Chapter 6 (Lupin)

Chapter 6 is the first episode of the second part of the Netflix series Lupin, and the sixth episode overall.

Synopsis
Assane searches for Raoul with Guédira in tow. In a deserted Normandy mansion, a heated confrontation erupts between Léonard and Assane.

1995
Assane runs up to Claire as she is leaving the Paris music conservatory, and asks her how her violin lesson went. Noticing her evident frustration, Assane asks her what the matter is, and if he did anything wrong. Claire tells Assane that not everything revolves around him, and walks away. Assane follows her to the shop of a local luthier, where she reveals that another student has purposefully destroyed her violin. The luthier, Lorenzo Callagari, informs Claire that having the violin repaired will cost her more than simply buying a new one. Claire is distressed, as she has an audition in several days' time. Lorenzo offers her a violin from his shelf, and Claire loves it; however, its price of 3,000 francs exceeds her budget substantially.

Assane, who has (unbeknownst to Lorenzo and Claire) been standing in a corner the entire time, emerges and points out a sign demonstrating that the instrument can be rented for 350 francs a day. Lorenzo responds that this is true, but that he will not rent it to Assane. Both Assane and Claire are shocked by the refusal, and demand to know the reason for it. Lorenzo says that as it is his shop, he can decide. Claire drags Assane out of the shop; before they exit, Assane calls Lorenzo a racist.



Lamenting the problem with Benjamin, Assane, taking inspiration from Arsène Lupin, decides to return to the shop to steal an instrument for Claire, returning it after she has passed her audition. With Benjamin on lookout, Assane breaks into the shop from the rear entrance while Lorenzo is out on a break. He moves inelegantly through the shop, finds the most expensive violin, and leaves with it just before Lorenzo re-appears on the scene.

Later, as she is leaving the conservatory, Claire spots Assane sitting on the green waiting for her with a violin case on his lap. Upon opening the case, Claire is astonished, asking him what he did to get the violin inside. Assane claims that he didn't steal it; rather, it was loaned to him. Amused and grateful, Claire asks Assane to come to her audition.

Sitting with Benjamin at the audition, Assane is overjoyed by the quality of Claire's playing and her happiness with the instrument. However, in the middle of her performance, Lorenzo enters with two police officers and an official who halts the proceedings, leading Assane and a highly dismayed Claire out of the building. As he is being escorted from the premises, Assane comments to Benjamin that he really believed that they were as good as Arsène Lupin.

Present day
On the morning of December 11th, Youssef Guédira boards a train bound for Normandy, unbeknownst to him the same one that Assane, Claire, Raoul and Léonard are on. In Étretat, he sees Claire desperately calling for Raoul. Turning his gaze from the beach, he witnesses Raoul being forcefully shoved into a car by Léonard, and being driven away. Finally, he sees Assane (who looks exactly like his witness sketch) yelling Raoul's name. Walking up behind him, Guédira addresses him with the question "Lupin?"



Assane turns around, confused. Guédira asks if he is looking for a boy dressed up in an Arsène Lupin costume. Claire runs up to the pair and breathlessly responds that they are searching for a fourteen-year-old, mixed-race boy in a top hat. Guédira tells them that he saw someone fitting this description in a fight with another man in the parking lot. Followed by Guédira, Claire and Assane run towards the lot, but Raoul is nowhere to be found. Guédira tells them that they left in a grey BMW. Assane demands to know what the man who took Raoul looked like; Guédira says that he was a skinny, bearded Black man wearing a beige raincoat.

Recognizing the description as matching the man who spoke to Raoul on the train, Claire is horror-struck and asserts that the kidnapping was Assane's fault. Assane grabs an antenna off of a parked car and uses it to unlock another car; Claire, growing increasingly frantic, yells that she will call the police, while Guédira awkwardly stands in the middle of the situation. Assane urges Claire to calm down, telling her to trust that he will bring Raoul back and not to call the police. Claire angrily responds that she stopped trusting Assane long ago.



Having unlocked the car, Assane gets inside, while Guédira enters into the passenger's seat, claiming that he wants to help Assane find Raoul. Although somewhat suspicious, Assane agrees to let him come along. The two drive off, leaving Claire in Étretat. When two officers answer her call, Claire is disappointed in the lack of urgency in their response to the situation, and stalks off.

