Line of Duty Series 2 Episode 2 Review

Line of Duty Series 2 Episode 2 Review

*This review contains spoilers*

Following on from last week, DI Denton is charged with plotting the murder of her fellow officers, after she outs DCFleming as being a member of AC-12. Before her interview can be terminated, she lays serous accusations at the feet of DC Fleming, DS Arnott, and Supt Hastings. Just as she is being taken away to the cells, Witness Protection documents arrive revealing who the witness was, and the shock reverberates around the station. Meanwhile, Denton’s search for missing Carly Kirk hits a dead end, and DCC Dryden is in the frame for a driving offence that his wife claimed she committed.

Bloody hell, this just gets better and better, doesn’t it? Not content with last week with twisting and turning before throwing someone out of a window, this week the show leaves us screaming at the television ‘WHO IS IT??!?!?!?!?!’, as the witness is revealed to the police but not to us. I can’t imagine what it must have been like for people watching this once a week, and unable to skip straight to the next episode as I’m highly likely to be about to do.

Not content with giving us a phenomenally godsdamn frustrating cliffhanger, we also had one of the most gripping police interviews that I’ve ever seen, as Denton turns the tables on the three investigating officers. Just how well written, directed and acted must a show be to make what is essentially five people (counting Denton’s defender-person) in a room for twenty minutes absolutely unmissable?

The performances from all involved have been top notch, but of course it’s Keeley Hawes who is giving the best performance of all. She flips from looking innocent to guilty in the blink of an eye, and it’s truly impossible to say strongly one way or another. Though I’m still convinced she’ll be innocent (through no more than gut instinct), it’s a hell of a lot of fun speculating. She’s got a violently unpredictable streak that could either come from being a guilty crazy person, or simply someone under immense stress, suffering from PTSD and at the end of their tether. The unexpected thumping of Fleming in the stomach, and the few seconds where it looks like she’ll leave the deep fat fryer on in her noisy neighbours kitchen are the ac t of someone without a fully clean set of morals, but in her position would anyone else being acting completely rationally?

Elsewhere, the plot involving the search of missing Carly Kirk is surely going to tie into the main plot somewhere, particularly as the garage that has something do with the cars from the night of the murders and Carly’s supposed boyfriend (I’ll admit to not paying full attention to either of those bits, as I was still trying to wrap my head around so many other questions) keeps cropping up. DCC Dryden is also looking like he’s harbouring some guilty secret, which will surely affect the main plot.

It all add up to the excitement and drama that has been Line of Duty for these first couple of episodes. I’m damn glad that I’ve got the DVD so I can find out exactly what happens without too much delay!