Aaron Bishop

"Drive the car properly"

- Bishop to Pike

Aaron Bishop, commonly known as Bishop is an NCA detective and the best friend, and colleague, of Ronald Pike Jr.

History
Bishop was in the foster system until the age of fourteen, wherein he would get in trouble just to speak to someone. After that, he did what he had to just to survive.

Bishop later joined the force at a similar time to Ronald Pike, and the two have been friends ever since; numerous years later, they were both assigned to Sarah Tanner's team.

Relationship problems
Bishop seems happy in his relationship with his girlfriend, Sophie Latimer, and the two plan on attending dinner at Pike's later that night. Bishop becomes confused and curious when Sophie continues to receive — and silence — notifications on her cellphone. At the dinner, Bishop checks Sophie's phone when she is not around and is surprised to find texts from a contact named “Jonesy”. Bishop surmises that she is involved in a relationship with his colleague, Tim Jones, behind his back, but Pike tells him that he is making things up.

After a surveillance mission, Bishop returns home to cook Sophie dinner. However, Sophie reminds Bishop that she is going out with 'the girls' including someone called Jonesy, and when he questions her on it, she reveals she has a friend called Fiona Jones. Bishop realises that his girlfriend is not having an affair. After a mission gone wrong, however, in which Jonesy is shot, Bishop arrives at the hospital to apologise and finds Sophie at his bed side, confirming his suspicions of a relationship between the two.

The two split up shortly after, and Bishop begins staying at a hotel. Pike notices this, and asks about his housing situation. Despite Bishop affirming that he is fine, Pike tells him that they are brothers and allows him to stay with him, Arjana and the kids. The next morning, Bishop goes home to collect his belongings, and while there, has an awkward encounter with Sophie, who asks to talk. Bishop says he is busy, however. Dropping him back off at the NCA office, Nell reveals that she knows about Bishop's situation as she has spoken to Sophie.

Sharp operation
Bishop and Pike are handed an operation from Tanner in which they are to track down Michael Sharp, a criminal who is known to be running a diamond trafficking operation. They trace him to a bank they suspect he is about to steal from, but he manages to slip through their grasp and gets away unscathed. They find numerous mobile phones that they can use to track him, however.

Having tracked down Sharp, Bishop and Pike arrive at an abandoned plot of land. they look around and find an abandoned outhouse. Inside, they find Sharp, who holds Bishop at gunpoint. Sharp reveals to Bishop and Pike that he was trying to stop the robbery as he has something valuable in the safety deposit box. With this, the trio are shot at and Sharp warns Bishop that they have come for him. Bishop and Pike attempt to get Sharp to safety, however, their car is knocked off the road by a large transit van. Sharp is killed moments later.

Bishop (along with Pike) is later taken off the Sharp case, but Tanner does not reveal any information, other than the fact that they allowed their main suspect, Sharp, to be killed. Nevertheless, Bishop agrees when Pike suggests they should question Barton — one of the connected suspects — in prison, but that they should get Tanner's approval first.

Connections are drawn between Sharp, Ray and another criminal when Bishop and Pike search a scrapyard for an arms dealer, only to find a man with a dead woman in his boot approaching. They manage to track down the mans identity, Bakur, a criminal known to the NCA, and are able to arrest him after an incident where Pike's daughter is kidnapped.

Relationship with Nell
Bishop enjoyed a steady, yet complex relationship with fellow colleague, Nell McBride. The two began hanging out after Bishop split from Sophie, and the relationship between the two began getting serious. Nell is, however, killed on the front line by Ray during the hostage situation in Charlotte Carmel's office. Later, ipset about her death, Bishop listens to a voicemail from Nell, admitting that she wanted to meet the following night. This saddens him. By the docks, Bishop and Pike eat pizza and enjoy a beer together. Pike admits that he misses Nell too, however, she would have wanted him to be happy and move on. Pike promises to never let Bishop down again.

