MOTHER OF GOD THE LINE OF DUTY FINALE

[Ohdobequiet]

I don’t apologise for the caps lock. I’m so disappointed.

Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the wee donkey, what the hell was that ending?!

I thought it was good. The big reveal was that corruption flourishes when people choose not to look for it- it doesn't need a big bad mastermind, just a petty opportunist. The 'big bad man' is corruption itself, not an individual- that's what Hastings impassioned last speech was about.

The crimes weren't big dramatic masterly plans, they were little selfish acts of carelessness and mistakes.

Ted's mistake led to the UC cop's death.
SS negligence of Terry allowed all that stuff to happen.

It's about the need for ceaseless vigilance against corruption, which finds it way through any tiny weaknesses.

There will always be an endless stream of individuals in OCGs doing what OCGs do. The police's only defence is to be a monolith of incorruptibility, which is what Ted and AC12 stood for.

Mixed feelings here. I get it, life is more complex than neat solutions and criminal masterminds, but this wasn't quite what LoD normally gears the audience up for. It felt like just another episode as against potentially the last ever.

That's either pretty poor writing, or pretty great writing...as a comment that there never is 'an end' to this sort of thing. I'm giving JM the benefit of the doubt here because of his track record so will go with the latter. He may have misread his audience though 😂

@SuperMonkeys is spot on - he did misread his audience

Yes I get the bigger political/cultural meaning but that is more suited to a Sunday morning politics show not a Sunday evening entertainment show

He let the audience down. I don’t believe that was the ending he had been planning when setting this story arc up all those years ago. It feels like a last minute change, likely due to what has happened in the last year, rather than being true to the story

I feel sorry for the cast that they will always be remembered for being involved in such a damp squib. They probably feel terrible reading their Twitter feeds this morning

More holes than Swiss cheese. What was that old film-flam about the £50k? Double bluffing the OCG etc nonsense, then I gave it to the wee lassie? Who kept promoting the incompetent Buckle and why keep harping on about if if they aren't going to look into it? What was the point about Steve's pain killers? Though he was taking them for his busted back as displayed at Steph's - or was that withdrawal symptoms? Kelly McDonald's acting was more wooden than Epping Forest - was she attempting enigmatic?
Whole thing was nonsense. I'm not going to bother with the next series - its a busted flush.

I think people are disappointed about two things: Buckells as H and the episode as a whole.

I actually really like Buckells as H: the greedy patsy who rose because corruption trumps competence. But I agree that the episode as a whole was underwhelming.

I didn’t mind that there wasn’t a huge “reveal” but I felt like it went a bit cheesy from the point at which they said “no one makes mugs of AC12” and all had smug looks. That stuff with Kate and Steve in the pub saying “mate” about 47 times felt like a parody.

I thought it was pretty boring. This particular storyline should have ended with Dot dying in season 3 and a new story beginning.

6 seasons and Ian Buckells is the criminal mastermind??? Just stretched credulity.

And Ted Hastings betraying everything he's worked for? Didn't believe that either.

Too many characters doing unbelievable things. So, so disappointing.

But that’s the thing, Buckles wasn’t the criminal mastermind. There were four corrupt cops rising through the ranks, all being controlled by the OCG. Buckles, Hilton, Hargreaves and, Gill Biggelow??!! So was Buckles just the last man standing? Surely someone above him had to be turning a blind eye or allowing his promotion? And who was the OCG mastermind considering they pretty much disbanded at the end of series five??

@MichaelBoltonsLeftLeg

Whilst I was disappointed with the episode, I actually thought Buckles’ reaction to Lakewell’s death did make sense. Buckles isn’t some criminal mastermind - he’s a stooge motivated by greed, passing on orders. He’s not the top man.

Yeah I agree, Buckles wasn’t H, he was doing stuff for the OCG and getting payoffs, same as Ryan, same as Jo (although Buckles was happy to do it).

He was still being fed info and manipulated by the OCG that became splintered after Tommy died but he wasn’t the mastermind behind it all.

@InsideNumberNine

But that’s the thing, Buckles wasn’t the criminal mastermind. There were four corrupt cops rising through the ranks, all being controlled by the OCG. Buckles, Hilton, Hargreaves and, Gill Biggelow??!! So was Buckles just the last man standing? Surely someone above him had to be turning a blind eye or allowing his promotion? And who was the OCG mastermind considering they pretty much disbanded at the end of series five??

