Chapter 4 (Lupin)

Chapter 4 is the fourth episode of the first part of the Netflix series Lupin.

Synopsis
To retrieve incriminating evidence on Hubert, Assane enlists the help of a journalist. Officer Guédira connects the dots around the Louvre heist.

Plot
During the night, Assane flies a drone into Hubert Pellegrini's mansion and photographs several papers in his study. After the drone is caught by security guards, Hubert finds a note attached to it that reads “I’ll get you.”



Dumont is having breakfast in a café when Assane sits down across from him and introduces himself. Dumont asks Assane what he wants; Assane states that he wants to know more about Hubert. Although initially reluctant to respond, Dumont agrees once Assane promises to stop harassing him and his family. He advises Assane to contact a journalist named Fabienne Bériot, who had nearly been successful in taking down the entire Pellegrini business empire.

Assane reads about Fabienne’s work online. After she published a book titled Dirty Money: The Pellegrini System in 1996, Hubert was able to saddle her with a record defamation lawsuit, after which her career lay in tatters and she was ostracized by her fellow journalists. Currently, Fabienne lives alone with her dog J’accuse. Assane orders a copy of Fabienne's book.



A few days later, Fabienne arrives at her house and finds Assane there waiting for her. Upon seeing Assane, Fabienne is surprised but not afraid. Assane reveals that he has read her book; she responds that “Fabienne” doesn’t exist any more, having been silenced by Hubert Pellegrini. Assane tells her that the two of them share a common enemy in Hubert. Each time the name “Pellegrini” is mentioned, J’accuse barks; Fabienne admits that she taught him to do this upon hearing the name, but remains suspicious of Assane’s motives, initially believing him to be a spy sent by Hubert. Assane then tells her about Babakar’s arrest and subsequent death in prison, and suggests that they work together to take Hubert down once and for all.

In the police station, Laugier, Belkacem and Guédira tell Dumont that they believe his kidnapper and the culprit behind the Louvre incident to be one and the same, pointing out that Dumont was in charge of the original investigation into the Queen's Necklace, and that both cases were marked by a similar ostentatious showmanship. Guédira decides, against the wishes of the other two, to bring up his Arsène Lupin idea. Dumont mocks Guédira’s theory but allows the detectives to begin taking evidence from witnesses in order to build a physical description of the Louvre thief. Afterwards, Dumont texts Hubert Pellegrini, arranging a meeting in order to discuss Babakar.

The next day, Assane is surprised to find Fabienne waiting for him in a car outside his house. She tells Assane that since Hubert destroyed her career, she has nothing left to lose, and wants to take revenge. Assane invites Fabienne into his house, where she asks him what year his father was framed for the necklace theft. Upon finding out that it was 1995, Fabienne reveals that Pellegrini was on the verge of financial ruin during this period, and posits that he framed Babakar to collect the insurance from the necklace. Assane tells Fabienne that he needs solid proof to be able to accuse Hubert of criminal activity.

Fabienne brings Assane to the offices of The Objector, the newspaper for which she worked for the entirety of her journalistic career. She tells Assane that in the archives, there is a tape which contains incriminating footage of Hubert. Working together, Assane and Fabienne are able to infiltrate the building and procure the evidence. The tape itself shows Hubert selling arms to Malaysian terrorists, who went on to use them to blow up the French embassy, killing eleven people. Assane remarks that in doing this, Hubert betrayed the nation of France.

Later, Hubert and Juliette are in a meeting with a group of investors when they receive news that a Twitter account with the handle “Salvator813” has posted a screenshot of the video, and is threatening to reveal the whole story if Hubert doesn’t confess to his role in the original necklace theft. Juliette is concerned about the contents of the tape, while Hubert insists that the whole thing is faked. Since Juliette wants good publicity for the foundation she is creating, Hubert decides to arrange a press conference about the tape.

Assane arrives for a visit with Raoul, and encounters Claire hastily leaving for a night out with a group of female friends. While the two are playing video games together, Raoul tells Assane that he enjoyed the Arsène Lupin book very much and has begun reading the sequels. He also reveals that Claire is not with friends, having instead gone for a date with a doctor she had started seeing. Assane claims to be happy for her, but Raoul is annoyed and tells him to stop pretending not to care.



With Benjamin, Assane watches Hubert give his press conference on TV. Hubert claims that the threat is little more than a rumor, and that the only reason he is giving the conference is because of his daughter's foundation. He challenges “Salvator” to show himself publicly and prove his allegations. Fabienne, standing amongst the members of the press covering the event, loudly asks Hubert if he believes himself to be responsible for the 1996 Malaysian terror attack. Visibly enraged, Hubert states that he has nothing further to say.