Drawn into the Markides empire
Fearing that they will never pin down the Markidies family and their extensive drug laundering operation, Bishop opts to go undercover and act as an insider. He forms a close relationship with Mikey Markides and his crew, and eventually offers to “steal” back the £1,000,000 seized by the NCA the previous week.

He has difficulty convincing Tanner that it is a good idea and a way to get the Markidies family on his side, but he is eventually successful and Tanner allows him to formulate a plan to take back the money. When he and Pike are successful, Mikey tries to offer him a cut of the profit, but Bishop opts to start selling drugs for Mikey in a bid to see the product.

Dangerous waters
When connections are made between the Markides businesses, Bishop goes undercover and scopes out Anna's real estate business, pretending that he is looking to purchase a new apartment. Anna shows him a penthouse suite and the two have sex despite the fact that she is a suspect. When he tells Pike, Pike warns him that he is in dangerous waters and cannot be sleeping with the suspects; Bishop reluctantly agrees.

Later, Bishop is introduced to Alex Markides and is welcomed into the clan via prayer; Alex invites Bishop to Brandon's wake later that night and he accepts. At the wake, Bishop and Pike call the number found on a phone at the crime scene and it is revealed to be Mikey's — the two conclude that Mikey killed his own crew member.

Bishop is pulled further into the dangerous waters when he agrees to to undercover with Pike to Amsterdam to fully understand the Markides' family business. Whilst in Amsterdam, he is privy to their sex trafficking business, ran by Eleanor, Mikey's mother. He alerts the NCA of the activities, including the change of venue for the hand-off of the victims. Later, as he watches the women being handed to the Liu family, Bishop tells Pike that they should act, but is told not to break cover and remain in character, much to his dismay.

Afterwards, he and Pike decide to take the law into their own hands and help Alex escape the Dutch Police in an effort to save their case from failing. They are pulled into a police chase with the Dutch Police which ends in a standoff between the police and the NCA.

Identity revelation
Bishop travels to Cyprus with Alex Markides to take care of business with the new Police Chief. Bishop grows increasingly close with Alex and Alex asks if Bishop would consider remaining in Cyprus with him indefinitely if he were to make a deal with the Chief and lead a quiet life. Bishop is surprised by the question and doesn’t answer; Bishop’s silence in itself is an answer for Alex.

Unbeknownst to Alex, Bishop and Pike make a deal with the new Chief to gather information about the Markides from the Markides’ accountant, Tanis Sioftanos. When they arrive, however, Sioftanos kills himself in an attempt to protect the Markides’ secrets.

Little are Pike and Bishop aware, Eleanor has realised that the two are Police Officers, and relays this information to Alex. Alex acts on the information and holds the two at gunpoint, with Mikey ordering that they should be shot. The two are able to escape, however, and vow to take vengeance on the Markides when their colleague, Jonesy, is shot dead by Mikey.

Whilst the rest of the team are recovering and grieving the death of Jonesy, Bishop vows to take down the Markides empire starting with Eleanor. Bishop follows Eleanor and eventually finds Eleanor making deliveries of cash and supplies to Alex and Mikey. This gives Tanner enough concrete evidence to unofficially go after the Markides using her connections within the NCA. She does this despite being off duty, and is eventually caught by Cockridge, who tells Bishop that he must end the operation. Bishop is unwilling to do so but is forced by Cockridge. Cockridge believes he is sufficient to lead the operation but fails and one of the officers is shot dead.

From there, Richard gives Tanner and her team the authorization to go after the Markides. Bishop leads the team and, despite trying to bring Mikey in quietly, he is shot dead by Pike. Bishop vows that they bring Alex in next, and is successful in manipulating Eleanor to reveal his exit plan to Cyprus. Bishop is successful in bringing Alex in with Pike’s help.

Personality
Bishop is a caring, responsible person who values his friendships highly — especially those with his close team members. He has a very close friendship with Pike, which causes him to sometimes perform erratically, especially in matters concerning Pike's family, such as the kidnapping of his daughter, which have caused him to sometimes act angrily on instinct. Furthermore, he has also been shown to care about his cases, especially Ryan, to which he took personal time to warn not to fall into a life of drugs.