Dept. Q: Season 1, Episode 1 - Episode 1 (2025)

The episode opens with body cam footage showing three police officers--DCI Carl Morck, DS Hardy, and Patrol Officer Anderson--entering a house where a murder has occurred. Inside, they discover a victim with a knife protruding from his head. The officers assess the scene, but before they can proceed, a masked man bursts in and shoots all three. Morck loses consciousness as the killer stands over him.

Four months later, Morck is back at work, physically and emotionally scarred from the shooting. He is required to attend therapy sessions for trauma, but he downplays his anxiety and sleep issues to his therapist, Dr. Rachel Irving, whom he finds attractive. Morck is isolated and regarded as arrogant and antisocial by his colleagues, who resent his return.

Detective Chief Superintendent Moira Jacobson, under pressure to improve the police force's reputation, proposes the creation of a new department called Department Q, dedicated to solving high-profile cold cases. Moira is initially skeptical but is swayed by the promise of substantial funding. She selects Morck to lead the department, assigning him and his team the basement of the police station as their workspace.

Morck is reluctant but agrees to take on the role. He is tasked with choosing the first case for Department Q from a stack of unsolved files. Civilian employee Akram Salim, a Syrian former policeman, quietly joins Morck's team and suggests reopening the case of missing prosecutor Merritt Lingard. Morck is skeptical but agrees to investigate.

Meanwhile, flashbacks reveal Merritt Lingard's last known activities. She was prosecuting an abusive husband, Graeme Finch, whose trial was nearing its end. The evidence against Finch was strong, but Merritt was emotionally volatile and prone to outbursts. After the trial, she received threatening messages and decided to take her brother William, who suffers from a neurological condition, on a trip to escape the stress.

On the ferry, Merritt received another threatening text and threw her phone into the water. William imitated her and threw his hat, which was caught by the wind. He climbed the railing to retrieve it, and during the struggle, he accidentally knocked Merritt to the floor. Merritt walked away, and that was the last time anyone saw her.

Back at the station, Morck and Akram begin reviewing Merritt's case. Morck is frustrated by the lack of progress and the incompetence of the previous investigators. He confronts the officers involved, pointing out overlooked evidence, such as a McDonald's cup under a car's wheel, and demands they check CCTV footage from the nearby McDonald's.

Morck and Akram visit William's care facility, but the director, Dr. Fiona Wallace, refuses to let them see him. Morck is suspicious of her reluctance and presses for access. While watching the news coverage of the case, William becomes distressed and escapes from the facility, running into the forest.

Morck and Akram learn that Sam Haig, a secretive reporter covering organized crime, died in a climbing accident just one day before Merritt disappeared. Morck interviews Sam's editor but loses his temper with a pushy reporter and assaults him. Meanwhile, Hardy, who is undergoing rehabilitation, discovers that Merritt had access to her mother's considerable family wealth, which passed to William in her absence.

Morck confronts Dr. Wallace about her refusal to let them see William, but she remains evasive. Morck is increasingly convinced that there is more to Merritt's disappearance than meets the eye and that the case is connected to deeper, more dangerous secrets.

The episode ends with Morck determined to uncover the truth, despite the obstacles and resistance he faces from both within and outside the police force.

At the end of Dept. Q Season 1, Episode 1, detective Carl Morck and his team discover Merritt Lingard alive, trapped inside a hyperbaric chamber controlled by her captor, Lyle Jennings. After a tense confrontation where Lyle kills a police officer and attempts to kill Carl and Akram, Akram kills Lyle, allowing them to rescue Merritt. The episode closes with Merritt entering the Dept. Q basement office, nearly encountering Carl, who remains silent about his identity, and Carl settling into his new role with his team.

The ending unfolds in a series of intense, detailed scenes:

The investigation leads Carl Morck and his assistant Akram to the remote property of Ailsa Jennings, Lyle's mother. They find no response at her trailer but discover an industrial building on the land. Inside, they come upon a murdered police constable, killed by Lyle to cover his tracks. Nearby, they locate the hyperbaric chamber where Merritt Lingard has been held captive for four years. Merritt appears unkempt but alive, lying inside the chamber with a foam pillow and blanket, her voice faintly heard through a modified speaker system.

Carl and Akram rush to the control room to stop the pressure inside the chamber from increasing, which would be fatal to Merritt. Suddenly, Lyle appears wielding a shotgun, threatening to kill them both. Merritt screams from inside the chamber, distracting Lyle just long enough for Akram to act. Akram throws a knife into Lyle's neck, then seizes the shotgun and shoots Lyle dead. With the threat eliminated, they manage to lower the pressure safely and call for backup, successfully rescuing Merritt.