When Fabienne returns home, she finds Assane waiting for her. Assane compliments Fabienne on her performance, and she replies that it felt good to accuse Hubert publicly. She also informs Assane that one of his men attempted to follow her, but that she successfully evaded him. Assane is less certain that she is safe, but Fabienne assures him that due to her journalistic experience, she knows how to lose a tail. Assane reveals that his plan is to make a disguised appearance on the television show The Other Edition, which draws in two million viewers each night but which Fabienne derides as being “not journalism," although she eventually agrees to the plan and tells Assane that she wants to go with him. Assane insists that she remain in her home, believing she will be in less danger there. While Assane is putting on makeup to disguise himself for the broadcast, Fabienne tells him that he has brought her back to life.

Meanwhile, four of the attempts made by the police at creating a reconstruction of Assane’s face fall through, since all of the witnesses remember him differently. Furthermore, Dumont tells Laugier, Belkacem and Guedira that none of them look like his kidnapper. Guédira presents Dumont with a final attempt, made with the assistance of Vincent, one of the loan sharks who had helped Assane break into the Louvre. Although the fifth reconstruction looks almost exactly like Assane, Dumont continues to maintain that the man depicted was not his kidnapper, and orders the detectives to stop attempting to connect the two issues. As a punishment for his continued attempts to do just that, Guédira is removed from the case entirely. However, Guédira is suspicious that Dumont is lying about not recognizing the final facial reconstruction, noting his expression when he saw it for the first time. Belkacem admits that he is probably right, but tells him that they can’t investigate their own commissioner. Laugier, fed up and worried that the case may be assigned to another team, urges Guédira to let go of the whole thing.



Dressed as the aged and heavily bearded “Salvator,” Assane makes his appearance on The Other Edition. The presenter of the show admits that he did not expect Salvator to be so old, and Assane replies that those who fight against injustice should not be assumed to be young. He tells the presenter about the contents of the tape; however, when it is played, a significant amount of the footage has been wiped, with nothing incriminating remaining. Although the security guards attempt to keep him in the building, Assane successfully fights them off and storms out in a rage, removing his wig and false beard as he returns to Fabienne’s house. Hubert, secretly attending the broadcast, is called by Juliette, who has been watching on her computer. She informs him that she thinks that Salvator is actually Assane Diop. Juliette also reveals that Assane was the one she encountered at Luxembourg Gardens and the one who stole the necklace from the Louvre. Hubert tells Juliette that Assane believes the Pellegrinis to be responsible for Babakar’s death, and that he wants to ruin them.



Fabienne, upset by the broadcast’s failure to take down Hubert, hears a knock at the door. She opens it to find Léonard Koné, the man who had previously attempted to follow her. Léonard threatens Fabienne with death unless she tells him the whereabouts of Assane Diop. Defiantly, Fabienne tells him that a good journalist never reveals her sources. When Assane arrives at Fabienne’s home, he finds her hanging from a noose, echoing Babakar’s death 25 years earlier. Unable to hold back his emotions, Assane breaks down in tears. Later, he finds a note from Fabienne in his copy of her book, in which she professes that their fight is only beginning.

Back at the police station, Guédira sees Assane’s interview while filling out paperwork. Thinking that “Salvator” looks familiar, he compares the man on TV with the facial reconstruction that Dumont appeared to recognize, and sees that they are the same person.

Cast

 * Omar Sy as Assane Diop
 * Ludivine Sagnier as Claire
 * Clotilde Hesme as Juliette Pellegrini
 * Hervé Pierre as Hubert Pellegrini
 * Antoine Gouy as Benjamin Ferel
 * Soufiane Guerrab as Youssef Guédira
 * Vincent Londez as Romain Laugier
 * Shirine Boutella as Sofia Belkacem
 * Adama Niane as	Léonard
 * Anne Benoit as Fabienne Beriot
 * Vincent Garanger as Gabriel Dumont


 * Marie Barraud as Hélène Dumont
 * Xavier Lemaître as Thibault Du Quenoy
 * Jocelyne Vignon as Aminata
 * Christian Gazio as truck driver
 * Charles Dupisre as PTS officer
 * Azzeddine Ahmed-Chaouch as Thomas Gendre
 * Jean-Pierre Cormarie as Pellegrini's security guard
 * Abel Jafri as newspaper receptionist
 * Kevin Poncet as TV journalist
 * Olivier Ho Hio Hen as Malaysian man
 * Etan Simon as Raoul

Music

 * "Tech in Motion" by Charles Breteville, David Bagatelle, Jean Villa
 * "Meaning" (Choral Version) by Cascadeur

Trivia

 * Chapter 4 is the only episode so far that does not contain any flashbacks.
 * The video game that Assane and Raoul play is Horizon Zero Dawn, a single player game, but the scene is shot as if both are playing it.