There were plenty of subtle details in this episode.
It seems as though Line of Duty creator Jed Mercurio was particular keen to celebrate Easter this year, going by the number of Easter eggs placed in episode 3 of Line of Duty’s sixth season which aired on Sunday night.
It was a hugely significant episode, with numerous developments in the storyline, with the crescendo coming as Ryan Pilkington made an attempt on Terry Boyle’s life by diverting a patrol car into a lake. Both Gregory Piper and Tommy Jessop gave incredible performances in the scene and throughout the episode, and were rightly praised by viewers afterwards.
But the discourse following the episode has mostly centred around the Easter eggs placed within it. Here are a selection of some of the best ones.
Trainspotting number plate
Many viewers pointed out that the registration plate on the patrol car, ‘B366 BAI’, could be a nod to Trainspotting, the first film that Kelly Macdonald featured in back in 1996.
One of the main characters in the Danny Boyle classic is called Begbie, and many fans think this was an intentional nod to the film.
The guard who broke Farida’s wrist
I’m not entirely sure this counts as an Easter egg. It’s more of an intentional plot device, a small piece of the mounting evidence that will soon become very useful in Steve and Kate’s mission to take down every corrupt officer in the force. But still, it’s a cool detail so forgive me for adding it to this list.
Some viewers highlighted that the prison guard who broke Farida’s wrist, meaning she ended up in hospital rather than the interview room, is the same guard who burned Lindsay Denton’s hands back in series 2.
The ‘H’ on Steph’s tiles
It would be a bit far fetched to claim that this meant anything significant, but it is there. When Steve visited Steph (he just can’t resist, can he?), a few eagle-eyed viewers spotted an ‘H’ pattern on Steph’s kitchen tiles.
Does this mean her widow, John Corbett, is H? No. It’s probably there to play tricks on the audience, and it’s helping.
Buckells and the Caddy
After a bag of golf clubs was spotted in Ian Buckells’ office in the first episode, adding to theories that he is “the caddy”, or even ‘H’, there were some more not so subtle golf-themed clues in episode three.
There was golf-themed pictures on the wall of his office, and Buckells is later spotted spinning one of his clubs in his hands while on the phone.
This all seems too obvious, though, and given he has already been brought in to AC-12 with four episodes left for everything to play out, there are surely more twists and turns to come.
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