I think Osbourne was the other police officer pushing Buckles up through the ranks, but yeah there wasn’t enough about the actual OCG characters in this series to see who it was that was feeding Buckles orders, it wasn’t him running the show.

@picklemewalnuts

I thought it was good. The big reveal was that corruption flourishes when people choose not to look for it- it doesn't need a big bad mastermind, just a petty opportunist. The 'big bad man' is corruption itself, not an individual- that's what Hastings impassioned last speech was about.

The crimes weren't big dramatic masterly plans, they were little selfish acts of carelessness and mistakes.

Ted's mistake led to the UC cop's death.
SS negligence of Terry allowed all that stuff to happen.

It's about the need for ceaseless vigilance against corruption, which finds it way through any tiny weaknesses.

There will always be an endless stream of individuals in OCGs doing what OCGs do. The police's only defence is to be a monolith of incorruptibility, which is what Ted and AC12 stood for.

This is how I feel.

I enjoyed it!

Steve Ted and Kate all showed their flaws.
Steve's pain killers, sleeping with Steph and rejecting Occy health.
Kate's blind eye to Jo and warning her about an op against her.
Ted's 50k to a poor widow with two wee girls, to make up for a mistake he'd made.

Each is the crevice that lets corruption get a toehold.

It was small and petty and non dramatic. They were looking for a criminal mastermind, a Moriarty, so they overlooked incompetent Buckles.

Pride was part of it all, Carmichael's pride and conviction that there's no institutional corruption, Ted's pride that he's incorruptible which almost got Kate killed when she stopped trusting him, Steve's pride in resisting help with his addiction.

The more I think about it, the better it gets!

Interesting that Jed has commented on Twitter (just an AC12 picture) but has disabled comments. Must know that he will be inundated

I was disappointed because earlier in the day someone on the radio had said LOD was going to be an hour and a half show so when it was nearing 10pm I was expecting another half hour of twists and turns, but then it just ended as it did

@Neonprint

I've been having a few days where I feel like the world is full of thick people. The reactions to this aren't helping this feeling. Did everyone just want guns go big bang bang? And a daft plot twist of an ending?

The reactions to this really show why our political culture is so crap. People are looking for simple explanations of a bad guy when that's not how things are. I thought the ending was really good.

Also no wonder so much TV is so shit if people are just looking for the type of ending you're all up in arms about not getting. Just go and watch the Da vinci code or any number of ITV dramas for that shit.

Yes we all cry ourselves to sleep at night wishing we were as intelligent as you.

It was a very European ending - though provoking with unanswered questions rather than American, which tends to have a big dramatic climax that wraps up everything in a neat bow.

@hopeishere

I thought it was ok. The rest of the series was super. There was far too much anticipation - people were bound to be disappointed.

Osborne is corrupt but Carmichael has to decide if she has the balls to address it. Sometimes the baddie is hiding in plain sight.

THIS. Someone else gets it.

Was just awful. So disappointed

I can't remember Hastings being such a bloody awful interviewer in the previous episodes. Adds nothing helpful, just gets riled up like the grumpy old man he is and stomps off in disgust. I began thinking it's absolutely right he was being forced to retire if that's how he conducts himself.

Anyone else sometimes wonder if thats Anna Maxwell Martins actual job from Motherland - it would be brilliant if they did a merge of the two. Anyway I'm warming to her in LOD - crisp, efficient and unemotional, but oh no volatile Ted's our hero apparently.

I didn't hate it. But I wanted something a bit twisty. It never made sense to me that Kate left AC-12 to just go and be a standard copper so I was hoping for a reveal that she'd joined a different AC unit and was undercover. Just one example. Not bang-bang, killing main characters as an ending but some unexpectedly clever writing.

I don't think it matters who forged Jo's transfer request. You'd only need to pay off or blackmail someone in the prison once.

I think the lack of bogeyman message how corruption and incompetence are so destabilising would have been great had the writing been better, there were fewer genuine plot holes that weren’t resolved, so much of the police work happening off screen, Chloe having all the nous but not being developed properly, buckles the same etc etc.

Powerful idea just badly executed

There couldn't really be a surprise unveiling. We knew all the possible candidates too well. The 'top guy' pulling the strings was OCG, not a bent copper.

I really liked the ending insofar as I’m still thinking about it. In fact I’m liking the ending more as time goes on.

To me it’s actually quite mundane - incompetence, arse covering, individual greed, turning a blind eye, bending the rules if it suits.