Episode 1×05 Recap

Please note that this recap has spoilers about a larger reveal at the end of the series and may contain other spoilers too. Proceed with caution if you haven’t seen series 1 yet.

Episode 1×05

Admittedly, before writing this recap I had taken a bit of a break from watching Dept. Q, plus I’ve nerdily been distracted with John Simm in the past five or so months (which is actually also entirely Dept. Q’s fault), but as soon as I put episode 5 on and heard the first few chords of Carlos Rafael Rivera’s striking soundtrack, the old, familiar Dept. Q feeling was right back. I guess some things really stick with you.

This episode picks up with Carl and Akram following some of the loose ends, one of which is the climbing park where Sam Haig was found dead, so they go there and talk to the owner Paul Evans. They don’t find out much and the one picture there of Haig has him flipping off to the camera with his hand conveniently right in front of his face.

Apparently, Haig was found in the morning when Evans was preparing to open for the day, Haig’s car still in the car park. Evans’ clearly pregnant wife speculates he was free-soloing and might have just fallen. She also makes it clear that she didn’t like Haig and her husband being friends, since Sam was apparently a bad influence on Paul. She goes as far as calling him a psycho. Evans says he doesn’t know anything about a relationship between Haig and Merritt Lingard.

Carl and Akram spend a moment outside to contemplate the free-solo climb as they look up the cliff wall that became Haig’s demise. Carl quips, “So he climbed all the way up there without any ropes? Doesn’t exactly scream murder so much as what the fuck did you expect?”

Akram points out all the things that don’t line up about the ‘accident’, like for instance Sam’s car keys never having been found, yet his equipment bag was inside the car. Carl gives him a curious look. “I won’t argue. It’s all wrong.” There’s something fishy here, no? Or in Akram’s words, “Where I come from, when facts are being so clearly ignored, it’s never because of incompetence.” Cue the opening credits.

Back in the past, Merritt tries her best to keep her body halfway functional by doing push-ups. In the background you can see her scribbles on the hyperbaric chamber wall. It reads, ‘Sam Haig’ and ‘Enemies of Sam Haig’ as possible people who might have locked her up, together with ‘Stephen Burns’ and ‘Graham Finch’.

Her memory goes back to her first meeting with Sam. This was at a restaurant where Merritt went out of sheer curiosity because she doesn’t make it a habit to meet with reporters. She reluctantly sits down with Haig because something’s got her intrigued. And if you look very closely at Haig’s eyes, you’ll notice a significant detail there that will become an important clue later on.

Haig is interested in Merritt’s background, Mhòr in particular, because Merritt never talks about it, or herself. But Merritt has no intention to divulge details about her personal life, so she deflects to talk about something apparently being rotten in her department.

I presume this little snippet of dialogue is a nod to the Danish book series, since Sam says, “So is there? Something rotten in Denmark?” There’s also subtle use of other metaphors here, like Sam talking about Merritt being on a leaky boat. Because he knows it’s going to sink in the near future, once he captures Merritt and locks her up.

In this meeting, Merritt totally brushes Sam off, gives him the cold shoulder. I’m trying to decide if there’s already sparks flying here, but I don’t know. That said, clearly Sam is intrigued. Or should I say Lyle since this isn’t actually Sam Haig, it’s Lyle Jennings posing as him.

There are many comments on social media that criticise why Merritt didn’t recognise Lyle as an adult. And I’m not sure there’s a good answer to it, other than that perhaps Merritt is someone who isn’t great with recognising faces. Some people just don’t have a knack for it and will easily forget what people look like, especially if you don’t have any contact with them for some 20 years. People change. And I can say from personal experience that there were many people at my 25-year high school reunion whom I didn’t recognise at all and whose names I couldn’t even remember. People’s brains and acuity for recall just work differently…

Back at Department Q, Rachel decides to come for a personal visit to the basement. Her intent is to berate Carl on missing yet another appointment, but Carl isn’t actually there. She only happens upon Rose who is trying to move a desk around.

When Rachel inquires about Carl’s whereabouts, Rose quickly figures out that Rachel is the cover for Dr. Sonnenberg, who Rose seems intimately familiar with. Conversely, Rachel quickly figures out that Rose has compulsive tendencies. She actually admits to all the mental health issues she’s been diagnosed with. PTSD, OCD, ADHD and BED.

As Rachel looks at the case file whiteboard, the two of them talk about Carl. Rose says that Carl doesn’t really lie about the big stuff – just about himself. And then Rose spills to Rachel how she is still struggling with being in that car accident that killed a pedestrian. And when the topic comes back to Carl, Rose says she thinks he feels responsible. For everything. And you know what? He probably does. Maybe not everything, but definitely Hardy getting shot.

The next step in Carl and Akram’s investigation is to drive to the Scottish Telegraph to talk to Sam Haig’s editor. The guy doesn’t seem to have much in the way of useful information. Sam was very secretive to the point of being paranoid. I love how Akram actually successfully deescalates the conversation when Carl starts getting a bit prickly. They’re becoming a really good team.