In the car, Guédira checks a map and figures out that Leonard must have passed through the town of Bourneville. He tells Assane that they need to stop there so that he can call his wife. Léonard, meanwhile, takes the now bound and gagged Raoul from the back seat of his car and shoves him into the trunk. He pulls into Bourneville and exits the car to make a phone call in a local pub. Léonard's reception is hostile; the barman pointedly tells him that the phone is for paying customers only, so Léonard buys a soft drink. He calls Hubert Pellegrini, telling him that he has kidnapped Raoul. Hubert is irritated with Léonard, reminding him that he wanted Assane and warning him to fix the situation.



Léonard watches warily from his car as Assane and Guédira pull into Bourneville. In the pub, Guédira calls Sofia Belkacem and tells her that he is with "Paul Sernine." Belkacem is stunned, and agrees to drive out to Normandy to help him with the situation. Assane enters as Guédira is finishing his call, and asks the customers whether they have seen Raoul. He is treated as coldly as Léonard was moments earlier. Suddenly, Guédira notices Léonard driving away. Assane and Guédira dash to the car and begin tailing him. The two manage to follow Léonard closely for some time, but he eventually manages to lose them and drives to an abandoned mansion in the Norman countryside. He breaks in and ties Raoul to a chair.

Assane and Guédira find Léonard's tracks and follow him to the mansion. Léonard stands at the window, holding a gun. While Guédira darts into the bushes, Assane marches straight onto the grassy meadow in front of the house. In the distance, he hears Raoul shouting for him through the gag. Assane calls Raoul's phone, which is in Léonard's possession, and tells him that if he hurts his son, Assane will kill him.



As Assane is walking away, Guédira runs up to him and suggests calling the police, but Assane refuses, claiming that the police are either incompetent, corrupt or both. Guédira disputes this, but Assane informs him that the man who kidnapped Raoul had the police working for him. When they are both in the car, Assane asks Guédira how long he has until the other police officers arrive, revealing that he is aware of Guedira's identity as a detective. Guédira admits that he has been looking for Assane for weeks, and that he was the only one who figured out Assane's modus operandi. Assane tells Guédira that he is like Ganimard, the policeman who tried in vain to catch Arsène Lupin in the original stories. He leaves the vehicle, and Guédira finds that he has been tied up.

Night falls, and Assane quietly steals into the house searching for Raoul and Léonard, who is lying in wait with a gun. When he encounters Léonard, the two begin grappling with each other, Assane using a stick to prevent Leonard from being able to fire his weapon. The fight ends with Assane throwing Léonard out of a window. As he looks for Raoul in the rest of the house, Léonard, injured but alive, gets up. Unbeknownst to Assane, Léonard has locked Raoul back into the boot of the car, onto which he proceeds to throw large amounts of gasoline. The vehicle goes up in flames after Léonard tosses his lighter inside; afterwards, Léonard texts Assane, telling him "next time try the car."



Dashing out of the house, Assane is horrified to see the burning car. Immediately assuming the worst, he falls to his knees and breaks down in tears. At that moment, Belkacem arrives on the scene, holding a gun to Assane's head. Assane tries to tell her that his son is in the car, but she thinks he is lying and handcuffs him. Belkacem watches, annoyed, as Assane apologizes repeatedly and wails his son's name into the night.

Cast

 * Omar Sy as Assane Diop
 * Ludivine Sagnier as Claire
 * Hervé Pierre as Hubert Pellegrini
 * Soufiane Guerrab as Youssef Guédira
 * Shirine Boutella as Sofia Belkacem
 * Adama Niane as Léonard
 * Daniel Martin as Lorenzo
 * David Forgit as police officer 1 (Le Havre)


 * Vincent Furic as police officer 2 (Le Havre)
 * Benoit Tachiores as cafe owner
 * Véronique Royer as police officer (1995)
 * Mamadou Haidara as young Assane
 * Ludmilla Makowski as young Claire
 * Etan Simon as Raoul
 * Adrian Valli De Villebonne as young Benjamin

Music

 * original music by Mathieu Lamboley

Trivia

 * Although the action takes place on December 11th, most of the episode was shot in the summer of 2020.
 * In the flashbacks, which take place in 1995, Claire is told that a new violin will cost her 3000 francs, the currency of the time. France switched to the euro in 2002.