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The crime thriller Dept. Q, created by Scott Frank and Chandni Lakhani, premiered on Netflix on May 29, 2025. Based on the novel series by Jussi Adler-Olsen, the show takes viewers into the world of cold-case investigations, led by DCI Carl Morck, who is intelligent but emotionally closed off.
It doesn't take long for the show to build a complicated and suspenseful mystery around its main cold case: the disappearance of prosecutor Merritt Lingard four years ago.
Disclaimer: The following article contains spoilers from Dept. Q. Reader’s discretion is advised.
The story of Dept. Q is centred on Morck being sent to a makeshift office in the basement to oversee a cold case unit that deals with public relations. Merritt Lingard's case is taken on by Morck and his team, which includes the tech-savvy Akram and the back-on-duty Detective Rose.
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After going missing from a ferry, everyone thought Merritt was dead. To everyone's surprise, she was found alive and being held by the Jennings family. As the team learns the upsetting truth about her past, they put together the clues that lead to her dramatic rescue.
Yes, Merritt Lingard did survive. She was locked up in a hyperbaric chamber for four scary years before DCI Carl Morck and Akram Salim finally freed her during the most exciting parts of Dept. Q's season 1 finale. She miraculously lived after being tortured mentally and physically by Ailsa and Lyle Jennings. This is a major turning point in the British crime thriller, and it ends in a way that makes one feel good.
Merritt Lingard’s disappearance: A ferry ride into darkness in Dept. Q
Merritt Lingard's disappearance is the event that starts the main mystery in Dept. Q. She took a ferry from Edinburgh to Mhor with her brother, William, four years before the present.
The trip was intended to be a short break after her recent defeat in the Graham Finch trial, which garnered a lot of attention from the public and the media. Merritt received threatening messages in the days before she went missing, which made her stay away from the city. But she wasn't there when the ferry got off.
Authorities thought she had either killed herself or been in an accident because she was last seen in a state where she was emotionally weak. Fergus Dunbar was in charge of the first investigation, but he couldn't find any good leads, so the case was officially declared a "cold case."
Little did anyone know that Lyle Jennings, who had been living her life as crime reporter Sam Haig, had planned her abduction with precision. He manipulated her feelings and thoughts against her to get her to Mhor, and then he took her right off the ferry.
Merritt hid her past as she became a successful prosecutor. Lyle blamed Merritt for everything because he was too loyal to Harry, and his mother, Ailsa, was using him. William remembered who had hurt him, but he couldn't say what he thought, especially since Lyle later showed up in their lives under the name "Sam Haig."
Years later, when William saw Lyle on the ferry again, his distress brought up old memories. He reacted differently to Merritt's disappearance because of this unseen trauma, and Carl realized that William's condition was linked to a major act of violence.
The Jennings' motive: The twisted revenge
Merritt Lingard had a painful event from her teenage years that she tried to forget. Merritt told her boyfriend at the time, Harry Jennings, that she stole her late mother's diamond rings to help them get away from her toxic life at home when she was growing up in Mhor.
Harry believed it was a good idea and broke into the Lingard home. That's where he met William, Merritt's younger brother. William thought he was a threat and attacked him. Before things got worse, Harry's younger brother, Lyle Jennings, showed up and beat William badly, leaving him with brain damage and permanent aphasia.
Harry ran away and drowned after jumping off a ferry. At the same time, the boys' mother, Ailsa Jennings, claimed that Merritt killed her son. It made sense to Ailsa that Merritt had tricked Harry into stealing, which led to his death and Lyle's mental breakdown. Ailsa thought that justice wasn't served in the courts, but through harsh punishment.
Ailsa and Lyle later kidnapped Merritt and locked her up in a hyperbaric chamber, a marine tool used by their father. The room turned into a horrible representation of punishment. They tortured and shackled Merritt for four years, demanding that she admit her "sin" and take responsibility for Harry's death.
This story in Dept. Q shows how trauma can lead to generational violence if it is not dealt with properly. Grief tainted Ailsa's sense of what was right, and Lyle's mental health problems got worse while she was in charge. This led to Merritt's long suffering.
The Leith Park ambush
At the beginning of Dept. Q, an ambush in Leith Park sets a dark tone. DCI Carl Morck, Inspector Hardy, and Officer Anderson got a call about Archie Allen's death, which seemed suspicious.
When the three people arrived at the scene, they were attacked by a person in a mask who fired at them. Anderson was killed right away, and Hardy was shot in the back, which made him partially paralyzed. Morck survived with a neck wound but was left deeply traumatized. Three police officers were attacked at a murder scene, so the case should be easy, but Carl believed that something was wrong with the whole setup.
At first, it was thought to be a random act of violence, but closer examination showed it wasn't. It turns out that Anderson made up the reason he replied—that Allen's daughter was worried. However, Allen didn't have a daughter. These facts suggested that Anderson might have had deeper, secret relationships, maybe with the dead.
