Upamanyu Biswas
The third and fourth episodes of ‘Debt Q’ center on Carl’s increasing interest in Merritt’s complicated childhood and how it might have a bearing on her current whereabouts. In the previous episode, we saw Carl suffer an enormous panic attack as he announced the reopening of the Merritt Lingard case to the public. His situation turned so bad that Akram had to step in and save him from himself. In the meantime, William ran away from the hospital after seeing his sister’s face plastered over the news channels in the wake of Carl’s announcement. Thus, the stakes are laid down for an exciting continuation of the tale as our main characters try to piece together the puzzle of Merritt’s disappearance from a new angle while also potentially stumbling upon a much larger conspiracy in the process. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Carl and Akram Make a Trip to Mhor
At the start of episode 3, we see Merritt being tortured by her captors, who turn the air pressure up in her tank. It is seemingly a regular occurrence meant to keep her on her toes. However, with a renewed interest in her disappearance, the captors seem even more agitated about punishing her. Elsewhere, Carl and Akram take a boat ride across the sea, the same one that Merritt and William took on the day she went missing. Carl tries to figure out where William might be following his escape in the previous episode while also theorizing how Merritt could have gone missing on the boat. As they dive into the details, they end up traveling to Mhor, the island where Merritt spent her entire childhood. There, the first person they talk with is the police chief Cunningham.
During the conversation with the man, Carl, and Akram establish that Merritt’s brother William used to be a very bright and smart kid destined for greatness before he suffered his head injury. They learn that a boy named Harry Jennings was responsible for attacking William in his home, inflicting a serious head wound that had dire consequences for him later. After the brief chat, Carl and Akram decide to meet up with Merritt’s father, Jamie Lingard, who is still alive and a local resident of the region. Cunningham informs them that he is a fisherman who lives around the shores. They take a car up to his place, which they find unlocked, much to their surprise. Following a quick survey, they run into Jamie, who tells them that Merritt came back once despite leaving the island behind years ago. He believes that she stole a valuable necklace from her mom during the visit.
Carl Sets Finding William as a Priority
Determined to cover all the tracks, Carl orders Akram to focus on finding William. The latter is surprised by the order because the protagonist is not known to share his duties with someone else. Regardless, he gets on the job immediately. In the meantime, we catch up with William, who makes his way through the wilderness until he locates Merritt’s old house where they used to live before she went missing. He enters the place, only to find it in a state of decay and falling apart. He heads to a storage room inside, where he uncovers an intricate artwork he drew during his time in the house. After taking it with him, he lays down on the couch for some rest. However, he is woken up by a group of junkies, who threaten to kill him if he does not leave the place, their secret hideout. William flees before any violence breaks out.
At the police station, Carl is flagged down by Rose, who has an unorthodox proposition for him – she wants to join his Department Q team. Frustrated at the fact that Moira has continually benched her and kept her away from any action, Rose wants to have an active role in solving crimes, something she believes she can achieve by working under Carl. Although he finds her annoying, he decides to give her a chance, possibly swayed by the fact that she used to be close to Hardy, her official mentor before the paralysis. Carl takes her in on a temporary basis, announcing it as a testing period to prove herself as a valuable addition to the team. She is more than willing to oblige. Meanwhile, Akram stops by Merritt’s old house, where he runs into the same group of junkies who threatened William earlier.
Rose Joins the Team While Williams Remembers Something Important
Using some advanced martial arts techniques and his strangely stoic mannerisms, Akram intimidates the group into telling him about William and where he might be heading next. He and Carl team up together and head over to Claire’s place. After speaking with her for a while, they realize that William is sitting in her greenhouse, hiding from everyone else. The detective duo uses the opportunity to question William about what he knows of Merritt’s disappearance. William shows them the drawings he stole from the house, the ones he drew. One of them illustrates a faceless man wearing a hat with a bird symbol, while the other is a more magnified drawing of the bird symbol separately. William states that he saw the man with the bird hat both in the house and on the ship where Merritt went missing.
Carl and Akram drop William at Egley House once their interview is done. He is immediately placed under care, while Dr. Fiona Wallace is constantly vigilant about his actions. In a flashback scene, we see William and Merritt in their old house where they were living together. While watching television downstairs, he notices the faceless man with the cap staring inside the house amidst torrential rain outside. William is spooked by the incident and starts screaming. However, his sister is unable to understand the reason for the commotion. Meanwhile, in the police station, Rose does some research on the bird symbol William kept pointing out insistently. She realizes that it is a Boobrie bird, a mythological shapeshifting creature in Scottish folktales. Intriguingly, she finds the name “Boobrie” printed on the family boat parked outside Merritt’s childhood house in Mhor.
