Line of Duty Thread 8: All aboard the wee donkey for the final episode - no spoilers, the wee donkey bites!

[Furries]

Hope you all don’t mind, getting near the end of thread 7, so thought I’d trot this one out!

@MotherOfGodWeeFella

The thing with LoD is that the audience sees and knows things AC-12 doesn't. For example: we know Terry was cuckooed in S1 and JL's body was in the freezer in his flat back then. That he's known Ryan for years. That he took loads of photos of the comings and goings from the print shop. AC-12 don't know any of this, but they do know a freezer removed from the flat they arrested Terry in this series had JL's DNA in it.

The other thing is that the writing is really clever - there's lots of detail and info and you don't know what's relevant and what isn't, what minor detail could be a crucial piece of information. So many other police dramas are very simplistic.

I was going to say this, but had to go food shopping. So you saved me a job!

Yeah I agree with some of you…I just can’t buy into Jo. She has been lacklustre for me. This whole season hasn’t been great, I’m glad they toned down the theatrics from the previous season but the storyline has been pretty basic. Who knows though - maybe the finale will change my view.

I guess the point is Jo has effectively been almost since birth a slave to the OCG, completely coerced by fear and violence into doing as instructed, she is not getting any personal gain from it, she has been stuck in a trap for a long long time, and in her eyes that makes her not bent, just without freedom of choice. She said sorry to Steve because she can’t help anymore as she is too scared. I do think people are trying too hard to find a big reveal/twist here but we have had that in terms of her twisted parentage. I think her mum will turn out to have been murdered and when she finds out that may tip her into talking more about what she knows.

I also feel like they are trying to cram a bit too much in and therefore leaving things being unsaid (such as the scene after Ryan’s shooting) which is causing a lot of confusion and it’s not as tightly done as previous seasons. I hope it ends soon and on a high.

Just saw on insta a post that AMM deserves a bafta - well only if you get them for overacting.

I love LOD, but I've found this series a bit boring.

I appreciate that it was probably made in lockdown, so more restricted than the previous series. However, there's just too many characters being talked about, but not seen, and I'm struggling to keep up.

Im gutted Ryan's dead. He could have been a great long term character.

I quite like the meanie prison officers though.

I just don't see it that way. It's the most watched TV drama in years and, I think, easily the best. It's brilliantly written - the audience knows more than AC-12 yet we can't work out who H is because you can't tell what's important and what isn't. Figuring out the characters' motivations and questioning their behaviour, etc is really interesting to me.

Ryan's character had nowhere else to go, his story arc was at its end - keeping him in would have made him a pantomime villain. He's been in it since S1.

As for mentioning characters who aren't seen, they have been seen over the course of all the series and there have been bits of their stories which have been relevant to this series's investigation of Jo. I think it helps to have watched them all to get the most out of it. There are probably lots of things which would seem more significant if you re-watch knowing how it ends.

Jo didn’t work in this season- something about the actress is off, her hair was too perfect in the first scene she was in and it put me off straight away. She’s no Lindsay Denton that’s for sure.

I’ve binged the whole lot since last week so you remember the whole story arc in quite some detail, there are relevant bits and pieces that I think would be easy to miss if you watch weekly and with the season gaps.

Also why wasn’t there a cliff hanger for end of ep 6?! That was a missed opportunity for sure.

I'm with you all the way, @MotherOfGodWeeFella.

Some of the most disappointed people seem to also be people who've thrown the most outlandish theories about. Maybe there's a correlation.

I absolutely love it.

Obviously I won't say what was in the trailer for Sunday's finale but it did make me say 'Mary, Jesus & Joseph ooh ya bleeder' followed by a sharp intake of breath.
Then I nearly tripped over the cat as I was so blown away.
Cat is ok btw

@MotherOfGodWeeFella
I totally agree with you.

I was watching The Syndicate earlier & LOD was referenced in that when one of the characters got mistakenly arrested by the Monegasque police.

Also agree @MotherOfGodWeeFella. Halfway through the interview I had to remind myself to breathe. I don’t like action stuff much. I’d much rather see tense dialogue.

I don't think Thurwell is dead - I definitely caught a glimpse of JN eyebrows masked up as a Spanish policeman.

Having seen some of the stills, I really don't think those are JN's eyebrows. If Thurwell is alive, why on earth would he risk showing himself to the UK cops like that?

