Hastings (played by Adrain Dunbar) has got a lot to answer to as Line of Duty season five concludes this Sunday, with the BBC drama wrapping up a number of plot lines in an explosive 90-minute special.
At the end of the last episode, Hastings was seen being placed in a cell as newcomer DCS Patricia Carmichael (Anna Maxwell Martin) was convinced the superintendent was leading the charge of the Organised Crime Group as super villain H.
Fans are divided over their thoughts the boss of AC-12 could be H but if he is exposed as the criminal mastermind in the nail-biting finale, could a shocking plot twist reveal the corrupt officer has been in cahoots with another main character?
It wouldn’t come as a surprise to some fans there are two H’s in the mix as several episodes ago, viewers believed a cryptic clue was suggesting their were a couple of corrupt officers leading the charge.
Maybe there’s a partner in crime
Professor Elizabeth Yardley
Long time fans of the show will also remember writer Jed Mercurio, 53, has played the card once before as after several seasons of AC-12 thinking they were trying to apprehend a single balaclava man, it was later revealed to be a group of criminal adversaries.
Speaking about the idea of two H’s wrecking havoc with the police force, Professor Elizabeth Yardley, Director of the Centre for Applied Criminology at Birmingham City University, told Express.co.uk how the plot could work.
“As a Scrabble nut, I know that H is worth four points. The internet tells me that it’s the 8th most common letter in the English language.
“The reason it’s so common is because it’s often paired with other letters like ‘wh’, ‘ch’, ‘gh, ‘sh’,” the professor explains.
“Maybe there’s something in this, maybe ‘H’ isn’t an all-powerful individual, maybe there’s a partner in crime?”
With this theory in mind, current characters who have been prevalent this season include the likes of Gill Biggeloe (Polly Walker) with the initial of her first name matching Professor Yardley’s suggestion of H matching with
