esus, Mary and Joseph: just when we thought we’d reached peak stress with last week’s ambush and DNA cliffhanger, the fifth instalment of Line of Duty’s nerve-eviscerating sixth series came along and left us with our jaws on the floor.

From a paternity reveal to the return of a brilliant guest star, the latest episode brought us one step closer to figuring out why murdered journalist Gail Vella was targeted by organised crime – and left the fate of one of our favourite characters hanging in the balance.

The plot reveals came thick and fast – spoilers abound as we recap what happened below…

Before we get to the plot – and lord, what a lot of plot there was – let’s just take a moment to appreciate some of this season’s standout performances. Shalom Brune-Franklin has slotted seamlessly into the cast as AC-12’s principled rookie officer Chloe; her response to the Christopher case – and her frustration with Steve’s bungled attempt at allyship –  in this week’s episode was a moving interlude amid an onslaught of big splashy reveals. If she somehow turns out to be bent, I’ll be shakier than Buckells pouring milk into his tea. After episode four’s Bond-style heroics, there were some quieter moments for Steve, too. What with the painkiller addiction and the, erm, performance issues, in this series so far we’ve seen major cracks in his bravado that even a shiny new set of waistcoats can’t gloss over: kudos to Martin Compston, because the moment when he finally realised Ted might have had a hand in Corbett’s killing felt like a gut punch.

She may have only clawed a few minutes of screen time, but Anna Maxwell Martin stole every scene she was in, delivering a masterclass in superciliousness as the love-to-hate-her Carmichael. Give her a Bafta for the moment when she countered Ted’s assertion that AC-12 are “the best in the business” with a devastating “Really?” You’ll find me investing in monochromatic roll neck jumpers, tying my hair into a low power-bun and treating everyone around me with barely contained disdain in tribute to the queen of AC-3.

The revelations came thick and fast in this episode. Over the course of a very tense 59 minutes, we learned that Tommy Hunter is (probably) Jo’s dad, that Vella was investigating institutional racism in the force – and that the officer who covered up the Laurence case, who is currently living it up doing watersports in sunny Spain, was linked to the abuse ring at Sands View. That connection back to the Danny Waldron case, along with Davidson’s family ties to Hunter, feels like another indication that this series could be our last – everything is finally coming full circle, not least because it seems like Stevie boy’s old boss slash nemesis Osborne (the commanding officer who tried to force him into covering up the shooting of Karim Ali all the way back in S1, when he was a baby-faced, clean-shaved AFO) could be a potential ‘H’ figure.

Our nerves were already frazzled from last week’s botched convoy, meaning that the final stand-off between Kate, Jo and Ryan was borderline unwatchable, though it’s always a joy to see Vicky McClure flip into steely-eyed action hero mode. Will Kate make it out alive? I’m going to go with yes, purely because I refuse to countenance the thought of the show losing its most competent operative.

Pat’s back – but is she bent?

There’s a fine line between being bent and just being a dreadful line manager (see also: Buckells) in this show, but which side does Pat fall under? The fact that her immediate action was to suspend all of AC-12’s important surveillance operations rang major alarm bells – not least because it just happened to coincide with Jo’s car park rendez-vous with Kate. With Sindwhani apparently ruled out of the ‘H’ guessing game for now, Carmichael could certainly be a contender, especially given that Osborne appears to have singled her out for the top anti-corruption job. But then again, is Pat the kind of gal who would repeatedly spell ‘definitely’ incorrectly? Absolutely not.

When will Steve confront Ted?

Spare a thought for Steve, who’s stuck by the gaffer all this time, only to learn that not only did Ted pay off Steph Corbett with £50k of dubiously sourced banknotes, he did so because he’d traded information with the OCG, which led to her husband’s gruesome death. It’s worth noting, though, that Lee Banks isn’t exactly the most reputable of sources, so we can’t take his word as gospel. Either way, Steve looks pretty gutted that his mentor has not been following the letter of the law. A confrontation between the two of them is surely imminent – though it seems likely that Steve might ask Ted to look the other way when it comes to his painkiller addiction if he does the same with his boss’s dodgy behaviour. Ted, we’re not mad, just disappointed.

Will Thurwell be dragged back from the Costa del Sol for questioning?

Thurlwell is the missing link between the Christopher case and the abuse ring, which means he’s due for a grilling in the AC-12 glass box. Unless Jed Mercurio is just wildly trolling us with a bright orange headshot of James Nesbitt, Thurlwell is definitely going to play a significant role in the two concluding instalments of series six. Clearly Nesbitt feels as passionately about bent coppers as our Ted does: he recently played a spectacularly amoral detective in Bloodlands, exec produced by… Jed Mercurio.

Who will make it out of the stand-off alive?

The cliffhangers have been coming thick and fast this series – now we’ll have to wait another painful seven days to learn whether Kate, Jo or Ryan – or any combination of the above – make it through. Naturally, we’re crossing all our fingers and toes for Kate, but then again, Mercurio has repeatedly stated for the tape that no one, even our golden trio, is safe this series…

Who is on the other end of OCG MSN?

This is the million dollar question, isn’t it? The notoriously bad speller chatting to Davidson must be high enough in the police force to be continually appraised of AC-12’s – and Kate’s – involvement in the Vella case. Sindwhani’s out – so could it be Carmichael? Or perhaps DCC Andrea Wise? Chief Constable Osborne is looking like another obvious contender.

The Ted Hastings catchphrase-ometer

With forced retirement looming, Ted is amping up the catchphrases in a big way, warning Sindwhani that “if I see a bent copper, I only know one way – and that’s full throttle” (note to the BBC – Bent Coppers: Full Throttle would make a great spin-off film for Hastings). No one knows their way around a garbled metaphor like the gaffer, either. “We don’t want to be left holding a sprat when we should have landed a mackerel,” he sagely informed his team when discussing whether to reel in Ryan. Never change, fella.

Line of Duty series six airs on Sunday nights on BBC One at 9pm. Series one to five are available to stream on BBC iPlayer