Sherwood recap: episode five – we have our spycop! Cue howls from sofas nationwide

Warning: this recap is for those who have watched up to episode five of Sherwood on BBC One.

A heartbreaking death, a fiery flashback and a dizzying spycop twist. Here’s your blow-by-blow breakdown of the penultimate episode …

Not very merry men

We left fugitive train driver Andy Fisher (Adeel Akhtar) being knocked out by rogue archer Scott Rowley (Adam Hugill). When Andy regained consciousness at Scott’s woodland lair, the pair formed an uneasy alliance. Scott borrowed writing materials and pinned a note to a tree, taunting police: “Anyone up for a game of eye spy?”

Scott was resigned to being caught – he had been sent down for benefit fraud the day he absconded, anyway – but as search teams closed in, he strode off, determined to complete his spy-catching mission first. For want of a better plan, Andy shuffled after him. Police spotted two sets of tracks and were gaining ground.

As this odd couple fled, Scott told Andy that his son would never forgive him. In a poignant scene, Andy sat down, closed his eyes and told Scott about a’rāf, akin to purgatory in the Islamic afterlife, where he would be reunited with late wife Trudy. He asked Scott to kill him. Scott instead handed Andy the phone he had stolen from backpackers. “Not long now,” said Scott, leading Andy out of the forest to his fate.

Salisbury closed in on colleague’s wife

DI Kevin Salisbury (Robert Glenister) had an awkward catchup with Commissioner Charles Dawes (Pip Torrens), who wasn’t thrilled that “respected former officer” Bill Raggett (Christopher Fairbank) had shot himself after a grilling from Salisbury. Someone from Raggett’s old undercover unit, explained Salisbury, had gone up to the coalfields to spy on the unions and stayed. The officer codenamed “Keats” continued living under the false identity assigned by the Met and might now be married with children. What’s more, Salisbury had a hunch who it might be.

Cut to Helen (Clare Holman), wife of DCS Ian St Clair (David Morrissey), looking jumpy at news that the spycop might soon be unmasked. Ian seemed to suspect her, stressing how he needed to find Scott before he could hurt his target. Helen might be married but had no children … Significant? We’ll see.

‘Keats’ arrived in Ashfield

Flashback to Scotland Yard circa 1984 where a blond WPC (Lucy Carless), presumably young Helen, was among those recruited to the covert Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) to flush out troublemakers. We saw her scroll through a microfiche of deceased children’s names to pick her alias, before heading to Nottinghamshire. A caption confirmed she was “Keats” as she entered the Miners’ Welfare Club, looking much the same as today.

She became a barmaid, befriended sisters Julie and Cathy, and coolly eyed up police brothers Martin (Callum Hymers) and Ian (George Howard) from the picket line. The latter was called “Maggie’s boot boy” by comrades of firebrand Gary Jackson (Jonathan Readwin), before violence erupted. Powerful scenes that have acquired extra pertinence this past week.

Cut to the present day where Helen met Salisbury for a discreet meeting at an out-of-town hotel. She denied being the spycop, claiming her police files were restricted because she and her mother had entered the witness protection programme after escaping her violent father. Salisbury was sceptical; that’s exactly what a spy would say. But Helen was insistent and begged him not to tell Ian. Yet.

Love’s young nightmare

Returning to 1984, we saw young Kevin (played, fittingly, by Robert Glenister’s son Tom) in the throes of his love affair with Jenny (Leah Walker). We gradually began to understand what happened the night of that fire.

The “clubby” was throwing a harvest festival benefit for both sides of the striker/“scab” divide. An ideal opportunity for the illicit couple to slip away unseen. Kevin was on duty, guarding the Met’s supply stores at the coach depot, but planned to bunk off for an assignation at the allotments. Meanwhile, proud NUM striker Ron St Clair (Mark Addy, previously only glimpsed) ominously reminded his sons to look out for each other.

When Jenny confided in “Keats” about her secret tryst with Kevin, the duplicitous spycop fed the gossip to Gary, Ron, Warnock and co, hoping to stoke conflict. The striking miners were soon planning a raid. The ever-honourable Gary declined, preferring to harvest homegrown produce at his allotment. Meanwhile, young undercover Raggett (AKA “Robbie Platt”/“Blake”) posed for that crucial newspaper photo that led Salisbury to him decades later. Everything was slotting into place.

