Episode 5

AC-12's loyalties are divided when Steve Arnott comes under scrutiny from his own colleagues. With his career hanging in the balance, Arnott turns to an unlikely source for help, and the episode makes it clear how desperate he must be. The man who built his reputation on asking hard questions is now having them asked about him, and the reversal is the point of the hour. The accusations have been a long time coming, and the episode does not soften them.

The episode is about what happens to a team when one of its own is under threat. Fleming and Hastings are caught between loyalty and duty, and the pressure shows. But Arnott's search for a lifeline takes him to places he would never normally go, and the audience is left to judge the price. Around the edges, the machinery of suspicion grinds on, with every familiar face suddenly a potential witness. Hastings's position is the hardest of all, because he has to appear to be doing nothing while everyone watches. Nobody is neutral this week.

Jed Mercurio wrote it, John Strickland directed. Martin Compston carries the episode with the quiet desperation of a man watching his career drain away, and Vicky McClure's Fleming and Adrian Dunbar's Hastings do the difficult work around him. Craig Parkinson's Cottan, Polly Walker's Biggaloe, Maya Sondhi's Bindra, Marjorie Yates's Rider, Mandana Jones's Summers, Roy Heaybeard's priest and Shashi Rami's Chief Constable round out the cast. It is a cast that has earned its place, and the episode gives everyone something to do.

There is a particular strain of British television that loves watching professionals under threat, and this is a strong example of it. Institutional loyalty is tested, and most of the people tested come out looking complicated. The lifeline Arnott reaches for will have its own price. The price, when it comes, will be paid by someone else, which is how it usually works in this world. The episode just wants to see him reach.