Line of Duty Series 1 Episode 2 Review

Line of Duty Series 1 Episode 2 Review

This review contains spoilers

Well...that ended on a bit of a shocker.

It's not unusual for Line of Duty to end an episode leaving us open mouthed (Episode 1 of Series 2 is one of the most shocking endings to a TV show I've seen, in many ways beaten only by The Red Wedding), and out of nowhere we're left with a massive power shift. Where DCI Tony Gates has previously been in control, able to manipulate certain crimes to give his solved cases a boost, he's suddenly in the frame for murder. Jackie Laverty's throat being slit by intruders, presumably criminals involved in her money laundering scheme, comes out of the blue just as it looks like their relationship is going to continue for the worse, and with Gates' prints being put onto the knife the killers used, it's going to be difficult for him to wriggle out of this one.

Throughout the episode we saw Laverty acting more and more unhinged, until just before her murder I had decided that she clearly suffered from some form of mental disorder. Gates seemed to be starting to realise that too, as the truth of what his affair would do to his wife and kids began to hit home. DS Arnott had finally seemed to find some evidence to pin on Gates, too, as Laverty was set to be interviewed by Arnott and Supt Hastings the next morning, so somehow it seems that the criminals who would have been implicated have got to her first to silence her. Is that more corruption in the police, with information being leaked by someone else inside? Knowing his shady connections from Series 2, my money is on Dot, but without that knowledge it would be impossible to know at this stage.

Arnott also looks to be heading for trouble, as the firearms officers who were with him in the botched operation in the first episode appear to have changed their stories, implicating him as having made the wrong call. Elsewhere there's something going on with drug dealers, but I confess I can't really remember what all that bit is about...no doubt it will all come round to play a major part by the end, but at the moment all I can think about is how much I loathe the type of children who are shown in those scenes, and how I wish the police just arrested the whole damn lot of them and throw them in a young person's detention centre. Seriously, kids with that bad of an attitude rile me up more than anything else on television.

Until the ending, the main gist of the episode was of the invulnerability that Gates' seemed give off slowly slipping, as Arnott made small but significant steps towards unmasking his illegal activities. Gates is clearly a copper who wants to put away the bad guys, as are all his team (even if most of them appear to none to fussed about staying 100% squeaky clean), but he has a very dodgy moral compass, and I'm willing to bet it'll only get dodgier as he tries to escape the trouble he's getting into.

Line of Duty remains utterly compelling, with stellar performances throughout. I've not mentioned Vicky McClure yet this week as DC Fleming, but I'm sure the character is going to get found out sooner or later, and there's a superb intensity to McClure's eyes in every scene she's in that make we feel we don't see her often enough. Adrian Dunbar as Supt Hastings also appears to be vastly underused so far, especially compared to his screen time in Series 2. I'm tempted to watch the remaining three episodes all in one go now, as it's the type of show that you just don't want to stop watching once you start. Great stuff!