Dept Q SPOILERS Thread

[xsquared]

This thread is for those who have already seen Dept Q in its entirety and want to discuss the plot, as I know that the other thread is still getting new viewers.

OK, now that I've seen it all, we're still non
the wiser about who shot Mork, Hardy and Anderson.

I am loving Akram and want to know what he did in Syria!

I think he stole his identity. The newspaper people that knew Sam hadn't seen him for ages but said that was normal

@CaptainMyCaptain
But why did he do that?

To get to Merritt? The details of his reasoning are a bit hazy I admit

And who was harassing Merritt on the phone? Lyle/Sam or Finch?

i have just finished this
enjoyed it so much
just reading the thread,
lyle got his eye injury later in life, at the youth offenders/prison

although i am surprised she fell for him when he was allegedly stupid
he was however very damaged by his mother.
sad that Moira took the credit and said Morck wasnt around

he no longer was seeing her as his therapist
interesting that her date looked just like him though!

@MonkeyTennis34 - I don't understand the Sam Haig identity theft either. The real Sam Haigh visited Lyle at his place of work - the ferry - and they sat and had a drink outside. He went to ask him for permission to write about their experiences in his forthcoming book about Godhaven, where they both did time in their younger years.

I still don't understand/can't remember the real Sam Haig's connection to Merrit or how this gave Lyle access to Merrit - see my earlier post a couple of days ago.

Finished the series last night, what an episode!!

I loved the fact that the therapist’s date looked exactly like Morcke 🤣

Lyle came from one fucked up family…

I loved all the characters but yes, Akram was a stand out. Guessing he was special forces back in Syria?

@LindorDoubleChoc
Wasn't the connection between the real Sam Haig and Merritt only that he was a journalist who frequented court cases?

2 questions
Is another series planned?
What is the series of books called that the show is based on?

I thought Lyle had decided to impersonate Sam Haigh as a way to get close to Merritt (he said he was looking at corruption in the crown office didn’t he)?, and also to get revenge on Sam who had beaten him so badly at the YOI. Like others have said, I’m sure Lyle only went to the YOI after his brother died, so Merritt wouldn’t have known about the dead eye. I wondered if Lyle (as the fake Sam) had helped ruin the trial in the hope that it would send Merritt back to Mohr - she wasn’t going until she lost the trial. Presumably it was much easier to kidnap her off the boat than kidnapping her on the mainland and then getting her across. I don’t know.

Re Cunningham - they said that he had once found Lyle having trapped another boy in the chamber. So he knew he was capable of bad things, but not necessarily then keeping someone captive for four years! I wondered if he had attributed all of his bad deeds to Harry when talking to Morck/Rose out of some loyalty to Mrs Jennings - blaming everything on her dead son so as not to tarnish her living son.

And they did acknowledge the lodgers age, Morck made a joke about how long his studies were taking him.

I really enjoyed it.

These are the books - www.deadgoodbooks.co.uk/department-q-books-in-order/

I loved it but also have lots of questions (haven’t read the full thread yet - sorry 😳).
what did Cunningham think Lyle was going to do with Merritt, since he obviously knew they were going to get her on the ferry? What was his loyalty to that family?
and many more!

That was never really explained. It had a strong whiff of "plot twist thrown in to keep things interesting, but we ran out of time to set it up and fill it out properly, so we'll just give you what we've got".

Presumably he thought they had killed Merritt, since he would have seen the reports of her disappearance. (He wouldn't have assumed they locked her in a high-pressure chamber for four years because that's a completely fucking bonkersly implausible thing that no real person would ever actually do)

Why he covered up for them remains a mystery, to me anyway - perhaps it's all explained in the book - I suspect some kind of remote island clannishness and state/church involvement, but who knows?

I expect the book provides some of these details.

Cunningham mentioned, throwing her off the ferry

I think Cunningham, (back in the day) had chased the wrong (innocent) brother on to the boat (Harry) who then jumped off, so he had to big him up as the baddy to everyone to justify the chase and subsequent death. He wasn't protecting Lyle, rather keeping his existence quiet, so no one would ask awkward questions.

Oh yes, this makes sense!

I've just finished it too - really enjoyed it despite it being obvious where she was from the first time you saw Ailsa's house.

I thought the gunshot plot was a kind of redemption for what happened in the first shooting, this time they managed to attack the shooter.

I feel like Graham Finch/ Mark Bonnar may feature again - we know now that Bonnar is bent and Kirsty is about to be released.

Lyle used Sam's identity to get close to Merritt - he could have just taken her but more fun this way I guess.

Agree with @redcord 's explanation re policeman - he chased the wrong brother so was covering up his own mistakes.

Not sure how often Lyle & Merritt shagged ....

I think Redcord’s explanation makes sense too.

I've given up trying to make sense of a lot of it but do know it had me gripped (apart from the ghastly cafe scene) and think the stage is solidly set for the next series. The original shooting thread will continue and the odd little gang of characters will all appear - the lodger, stepson, therapist etc - just for continuity if nothing else. My favourite is Akram, hidden depths there I could drown in!

lyle and merrit, she obviously liked him when she thought he was sam haig, as she invited him to meet her dad!

I had a gander at the second book in the series, Disgrace.
The books were originally in Danish! Explains the unusual name of Morcke.
I can’t access samples on Amazon on my phone so I had a listen to a tiny bit on Audible.
Hmmm.. it sounded surprisingly mundane.
I need to go to Waterstones to read more.

I tried the first book in the series (Amazon sample on my phone kindle) and found it so poorly written I won’t attempt them again. Began with the protagonist observing himself in a mirror, which is just unforgivably awful storytelling to me.

So I will just have to look forward to the next adaptation.

I might have missed others saying this, but the captor wasn't 'Elsa' but Ailsa. Played by Alison Peebles.

Doesn't Elsa and Ailsa sound practically the same?