Season2#1 The Ambush: Summary and Review

While escorting a protected witness, the police convoy is attacked. In this attack, except Detective Inspector Lindsay Denton, all the police officers get killed and the protected witness is hospitalized. DI Lindsay Denton is the one who organized this operation and did not inform anyone of the route, except DCC Dryden.

AC-12 turn their spotlight on Lindsay Denton as Superintendent Ted Hastings asks DS Steve Arnott and DC Kate Fleming to interview Denton about the incident.

But Kate Fleming pulls out claiming Jayne Akers, one of the dead officers, was her friend as they had trained together. So her place is taken up by DC Georgia Trotman who is a less-experienced but ambitious officer. Trotman is troubled that the team is savage with their interrogation because they are treating Denton as a suspect. On the other hand, Arnott and Trotman rapidly develop closeness.

However, Denton is transferred to a missing persons unit as she is shunned by her fellow officers. Kate Fleming works undercover and becomes her assistant. Denton is followed by Fleming as she visits her mother in the nursing home. Fleming finds out that Denton has rung the hospital from payphone, where the injured witness is being treated.

DS Steve Arnott and DC Georgia Tortman rush to the hospital and find out that someone, disguised as a nurse, is trying to kill the injured witness.

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The British Police corruption drama returns with a bang. The series is an excellent example of a well-scripted and intriguing drama with a fine cast to bring out the best of the script. In the first episode, there are many shocks and twists which make it a thrilling ride. There are more characters, more corpses and more cases in this season. According to me, as they did in season one, the episode’s writing, performances and direction lead you hither and thither.

In this action-packed episode, we also came to know about people's backgrounds and motivations. For example, it was revealed that Ted Hastings is separated from his wife for unknown reasons, Kate Fleming has been having affair and Georgia Tortman has a drinking habit.

THEME OF THE EPISODE

It was a strong start and a packed hour, overflowing with new curiosities but also taking the time to establish character and build affinity with its leads. The first episode “The Ambush”, of second season of Jed Mercurio's police corruption drama started off with a brutal ambush killing police officers, and ended with a shocking defenestration.

The main story line of this episode, “The Ambush”, follows the investigation of the aftermath of that ambush by the AC-12 trio, DS Steve Arnott, DC Kate Fleming and Superintendent Ted Hastings. Solving this case doesn’t look like that it will be easy as one of the survivors of the incident was a protect witness while the other was DI Lindsay Denton. Here the main subject of AC-12’s investigation is DI Lindsay Denton because she may not be as innocent as she appears to be.

HIGHLIGHTS

I find DI Lindsay Denton very fascinating. She is very easy to relate to and therefore, she inspired a fair amount of sympathy, even when reaching the end of the line with her next-door neighbor. I am not sure if she is she guilty of setting Jane Akers up, or is she just very stressed and very unlucky woman? I'm undecided – that hospital call from the nursing home could have been for any number of reasons – although I am interested that she has been wearing the neck brace but I think she did not necessarily need it.

We also saw an interesting character introduced in the first episode- DC Georgia Tortman. Her introduction as a heavy drinking officer shook up things initially. But we did not get to see her for long. Alas poor Georgia, we barely knew her, and I was quite enjoying her hard-drinking, pool-playing, posh-girl ways.

The highlight of the episode has to be the cross-dressing villain who dropped Georgia Trotman out of the window which eventually led to her death.

So we can say that the episode was sandwiched by two brutal acts and what horrid thrills there were. At the start of the episode there was the bloody, flaming execution of police officers and at towards the end, Georgia Trotman was brutally murdered as the fake nurse throws her out of the window.

There is a lot to admire about this gripping, smartly constructed drama. “Line of Duty” always reminds us that things are not always what they seem. This episode tells us not to be sure of anything yet and do not get attached to what you thought you knew!

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