Dept Q: How the Writers Engineered Mystery and Suspense Through Trauma and Strategic Clues

Netflix’s Dept Q delivers a mighty psychological wallop that showcases what modern television crime thrillers can achieve. It transcends tired procedural “cold case” character tropes by anchoring the story in richly-textured, bold, and highly-traumatized characters frequently using laugh-out-loud moments to dissipate their emotional agony.

Created for television by Chandni Lakhani and Scott Frank, Dept Q is adapted from the Nordic Noir novel The Keeper Of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen, the first in the Department Q series.

Dept Q is less about solving crimes and more about deep healing and taking steps toward reframing and managing trauma through uncovering truth. Each character lives in the gray and searching for their own betterment.

At its core lies the missing‐person mystery of prosecutor —turned–captive Merritt Lingard (Chloe Pirrie), thrusting Detective Chief Inspector Carl Morck (Matthew Goode) and his re‑born unit into uncomfortable psychological terrain. His office is unsurprisingly set up in a dank basement – a derelict shower room and toilet with urinals in few view.

Dept Q juggles three story balls in the air:

• The Leith Park shooting
• Merritt’s kidnapping
• High level institutional corruption

This article takes a deep dive into how the three mysteries are presented and ultimately resolved through strategic and well-timed drip-feeding as suspects are introduced to the cases. We examine each episode and how the writers reveal the clues surrounding the crime to unveil the crimes.

Akram Salim (Alexej Manvelov) Photo courtesy of Netflix

Dept Q Breakdown: Setting The Scene and the Mystery

Relocated from Copenhagen, the Scottish-set Netflix version, Dept Q opens with a traumatic ambush at Leith Park, Edinburgh.

PC Anderson (Angus Yellowlees) is dead, Carl Morck is injured, and his partner Hardy (Jamie Sives) is paralyzed.

Morck is exiled to a new cold case unit in a dingy basement to keep him occupied and away from active cases. There, alongside Akram Salim (Alexej Manvelov) and Rose Dickson (Leah Byrne), he begins investigating the long-cold disappearance of a young prosecutor, Merritt Lingard, while also trying to figure out who shot him and his colleagues, and uncovering deep corruption in the Crown Office.

The season unfolds like an intricate psychological puzzle— a Sphinx layering new clues, character exploration, and emotional weight to not only solve the mysteries, but also to mine the spiritual and emotional impact of being a law enforcement officer.

Episode 1 

A sniper ambush leaves Carl scarred and Hardy disabled. Morck is demoted to the newly-formed Dept Q.

Morck reopens Merritt Lingard’s 4-year-old cold case. Scenes reveal her trapped in a hyperbaric-like cell. The central mystery is instantly intriguing and captivating. Why is she captured and who by?

Merritt’s non-verbal brother William Lingard (Tom Bulpett) is introduced. He lives in a secluded benevolent care facility with Dr. Fiona Wallace (Michelle Duncan) taking care of his finances and daily needs. She may have a motive to disappear Merritt because she has access to William’s share of the family trust fund and becomes regarded as a suspect.

After Merritt and prosecutor Liam Taylor (Patrick Kennedy) fail to convict businessman Graham Finch (Douglas Russell) in the murder of his wife, Merritt receives anonymous death threats. This expands the mystery since more people “have been wronged be her” and are motivated to act.

Akram emerges as an intelligent, tempered assistant. He’s a Syrian asylee with a dark (not shady), and as yet, unknown past and deep wisdom. He’s Carl’s emotional rock, guiding him through his frequent outbursts and panic attacks.

The tension in the series is activated through the visible effects of PTSD and Carl’s unresolved guilt. The bullet which paralyzed his partner Harvey, passed through him before hitting Carl. Carl’s ego is also at play because he misjudged the danger. Not in a narcissistic way, but more to punish himself.

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Episode 2 

Merritt’s chamber has names of people she has successfully prosecuted scratched into the wall to reveal her captors.

Once a month, she is forced to guess on whose behalf her unseen abductors (an elderly woman and a man in a cap with a disctinct logo) are seeking revenge. William (Merritt’s brother) draws a man in a cap with that logo, but can’t verbalize his identity.

Merritt guesses Kirsty Atkins (Ellen Bannerman) an informant against Finch that she couldn’t save from prison. Her abductors taunt her and tell her she’s incorrect.

Past investigators into Merritt’s disappearance are evasive, hinting at systemic police corruption. Lines of investigation are halted without good reason. It’s easier to presume the Merritt is dead.

