Line of Duty season 5 recap: What happened at the end of the last series of Line of Duty?

19 March 2021, 15:10

What happened at the end of Line of Duty Series 5? And what happened to John Corbett? Here's what we know...

**Warning Line of Duty season 5 spoilers below**

As we prepare to get stuck into another series of Line of Duty, many viewers have been asking what happened at the end of season 5.

Well, the finale episode finished with an action-packed instalment which finally unmasked a corrupt senior member of police staff, Gill Biggeloe (Polly Walker).

But while we were on the edge of our seats during the tense ending, not all our questions were answered.

Here’s everything that happened at the end of the fifth series of Line of Duty…

What happened at the end of the last series of Line of Duty?

Who is H in Line of Duty?

Viewers will remember that at the end of series 5, it was revealed that H was not one person after all, but four corrupt officers within the police force.

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Kate Fleming (Vicky McClure) and Steve Arnott (Martin Compston) discovered this when they re-watched the footage of Matthew 'Dot' Cottan’s (Craig Parkinson) dying declaration.

Dot seemed to be sending a message using his hands where he could be seen gesturing ‘dot-dot-dot-dot’.

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Pointing to Cottan’s fingers in the video, Steve said: “The letter H in Morse code is four dots.

“‘H’ is not an initial, it’s a clue. Four dots. Four caddies. Four police staff in league with organised crime.”

While Matthew, Derek Hilton (Paul Higgins) and Gill Biggeloe (Polly Walker) were unveiled to be three of the four corrupt policemen, there is still a fourth to be found.

It was also good news for Ted Hastings (Adrian Dunbar) as he was found to not be H after Gill’s meddling was revealed.

After the charges were dropped during a lengthy interview, Hastings was put back in charge of AC-12 but he is clearly not squeaky clean.

Hastings visited Lee Banks in prison, turned off his phones during the Eastfield raid and destroyed his computer, so there are still some unanswered questions.

What happened to John Corbett?

John Corbett (Stephen Graham) was recruited by Gill to be the undercover officer in Operation Peartree, who previously told him Hastings was H.

In another twist, Corbett was convinced that Hastings had something to do with his mother Anne-Marie McGillis’ death 30 years ago in Northern Ireland.

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He was killed during the fourth episode during a set up by Lisa McQueen.

Corbett had been working with the OCG to bring vulnerable women from Eastern Europe into the world of sex trafficking.

As his moral compass kicked in and he and McQueen decided to form an alliance to help the women escape.

But as Corbett entered the next room, Ryan Pilkington (Gregory Piper) snuck behind his back and slit his throat, with McQueen labelling him a snake.

What does Lee Banks know?

Imprisoned OCG member Lee Banks seemingly knew there was a member of the criminal gang leaking information to the police.

It was also claimed that Banks’ tipped-off to Lisa McQueen (Rochenda Sandall) about John Corbett.

It is still a mystery who tipped off Lee in prison, with suspicions that Hastings himself had something to do with it.

There is also a possibility that no one passed on information to the OCG and McQueen figured out Corbett’s identity independently.

Who is Ryan Pilkington?

Former OCG member Ryan Pilkington (Gregory Piper) joined the police force and was seen training with other officers.

Pilkington was previously seen all the way back in season one, working for criminal Tommy Hunter (Brian McCardie).

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