 were going to charge Buckells. Hastings had undermined his superiors one time too many. “You’ve done your 30 years,” said Wise, “you’ll be permitted to retire on your full pension.” But, to Ted’s ears, she may as well have said, “I burgled your house this morning, Ted, tread dog dirt into your carpets and eaten the last bit of your Easter egg.”

Not only that, but anti-corruption is to be clobbered by cuts, with AC-3, AC-9 and AC-12 merging, and 90 per cent of Hastings’s team being moved on. Hastings laid the blame firmly at the door of Chief Constable Philip Osborne, opening up the wonderful possibility that we haven’t seen the last of the brilliant Owen Teale just yet. “This is a capitulation to criminality and corruption,” said Hastings. “What has happened to us?” Hastings has one month to clear his desk. One month to find H…?

Tedism of the Week

Hastings’s righteous dressing down of DCC Wise was magnificent, but I have soft spot for his simple and outraged retort when DSI Buckells tried to claim he was being scapegoated: “Scapegoated? How dare you.” Ted does things by the letter of the law, Buckells. The. Letter.

Idle thoughts of the week

• Arnott can’t outrun Occupational Health forever.

• My suspicions of DC Bishop grew, mainly based on nothing. She told Fleming they didn’t know if Pilkington had contacted the OCG, because resources were stretched. Hmm… She also wondered aloud if the tip-off about Lakewell being sprung from prison came not from corrupt prison guards, but from inside AC-12…

• I’m desperate to know what Arnott’s “usual” is at Caffe Nero. Latte and a tuna melt?

• Recognise the inmate who throttled Lakewell? None other than Lee Banks, who was part of John Corbett’s OCG in series five. And the last person we saw Banks speaking to last series was… Ted Hastings.

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