Morck thought the killer might have used Allen as a lure to get Anderson. Hardy and Carl were just there by chance and were not intended to be there. The attacker waited inside the house, hinting that they had planned ahead. Based on the clean getaway, it looked like there were two criminals: one inside and one driving away.
Carl, the victim, wasn't allowed to look into the case because it's against company policy. But he still couldn't help but think about it.
The main plot of the show follows Merritt's case, but the Leith Park shooting remains in the background as a mysterious, unsolved case that suggests the police force is more corrupt and has unfinished business.
Sam Haig’s death and Lyle’s identity theft
The identity of crime reporter Sam Haig plays a significant role in figuring out who kidnapped Merritt. Haig and Lyle Jennings met for the first time at the Godhaven juvenile centre. Their past together was full of violence and anger, especially Lyle's, who had mental health problems and still couldn't get over the death of his brother, Harry.
After many years, Haig tried to make peace with Lyle because he wanted to write a book about their time at the facility that would include their story. He died because of this act of kindness.
Lyle saw an opportunity to get even and killed Haig during a fake accident while he was mountain climbing. The murder led Lyle to take on Haig's identity. Haig was a famous but hard-to-find journalist who rarely went out in public, which made it possible to pose as him. Lyle got back into Merritt's life by using this fake name.
Getting Merritt's trust by pretending to be a sympathetic reporter writing about the Finch case was how he did it. He found out about her plans, weak spots, and emotional state, which was very important information that helped him plan her abduction.
Lyle's fake identity wasn't just for practical reasons; it also helped him get to know Merritt better. In this weird fantasy, he played the romantic partner before taking her hostage. This duality shows how Lyle's mind is broken; he wants love but is filled with hate.
Sam Haig’s story in Dept. Q illustrates the elaborate nature of Lyle's plans and the dangers of letting one's obsession get out of hand. It also highlights how easy it is to use a public persona as a weapon and how past abuse can turn into horrible revenge.
Akram’s deduction and Carl’s race against time
To the investigators, Akram Salim, a Syrian refugee and tech-savvy assistant in Dept. Q, is the person who makes them feel and think the most. Some people were quick to say that Merritt's disappearance was over, but Akram was still not sure.
His gut feeling and his ability to think things through made him believe that Merritt was still alive. He noticed problems with the investigation, like the fact that there wasn't any physical proof, and Merritt probably wouldn't have left her brother William.
As the team went through old files and tried to piece together Merritt's last days, Akram focused on the mistakes she made in her digital communications. At some point, they started to think about the strange Sam Haig and the ferry to Mhor.
As they looked deeper, they found that Lyle Jennings was linked to both Haig and Merritt. The identity theft, the wrong time of Haig's death, and the fake ferry logs finally revealed who was guilty.
Rose, the newly hired detective, found out that Lyle tried to kidnap another teenager in a similar way years ago, using the same hyperbaric chamber. This made things more dangerous: Merritt might still be alive, but not for much longer.
Carl and Akram quickly ran to the Jennings home. They talked to Lyle and Ailsa there, just as the atmospheric pressure in the chamber was changing in a way that would kill them. Hardy, who was hurt but had just recently gone back to work, helped keep the chamber stable so Merritt could stay alive until help arrived.
Graham Finch trial in Dept. Q
In the series, this was Merritt Lingard's last case as a prosecutor, and it was the public event that set the scene for her eventual disappearance. Finch, a businessman, was being tried for killing his wife, Andrea. Even though there were signs of domestic violence and Kirsty Atkins was a strong witness, the case fell apart, and Finch was found not guilty.
Kirsty, who used to know Andrea from a women's shelter, initially agreed to talk about the abuse Andrea had been through. But for some reason, her testimony was taken back at the last minute.
Later, it was revealed that Merritt's mentor, Lord Advocate Stephen Burns, had pushed her to keep quiet to protect his daughter, Julia, who had been in a separate hit-and-run accident. Finch had power over Burns because he threatened to tell everyone about Julia's crime.
At the same time, Finch planned an attack on Kirsty in prison, which left her blind in one eye. He did this to silence her. Burns gave Finch's lawyers Kirsty's name because he was worried about his daughter's future. Merritt gave in to the withdrawal because he was caught in an ethical web.
The failure of this case made Merritt feel bad about herself and led to a lot of threats and harassment online. It also made her emotionally weak, which made her easy for Lyle Jennings to control.
Dept. Q is full of references to the unfairness of the Finch case, which shows how institutional corruption and personal betrayal can get in the way of justice. While Finch stayed out of trouble with the law, Carl Morck used the scandal to get Burns to support the new Department Q. He did this by quietly pressuring Burns to do so and getting resources and attention in return.
The Merritt investigation is over, but the Leith Park case is still open at the end of the season. Carl still feels the pain of it, and it reminds him that not all cases are solved, even though he brings justice to others.
Dept. Q is available to stream on Netflix.
