Every clue that Line of Duty’s ‘H’ MUST be a woman of AC-12 ahead of series 6 – and their motives explained
THE question on every Line of Duty fans lips is: who on earth is ‘H’?
And with the sixth season of much-loved BBC drama hitting our screens later this month, many have been speculating on who it could be…
One Reddit user, who goes by the name of GMsalad, shared an interesting theory on the discussion website that will definitely get your brains ticking.
Over the past nine years, the series – created by Jed Mercurio – has had some pretty feisty female characters star in it – including the likes of DI Lindsay Denton (Keeley Hawes), DCI Roz Huntley (Thandie Newton) and of course much-loved DI Kate Fleming (Vicky McClure).
And the superfan has come to the conclusion that ‘H’ is either a singular woman or a group of females working together to fight the institutional sexism in the workforce.
They have theorised that ‘H’ could actually stand for “her” and that it is “some kind of female version of the masons starting to take root”.
And they’re not the only one as another user named randomashe added: “A female mason group with its roots in early feminism that is covertly taking over the power structure and removing men from power would be pretty mind blowing.”
Has this got you thinking?
Let’s have a look at some of the points that argue their theory…
The importance of Freemasonry
The secret organisation plays a huge part in the series throughout and is regularly mentioned on the sly.
Back in series three it was outed that Ted Hastings (Adrian Dunbar) and Patrick Fairbank were part of the Freemasons after partaking in their secret handshake.
Kate later tries to go undercover to investigate an officer within AC-12 and asks AC-3 member SI Madeline Summers.
Summers believes that she’s seeked her out because she’s not a Mason, as going to her wouldn’t blow her cover.
This means that the female led AC-3 team already know about the importance/power of the Freemasons and how women are segregated from it.
And because the female officers can’t join the Freemasons, they’ve essentially made their own gang – called ‘H’.
Female power in the force
This leads onto the next point…
If you cast your mind back to the end of series two, DCC Andrea Wise took over from DCC Mike Dryden as Deputy Chief Constable when it was found out he had sexual activity with a minor.
And now that Wise is in a high position, she is essentially holding on to all the strings of the female officers, influencing them to try and get information about all the male officers to suss them out.
Could the fact that she replaced him so quickly mean that she was one of the people involved in trying to out what he had done with teen Carly Kirk?
And because there are so many high profile female officers in the series, it does give the impression that the females within the force are trying to take control and switch up the power hierarchy.
Does this mean that ‘H’ is a collective of females, rather than just one?
Tedd Hastings’s anti-corruption interview
If you cast your mind back to 2019, DC Arnott and DC Fleming grew increasingly suspicious of their boss and things were made ten times worse when was eventually charged with conspiracy to murdering John Corbett.
He was suspended and later investigated by the the all female AC-3 team DCS Patricia Carmichael, SI Madeline Summers, DI Michelle Brandyce.
And as previously mentioned in one of the above points, Summers is very aware of the power that Freemasons have in the force.
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Jayne Akers
Jayne Akers was killed in the first episode of series two after secretly joining forces with Lindsay Denton.
The DS was under the supervision of criminal Tommy Hunter, but when she found out he had been involved in the abuse to do with teen Carly Kirk, she decided to take matters into her own hands.
In a flashback scene it shows that Akers he goes out of her way to form an alliance with Denton because she doesn’t think it’s right that nothing can be done about his awful crimes because he’s a protected witness and cannot be prosecuted.
Denton was secretly in cahoots with DI Matthew Cottan (Craig Parkinson), and although she promised the takeover would be bloodless, it ended in both her and Hunter being killed.
The fact that Jayne thought that she had the power to go to Denton and try to make a change might be because she had higher authorities such as ‘H’ helping her.
Did Cottan want her dead because he had a suspicion that she could have been ‘H’?
Newbies DC Chloe Bishop and Detective Chief Inspector Joanne Davidson
The fact that there are TWO new females joining the force is quite telling and definitely supports the idea that ‘H’ could be female?
Actress Shalom Brune-Franklin – who has starred in the likes of Roadkill and Cursed – will be playing the part of one of AC-12’s newest recruits.
Back in February Hastings wrote a letter to fans informing them of the new staff in the unit.
He wrote: “I am writing to inform you that DC Chloe Bishop will be joining AC-12 to assist in their important work on a tricky upcoming case.
“This action will be effective immediately.”
Could Bishop have been hired by ‘H’ to suss out all the bent coppers?
It’s also a bit of a coincidence that Joanne Davidson (Kelly Macdonald) has also joined the team as Detective Chief Inspector too…
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Could ‘H’ be… Kate Fleming?!
Earlier this month fans were left convinced that the copper is ‘H’ after spotting a “very guilty” clue in new teaser clip for the series.
The footage saw Superintendent Ted Hastings say into a megaphone: “This is Superintendent Hastings, you’ll be treated fairly with the full protection of the law.”
The camera switched to a tense looking DS Steve Arnott, before fans got a close up of Kate Fleming.
And her face was etched with angst and emotion – leading them to believe she’s the culprit.
But is that too obvious?
To add to this point, Kate is one of the protagonists in the show and we’ve seen her successfully climb up the ladder at work.
She grew extremely suspicious of Hastings in season five and as we all know, she’s a brilliant undercover cop…
Could it all be to try and cover up the fact she’s been trying to rat out Hastings this whole time?
Could this mean that she is wanting to replace Hastings as Superintendent of AC-12?
How do you think Arnott would feel about that?
Catch the first episode of Line of Duty season six on Sunday 21 March at 9pm