Answering your Dept. Q questions

All nine episodes of Dept. Q are currently airing on Netflix. Please watch them before reading this spoiler-filled post.

We’re coming up to another weekend of more people discovering the brilliant show that is Dept. Q. It has been a pleasure to recap all nine episodes, but we are not done yet. Here, I will attempt to answer a few pending questions about this series. Please note that I have no insider information and I have not yet read the Jussi Adler-Olsen books (I will start as soon as I find a free minute). Everything here will be based on the Netflix series alone. Again, thank you so much for your messages and yes, I am hopeful that we will hear news of a Dept. Q second season soon. 

Who was the 'S' who sent the flowers?

Here was the full text on the card: ‘I miss you already. Look forward to the next time. Same room? I believe that bed brings good luck! - S.’

That message seemed to me like from a man who spent one night with Merritt and would like another, but I could not discount the possibility that this came from someone she had an ongoing affair with. The fact that the card was amongst her office things indicated that the flowers were sent to her office. Let’s look at a couple of possibilities.

The first possibility is that this ‘S’ is Lyle-Sam, sent within a period of an ongoing affair with Merritt. This would indicate that they had a deeper, longer relationship, which was my initial impression as well when this card was first mentioned, but which throws the timeline here out the window. Since there was no record of a multiple-time affair at the Prince's Garden, they might have used a different hotel. This is certainly possible.

If this card came from Lyle-Sam, I don’t think the ‘good luck’ was in reference to the Graham Finch trial. This is because of their conversation on the first (and only?) night they spent together. Merritt told him, ‘You were at the Finch trial. Almost every day.’ This indicated that by that time, the Graham Finch trial had already ended.

The second possibility is that 'S' is someone else unrelated to the case. There was no date on the card. This could have been any man Merritt spent a night with at some point in her life. Liam Taylor mentioned that Merritt would have hated being sent flowers. Lyle, who was stalking her, would have known if flowers were a Merritt thing or not. Why did she keep the card? Maybe she so rarely got a card that she did not feel like throwing it out. Maybe she really liked this guy. Maybe she simply tended to keep cards, as some people do. Maybe she tossed the card into her drawer and forgot about it. Why did I lean toward this second possibility whilst fully aware that the first could very well be true and indeed even fit better? The answer is on the next question.

Why did Lyle kill Sam?

Well, Lyle took Sam Haig's identity in the seduction of Merritt. He was probably worried that a police investigation into Merritt's disappearance would uncover the name Sam Haig, lead them to the real Sam, who knew and had recent contact with Lyle Jennings. 

Going further into this, and this is partly why I ended up thinking Lyle-Sam and Merritt only spent one night together and the 'S' clue was sort of red herring-ish, it did not look like Lyle knew about the Lila Graham credit card. Liam Taylor, with whom Merritt had an ongoing affair, saw the card at some point. There was no compelling indication that Lyle did.  

The urgency with which Lyle killed Sam was notable. He made sure that if the police connected Merritt to 'Sam Haig', they would look no further because Sam Haig died the day before Merritt was kidnapped. If Lyle knew that the hotel had no record of Merritt, only Lila Graham, he might still have killed Sam just to tie up loose ends, but there would not have been urgency to it. 

Did Lyle know about the Lila Graham credit card?

After laying all that out, let's try to challenge this theory that Lyle did not know about the Lila Graham credit card. When Lyle picked up the keys at the front desk of the hotel, would he not have had to give Lila Graham's name? Not necessarily. He could have just given his name since Merritt signed him up as an authorized guest. Could the front desk have said something like, 'Ms Graham is waiting for you'? Sure, but all that would give him was the name. Merritt could have paid in cash and given a false name. There was no reason for him to think Merritt had a credit card under a different name unless she told him or he saw the card. 

So, we have no evidence to suggest that Lyle knew about the Lila Graham credit card.

Did Lyle-Sam and Merritt really just spend one night together as lovers?

It's not a comfortable theory. Looking at the story overall, it would make better sense for me for Merritt and Lyle-Sam to have been lovers a bit longer. It would better explain Merritt's impulse to want to introduce him to her brother William. It would better explain her guilt about him when her captors told her he died because of her. But, we don't have solid evidence of this. Realistically, this could be another one of those small bumps in the story, which I discussed in the finale recap. So, let's call this 50/50, at least until we get more information. 

Now onto some Dept. Q news:

🔎Collider has this interview with Matthew Goode and series creator, writer, and director Scott Frank. Mr. Frank said that he has a ‘great idea for a second season’ and that he might just do six episodes. That would be Slow Horses season length, so I wouldn’t mind that. Netflix, please end this torment and announce a season two already! 

🔎TVLine reports that Netflix has submitted Dept. Q for Emmy consideration. Crossing my fingers that an Emmy nod will mean significantly higher viewership and a multiple season renewal. 

🔎How did I not notice that DI James Hardy was also Jory Cassel of Game of Thrones? I loved Jamie Sives’s performance since the first episode of Dept. Q.

That’s all for now! Have a lovely Dept. Q weekend, everyone!

You can access Recap Lab's full coverage of Dept. Q via this link.

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