Dept. Q: What happened to Lyle Jennings in the Netflix crime thriller? Character's fate explored

Netflix's latest Scottish crime series, Dept. Q, based on a ten-book series by Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen, finally solved Merritt Lingard's case in the finale.

As Carl Morck and Akram investigated, Merritt's abduction was tied to a robbery she planned with her high-school sweetheart, Harry Jennings. Since Merritt wanted to escape her sad island life, she planned to steal her mother's jewelry with Harry.

However, the heist went haywire after her brother William discovered them and was hit on the head, which left him paralyzed.

After much build-up, the Dept. Q finale revealed that Merritt was abducted four years ago by Lyle and Ailsa Jennings, Harry's family. Since Harry died while escaping the police, his family blamed his girlfriend for his death.

In addition, it was Lyle and not Harry who hit William in the head all those years ago and caused his paralysis.

In the Dept. Q finale, Carl and Akram managed to reach the hyperbaric chamber Merritt is held in, and Akram fatally shoots Lyle and saves Merritt. Lyle is killed, and justice is served.

More on this in our story.

Dept. Q: Lyle Jennings was the actual mastermind who abducted Merritt Lingard

The central mystery in Dept. Q, which plagued Carl Morck and Akram, was who abducted Merritt Lingard? The series solved the mystery in the finale, and it was revealed that Merritt was abducted and kept in a torture chamber by Ailsa and her son, Lyle Jennings.

Lyle was the troubled and anti-social brother of Merritt's boyfriend Harry, who was deeply disturbed after her brother's death and blamed Merritt for it.

As a teenager, he was diagnosed with Enhanced Personality Disorder and sent to a correctional facility for troubled boys, where he met a fellow teenager named Sam Haig. After Harry's death, Lyle became even more disillusioned, and after he reconnected with Sam as an adult, he started seeing his dead brother in him.

After Merritt realised who her captors were in Dept. Q, Lyle revealed that he killed Sam Haig at a rock climbing centre and staged it as an accident. He later stole his identity to start a relationship with Merritt and looked for the right opportunity to abduct her.

In addition, Lyle also used Sam's background as an investigative journalist to get close to Merritt. He was able to abduct her because she had told him what time she would be traveling to Mhòr (by the ferry), thinking he was Sam.

Merritt was saved, and Lyle was killed in the Dept. Q finale

While Carl and Akram had no clue about where Lyle and his mother could be holding Merritt in Dept. Q, they learned about his troubled childhood. As a teenager, Lyle had also kidnapped a child and locked him in the hyperbaric chamber.

This was the lead the detectives needed to solve the case, and they reached the abandoned warehouse of the Shoebird Oceans System, where Merritt was being held in the torture chamber by Lyle.

As Carl and Akram were still trying to work on the chamber's controls with Hardy's help on the phone, Lyle arrived and shot both of them. However, Akram was only pretending to be dead, and he later reached for the mastermind, stabbed and grabbed the gun from him, and finally shot him dead.

Carl and Morck saved Merritt, who was then reunited with her brother William. As for Lyle's mother, Ailsa, she committed su*cide before Carl could have arrested her.

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Also Read: Dept. Q creator and Matthew Goode reveal details about Season 2

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