LINE of Duty left viewers nervous all week following the dramatic conclusion to episode five, which saw Kate Fleming engaged in a shootout with Ryan Pilkington – the audience left in the dark as to who came out unscathed.
However, episode six revealed Kate Fleming is still standing, while Pilkington was not so lucky. Episode six also left fans questioning the fate of Marcus Thurwell.
What happened in episode six?
It appears that James Nesbitt’s character Marcus Thurwell has already kicked the bucket, despite only being introduced in episode five.
The Spanish authorities were aiding AC-12 in their inquiries and managed to successfully track down Thurwell’s location – only to find two lifeless bodies. Though it was hard to make out the Spanish spoken in the scene, we heard reference to one Marcus Thurwell.
Thurwell held plenty of keys in AC-12 investigations, with links to police corruption and the OCG, including Sands View, but he also knew of information surrounding the Lawrence Christopher case, the same one Gail Vella was snooping around before her untimely death.
Thurwell’s death leaves more questions than answers, and with AC-12 now unable to question him – there is every chance he’s taken vital information to the grave.
We saw plenty of Jo Davidson in episode six, who remained staunch in her stance that was “not bent” while facing lengthy interrogation in the wake of Ryan Pilkington’s death.
The episode also saw confirmation of Davidson’s relation to criminal Tommy Hunter, who as it was revealed, was the brother of Jo’s mother Samantha – who took her own life when Jo was younger.
Disturbingly, it was also revealed that Tommy Hunter was Jo’s father – giving him greater access to her life growing up and forcing her into the police force to allow him to partake in criminal activities knowing he had a hold on members of authority.
Jo also confessed to planting the burner phones in Farida Jatri’s house, as well as delaying the arrest of Carl Banks and manipulating Ian Buckells into removing the surveillance. Not entirely cowering to the will of the OCG, Jo did refuse to charge an innocent Terry Boyle and protected Kate Fleming from Ryan.
Who are the top ‘H’ suspects now?
The debate surrounding who is ‘H’ rages on, with a number of suspects still potentially in the firing line.
Although, H now seems like an out-of-date alias, with AC-12 preferring to use ‘the fourth man’. This is because AC-12 believed that Cottan, as he lay dying, had blinked at the letter “H” which signalled the first name of said officer.
However, by the end of season five, we were informed of the news that Dot had actually been tapping his finger four times to communicate either H in morse code, or the number four. There was a Fourth Man.
A number of names could still be linked to the role of the fourth man, with Philip Osbourne, Patricia Carmichael and even Ted Hastings himself all still potential suspects.
Osbourne has had question marks hovering over him since season one, when after a botched mission saw an innocent civilian killed he put pressure on his team to lie and cover for themselves.
Carmichael has to be one of the most widely disliked characters in Line of Duty history, which takes some doing. Her one-woman mission to prove Ted Hasting’s is the fourth man has made her no friends, while also working closely with Osbourne – could she be hiding something herself?
A lot of the reasons that point to Hasting’s being H stem from some awkward, unanswered questions dating back multiple seasons. His trip to Blackthorn prison to meet with Lee Banks alone, and his tendency to misspell the word “definitely” (a grammatical error spotted in messages between members of the OCG) don’t exactly clear his name.
When is the series six finale?
Series 6 is made up of seven hour-long episodes.
The first episode aired on Sunday, March 21 at 9pm on BBC One, with the most recent instalment on Sunday, April 25 at the same time.
The Line of Duty finale for series 6 will air on Sunday, May 2 at 9pm.
