Dept. Q episode 1 recap: a shooting, a stabbing and a cold case reopens

Dept. Q is Netflix crime drama following detective Carl Morck (Matthew Goode) as he deals with the guilt of a shooting that left his partner paralysed and a younger officer dead.

As Carl returns to work, he's instructed to launch Department Q, a new arm of the police tasked with reopening cold cases. His first case, a missing prosecutor called Merritt Lingard, which threatens to throw his entire world into turmoil.

Here's a recap of everything that happened in Dept. Q episode 1.

The episode opens on bodycam footage showing police officers entering a home and finding a man dead in a chair with a knife in his head. One of the officers gives the one wearing the camera a hard time, telling him to check the windows. But, as he heads to the kitchen, a masked gunman appears. It cuts to black with only the noise of gunshots. Then, the man with the bodycam is seen lying dead on the floor along with the two other officers. One is still breathing. and the masked man stands over him before leaving.

It cuts to a woman sitting alone on a bench listening to a voicemail from a man who is insulting her and threatening to find her and kill her. He calls her Merritt. She heads to court and appears as a prosecuting judge questioning a man, called Graham Finch, about the death of his wife. She accuses him of pushing his wife down the stairs after an argument, but he denies it angrily. Instead, he says he found her dead, but he didn’t do it. He appeals to the jury saying that he was in love with her.

A man called Liam is waiting for Merritt outside afterwards. They discuss the trial and Liam says that the jury only heard that the man loved his wife. She says it was all for show, but Liam says it was very convincing. Liam leaves and Merritt’s boss approaches. He tells her she’s gone too far, but she says he should’ve let her use Kirsty’s evidence. He argues that it would’ve made it worse. He says Merritt had plenty of evidence without it, but instead she chose to say how she felt the man did it.

It cuts to the officer from the shooting stepping off a bus. He arrives for an appointment, but grows impatient. Just before he leaves, a woman steps out of her room and addresses him as Carl Morck. He asks if she’s Dr. Sonnenberg, but she says she’s Dr. Irving standing in for Sonnenberg as she’s broken her hip. He reluctantly steps inside her room. Carl notes there are tennis balls on the table and Dr. Irving says they’re therapeutic and he should try one. He agrees.

She asks him how it felt to get shot. When he's short with her, she expresses that it feels like he doesn’t want to be there and that she doesn’t want to be there either. Instead, she asks about the antidepressants he’s on and questions whether he’s been feeling depressed. He says no more than usual. As he won’t answer any of the questions properly, she gets up and sits at her desk to eat her lunch. She says this would normally be her lunch hour, but she’d wanted to fit him in.

They continue their conversation and he explains that he was still as hard to talk to before he got shot. She says that his file seemed to suggest he had a superiority complex. So, she asks if he is superior. He replies that it’s a low bar. He leaves with his tennis ball in hand, squeezing it as he stares at the police station.

In the station, a man reads a statement from Caroline Kerr, a witness. It says she was walking through the park with her eight-month-old when she saw a man in dark clothing go into the back door of a flat. He then left five minutes later. It cuts to Carl walking through the station and his colleagues staring at him. Back with the witness, Caroline says she wants to change her statement. She says she thinks she made a mistake. The officer says that one police officer is dead and another paralysed. She insists she thought she saw a man, but she now says that she didn’t.

Carl approaches a woman in the police station called Rose. She asks about his scars and he shows her the bullet went in his neck and out the other side. Carl is looking for someone, but Rose doesn’t know where she is. There’s a man sat waiting that Rose waves to. When Carl asks who he is, she says “Moira’s stalker”, but she says he’s joking and that he’s just after a job.

After the interview with Caroline, two officers walk through the station. One of them remarks that she was their only witness. As they step into her room, Carl is waiting in the dark. He addresses one of the officers as DCI Logan Bruce. The woman, Moira, wants to talk about Leith Park, where the shooting happened. DCI Bruce says it seemed like the place had been set up, pre-planned by a pro. Carl doesn’t believe it since he let two of the officers live. Carl says he’s back now, so he’ll take over. DCI Bruce storms out and Moira says he can’t investigate his own case. He says he just did it to wind DCI Bruce up.

Carl sits down at his desk and opens a file on his computer. It’s a digital reenactment of the shooting. He recalls the conversation he was having with the other officer, DI Hardy, about football before they went into the home in Leith Park. They met with the third officer, Anderson, at the door who told them that there was a dead man inside. DI Hardy asks if they should take a look, but Anderson wants to know where the response unit is. Carl thinks they should just head inside anyway, so they do.

Carl scrubs through the bodycam footage and watches the way he talks to Anderson. The final words he said to him before he died. He pauses on the masked man over and over again until he can’t watch anymore. He walks off and takes a pill, finding himself in front of a memorial board for Anderson. He overhears two officers discussing why Carl and DI Hardy were even showing up to a case that wasn’t theirs.

Carl walks over and sees the photo of the car that the witness had previously said she saw the shooter getting out of, before she changed her mind. Carl notices a discarded McDonald's under the wheel and asks where the nearest one is to Leith Park. He tells them they should’ve checked the CCTV there. Carl then says to the officers that it also shows that the shooter stayed, he thinks to watch who was coming to the house. The officers say they’ve been treating it as two separate crimes; the shooting and the stabbing. Carl thinks they should treat it as one.

