Line of Duty fans confused by H reveal after pointing out plot detail that ‘doesn’t make sense’

Viewers have remembered something strange from episode four

Line of Duty fans have taken to Twitter to express their confusion over the identity of “H”.

Jed Mercurio’s crime drama drew to a close on Sunday night (2 May) in a finale that saw the show’s long-running “H” storyline – in which four corrupt coppers were revealed to be part of an undercover syndicate – get wrapped up, with the enigmatic “fourth man” unveiled in episode seven.

*Spoilers follow – you have been warned*

It turned out that the blundering Detective Superintendent Ian Buckells (Nigel Boyle) was the missing member, a revelation that left viewers feeling supremely underwhelmed.

Some fans believe they spotted something strange in episode four that could change everything.

On Twitter, viewers highlighted a scene from episode four that saw Jimmy Lakewell (Patrick Baladi) strangled by Organised Crime Group member Lee Banks (Alastair Natkiel). The scene saw Lakewell enter a cell with Buckells, who looked visibly shaken.

“We’ve got to share – overcrowding,” Buckells said, before spilling the milk he was pouring into his cup of tea due to nerves.

After beginning to strangle Lakewell, Banks then turned to Buckells and said: “Now you watch what happens to a rat.”

Fans think Buckells’s reaction suggests he couldn’t have been the one who ordered the killing – possibly suggesting that he wasn’t “H” at all.

One fan wrote: “If buckles is / was H why was he shaking and nervous when Jimmy Lakewell was murdered in his cell. appreciate there is someone above him ‘still” but hardly the reaction of a OSG criminal.”

“Hang on a minute …. If Buckles is H, who was sending him a warning when they strangled Lakewell in front of him? I’m not having this,” another said.

The finale does still make sense, however – the fourth episode was just a way of throwing viewers off the scent. Buckells could still be “H”, this scene just ties in to the idea that he was never a criminal mastermind, as AC-12 believed “the fourth man” to be, but instead an individual who did small favours for several organised crime groups.

As Ted Hastings (Adrian Dunbar) fumed at Buckells: “Your corruption was mistaken for incompetence.”.

The actor who played Buckells, Nigel Boyle, appeared on BBC Breakfast to defend the finale, saying: “There’s always going to be some element of disappointment. You can’t have every series with a big shoot out and ‘urgent exit required’. Sometimes a subtler message is more important.”