Everyone got their fingers burned

The miners entered the depot under cover of darkness but unbeknown to them, a second PC was on duty. When he caught them red-handed, they jumped him. In the ensuing scuffle, an electric fire set some furniture ablaze. The miners scarpered, leaving the beaten-up copper behind. Jenny’s father Jonathan (Kwame Bentil) bravely tried to haul him to safety but became trapped in the inferno himself.

Fearing their father was inside, Martin St Clair ran into the flames – incurring the severe burns that resulted in him leaving the force. Gary ran into the canoodling couple at the allotments but assured them he wouldn’t tell. This meant Kevin could at least testify that Gary had an alibi for arson, before the Met constable was sent home in disgrace for deserting his post. Jenny never forgave him for her dad’s death.

Realising the tragedy was her fault, “Keats” phoned her handler, who ordered her to identify potential perpetrators for the local plod. She reeled off a list of the most militant strikers who weren’t at the club and they were arrested. After Ian’s report exonerated Gary and eviscerated Kevin, Supt Chatterly (Joel Morris) put pressure on him to corroborate the other names on their anonymous source’s list, hinting it would help his career. Torn but ambitious, Ian did the deed. He was duly ostracised by his father for informing on him, and not sticking by his brother’s side. Shockwaves from that fateful night were felt throughout the community and continued rippling to this day.

Farewell then, Fisher king

When Andy’s son Neel (Bally Gill) picked up his confessional answerphone message, police could track his mobile signal. As dogs and helicopters mobilised, Andy deliberately led them away from Scott. Hearts sank as we saw that Andy was carrying a crossbow. Was he planning suicide by police?

When Andy led his pursuers into a clearing, Neel desperately appealed to his dad to drop the weapon. Doubt flickered across Andy’s face until he looked to the heavens and murmured: “Please wait for me, Trudy.” In an unbearably tense standoff, he slowly raised the crossbow and was immediately shot through the heart. He died in a kneeling position, ready for Trudy. Oh, Andy. Another bravura performance by Adeel Akhtar.

Unsentimental St Clair’s thoughts swiftly turned to the fugitive still at large. “Where the hell is he?” he whispered. Scott had hidden a motorbike in the forest and roared off towards his final target.

‘What’s your name, officer?’

Ian admitted to Salisbury that he had secretly checked out Helen, too. Well, he has been putting professional duty ahead of personal feelings all his career. He planned on taking his wife somewhere safe until Scott was in custody. Salisbury, convinced by her story, reassured his “friend” that the spycop wasn’t Helen. So who was it?

In another flashback, “Keats” met young Raggett in a car park. She had been welcomed by locals, felt guilty about deceiving them and wanted out. He talked her down by reminding her of her new identity … deep breath … “It’s Daphne.” Cue howls from sofas nationwide and cut to crime family matriarch Daphne Sparrow (Lorraine Ashbourne) in the present day as she stared at that “One of you has fucked us” text, sent by Raggett seconds before he died.

Hands up if you called it. Kudos to commenters who spotted subliminal clues hidden in James Graham’s script: how keat, kete or keet is Middle English for bird, how John Keats was inspired by Thomas Love Peacock’s Rhododaphne, that genderless “they” last week. An obscure one of my own was Warnock’s line last week: “You have a great pretender in your midst,” a sly nod to Mighty Sparrow’s calypso version of The Great Pretender? Even Daphne’s unchanged hairstyle was a clue.

One last flashback whisked us back to the “clubby” in 1984, where local rogue, the young Mickey Sparrow (Liam Jeavons) chatted up barmaid Daphne, promising her “a life of adventures”. He didn’t know the half of it. As they slow-danced on a discarded “Support the miners” banner, we returned to the present and an ominous noise. Daphne went to the farmhouse front door and reeled in horror as she saw a still-quivering arrow embedded in it. Her day of reckoning has arrived.

Line of the week

“Look at what we did to each other. What we’re still doing” – Salisbury on the legacy of 1984. Timely.

Notes and observations

• There were Line of Duty vibes when PC Kevin asked asked PC Ian: “Shouldn’t I be questioned by an officer of a higher rank?”

• We heard a pair of Irma Thomas songs during the flashback scenes: Baby Don’t Look Down and I Need Your Love So Bad. The closing tune from the Ian Campbell Folk Group was Down in the Coalmine.

• There’s been speculation in the comments about Cinderella and Noah’s parents, who still haven’t returned from their cruise. Significant? Or just stuck at the airport?

Nearly there, Sherwood-watchers. Rejoin us tomorrow for a forensic look at the finale. In the meantime, please leave your thoughts and theories below …