With the UK still stuck in lockdown, it’s no surprise that everyone’s watching Line of Duty. There’s literally no escaping the unstoppable BBC series, with Sunday night social media dominated by the show.
The latest Line of Duty episode ended with a shock revelation, one that will have the world asking the same question. But before we dive into that, here’s your obligatory **spoiler warning** for everything we have seen in Line of Duty so far.
Still here? Well, you know that DCI Joanne Davidson is related to someone we are already familiar with. But who? The episode ended with DI Steve Arnott handing a file to Superintendent Ted Hastings that identifies Davidson’s relatives.
Arnott says the person is “identified over the page” – cue nine million Brits pausing BBC iPlayer and scouring the quickly shown file for any clues. Here’s a closer look, for all you armchair detectives out there.
to save you rewinding here’s the paper #LineOfDuty pic.twitter.com/4guOMWk5RjApril 11, 2021
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The revelation is so big that Hastings exclaims “Mother of God” before the episode ends. Looks like we’ll be waiting until next week for the person to be identified, but that doesn’t mean we can’t guess who’s named in the file.
So, who is Joanne Davidson related to? First off, we know the person is male, as Arnott says: “He‘s named over the page.” As pointed out by The Independent (opens in new tab), fans were quick to guess that the person could therefore be John Corbett, the undercover cop seen last season played by Stephen Graham.
Corbett was killed by Ryan Pilkington, a member of the Organised Crime Group (OCG) who’s now controlling Joanne using blackmail. Could Corbett and Jo be siblings? This idea had already been theorized after an image of Jo pelted a glass of wine at a photo of herself with an older woman, presumably her mother, who also looks suspiciously like Corbett’s mother, Anne-Marie.
We’re all in agreement that she’s related to Corbett right? #LineOfDuty pic.twitter.com/chRgOjmNAIApril 11, 2021
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Anne-Marie was killed by the IRA in 1989, and she was a good friend of Hastings. That, in itself, seemingly rubbished this theory – surely, she would have told Hastings about her daughter? After all, she did tell “the gaffer” about John.
However, there’s another theory that has everyone talking: could Jo be the daughter of Tommy Hunter, the now-deceased Glaswegian pedophile who was the leader of OCG in previous seasons?
Hunter’s one of the show’s vilest creations and would link Joanne and the OCG. Also, the most immediate link between Hunter and Joanne is that they’re both Scottish, so there’s certainly that going for this theory. The fact that Joanne has been so keen to keep her relatives a secret – a few eyebrows were raised when she exclaimed “I don’t have a family” back in episode 1 – also hints that the person has a major link to the OCG, and they don’t come much bigger than Hunter.
it has to be tommy hunter! we’ve been seeing a lot of golf related clues this season…#LineofDuty pic.twitter.com/N354DFE3AmApril 11, 2021
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Another Scotsman linked to Joanne is Mike Dryden, a crooked copper currently serving time for perverting the course of justice. However, there’s not a whole lot more to that link.
Whatever the case, the new Line of Duty episode has raised a lot of questions, and we cannot wait for next week to find out a few answers. In the meantime, be sure to check out the best Netflix shows streaming right now to fill your spare time.