Why did Ted Hastings have £50, 000 in cash? Had he tipped off the OCG they had ‘a rat’? And had he been pretending to be ‘H’? The hero was in trouble in Line Of Duty, by Jim Shelley
Line Of Duty ended with the one thing fans who’ve followed the five series in their millions hoped they’d never see: Superintendent Ted Hastings in a cell, under arrest for corruption.
‘No, no, no! What is happening here?!’ the show’s hero spluttered, insisting: ‘I am not bent! I am being framed!’
Whatever was really happening, and however much we admired Ted, to be honest neither of these claims seemed true.
Shock: Line Of Duty ended with the one thing fans who’ve followed the five series in their millions hoped they’d never see: Superintendent Ted Hastings in a cell, under arrest for corruption
Viewers may have shared Ted’s outrage and horror at his situation but not his amazement.
We had seen this coming for weeks, much like his most devoted colleagues in AC-12.
Hastings’ decision-making and sheer shiftiness had been so evident, DI Kate Fleming had asked him ‘are you sure you’re alright?’ more than once while tonight DS Steve Arnott ended up lamenting: ‘God knows what the gaffer’s playing at!’
Quite.
It’s been coming: Viewers may have shared Ted’s outrage and horror at his situation but not his amazement
It didn’t take the new head of the investigation into Operation Pear Tree – Detective Chief Supt Patricia Carmichael from AC-3 – very long to have Hastings locked up facing charges of ‘misconduct in a public office’ and ‘conspiracy to murder.’
Less than half an episode…
She also suspected him of being the sinister senior police officer/organised crime boss known as ‘H’, and not just because his surname began with the right letter.
Hastings had no name to put forward, and seemingly no clue, as to who might be ‘setting him up.’
Shady: Hastings’ decision-making and sheer shiftiness had been so evident, DI Kate Fleming had asked him ‘are you sure you’re alright?’ more than once
That’s a wrap: It didn’t take the new head of the investigation into Operation Pear Tree – Detective Chief Supt Patricia Carmichael from AC-3 – very long to have Hastings locked up
In fact, if anything he had framed himself.
He had gone into the OCG’s nightclub telling them that he was ‘H’ for one thing.
And for weeks now he’d had a Jiffy bag containing £ 50, 000 in cash on his desk – never a great idea for the head of anti-corruption unit. Then the excuse that he gave DCS Carmichael (ex-DCI Mark Moffatthad given it to him ‘using false pretences’ and he was ‘in the process of returning it’) was laughably inadequate.
Visiting OCG member Lee Banks in jail without telling his colleagues in AC-12, and signing in under his own name, was another red flag. Especially when undercover cop John Corbett was killed by the OCG for being ‘a rat’ shortly afterwards, following a tip from that same prison.
And DCS Carmichael didn’t even know about Ted furtively/inexplicably disposing of his laptop (at a Computer Disposal Centre) as we did.
Ted seemed to have set himself up as being corrupt (or ‘H’) so convincingly he was now in real trouble.
Deputy Chief Constable, Andrea Wise, rescinded AC-12’s authority in the Operation Pear Tree investigation by telling him: ‘You’ve had your time!’
Line Of Duty fans knew that, in this series, those words sounded ominous.