Dept. Q | Season 1, Episode 7 | The Pliers: Survival Isn’t Pretty, But It’s Potato Tough

🥔 Welcome back, Couch Potatoes! 🥔

Episode at a Glance
Dept. Q’s seventh helping is a crispy casserole of pain, pluck, and pure potato grit!
Merritt’s survives the ultimate spud-powered torture chamber as she’s forced to channel her inner dentist with a pair of pliers (hold onto your tots—this is not for the faint of starch!). Meanwhile, Carl and Akram are tag-teaming suspects with existential-cop flair, Rose is pepper-spraying her way through love triangles, and the old woman’s wig takes flight in a moment of pure tater drama.

Here’s what’s sizzling in this tot-tally twisted episode:

🚗 Tag-Team Tactics: Carl and Akram roll up in their little red car (parking: zero, intimidation: 100), flipping the script on Steven Burns with existential banter and psychological chess. Akram’s “restraint” is the perfect foil to Carl’s sledgehammer style—tension so thick you could cut it with a potato peeler.

🦷 The Pliers & The Pain: Merritt’s infected tooth made worse by tooth squeeze from life in the chamber garners her no sympathy. Instead, she is forced to extract her own molar with a pair of pliers. It’s raw, squelchy, blood-and-tears survival horror. Her agony is matched only by the ghosts of her past—flashbacks to her family, her mother’s necklace, and the ache of abandonment. Trauma is layered like a perfect potato gratin.

🍊 Orange Peels & Rebellion: Merritt’s orange peels provide cover for her rebellion—a symbol of her plotting, and a little zest in her otherwise flavorless captivity.

⛳ Golf Clubs & Power Plays: Carl swings for intimidation points at the country club, tossing a golf club out the window and threatening Graham Finch and his lawyer. Akram’s dry wit keeps things crispy, while the plot thickens with every veiled threat.

🎥 Confession Booth Crunch: A grainy video from Sam Haig’s past reveals a lifelong affair with sociopathic behavior, trauma, violence, and secrets—Dept. Q’s recipe for emotional stew.

👩‍🎤 Rose’s Detective Glow-Up: Rose is a spud on a mission, grilling Paul Evans about his tangled ties to Sam Haig and Chloe. Armed with pepper spray, brass knuckles, and a “don’t-mess-with-my-tots” attitude, she peels back layers of lies and love triangles beneath the starkness of the Crag.

👨‍👦 Trauma Club, Tater Edition: Carl and Jasper’s “trauma club” heart-to-heart is a masterclass in vulnerability and father-son feels. “No one joins voluntarily, fella”—pass the tissues and the tots.

🦸‍♀️ Merritt’s MacGyver Moment: Armed with pliers and pure grit, Merritt sabotages her chamber, knocks out her captor (wig reveal: iconic!), and army-crawls for freedom—only to be yanked back into darkness. The tension is suffocating, the symbolism even richer.

Totty Takeaways
Dept. Q serves up a near-perfect platter of suspense, emotional depth, and spud-powered survival. Every character gets a golden moment, from Merritt’s blood-soaked resilience to Carl’s mug-on-the-puzzle sass. The chamber scenes are claustrophobic and crispy, the dialogue is salted with gallows humor, and the plot twists will have you clutching your tots.

🥔 Tator Tot Rating (1 to 5 tots)
Jen: 4.5 Tots 🥔🥔🥔🥔✨
Ray: 5 Tots 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔

 

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Dept. Q at IMDB

 

 

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Email the Show: [email protected]
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Email Ray: [email protected]

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