We’re finally here. After six exhausting weeks of ‘Line of Duty’, tonight at 9pm is when - we hope - we sit down, turn on BBC One and discover the identity of Balaclava Man, how he is connected to Roz Huntley, what happened that fateful night she went calling on her colleague Tim Ifield, and how is this is all connected to the wider net of corruption helmed by ‘H’, whoever he may be.
Writer Jed Mercurio has a history of not making it easy for his viewers, and actors Adrian Dunbar, Martin Compston and Patrick Baladi have all given different answers when pressed on the outcome of the complex plot.
So, until tonight at 9pm, we’re on our own, with - for the final time - these burning questions...
1. The limb! From the moment Roz Huntley collapsed and her medical care was taken out of her control, the writing was on the wall for her wound, but will there be a final twist to this personal disaster? Was Nick Huntley genuinely forced to save his wife’s life, or did he have very evil intention?
2. Of course, gruesomeness aside, this disastrous turn of events does mean Roz’s wound, and its connection to her apparent victim, are no longer in evidence. Will AC-12 ever discover it was there in the first place?
3. Meanwhile, would a patient of such serious surgery really be wandering around at home, arguing with her husband, causing mayhem, only hours afterwards? And why isn’t anybody mentioning it?
4. If they’re so suspicious of her, why hasn’t AC-12 inspected Roz Huntley’s car, specifically the boot?
5. Jimmy Lakewell looks up to his neck in all of this - the connection with Michael Farmer, the only other person who knew Steve Arnott was going to Nick Huntley’s office but, if so, why would Roz Huntley be covering for him?
6. Neil was clearly motivated to rat on his boss about her suppression of the newspaper evidence, but how could Roz Huntley ever have hoped to keep this concealed from even her closest colleagues? There’s a team briefing every time someone buys new tea bags from the looks of things.
7. How long before Jamie is in the clear for the AC-12 leak, and the finger pointed, finally, at Maneet? Hastings seemed to have a moment of doubt after she left his office - will the mist in his brain clear?
8. He’s clearly working towards it, but why does ACC Hilton want the end of AC-12? Is he simply trying to suppress the fact that he is indeed the ‘H’ referred to by Dot Cottan in his dying testament, or is that all too obvious?
9. Did you catch all that stuff about the body parts being kept in cold storage which formed part of Series 1, and has come back to haunt AC-12? By the way, how confusing is this for the many viewers of this show who didn’t tune in four series ago? Jed Mercurio has always insisted he won’t slow down for viewers too busy on Twitter to keep up with his plot twists. I think he just made his point.
10. Most importantly, will Steve Arnott be back on his feet at the end of this series, or by the start of the next one? The scene between him and Kate Fleming was all the better for what wasn’t said out loud between them.
11. Will sidekick Jodie ever wake up to her boss’s bad deeds? Together, these two are becoming more and more like Heavenly Creatures, but Jodie strikes me as too grovelling even for a young copper on the make. Will her betrayal of Roz prove the final twist?
12. Finally, with her doggedness, her loneliness, her stoicism under pressure and now weathering a personal disaster to boot, do you almost want Roz Huntley to get away with all of this? Just wondering.
‘Line of Duty’ Series 4 concludes tonight (Sunday 30 April) at 9pm on BBC One.