Carl is barely controlling his emotional dysregulation. He distrusts the system. “It’s us against us.” Visibly, he lashes out and has a panic attack as discusses his thoughts with his mandated police therapist Rachel Irving (Kelly Macdonald), many appointments of which he deliberately misses.

Episode 3 

Carl and Akram take a ferry ride to Innis Mhór where Merritt and William grew up to investigate. The “man in the cap” spies on them. We meet Jamie Lingard (Clive Russell) Merritt and William’s estanged father. This adds another potential suspect.

Rose begins desk research that hints at ferry passenger irregularities.

Merritt discovers an old message carved into the chamber wall: “L. H. Why are you here?” Could that be Lyle (Steven Miller) and his brother Harry (Fraser Saunders) Jennings? Harry was accused of beating William during a robbery and died soon after while avoiding apprehension.

Episode 4 

CCTV shows Merritt was abducted near the ferry. The suspects: Ailsa (Alison Peebles) and her son Lyle Jennings unveil potential clues. The Jennings’ family are suspects rather than persons of interest.

During a visit to Mhòr, Rose learns that Merritt returned for Harry’s funeral and took the necklace he stole back. A cryptic note from Merritt’s secret hotel lover only known as “S” is found. Liam confesses that he had an affair with Merritt, but he denies writing the note although he did have a motive to get her out of the way.

Hotel records reveal that controversial journalist covering organized crime, Sam Haig (Jack Greenlees) was Merritt’s lover who died myseriously before she was abducted in the ferry by her two still unknown captors.

This poses the question of  Sam’s identity. Is he “S?” Aside from adding another suspect to the crime, he adds confusion.

Rose Dickson (Leah Byrne) Photo courtesy of Netflix.

Episode 5 

Rose uncovers more connections between Kirsty and Graham Finch.

It’s also revealed that the real Sam died in an accident. So, who’s the man Merritt loved?

Rose’s interrogation with Kirsty reveals a hit job tied to Finch—the mystery becomes a conspiracy. Also, Lord Advocate Stephen Burns (Mark Bonnar), the chief legal advisor, blocks Merritt from allowing Kirsty to testify for unknown reasons—another indication at institutional corruption.

Episode 6 

A suspect for the Leith Park shooting is apprehended. Carl attends a lineup, but can’t identify the shooter. He concludes that the suspect must have been an informant. He presses Finch, who in turn orders Fergus Dunbar (Gordon Brown) a detective investigating Merritt’s case be attacked.

Further interference in the case by investigators is revealed.

Episode 7 

Carl and Akram prove that Finch ordered Kirsty’s fatal attack.

It’s revealed that Burns was intimidated by Finch into stopping Kirsty’s testimony and ordered her killed while in prison.

Carl and Akram discover that Sam was a violent juvenile delinquent. Paul Evans (Alec Newman), the climbing instructor who discovered Sam’s body reveals that Sam had been sleeping with his wife, but denies killing him.

Episode 8 

Carl finally solves the Leith Park Shooting, but not Merritt’s disappearance or the corruption allegations. Akram and Carl visit the institution where Sam was sent and they discover that the boy Sam viciously attacked was Lyle Jennings, Harry’s younger brother.

Merritt realizes that the initials “L.H.” represent the Jennings brothers, Lyle and Harry.

The man in the cap is shown to be Lyle. His mother Ailsa blames Merritt for Harry’s death and seeks revenge.

Episode 9 

PC Cunningham, who always believed that Lyle killed Merritt, finds her and is furious to discover they have kept her in a hyperbaric tank for four years. When Cunningham says he cannot let this go, Lyle bludgeons him to death.

Carl questions William, who identifies Lyle both as his attacker and the man in the cap. The real Sam found Lyle to make amends, but Lyle killed him, staged his death as a climbing accident, and assumed his identity.

Lyle and his mother abandon Merritt in the hyperbaric chamber with rising pressure, but Carl and Akram return to Mhòr and search the Jennings’ property. They find Cunningham’s body and the chamber, they are ambushed by Lyle, and Carl is shot to protecting Akram. In a strking display of tactics, Akram disarms and kills Lyle.

Merritt is rescued and reunited with William, while Ailsa shoots herself to escape police on the ferry.

In typical Carl fashion, he tells Burns that he won’t reveal his activities. In return, he blackmails him into procuring him with a new car, an operating budget and more resources to keep

by Staff Writer

From our in-house editorial team.