Moira has been called into a meeting with two senior staff. They’re discussing why the rate of solving crimes is down and she argues that they don’t have enough staff. The men mention the Windley Case in Aberdeen. She says she knows a retired officer was still holding onto the case, unsolved for 16 years and then a DNA hit changed everything. The men says that the cabinet secretary wants to set up a new department, one focused on unsolved cases that are in the public’s interest. Moira argues she doesn’t have enough officers as it is. But, the men say the new department will have its own substantial budget. There’s a list of cases she can choose from; bigger the better. To this, she agrees.

Carl goes to visit DI Hardy, the officer paralysed in the shooting, in the hospital. He’s watching football. Carl tells him he’s gone back to the station, but Hardy doesn’t say anything. He just lays in bed. Elsewhere, Merritt arrives home. A woman is cooking in the kitchen and she takes over. On the news, the Finch murder is playing Merritt’s speech to the press. A man is watching and Merritt turns it off. The woman then sings to the man as he lays in bed. Merritt thanks her for staying with her brother, but tells her he’s not her baby boy. She makes her say it back.

Carl gets home and there’s loud music playing, both dance and opera singing. He bangs on a door and shouts for Martin. Martin comes out and says he’ll turn his down, but Carl needs to get the other music turned down too. He goes into the other bedroom, his son’s, who is playing a video game wearing a mask. Carl unplugs it all. He tells him to turn it down or he’ll throw his room out the window.

Meanwhile, Merritt is working on the Finch case on her laptop. She receives an email from an unknown sender with threats that suggest they might be watching her. At the police station the next day, the man who was waiting with Rose introduces himself to Moira as Akram Salim. He says he works in IT and that he has skills that would work in her department that he used in Syria. Moira walks away and tells Rose to get rid of him.

Carl rides the bus and a school student notices he’s a cop so asks him whether he’s shot anyone or seen anyone dead. At work, Moira tells Carl she wants him to run the new department. She tells him he can pick whatever cases he wants from the list and he can even have a contact at the Crown Court, if he’d like. He says he needs a car.

Moira hands him a key for his new office, Department Q, telling him it’s downstairs. When he gets down there, it’s pitch black and when he turns on the light, it’s a mess of discarded office equipment and old papers with old showers on the side. The sink runs dirty water and there’s piles of chairs, but Carl likes it.

Meanwhile, Rose tells Akram she can’t let him in the station anymore. He thanks her and hands back his pass. Downstairs, Carl is asleep and is awoken by Rose dropping the case files onto his desk. She says he’ll need help, so he goes off to find it. Upstairs, Moira is giving everyone new equipment. She even got herself a new TV and chair. He argues that his office isn’t getting the investment and she says she’ll find him an assistant.

Merritt heads into the ruling of the Finch case. The jury rules that the charge is not proven, acquitting him. He looks at Merritt and smiles. Her boss follows her out where the press are waiting, though she walks past them all. A series of unknown texts continue to threaten her. She replies saying she’d reported the messages, but the unknown sender sends only a laughing reply.

Downstairs in Dept. Q, Carl finds himself stuck under the weight bench trying to lift a bar and Akram arrives to help him out. He introduces himself as Carl’s new assistant. Carl calls up to Rose to complain and then tasks Akram with getting him a computer and a new TV from upstairs. Carl then receives a phone call from the hospital. He goes to see Hardy and says he heard he fell out of bed and was by the window. Hardy starts to cry and begs Carl, “please”. Before they can continue, Hardy’s wife and kids arrive.

It’s late and Merritt arrives home. She notices a car drive off suddenly. Inside, she finds the housekeeper, Claire, who says she’s been trying to call her. Merritt’s brother is banging his head against a wall whilst looking at a photo. It’s of them when they were younger and she notices he’s also drawn a picture of their Dad’s boat. She calms him down and suggests they go away for a little while.

Carl catches Akram looking through the boxes of case files. He’s initially angry, but then Akram says he’s read most of them and that back in Syria he was the only one looking for the people missing in cases like these. When Carl asks if he worked for the police, he says it’s complicated. Carl says he’s supposed to pick a case to work on and Akram says he knows some of these can be solved. He offers to read them all as Carl hasn’t, but Carl tells him it’s not his job. He tells him instead to categorize them. There’s keys on the desk for the car he asked for.

At a ferry dock, Merritt and her brother wait in the car to board. Elsewhere, Carl is ranting to DI Hardy about his new department. Hardy asks for a beer and to hear more about it. Now on the ferry, Merritt ignores missed calls and voicemails, throwing her phone into the water. Seeing this, her brother throws his hat and grows angry that he can’t get it back, hitting Merritt around the face.

Meanwhile, as Akram is sorting through the case files, he can’t help but return to look at one in particular. When Carl arrives, Akram has left it on the desk for him. On the boat, a police officer drives Merritt’s brother away, alone. And as Carl looks through the file on his desk, it’s Merritt’s file. An unsolved missing persons case from four years ago. Carl says she’s dead, but Akram says he doesn’t think so.

It then cuts to what appears to be the inside of a long, narrow container. Merritt is all alone and over the speakers, a voice says: “Good morning, Merritt” before blasting loud music. Outside of the container, an unknown figure stands watching over.

All episodes of Dept. Q are available to stream on Netflix.