Rose Clears Her Doubts With Hardy
The fourth episode begins with a flashback of how Merritt was abducted on the boat by her captors. While walking through the area where the cars are parked, she is flagged by a mysterious woman. Her voice distracts Merritt momentarily, offering the man behind her the chance to slip a bag over her head and take her hostage. She then wakes up inside the pressure chamber, where she is kept locked up. Although she tries to intimidate her captors by stating that her kidnapping will attract the attention of cops around the nation, her captors seem uninterested in releasing her. In the present-day timeline, Carl goes back into therapy with Rachel, an arrangement that still bothers him because of his disinterest in opening up about the shooting. He gets through the ordeal before leaving her office in a hurry.
At the precinct, Carl stops by Bruce’s desk and offers insight into the ongoing investigation behind the shootings that led to his and Hardy’s injury. After working through various parts of the case and the incident from beginning to end, he manages to convince Bruce that more than one assailant carried out the attack. Meanwhile, Rose stops by Hardy’s hospital room, where she talks to him about Carl’s reasons for hiring her. He reassures her that Carl would not have taken her into the team unless he really wanted to, a statement that makes her feel better about the whole arrangement. Subsequently, she travels to Mhor to speak to Cunningham once again, a task Carl assigned to her in the previous episode. He believes that she can needle information out of him more effectively because she is a woman.
Carl’s Personal Life Takes a Hit
As Rose chats up Cunningham by praising his wealth of stories, she digs deeper into the Jennings case and their connection to Merritt’s brother William. Again, the necklace registered to Lila, Merritt’s mother, is mentioned by the police officer, suggesting that a robbery must have taken place. Rose suggests the idea of checking out the Jennings house by herself, an idea that Cunningham agrees to only if she is accompanied by his son. They head over to the house together, where Rose manages to get her hooks into the boy. He promises to send her a scanned copy of the files Cunningham was looking at after Carl and Akram made their visit. After they discover nothing at the Jennings house, Rose returns home with not much to show for her trip.
Back at his residence, Carl is surprised to find Victoria, his former lover, in the kitchen, having a conversation with Martin. After sending Martin away, he talks with her about Jasper, who ran away from home a while back because he discovered the voicemail Carl sent Victoria about being “better off alone.” Victoria tells Carl that Jasper will return soon enough, but he needs to change his attitude towards the boy before he does. Later, Martin also tries to breach the same topic with him under the guise of a special dinner arrangement. For the first time, Carl explains his reasons for being so closed off about surviving the attack that left Hardy paralyzed. It humanizes him even though he remains incredibly standoffish towards anyone who tries to help him alleviate some of his issues.
The Trio Embark on a Quest to Find Merritt’s Secret Lover
At the Department Q office, Carl, Akram, and Rose discuss what they’ve learned thus far about Merritt’s disappearance and how her childhood events fit into everything. As Akram goes through all of Merritt’s former cases as a prosecutor, he discovers a note in her files that comes across as a message left behind by a secret lover. The message is signed off by a person with the initial “S.” The first person the trio contacts to answer their doubts about his new clue is Sabrine Perera, Merritt’s former assistant who also happens to have a name that starts with S. After confronting her about the note, they learn that she has nothing to do with Merritt’s love life. As such, they track down Stephen Burns next, who also feigns ignorance on the matter, suggesting that he is also the wrong person.
Determined to follow up on the lead, Carl meets up with Liam Taylor, someone with close ties to him who also happened to work alongside Merritt. After a series of questions, Carl realizes that Liam slept with Merritt – an illicit affair he kept a secret from his wife. The protagonist promises to keep it hidden when going through his files. Later, while tracking down her transactions at the Prince’s Garden hotel, the trio learns that Merritt was fueling her secret life outside her professional ring under a false name – Lila Graham, her mother’s maiden name. It adds another layer of obfuscation and complexity to Merritt’s mystery. As we jump back to the past timeline, we learn that Merritt had another affair with a man named Sam Haig. She is questioned about him by her captors, who also tell her that he died after she ended things with him.
Read More: Dept Q Ending Explained
