Mother of God: Line of Duty thread 5 - **MNHQ edit**; "We are obliged to warn you that any spoilers will be taken down and used against you. No spoilers, even upcoming characters, please, in the name of the wee man. (aka Steve Arnott)

[IstandwithJackieWeaver]

Hope no one minds me starting a new thread as 4 was filled on one episode.

Ted has been the police so long that they won't necessarily have his DNA on file from him joining. He was arrested and interviewed last series so his DNA may be on the nominal database from then.

Trying to catch up atm but I have a question... (sorry 😂)

The warrant for covert surveillance in episode 1...
If they only had a warrant for "little" outside surveillance, and not one for "big" inside surveillance - why did they leave the property while sorting out the correct warrant. They still had the little one, surely they could carry on watching the outside of the property while the new one was issued?

Ryan held Maneet and Lee Banks cut her throat. Ryan cut Corbetts throat though.

Because what they were doing - looking into the flat - didn't meet the requirements for direct surveillance (little) or intrusive (big). They could have watched the entrance of the block of flats from the street/a parked car instead, but they specifically wanted to look into the flat. They surveillance team withdrew pending the correct permission being given.

It's just occurred to me that the nominal might not be someone we, the viewers, have thus far encountered.

Also, Kate is, I think, working undercover for another AC unit.

@ThisIsSimplyBeyond: I think it's something to do with admissibility of evidence ie if the permissions are found to be incorrect, any information gathered without the correct permission can not be given as evidence (disclaimer: I might have made that up)

@TedisnotH

Ryan held Maneet and Lee Banks cut her throat. Ryan cut Corbetts throat though.

Good memory or did you check

That's right @Buggerthebotox - there could also be disciplinary action, especially if whoever was being watched found out and complained.

@IstandwithJackieWeaver

Didn't Hilton kill himself? Or get bumped off and it made to look like a suicide.

Also the same place as the social worker for the children's home

Clearly a place with significance

I think the whole thing about the direct/intrusive surveillance requires quite a big suspension of disbelief.

In practice it was stupid to be wholly relying on surveillance of the flat (once the curtains are closed anything could be happening!) and they should have been using surveillance of entrances etc as well, which they could do under direct surveillance powers.

It’s also absurd the Jo and the AFO unit that we’re going to raid the flat weren’t informed about the lack of surveillance until after the raid - surely this would be rather important information!

Yeah I thought that @BoreOfWhabylon we might see the photo and think who the hell is that?! Or they might not even tell us in the next episode it might be drawn out as to who it is! Like they know but we have to wait to be shown!

Also where are they going to find Gail Vella's keys?
And will anyone ever find the glass that Gates drank out of that ended up in the cupboard in the office kitchen area??

@Blondeshavemorefun
Good memory!
( and I double checked!)

Yes, the social worker Oliver, Hylton and Maneet all met their end on the Jetty of Death

I agree about the surveillance. They had legal authority to watch the outside of the building, so why not carry on?

I can't remember who called off the actual surveillance , I think it was Jo?

Did anyone hear Keir Starmer reference LoD in PMQs today?!

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/line-of-duty/keir-starmer-line-of-duty-pmqs-b1831259.html%3famp

That silence must have been sooo awkward 😳

Phew, caught up!

One thing that struck me as odd - Ryan telling Jo that Lakewell had died... obviously this was to hammer home the "being a rat" thing but do we know that Jo has any connection whatsoever with Lakewell?!

Has there actually been any suggestion Jo knows him / of him, or even that he's a person of interest in their investigation of Gail Vella? (Especially given it seems to be AC12 who is linking together possible motives etc... not MIT).

I can't imagine AC12 send out round robin department emails with their "good news stories"! (Although being public sector myself it's wouldn't surprise me... )

I think she knows who he is, as otherwise she’d have been all “ who is James lake well” when Ryan told her..and Ryan knew she knew..I got the impression Ryan was warning her. Buckells basically had the same warning, but up close and personal...

Is it a sign that the LOD obsession is getting too intense when you’re trying to work out if you can sneak a Hastings meme into a training presentation...?

Actually presumably MIT got told about Lakewell if it's being considered a murder? But then it probably won't be.

I am wondering if this intense attention on every episode over each series is just showing up the writing errors and plot holes. People keep saying (all over the place, not just here) 'Jed does everything for a reason' or similar, but actually loads of stuff just gets left hanging, or ignored, or changed. So I'm not sure where that reputation comes from! Still very happily analysing/thinking/enjoying, but I suspect we are crediting the man with a genius he doesn't actually possess.

JDI - if it raises a laugh you know you have found your people

Well it's not like Agatha Christie where everyone is gathered together for the denouement, that's for sure, and actually it's pretty life-like to not have everything answered. We can only guess at people's motivation for lots of things.

@AwkwardArnottDentonFumble

That silence must have been sooo awkward 😳

It was in the middle of a rant at BoZo, so wasn't left hanging.

@CheekyWeeShite

Yes I think if there is a big boss / “H” it’s Osborne. They’ve repeatedly come back to that case this series and to Osborne and have dropped in that he’s now top dog... he’s been my pick for a couple of series now.

Last week’s recap was either a big red herring or a clue - you hear Lakewell saying “there are some people you can’t challenge” and the next shot is Osborne.

Maybe too obvious though. A double bluff?

Yes - I agree (did several pages/threads back). They keep showing him in the flashbacks each week. And we keep going back to the very first story of season 1 - which was him wasn't it? Osborne is my favourite for who Jo is related to. Gail Vella was investigating him/the mistake in the first episode. And Osborne has the most to lose. If he is Jo's father she has an interest in not investigating the Gail Vella murder very well, doesn't she?

It's just occurred to me that the nominal might not be someone we, the viewers, have thus far encountered.

I’ll be very annoyed if they do that

Building up a huge cliffhanger then pulling a sleight of hand would be very crappy of JM.