Dept Q Ending Explained: Is Merritt Able to Escape? What’s the Mystery Behind Her Kidnapping?

Dept Q Ending Explained: After a grisly shooting that leaves him traumatised, Carl Morck is assigned to run a new task force that looks into unsolved cold cases. His first case shoves him into the mystery of a young prosecutor’s disappearance 4 years ago that has shocking ties to his present situation. As the past and present converge, so do Carl’s personal and professional lives, leading to a thrilling discovery.

The series has 9 episodes, each with a runtime of around 60 minutes and is based on the book series by Jussi Adler-Olsen.

Dept Q Ending Explained

The series starts with Carl and his partner going inside a crime scene and walking right into a trap. Three police officers get shot, including them, which leaves Carl with PTSD, his partner paralysed, and the last cop dead. Parallely, Prosecutor Merritt Lingard is fighting a murder case in court but pushes too hard with little evidence, resulting in the accused running free. Soon after, she is kidnapped.

Meanwhile, Moira Jacobson is forced to start a cold case unit to wash the department’s terrible solve rate, and the work falls on Carl and eventually on Akram Salim, his newly appointed assistant. Together they decide to solve Merritt’s disappearance case after much back and forth, bringing to light that although shown parallelly at first, Merritt disappeared 4 years ago.

We then jump right into the investigation as Carl, Akram, and eventually Rose, work together to get the evidence needed to know what happened to Merritt. Soon after they start, they start to realise that there’s something fishy about her disappearance and that the suicide theory just doesn’t make sense.

Why Was Merritt Kidnapped?

Carl learns that Merritt was having an affair with Liam, and after going through the hotel records, finds the name of Sam Haig. Unfortunately, that ends up not going anywhere at first, but when they learn about Kirsty and how she had information about Graham Finch trying to kill his wife from the shelter that they both shared, they realise that Merritt had gotten in touch with Sam, a journalist, to work together. As it turns out, Merritt and Sam were convinced that someone from inside the Crown Office leaked this information to Graham, and they wanted to unearth who could’ve been the leak.

They suspect Stephen, given that his daughter might have (allegedly) been almost killed by Finch’s men, but it turns out that although Stephen might be guilty of a lot, he doesn’t seem to have killed Sam or gotten Merritt kidnapped.

At the compression chamber, Merritt gets more and more confused and determined to leave. She finds a fault with the pressure chute and decides to break through it, but unfortunately, isn’t able to escape before passing out due to the pressure difference. Eventually, her kidnappers get tired of waiting for her to remember, and the older woman finally reminds her that she’s here for causing harm to one of her sons while staying at Mhor. Confused that it’s not about her work, she starts to go back in time and think about everything that happened and finally realises that the woman is alluding to Harry Jennings’s death.

Merritt can’t believe all this, especially because Harry was the one who put William in a coma. He died right after on the ferry while trying to escape. Merritt refuses to apologise for Harry’s death and doesn’t consider herself responsible for it. However, Ailsa, Harry’s mother, who has been behind this entire scheme, is left angry at her boldness. Meanwhile, Harry’s brother Lyle, also there, gets incensed when Merritt says that Harry deserved to die and attacks her pressure chamber. In a shocking twist, it turns out that the Sam Haig that Merritt knew was actually Lyle.

Elsewhere, Carl and Akram investigate and realise that Sam Haig met Lyle at the detention centre, and that’s probably where Lyle picked up Sam’s identity and orchestrated this whole thing with his mother.

How Does Merritt Escape?

At Mhor, John, having gotten Merritt’s emergency call, pays a visit to Ailsa, who feigns ignorance at his queries. However, John is unconvinced, quite sure that something is going down at the rundown factory of the Jennings. He decides to investigate and finds Merritt, asking Lyle whether he is truly looking at Merritt Lingard. As it turns out, John knew about the Jennings going after Merritt, but he is left furious when he learns that she has been kept prisoner for all this time. John decides to do the right, but Lyle bludgeons him to death.

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At the HQ, William is able to identify Lyle on the boat, and the team makes a swift run to the island, where they find the Jennings residence empty. Knowing what they know about the brothers being trapped in the chambers as punishment, they make their way to the chambers and on the way find John Cunningham’s dead body. Inside the room, they see Merritt, barely alive and just as they are about to find the lever, Lyle comes back and shoots them. In a tense moment, it seems like someone has been shot, but Akram makes a quick manoeuvre and throws a knife at him and then eventually takes his own shotgun and shoots him.

Three months later, Carl blackmails Stephen into doubling his task force’s budget in exchange for keeping quiet about what he did with the Finch trial. Oh, and getting Akram a full-time job.

Is the Leith Park Shooting Solved?

Unfortunately, not really.

What did you think about Dept. Q? Let us know in the comments below!

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