Breaking Down the Tense and Thrilling Ending of Netflix's Dept. Q

Time​ Magazine

4 days ago

Warning: This post contains spoilers for Dept. Q.
Dept. Q, from The Queen's Gambit creator Scott Frank, is a thrilling, highly bingeable series about the creation of a new police unit, a cold-case division formed in hopes of generating good press for a beleaguered Edinburgh police department. Leading the new unit is Detective Chief Inspector Carl Morck (Matthew Goode), a troubled officer recently recovered from a near-fatal shooting incident that left his friend and partner, DCI Hardy (Jamie Sives), paralyzed from the waist down, and another young officer dead. Rather than a promotion, Morck's banishment to Dept. Q in the dingy, former shower quarters of the building is a way to get a misanthropic nuisance (with likely PTSD) out of the hair of Detective Chief Superintendent Moira Jacobson (Kate Dickie).
The first season largely follows Department Q on its first case, searching for Merritt Lingard (Chloe Pirrie), a ruthless and highly successful prosecutor who has been missing for four years, last seen on a ferry headed to the remote Mhor in the Scottish Highlands. She vanished without a trace and the investigation was abandoned, but Morck, alongside his assistant Akram (Alexej Manvelov) and Detective Constable Rose (Leah Byrne), is determined to find her, hanging onto a shred of hope that she may be alive somewhere. There's a major break in the case in Episode 8, leading Morck and co. on a chase to save Merritt before it's too late in the tense and thrilling Dept. Q finale. Let's break it down.
Who is Lyle Jennings?
The penultimate episode of Dept. Q finally reveals the two people responsible for Merritt's kidnapping: Ailsa Jennings and her son, Lyle. Merritt has been held captive for four years inside a hyperbaric chamber in Mhor, not far from where she grew up. That's because the duo believes Merritt is responsible for the death of Ailsa's other son Harry, a former boyfriend of Merritt's, and they want her to face the consequences of her actions. (In reality, Merritt being in any way responsible for Harry's death is extremely tenuous at best). The finale opens with an interview of Lyle as a teenager at Godhaven, a correctional facility. In the interview, Lyle reveals that he was regularly abused by his mother, who would put Lyle and his brother Harry in the same hyperbaric chamber regularly as punishment.
Chillingly, Lyle doesn't seem fazed by this—it was so normalized in his upbringing that he thinks being put in a potentially deadly pressurized chamber is something that happens to everyone. He also reveals delusions about his brother Harry, believing him to still be alive. Speaking of Harry, it had long been thought that he was responsible for the violent attack on Merritt's brother William, who was left for dead with permanent brain damage that has severely impacted his life with Merritt eventually becoming his guardian. But this episode reveals that while teenage Harry did break into Merritt's childhood home, hoping to steal some valuable jewelry so he and Merritt could run away together, it was Lyle (who followed Harry into Merritt and William's home) who assaulted William.
Another lingering mystery in Dept. Q is the identity of Sam Haig, a journalist with whom Merritt was romantically involved. The police investigation was at a standstill regarding Sam, as the evidence didn't add up regarding his whereabouts. The finale reveals there were two men named Sam Haig. One was the real Sam, a reporter who covered organized crime and a passionate climber, while the other was Lyle, who stole Sam's identity, eventually killing him and throwing him over the crag, so it would look like he died in a climbing accident. The two had gone to Godhaven together as teens, where Sam attacked Lyle, leaving his eye permanently damaged, resulting in two different colored eyes. Sam wanted to make amends to Lyle, who wasn't interested, and exacted revenge by killing him instead. Merritt was sleeping with Lyle, who was posing as Sam. She told Lyle (thinking he was Sam) what ferry she was leaving on, which enabled Lyle to enact the kidnapping.
The final episodes also tie up the mystery around Merritt's boss Stephen Burns (Mark Bonnar), whom Morck had believed to be corrupt and potentially involved in Merritt's disappearance following a case involving a husband acquitted for killing his wife. It turned out Burns was corrupt, in a sense, though his hand was forced after the defendant's goons threatened the life of his daughter. Morck uses his leverage over Burns to negotiate (slash blackmail) for more resources for Dept. Q.
Does Merritt survive?
Merritt was kidnapped and held within a hyperbaric chamber in remote Scotland for four years, and was long presumed dead before DCI Morck reopened the case. The discovery of Lyle Jennings blows the case open, and sends Morck and his assistant Akram back to Mhor to speak to Ailsa on the whereabouts of her son. While Morck and Akram head to Mhor, Rose and Hardy—who's been pitching in on the case as he tries to regain mobility in his lower body—remain in Edinburgh to continue investigating Lyle. Rose makes a startling discovery: when Lyle was 15, he coerced a friend of his into the hyperbaric chamber, which they owned through his father's company, and kept him there for three days. That allows Rose to tip off Morck in the nick of time—he was trying to get into Ailsa's home, and she was waiting with a shotgun in hand, ready to shoot whoever came in.
Morck and Akram begin their search for the chamber, stumbling upon an old warehouse belonging to the Jennings family company, called Shorebird Ocean Systems (or SOS). The company logo is the cormorant—the bird from the hat and William's drawings that served as an early mystery; it was believed that someone wearing a hat with the same logo was responsible for kidnapping Merritt. Interestingly, the building was sectioned off four years ago, at around the same time Merritt went missing. They enter the warehouse, discovering local Detective Cunningham, the first person to discover Merritt, murdered and stashed away in the trunk of his police car. He was bludgeoned to death by Lyle earlier in the episode after finding Merritt.
The pair then finds Merritt inside the hyperbaric chamber, but getting her out is no small feat. A sudden release would trigger a massive discrepancy in air pressure, which would kill her. As they try to find a way to turn down the pressure, they're interrupted by Lyle, wielding a shotgun. Heroically, Morck stands in front of Akram, taking a shot in the arm (which he'll survive). The scene echoes the show's opening, when a bullet passes through Morck on its way toward Hardy. Morck's instinct to sacrifice himself for Akram has great meaning after a season of directing sarcastic and dismissive remarks toward him. Lyle approaches to finish them both, but Merritt screams from below, distracting Lyle just long enough for Akram to spring to action. Akram throws a knife into Lyle's neck, and in one swift motion, he takes the shotgun from Lyle and shoots him, killing Lyle. They're then able to lower the pressure, call for back-up, and get Merritt out alive.
Meanwhile, Ailsa nearly escapes. But as she drives onto the ferry out of Mhor, she's blockaded by police. Instead of being taken in, she grabs her pistol, shooting herself in the head before the cops can intervene.
Who shot DCI Morck?
The other major plotline in Dept Q. follows the investigation of a shooting that took the life of DC Anderson, left DCI Morck badly wounded, and DCI Hardy paralyzed from the waist down, which serves as the series opener. While the investigation is ongoing, and several discoveries are made throughout the season, the police are not much closer to discovering the assailants behind the deadly shooting. Morck continues to believe it may have been an inside job, as DC Anderson had ties to a local crime boss and had suspiciously called in a fake wellness check to the house, leading to the shooting.
Despite this looming over Morck and Hardy, things feel considerably more optimistic in the department. Three months after freeing Merritt, Morck returns to Department Q, ready to take on a new case. He's joined by Akram and Rose, and in a most welcome surprise, Hardy, who has begun walking again. Buoyed by solving a seemingly impossible case, the plucky department is ready to get to work on what's next.