Meanwhile, Rose is giving Hardy a private video tour of their new digs. The basement is of course less than glamorous but Hardy seems to enjoy Rose’s commentary as he peels a tangerine and carelessly drops the peel to the floor for the nurse to come pick it up. Is this supposed to be a subtle hint that Hardy’s right-hand coordination is much improving?

Hardy is interested in seeing the case file board and Rose gets him a few close-ups. Hardy remarks on the bird logo on the baseball cap. He insists it’s a cormorant and not like Rose insists a boobrie. And Hardy should know, because apparently he used to be a fisherman. He asks Rose to scan the image and send it over to him.

Speaking of Carl and Akram being a good team, what Akram can’t de-escalate in time is Carl running into Dennis Piper again – the reporter who asked uncomfortable questions about the shooting at the press conference. He confronts Carl about PC Anderson’s fiancée, and it raises Carl’s hackles in record time to the point where he pushes Piper into a desk. As Carl walks away, riled up and angry, Piper remarks, “She blames you, Morck. Says it should have been you who died.” Carl stops and turns around. “And maybe it should.” Yeah, there it is – survivor’s guilt comes knocking.

We don’t know where Carl goes next, presumably home or somewhere to cool off, because it’s just Akram on his own who returns to the basement. Rose is nowhere to be seen, but Moira is there, studying the case board. Akram knows this can’t be good. There’s some banter about the case, but what Moira really wants to talk about is how there were reports of a young man being admitted to hospital after his windpipe was crushed at the Lingard house. “I only bruised it,” Akram corrects.

Moira wonders where Akram learned such techniques and he evades by saying he grew up in a very rough part of Syria. She makes it very clear to Akram that he is to cease playing policeman and is only there to assist Carl. Non-violently. Akram eats the humble pie and says, “Of course.”

In the hospital, Hardy is not oblivious to the latest press coverage debacle that Carl got himself into when some of his porridge drips on the article written by Dennis Piper with the headline ‘It Should Have Been Me’. Aptly, Carl just enters Hardy’s room, carrying two cups of coffee. Hardy greets him with, “Dunno who’s doing your PR, but I’d be asking for a refund.” A bit of light-hearted banter ensues, and it’s good to see them verbally sparring with Hardy being out of bed, sitting in a wheelchair. It’s definitely a big step up from Hardy apathetically giving Carl the silent treatment that we witnessed a few weeks ago.

They talk about Carl being a mentor to Rose (which he vehemently denies) and the Lingard case because Hardy has actually started digging. He tells Carl he’s figured out the motive for Merritt’s disappearance is money. Apparently she had a sizeable inheritance from her mother’s side of the family which is sitting in a trust account in the Channel Islands bank on Jersey.

And then Dr. Loo interrupts who talks about Hardy’s rehab. Upon Carl’s inquiries, she mentions that Hardy may be able to walk again, which throws Carl for six. And apparently this has been known for four months with Hardy never mentioning it. And, yeah, Carl is pissed that he was kept in the dark about it.

He goes back to work, to the basement, and the team goes over the case again. Carl goes over some of the finer points of the story, and then he mentions the money trail. Hardy pipes in via video call and he and Carl tease each other a bit, with Carl justifying his rambling by insisting he’s being a mentor to Rose. Until they land on the topic of Hardy keeping the pertinent detail about his rehab from Carl, which he’s still salty about.

Akram mentions that William’s trust fund is controlled by a certain woman they talked to before, namely Dr. Wallace, and suddenly it all falls into place. They need to talk to the good doctor again.

The detail about Carl being a mentor is interesting here, because it’s an aspect that showcases Carl’s progress. If we recall from the beginning of the series, he started out by having zero interest in his work and zero interest in actively participating in anything. He had given up on himself and his job. And now, the Lingard case has infused some life back not just into Hardy but also Carl. And that to the point where he wears the mentoring badge with pride, where he feels that he can be valuable in trying to teach fledgling Rose something about detective work. That’s actually a huge step forward for Carl.

Moira, in the meantime, takes the initiative to speak to Dr. Irving about Carl and his lack of compliance. A bit of a power play ensues, or perhaps rather a blame game since Rachel clearly tells Moira she can’t be held responsible for Carl’s recklessness and unpredictability, and she refuses to just rubber-stamp his papers and send him on his merry way, while Moira implies that she’s not responsible either since she mandated the therapy sessions.

They both know Carl and his anger management issues make him a loose cannon. In fact, it might be Moira who’s in trouble here since she thought that putting Carl quietly in the basement on cold cases couldn’t possibly do any harm, but now that’s pretty much backfired.

It’s also interesting that Rachel seems to think Carl might resort to self-harm, which Moira vehemently negates. And then basically takes Rachel off Carl’s case, seeing how it’s not going anywhere. And Rachel seems to be just fine with that.

Rose, Carl and Akram go back to Egley House to speak to Dr. Wallace – and seeing this scene again now is actually kind of a mindfuck because I’ve been to the location where this was shot and it just looked so different in reality! But anyway, Carl talks to Wallace again while Rose and Akram go upstairs to try and find William. Which they eventually do, but he’s conked out to the hilt on drugs to the point where he’s barely conscious.

