LINE OF DUTY: cop-on-cop action TV procedural that demands analysis

That's what I think, is that it's all just coincidence based on the fact he was a bad 'un as a kid and the writer is putting him in convenient places as GOTCHA misdirection.

It's not like he doesn't have form e.g. Denton in S2/3 and (more or less) Huntley in S4.

This trope (named actress leading lady wrongly under suspicion) is probably what's led to what seems to be the dominant twitter theory - that the woman in the picture with Davidson is Corbett's birth mother and she's deliberately infiltrating the OCG to bring it down and avenge his death. This can come with or without a slice of "she is Hastings' daughter" after the implied affair he had with Corbett's birth mother.

I thought the porn computer was Hastings trying to cover up something else (ie he's fucked financially in ways we don't quite understand yet and whatever was on the computer reflected very badly on him)? His conversations with his ex-wife definitely revealed some kind of dodgy property investment/perilous financial state IIRC.

Kelly's absent mother definitely central to whatever is going on here though.

matt dc, ladies and gentlemen!!

It is possible to think too much about this show, it’s truly not this smart. Badly burned by Bodyguard on this too.

Wb MDC!

The perceived narrative was that Hastings' finance was fucked through something to do with foreign property and his ex-wife was bringing it to a head as part of a final settlement so he had to deal with it.

He gets approached by someone who turns out to be bent (was he Federation?) who offers him a way out through an internal scheme which will give him money and other officers are in (one of which is the guy that gets shot at the heist of the police depot is supposed to be H). Hastings uses a laptop while staying at the travel lodge while estranged, he claims for dodgy porn but cut into OCG messages to Corbett's gang. Hastings ends up with money - it moves in and out of the bag in the travel lodge - and gives half of it away (to Corbett's widow? Is that the "life insurance money" that lets her hold on to the house?) and uses what's left to pay off his wife/sort his financial problems.

There are a few misdirections possibly in play:

Laptop was just used for porn
H is a rolling persona in the OCG
OCG plants in the police will pay for fall guys when the identity of the current H might get found
Hastings is Corbett's father hence his feeling of obligation to the family
Corbett's wife is OCG related and Hastings pays her to buy her silence

it is possible to think too much about this show but it is not advisable

also aldo's list of misdirections doesn't include the blobby fetish site option so 🚮

I did say "dodgy porn" and I don't see Hastings as Hentai/tentacle so PAWG/BBW/feeder or Gonzo were my first guesses.

all i care abt is bent coppers… and VORE

The biggest problem I have with the show is that - and no offence meant to Martin Compston who I'm sure is a nice guy irl (unless he's a complete dick obviously, which is probably just as likely) - Steve Arnott is some kind of hypothetical ideal for heterosexual man which makes every woman he meets want to jump into bed with him and absolutely irresistible.

I did not get that from the character at all. Are we watching the same show?

Steve is just one of those people who inexplicably has game/is one of life’s shaggers, we all know people like that.

Real-life Martin Compston has a fairly hot Scottish accent IMO

Personally I find him his performance as Arnott (twerpy, shaggable, capable of being moth smart and stupid) more believable than the farcical situations Mercurio puts him into

otm

xpost x2

"moth smart" is a good phrase and also otm of steve arnott

He's shagged someone in every series, even when it's crossing a line for both e.g. Denton, and in this series so far he's got the woman from the department he's trying to transfer into asking him out after just a sip of coffee and Corbett's widow giving him the "come back inside and Shah me in my dead husband's bed" eyes after a couple of cups of tea. Based on only 120 minutes of screened TV that seems to fit my model pretty well.

Ok but how many coppers do you know, he’s cop hot, not real person hot.

Real-life Martin Compston has a fairly hot Scottish accent IMO

I'll trust you to have more coppers as friends than me then (and the sexual orientation to judge other than objectively) so take your word for it.

Never regret engaging with you, Aldo!

as noted upthread he looks very very VERY UNCANNILY like someone i know in real life :0

now happily married, this person is (a) not a cop, (b) less irritable than SA, (c) moth smart yet also culturally well informed & amusing abt it and (d) ten yrs ago was VERY MUCH mr sex

It’s been interesting watching Line of Duty against Between The Lines, which is being repeated on BBC4 — all BBC shows about police internal affairs must include the word “line” — and features Neil Pearson as an equally unlikely mr sex

He's shagged someone in every series, even when it's crossing a line for both e.g. Denton, and in this series so far he's got the woman from the department he's trying to transfer into asking him out after just a sip of coffee and Corbett's widow giving him the "come back inside and Shah me in my dead husband's bed" eyes after a couple of cups of tea. Based on only 120 minutes of screened TV that seems to fit my model pretty well.

― Well *I* know who he is (aldo), Wednesday, March 31, 2021 7:17 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is his ex-gf. who if i remember correctly might be a bit dodgy?

inverclyde denizens might be plesantly surprised to find their accent described as "fairly hot"

favourite thing about steve arnott: the waistcoats

xp it’s true, have a major soft spot for ye north of the border

this is his ex-gf

Because superstar Steve is so hot even meeting him again makes her fall for him all over again.

im hardly a lothario and certainly no steve arnott (i couldn't pull off the waitscoats) but bumping into a newly single ex-girlfriend and them asking you out for a drink is something that has happened to me

gyac, is Jim an irresistible hottie?

ILX hot, not real person hot

i haven't posted to wdyll threads in about a decade so nobody on ilx knows

jaymc.xls

(one for the kids there)

I've worn a waistcoat to school today because parents evening and I'm a tart - I've had variations of 'Steve!/Steve Arnott!/it's Line of Duty!' shouted at me all day.

hahaha yes

“cheers, mate”

hopefully you didnt pop to your car to gub a packet of neurofen at any stage of the day

I wanted to do the whole evening in a grotty underpass but the Wi-Fi didn't stretch that far.

Wi-Fi not 'stretching' could easily be a LoD plot device.

I'm not sure exactly why everyone is assuming Ryan is bent just because he picked up Davidson, he might just have been given that as a job.

I imagine him literally cutting Corbett's throat last series helped people decide.

haha

aldo you need to be paying more attention my man

although i did have one question about that situation myself: why does Kate recognize him? did she observe him working for the OCG?

Back in season one she interviewed him after the thing where sexy Steve got kidnapped/tortured.

Some observant nerd on Twitter pointed out that in one scene of the last episode you could see Kate looking him up on her police database thing in the background so she’s defo sus

aaah

I imagine him literally cutting Corbett's throat last series helped people decide.

That'd do it. I'm obviously spending too much time thinking about Steve Arnott.

The Beatles when they worked at AC-12 & saw their suspect in the foyer before an interview pic.twitter.com/1ItFahsDTV

— Toby Earle (@TobyonTV) April 3, 2021

lol!

Total Bastard Bollocks.
Does this mean we get an interview next week? Or at least an OCG Chatroom scene?
Glad they got on with recognising Ryan and finding the DNA in the freezer rather than having that hanging over them for ages.

jed m nailed on trying to get twitter fans reported blocked and sued for theorising in public that it was sir cl1ff that had journalist gale assassinated

there was a lot of bad acting and a LOT of exposition last night, also why does steve keep his bad pills on such a high shelf when he is not a tall man