After the rescue, Merritt is shown entering the basement office of Dept. Q, the cold case division where Carl works. The room is empty, and she almost bumps into Carl as he exits the elevator, but he does not reveal himself to her. The final scene shows Carl carrying a box of cold case files to his desk, joined by his colleagues Akram, Rose, and Hardy, signaling the start of their collaborative work on unresolved cases.

Regarding the main characters at the end:

• Carl Morck is physically and emotionally scarred from a previous shooting but is now leading Dept. Q, showing a reluctant but growing commitment to solving cold cases.

• Akram plays a crucial role in saving Merritt, demonstrating his resourcefulness and loyalty.

• Merritt Lingard survives her captivity and is freed, though her future beyond rescue is left open.

• Lyle Jennings, the antagonist, is killed during the rescue.

• The murdered police constable is found as a victim of Lyle's violence.

This ending ties together the season's central mystery of Merritt's disappearance, resolving it with her rescue while leaving Carl's personal trauma and the broader cold case work as ongoing threads.

There is no post-credit scene in Dept. Q, Season 1, Episode 1. The episode concludes with the main narrative threads introduced in the pilot--Carl Morck's return to work after being shot, the formation of the new cold-case department, and the initial setup of Merritt Lingard's mysterious disappearance--coming to a close without any additional scenes after the credits roll. The final moments focus on Carl's emotional detachment and the lingering sense of unresolved trauma, but nothing is shown beyond the official ending of the episode.

Akram Salim is a civilian employee who works part-time in IT at the police station. In Episode 1, he approaches Moira Jacobson, begging for a job in the murder department, but is initially dismissed. He later insinuates himself into Carl Morck's basement office and is tasked with organizing case files. Akram is revealed to have a mysterious past as a former policeman in Syria, which gives him sharp investigative skills. He is assigned to assist Carl as his assistant in the newly formed Dept. Q, and it is Akram who suggests the missing prosecutor Merritt Lingard as their first case.

During the Leith Park shooting, Carl Morck and his partner Hardy respond to a call without waiting for backup. A masked gunman arrives and shoots all the officers at the scene. Morck is badly wounded, his partner Hardy is paralyzed from the waist down, and a young uniformed officer is killed. The shooting is a pivotal event that sets the tone for the series and is the reason Morck is returning to work with PTSD and forced to attend therapy sessions.

Merritt Lingard's case is chosen as Dept. Q's first assignment because Akram Salim, Carl Morck's assistant, presents it to Moira Jacobson. Merritt is a ruthless and highly successful prosecutor who disappeared four years earlier, last seen on a ferry to the remote Mhor in the Scottish Highlands. The case is considered a high-profile cold case, and Akram believes it is worth reopening. The disappearance is shrouded in mystery, with no clear leads, making it a challenging and intriguing case for the new department.

The Leith Park shooting investigation is significant because it is the event that led to Carl Morck's injuries and the paralysis of his partner Hardy. The shooting is still unsolved, and Morck suspects it may have been an inside job due to the suspicious circumstances, such as the fake wellness check called in by the deceased officer Anderson, who had ties to a local crime boss. Morck clandestinely accesses the case files and a 3D animated reconstruction of the shooting, indicating his determination to uncover the truth despite being officially sidelined from the investigation.

Moira Jacobson is under pressure from higher-ups to improve the police department's crime-solving rates and is tasked with creating a new cold case unit, Dept. Q. She initially intends for Morck to work alone in the unit but is forced to assign Akram Salim as his assistant when Morck insists on having help. Moira is dismissive of Akram's request for a job and is frustrated by Morck's tendency to push her buttons. She allocates minimal resources to Dept. Q, sending them to a dingy basement office, while using most of the new funding to improve her own department upstairs.

Dept. Q Season 1, Episode 1 is not considered family friendly. The episode contains several elements that may be disturbing or inappropriate for children and sensitive viewers. These include graphic depictions of violence, references to traumatic events, and emotionally intense scenes involving grief and psychological distress. There are moments of strong language and unsettling imagery related to crime and its aftermath. The atmosphere is moody and often somber, with themes of institutional neglect and personal loss explored in depth. Sensitive viewers may find some scenes particularly upsetting due to their realistic portrayal of human suffering and the dark nature of the subject matter.