Line of Duty season 5 episode 5 review: Ted Hastings’ interrogation
Remember that at the end of this past episode, John Clayton a.k.a. John Corbett was killed off, revealing that McQueen was the real mole and the traitor. The problem for AC-12 is that they were a little bit behind where we were as a viewer within this story … mostly in that we are already very much familiar of this fact and they’re not. They had to scramble, and there are many questions that came about as a result of it.
Take, for example, whether or not Ted Hastings is really involved. For the first time this season, the AC-12 was really forced to really turn on one of their own. They seemed to bring him in partially for strategic means, but he seemed to think that this was more of a move to get members of the OCG talking. (McQueen was brought in, but she didn’t exactly get tongues wagging — she also lied about Corbett’s whereabouts.)
Hastings met with some counsel, and was beyond upset at the thought of being investigated. He was even encouraged to consider filing for retirement, a way for him to be able to avoid as much disciplinary action. He didn’t want to do that, and in turn, he found himself suspended from duty. Note that we’ve long felt that Ted isn’t H, but there are certainly reasons for people to think that he is. Him storming out of AC-12 despite orders otherwise wasn’t a good luck, and neither was him trying to get into his room when some other authorities were not too interested in letting him.
Basically, Ted went from being reasonably cooperative to uncooperative and then under arrest.
The next moves…
While Steve was out uncovering the body of Corbett (or what seemed to be the body — we found out later it wasn’t), he then had to wonder whether Ted blowing Corbett’s cover was the reason for his death. Some of AC-12 found themselves shielded from questioning Ted due to a potential conflict of interest — fairly understandable really.
Ted’s interrogation didn’t go too well, given that he was stubborn and frustrated with the questions being thrown in his direction. It also didn’t help that he was the head of an anti-corruption unit and he had $50,000 sitting around in a brown envelope. He understood why there was suspicion thrown upon him, but he still had to find a way to worm out of this situation. What the investigators found tonight was that Ted had a real knack for getting in debt and finding ways to bail himself out.
In trying to explain his debt problems, Ted proclaimed that he had made some bad investment. As for the accusations of misconduct, there were questions as to how Ted got Lee Banks to speak with him and no one else. He claimed that he was able to do that because of a scheme regarding sentencing. Yet, he still visited and spoke with him without a witness or recording. What did he learn? That Corbett and Lisa McQueen were running the show when it comes to the OCG. He claimed that he did not out Corbett in the interview, and it was at that point the body-bag. Even if the body wasn’t Corbett’s as we suspected, there was enough of a trail for Ted to be arrested on conspiracy. There was a motive for him to want Corbett dead in their eyes and that was enough.
CarterMatt Verdict
Sure, watching a lengthy interrogation scene with so much paperwork is not always exciting, but we still cannot deny that Line of Duty makes it exciting to watch. Ted proclaims that he is being framed for what is going on, but with the suspicion in overdrive that Ted is H, anything could happen from here on out.
As someone still believing Ted is innocent, we’re feeling pretty darn bad about where he lies now.
For some of the first discussion in terms of the Line of Duty finale…
Be sure to visit the link here! That includes some of the first news on the run time. (Spoiler alert: This final episode is going to be a beast.)
What did you think about Line of Duty season 5 episode 5? Be sure to share in the comments. (Photo: BBC.)