Poor Noble Ted despairing in the the lift reminded me of Aslan, bound and tormented on the Stone Table. Evil Jadis thought she had destroyed him but HE ROSE AGAIN and vanquished her.

And so will Ted rise again to triumph, in this series or the next.

I’ve pretty much stopped trying to be clever with my assumptions. I’m probably (not definately) going to pause now and just enjoy Sunday’s episode when it arrives.

I do like to think that JM takes time out of his schedule to read these types of things. There have been a few good suggestions that haven’t materialised, wonder if he ever thinks ‘bugger, why didn’t we do that.”
😂

Cheers, boss!

I think the final episode won't have any twists to be honest. I think it'll be fairly straightforward; Osborne will be H which will tie neatly back to S1E1 where Steve was forced out of his glamorous role to join AC12 because of Osborne's cover-up of the shooting. After being set up as "H", breaking his back, his pain now and painkiller addiction, he'll be vindicated at last. Was it worth it though...?

The only "twist" will be that Steve won't dob in Ted for telling Lee Banks about the rat and giving the proceeds of crime money to Chicken Licken, so they will both end up being less than truthful, verging on corrupt (but we like them so that's alright... does that make us corrupt too...?).

The tension will come with knowing the clock is ticking on Steve's suspension (I think perhaps Ted's retirement doesn't fit into the timescales of this episode but may be covered in the flash forwards that the series always end with).

That really only leaves Thurwell's involvement. I think over the whole story arc, it doesn't matter if Jo lives or dies.

I think the recent watchers will be disappointed by the lack of action but it'll reward those who've watched over the last 9(?) years.

I've probably forgotten something crucial and there will be fireworks.

Also conscious I've ignored Kate mate, but from this hypothesis, the story is all about Steve vs Osborne.

I think it’s been great, although I have an aversion to Carmichael. KM was fantastic last week.

I liked that there was less action this series. The violence was getting a bit too much.

@DeusEx

I was really confused by why Kate and Jo ran, why and how Steve had left his keys for Kate, and why Kate was so disturbed by Steve being ‘in on it’ to the point of getting teary? And why she almost refused to surrender her weapon? It all felt over dramatic and didn’t really seem to make sense...?

Kate was driving Steve's car and the police found her very quickly, and Steve was with them. She lept to the conclusion that Steve had told Carmichael that Kate would be driving his car. Which was very upsetting to her because Steve is the one person she completely trusts.

I think there are too many wild theories floating around. If they did a flashback to Ryan's shooting to retcon in some sort of OCG involvement and then an out of the blue reveal that someone in the forensics department could falsify evidence about GSR and ballistics, the show would truly have jumped the shark.

Usually when I read a theory I have to think "how would they be able to reveal that in the show without masses of flashbacks or exposition?". If they can't, then it won't be happening.

The most plausible theory is that Osborne is H and Carmichael is working for him.

@MotherOfGodWeeFella

I just don't see it that way. It's the most watched TV drama in years and, I think, easily the best. It's brilliantly written - the audience knows more than AC-12 yet we can't work out who H is because you can't tell what's important and what isn't. Figuring out the characters' motivations and questioning their behaviour, etc is really interesting to me.

Ryan's character had nowhere else to go, his story arc was at its end - keeping him in would have made him a pantomime villain. He's been in it since S1.

As for mentioning characters who aren't seen, they have been seen over the course of all the series and there have been bits of their stories which have been relevant to this series's investigation of Jo. I think it helps to have watched them all to get the most out of it. There are probably lots of things which would seem more significant if you re-watch knowing how it ends.

Totally agree @MotherOfGodWeeFella

I am tempted to rewatch again knowing what we know now abour characters

I wrote before that did jed know in s1 so 2012 that in s6 wouid be looking for 4th h

They way he had all the surnames with h at first

Then swapped to being 4 dot dot dot dot not h

How long did he plan lod

I’m going to rewatch but fast forward the violent bits, started ep 1, series 1. Jackie is so whiny... plus some quite yuk stuff ... the writing has evolved a lot. In a good way.

I don’t think a longterm plan was in place from S1 - I think it was written as a one-off series but then extended as it was such a hit. There weren’t loads of characters whose surnames became with H - only Hastings and Hilton. I’m pretty certain the (totally ridiculous) four dots business wasn’t planned much before it was shown either.