Is he a time travelling coma patient? In my view, definitely. His remarks to Drake and attempts to win her over immediately from Ep1 onwards mark him as an outsider and a reformer from the get go, one much more savvy and way more subtle than DCI Summers from Series 2.
Summers proved that people like he and Drake can change the past - hell, he shot and killed himself in the past and still existed! Was his goal to start again as a wealthy, middle-aged copper on the Costa del Crime with his ill-gotten gains and advanced knowledge of the next 20 years? It seems so.
But Alex remembers the changes Summers made as part of history. It seems that a time traveller can change other people's past in Gene's world, but not their own and Keats seems to be on a campaign to do just that.
His actions prevent Shaz's death at the hands of a ruthless spree killer that Hunt sent her in alone to face - she not only lives but decides to stay on the force and try out for CID "before Christmas" 1983. History changes around her in a flurry of Bowie-ness.
His empathy with Ray and Alex's encouragement to talk about his outstanding issues with his father, his patriotism and "heroes" in the army being sacrificed for political expedience in conflicts like the Fawklands causes Ray to believe in himself a little bit more and those above him in authority a little bit less. His chuavanistic edge is gone, rooted deeply in personal insecurity and he can only become a better copper because of it. Ray walked into a fire and Clint Eastwood-ed a broken, traumatised squaddie, his life ruined by Thatchers war and lived to tell the tale. In the previous history, did he just call him a poof or a traitor and burn with him in the fire? His tossing aside of the Union Jack zippo was a wonderful, character-defining moment.
Ray becomes sure of himself and his own abilities and lives to tell the tale. History changes and Bowie plays again. Shaz lives and flourishes, now Ray. They are outgrowing Gene Hunt and his Old West ways. Next week's previews make it clear that Chris is next. Keats' Twitter feed (yeah, I know) seems to support this.
Keats, with Alex as an unwitting ally are slowly turning Gene's team into their own people and saving them in the process. Were they all dead in 2008? Are they alive now because of Keats' influence? Keats wants them onside and alive for his final assault on Gene and he might not even need to lift a finger himself to make sure that it happens.
Machiavellian stuff.