Wallace denies that she took William’s case on because of the money and that she doesn’t even have access to the money since there’s a trustee in charge of it. But Carl isn’t so easily intimidated by her highbrow vocabulary and pretty much exposes her as an embezzler. To which she replies she’d like to speak to her lawyer. Nicely done, Carl.

Rose and Akram get William downstairs, but not before they’ve got a glimpse at all the drawings that William made. And I can’t help but think that maybe they should have taken a much closer look, because some of them depict Lyle Jennings very accurately.

They take William to Claire’s house, and the reunion is loving and sweet. And Carl looks on with a self-satisfied barely noticeable smile on his lips. Beneath that abrasive exterior is a little softie hidden somewhere. The contentedness doesn’t last long, however. When he gets home, he sees Jasper driving off on the back of a scooter. (Which is another mindfuck because I’ve been on that street, too. Leith is a really cool place, though. Carl and Vic chose well in terms of place of residence.)

Carl is now all riled up, so he goes and vents his wrath on Martin. (Casual nod to a children’s picture of ickle beaming Jasper standing on the table next to the couch.) Martin’s also seen the newspaper article about Carl going off the rails, so of course he mentions it to Carl who tells Martin to fuck off. What we learn here is that Martin is working on a PhD thesis on Kierkegaard. And that he’s been trying to flirt with a woman at his life drawing classes. (Which disappoints me a little because there is absolutely no reason for Martin not to be gay as per the Adler-Olsen books.) And that Carl tends to fall asleep on the couch a lot.

Somehow the continuity on this is all messed up because when Carl gets home and Jasper drives off, it’s dark outside. When Carl subsequently talks to Martin, through the kitchen window it looks like daylight is only just waning, and then Carl goes back to the police station after this, where Rose says she needs to get to the laundry before it closes, which presumably would be, I dunno, before 6 pm? I know this is not something that people usually notice, but it’s still a little fucky.

Looks like Carl has decided not to fall asleep on the couch and instead go back to Basement Q where Rose is just about to leave to check out a potential lead. Which Carl is actually impressed by. Looks like the mentoring is paying off. What we learn here is that Carl seems to be pretty well read since he seems to be fairly intimate with Chaucer and The Canterbury Tales.

Rose’s lead takes her and Akram to kind of a dinky laundry that Merritt went to once. (True to form, it’s pissing down rain outside…) And bingo, they speak to Kirsty Atkins’ mother who is seriously pissed off at Merritt for being too cowardly to apologise to them for getting Kirsty locked up. So why was Merritt looking for Kirsty just a week before she went missing?

Attentive viewers might have noticed a little detail here when Rose introduces Akram as ‘DC Salim’ and that makes Akram break out in a little bashful smile.

Meanwhile Carl is called into Moira’s office. She tells him the story how her first partner was knifed down in a pub and how she still feels guilty for not being able to prevent it. But she never thought she wished it had been her. Carl acknowledges that he overreacted and Moira tells him in no uncertain terms that Carl is walking on thin ice. People want him stood down, so he really needs to be careful with any more bad press.

Carl counters that it was kind of a dick move to put him in the basement to do someone else’s dirty work. And then they talk about why Fergus Dunbar was assigned to the Lingard case. Was there something a little more untoward going on? Did she pull Fergus from the investigation for a reason? Or because of external pressure? Moira emphatically says no. And she tells Carl to keep his temper the fuck in check.

I really love the part of this scene where Moira asks Carl if he’s alright. And not in a “I’m your boss and I’m ticking a box” kind of way but instead in a “I genuinely care about your wellbeing” way. Her voice is soft and concerned. And of course Carl deflects and says he’s fine. Which we all can see without effort that he’s very much not. We also learn that she and Carl go way back and that she put her arse on the line for him multiple times in the past, so it makes me wonder if the two of them were maybe even partners or Moira his mentor at some point when he first came to Edinburgh.

Akram and Rose then talk to Kirsty Atkins in prison. What’s immediately apparent is that she must have been the victim of some kind of assault in the past because she has a nasty scar all over the right side of her face and her eye is also scarred over.

She’s up to be released on parole in the near future, so she’s not willing to talk, afraid that this will screw up her soon to be regained freedom. Akram quickly sees through her passive-aggressive façade and calls her out on it, then presents a theory of how Kirsty must have told Merritt something important, in the hopes that Merritt would help her. But Merritt apparently bailed on Kirsty.

Rose asks what the information was, but Kirsty is steadfast that she won’t testify in court. Kirsty was in a women’s refuge for a while and befriended another woman who was a victim of repeated domestic abuse from her husband. This was Andrea Finch, Graham Finch’s wife, and she was afraid for her life. Kirsty had an agreement with Merritt that she would testify against Graham Finch in exchange for early release, but then Merritt changed her mind because she thought Kirsty wouldn’t be a credible witness because of repeated drug use. And that despite Kirsty telling Merritt that she was receiving threats, likely instigated by Finch himself.