Undercover

[Serial_Apologist]

then perhaps I won't listen.

Ah well, back to Line of Duty

I thought Peter Moffat's defense of the series pretty weak, mainly resting on his insistence on the Adrian Lester character's genuine love for his spouse and family, whereas the complainant (Mark Kennedy's partner, if I'm correct) was saying the entire story was implausible. But to be fair to Moffat he didn't spill the beans on the rest of the plot, merely said that she should be convinced by the end of the series.

[jean]

...But to be fair to Moffat he didn't spill the beans on the rest of the plot, merely said that she should be convinced by the end of the series.

I don't agree - I think he did spill at least some beans, which is why I'm saying nothing more until the series is finished!

[Serial_Apologist]

I don't agree - I think he did spill at least some beans, which is why I'm saying nothing more until the series is finished!

[Richard Tarleton]

until the series is finished!

The final episode is in 2 weeks' time

I can't stand it when they do that. Scrolling ahead on the on-screen planner, I see it's some luvvie-fest next Sunday. Grrrrrrr.

[jean]

Well, we finally got the last episode.

Did anyone make any sense of it?

[DracoM]

Cracking stuff. And The Scotsman. Hope there is a sequel in which he gets his come uppance.

[jean]

Explain it then, could you? I got completely lost.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Explain it then, could you? I got completely lost.

Me, too.

[jean]

So DracoM did understand but he's not saying...anyone else? Please?

[DracoM]

Serial revelations about Antwi were getting ever closer to outing The Scotsman as the supreme operating power behind undercover operations of any sort - possibly on both sides of the Atlantic.

He himself is untouchable because he knows too much about those in power, so he has 'unrestricted freedom'. Untouchable. Love got in the way [it's BBC1, people] Both a black DPP, and Nick the black and honourable and thus vulnerable black undercover officer who - totally against Scotsman spec [or was it?] - falls in love with the black wannabe DPP woman upon whom he has been set to parasite.

Dan's love for his Dad leads him to interpose himself in the putative execution. Nick made sure the reporter witnessed the possible execution as the only way to out The Scotsman. Nick's ultimate sacrifice to save his much loved family, who had made him realise who he truly was, was to have himself shot BUT have it witnessed by both press and police - hence the final set-up. Clever, fatal, admirable and appalling, Gothic, melodramatic - choose your adjective.

Lola is an insider / undercover spying on the already undercover. Getting to autistic Dan to spy on BOTH / all sides of family. Truly nasty and distasteful to exploit an already vulnerable autistic kid - how low can you go? Well, as low as The Scotsman in protecting undercover operations, but primarily himself. attack the best method of etc etc.

One criticism: in the prod team's rush to condense into the right number of epis, a bit too much was clearly communicated off-screen. i.e. I presume Nick DID reveal who his proper name was.

[jean]

Thanks.

I did get Lola and I sort of understood the final set-up. But I did not follow the 'serial revelations' about Antwi, nor did I understand his connection with Rudy Jones. Nor why the Jones case was so significant to the British establishment - except as a way of selling the serial to the Americans.

(And if selling to the Americans was what it was all about, wasn't it a bit insulting to have a British lawyer putting arguments against the death penalty so much more convincingly than American campaigners who've been advancing those arguments for years?)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I did not follow the 'serial revelations' about Antwi, nor did I understand his connection with Rudy Jones. Nor why the Jones case was so significant to the British establishment

Yes - I got all the stuff that DracoM mentions, but didn't get the "He deserved to die" "Rudy?" "No, Michael" at the very end. Because he was a drug-dealer? because he was a traitor to the cause? If the former, something of an anticlimax - we already knew this (there was no revelation as was posited by the "There's something else you should know" scene before "Nick" destroyed the recording he'd made (why?). If the latter, when, how, where? And what (if anything) had it to do with the "deserved" death in the prison cell - when he was still alive after the Racist had been restrained? Was he, too, a double agent working for the Police/Government - and killed by the Scotsman's boys like Abigail was? If so, why set "Nick" onto the group back in the 80s?

The conclusion had all the atmosphere of a gobsmacking denouement - with the denouement itself missed out. I was left with the feeling that I'd nodded off when the big scene was shown. Did I?

[jean]

... Because he was a drug-dealer? because he was a traitor to the cause?

Because it was he who shot the person Rudy was convicted of shooting?

If so, why wasn't Maya at least aware that he might have done?

[DracoM]

Because one suspects the FBI / CIA wanted Antwi out of the way.
i.e. maybe yes, indeed, HE too was in undercover work, had got disillusioned and was likely to spout, partic after the lethal injection failed. Was the drug muling part of how to keep his cred with the targets the FBI / CIA were interested in?

And Nick knew same.

Hence The Scotsman desperately needs to discredit Maya - which of course fails spectacularly, or does it? - then kill off Nick if his blackmail does not keep him in line, Both would keep The Scotsman's own credit and networks in USA operational, protected in UK. He cannot ever be allowed to be cornered, questioned by ANY authority because he knows far, far, far too much on both sides of Atlantic.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Because it was he who shot the person Rudy was convicted of shooting?

Could be; but wasn't Michael was killed back in the '80s - I thought the murder for which Rudy was condemned was more recent? (And why have Michael killed in this way instead of deporting him to the States - unless he was working for the Secret Services. In which case - why have him killed at all?)