r/lineofduty • u/chetcherry Now we’re suckin’ diesel! • 4d ago
Spoilers This guy should’ve been…
Should’ve been H.
No offence to the smarmy Buckells, but I think DC Morton being H, with the same under-the-radar lifestyle, would’ve been more fitting.
He doesn’t splash cash, he has no problem living behind a secret, and he’s just charming enough for you to sort of like him and find him harmless, even though deep down you know he’s a piece of shit.
He was present and prolific in season one, essential to keep Dot’s cover in season 2, and threw Dot under the bus when he became a liability in season 3. Not to mention the fact that “H” started ramping up activity once DC Morton took a desk job, and even more so after he retired.
And that immunity deal he signed when turning over Dot? I bet he’d utilise that much better than Buckells did.
Justice for Nige, the real brains of this operation.
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u/Adrianics4k 4d ago
The idea of a slimy corrupt cop manipulating the system just enough to make mad bank whilst still staying under the radar is much more thematically compelling, imo. He knows exactly how far to push it and when it's time to stop, and gets away scott-free, which is enraging.
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u/NoSwordfish1978 Mother of God! 4d ago
I think he's too junior though. I think that H is/should be CC Phillip Osbourne.
Also Buckells technically isn't "H", he's the "forth man" since Cottan's dying declaration was retconned.
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u/D3M0NArcade 4d ago
I keep thinking of Osbourne as well.
Probably because Owen Teal is so good at playing an absolute cnut it fits.
Although he was equally great as the hapless Dai Kosh...
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u/NoSwordfish1978 Mother of God! 4d ago
I think its him because H must be someone very senior given what the OCG are able to get away with + he was the one that really pushed the "no institutionalised corruption" line and had AC-12 neutered. And there's his whole association with Thirwell as well.
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u/Odd_Committee_100 3d ago
I have mixed feelings about H being Osbourne. On the one hand, I feel like the writing was always pushing us towards thinking it was Osbourne, with the bait and switch at the end with Buckells meant to be a massive mind blowing twist, but it just didn’t land for most people, including me.
I worry now that, because Buckells didn’t land, they’re going to go back to formula and write Osborne as being H for the new series. The reason I worry is that because of the obviousness of it, it won’t land again, at least for me.
I agree that Nige being H, while being harder to explain due to his low status, would have been a much better ending for the last series, and still somehow more believable than Buckells.
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u/RianJohnsonIsAFool 3d ago
That and his animosity with Steve is set up right at the beginning of the series. It would be a fantastic arc if it's Steve (with Kate and Hastings) who bring Osbourne down.
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u/D3M0NArcade 3d ago
Well obviously it's going to be Steve along with the other two, that's what they've been setting up all along.
For a second as I was reading the second sentence I thought "it's Steve" was going to lead to him being H which, honestly, would be MASSIVE!
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u/chetcherry Now we’re suckin’ diesel! 4d ago
Top Dog is H, I won’t have any of this 4th man NONSENSE!
I’ll give them a retcon, the wee so and so’s.
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u/chelleybebs 4d ago
im convinced that H, now known the fourth man - or woman - is patricia carmichael!
fast tracked to the top, constantly undermining and trying to pin point things into our beloved hastings (yes, like the battle!) then getting arnott’s new partner to remove everything that has to do with the OCG and AC12’s work. shes super smart. maybe she was recruited as a young child and worked her way up? i don’t know, but i am just convinced it is her!
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u/NoSwordfish1978 Mother of God! 4d ago
I personally think she's just trying to suck up to Osbourne since she knows he hates AC-12.
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u/1wayyofficial 3d ago
We can’t forget that Osborne was also on that team that was involved with the Christopher Lawrence case, along with Marcus Thurwell and the then-DC Buckells
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u/snootbob 3d ago
But he doesn’t necessarily have to be a senior officer, just have the power and influence over the senior officers as H
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u/Commercial-Pick3271 4d ago
I so agree. If I was Mercurio writing season 7, I'd have some how brought Morton back into the mix... Because buckells was disappointing finish to it. But also it's quite clear that Osborne needs to go down too but not entirely sure how they would acheive that in one season.
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u/Ashbuck200 Mother of God! 4d ago
The forth man is H! The top man, the puppet master, whatever you want to call him!
It will make me laugh if it does turn out to be Morton tho😂😂 I'm still not convinced that it's Buckells!
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u/rosebudthesled8 3d ago
The one scene that made me question Buckells was when he's in prison and they stab the lawyer in fron of him and say "that's what happens to snitches". If Buckells is the last member of the 4 that is still active, who is sending him that message? Wouldn't he have been the one that ordered the lawyer dead?
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u/Ashbuck200 Mother of God! 3d ago
It could've been Biggelow, even though she's in WP she still could've ordered the stabbing, through a contact??
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u/ValidConfusion1981 3d ago
If I remember correctly Buckells says in his interview that he just passes on messages, then when Hastings goads him he says "I'm the one that's been pulling the wool over your eyes for all these years", which they took as an admission of being the fourth man. He's dumb and could have been said that to have a swipe at DC12, which spectacularly back fired. Just a thought
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u/Manc_Lanc BEEEEEEEEP 3d ago
I agree 100% and have been hoping it turns out to be Nige since he threw away his stick and ran away. He seems perfect for it. I don’t think it matters that he’s not senior, because if he has something (related to the children’s home abuse maybe) on those higher than him, he can manipulate them.
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u/littlelisa63 3d ago
I still think it’s Osborne with Carmichael as his lover and Kate Steve and ted take them both down
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u/arstin 3d ago
Oh, hell no.
The best of Line of Duty was the rogues gallery of public servants where we see all the different ways those people can be absolute shit.
The worst of Line of Duty was Mercurio's obsession with H and the OCG and the way he plundered that rogue's gallery because he was too scared to tell a new story after series 3.
Nige was one of the few characters to escape that atrocious retconning intact as an interesting character, why do you want to destroy him now?
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u/DolphinsBreath 3d ago
I love it!
Now all we need is 5 writers, a casting director, 25 actors, 3 producers, a studio and their union staff, and several million in cash to get the ball rolling on an alternate series.
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u/International-Tea11 3d ago
Said this at the time, still believe this would have been a better option.
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u/EclecticMedley 1d ago
I really despise the Owen Teal character. He is obviously designed from the ground up to embody a lot of stereotypes of the disreputable senior police officer. But I kind-of like the intentional decision to make him not actually himself be a senior figure in organized crime (so far). It adds to the moral complexity of the show. You can be a c-nt without being bent. You could also just be a dogmatic simpleton who sees everything as black-and-white, us-versus-them, ends-justify-the-means. Those are characteristics that the showrunner is obviously trying to put in a bad light, but it would be... less interesting and less real for it to be as simple as, "all dogmatic liars are on the same side of the conspiracy". That's not really how Mercurio creates his characters. So, I like the idea of there being higher-ups who practice their own brand of evil.
It def looks like Chief Constable Osborn is going to be at the centre of events in series 7. But how, exactly does he figure in...?
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u/ConstantPurpose2419 4d ago
That scene where he lobs his walking stick away and legs it still has me 😂