Romain Laugier

Romain Laugier is a major character in the French thriller series Lupin. He is portrayed by Vincent Londez.

Laugier is a captain in the Paris police force, tasked with hunting down the thief of Marie-Antoinette's necklace. However, he comes to realize that his own superiors may be trying to impede his investigation.

Part 1


After Vincent, Kevin and Rudy crash their Ferrari through the roof of the Louvre while attempting to get away with what they believe to be the Queen's Necklace, Laugier and several other police officers are called onto the scene, where they arrest the three men. Laugier quickly becomes suspicious of Assane, noting that he has never heard of Nanobay, the company of which "Paul Sernine" is the CEO. However, Assane is defended by Thibault, the auctioneer, and after briefly searching him and finding only a Louvre-branded pen, Laugier lets him go. Detective Youssef Guédira, who is assisting Laugier, tells him that events remind him of an Arsène Lupin story; Laugier dismisses this input.

When the police lab reveals that the necklace that had been recovered from Vincent, Kevin and Rudy is a fake, Laugier immediately suspects "Paul Sernine," who has seemingly disappeard off the face of the earth, of having orchestrated the break-in. At around the same time, Juliette Pellegrini tips Laugier off that she will be meeting somebody in Luxembourg Gardens. At the park, Laugier plants cameras on several of his officers and disguises them in plain clothes, and hides recording equipment on Juliette. Soon, Assane cycles into the gardens wearing sunglasses, a helmet and a deliveryman's uniform, rendering him unrecognizable from far away. As he begins talking to Juliette, Assane blocks her microphone, preventing Laugier from being able to hear their conversation. When Assane leaves Juliette, Laugier orders his officers to catch him; however, Assane has ordered several other deliverymen to come to the park, and the confusion resulting from the police attempting to differentiate between a group of men who appear largely identical allows Assane to escape. Laugier is furious at having been outsmarted.



Afterwards, Laugier tells Juliette that based on the footage from the park, it appears that she and the suspect know each other, bringing up the possibility of collusion. Juliette demands to know if she is being interrogated, telling Laugier that she can call her lawyers and get him fired in a matter of minutes. She claims that she told the man in the park that the detective in charge of the necklace case was a moron who had procured a plastic fake instead. Laugier is humiliated and frustrated by her behavior.

When news breaks that Commissioner Dumont has been kidnapped from the town hall of the third arrondissement, Laugier leads a team of officers, including Sofia Belkacem and Guédira, to recover him. After Guédira manages to locate Dumont's phone in Pantin, a suburb to the northeast of Paris, the police begin moving towards the area. Upon arriving at the scene, they arrest a man with a van which had previously been seen outside the town hall. When they search the vehicle, they find a large box inside, which contains a clown doll and Dumont's phone. The man who owns the van tells them that he had been paid to drive around the town hall a number of times; Guédira begins to realize that Dumont is still on site, noting that the situation is similar to an Arsène Lupin plotline. Although both Belkacem and Laugier think that his idea is silly, they ultimately follow his hunch, and find Dumont shortly after Assane leaves the building.



Afterwards, Laugier, Belkacem and Guédira present Dumont with their theory that his kidnapper and the Louvre thief were the same person, noting that Dumont had been in charge of the original necklace investigation 25 years earlier, and that the two crimes appear to have a similar degree of showmanship. Dumont allows them to gather evidence, and they begin with facial reconstructions made based off of those who had seen "Sernine" or the kidnapper. However, all of the reconstructions look like different people, and Dumont tells them that none of them is his captor, including one made with the assistance of Vincent which looks exactly like Assane. Dumont removes Guédira from the case, and tells Laugier and Belkacem that if they do not begin to find success soon, he will give it to another team.



On December 11th, Laugier receives a text which purports to be from Paul Sernine on a train to Le Havre. Although he initially suspects that somebody is trolling him, the sender reveals that he knows about a pen of "Sernine's" that Laugier had examined during their first meeting at the Louvre. Stunned, Laugier calls the Le Havre police, telling them to meet the train at the station. As images of the arrested man filter back through to Paris, however, it becomes clear that it is not the one they are looking for (in fact, it is Léonard, who has been framed by Assane). Although Laugier and Belkacem intend to go to Le Havre in order to question Léonard, Dumont tells them that he has already been released due to his having had a rock-solid alibi for the time of the Louvre theft.

Part 2
After Anne Pellegrini formally reports her husband’s crimes, Laugier and Guédira arrest him. Later, Laugier and Belkacem bring Hubert to the interrogation room for questioning, with Guédira monitoring the conversation from outside. Laugier tells Hubert that he has been taken in under suspicion of fraud and perjury. He and Belkacem ask Hubert about the insurance policy on the necklace, but Hubert is not forthcoming. However, when they present him with a reconstruction of "Sernine"'s face, Hubert immediately gives them the name "Assane Diop." When the conversation turns to Léonard, Hubert is again evasive. Eventually, Albert Fontan, the minister of the interior, calls Hubert, who gives his phone to Laugier. Afterwards, Laugier explains to Belkacem and Guédira that he was forced by Fontan to let Hubert go, but notes optimistically that at least they know Assane’s name.



Laugier is one of the police officers who arrives at Assane’s apartment upon receiving Pascal’s fake distress call. Once there, they find Léonard’s lifeless body, with Assane nowhere to be found. While examining the room for evidence, Laugier encounters the pen that Assane had taken from the Louvre. Dumont, overseeing the search, calls Laugier into another room, telling him that he wants to restrict access to the evidence to the two of them. Laugier is confused, but complies.

Later, Dumont sends Laugier and Belkacem to Benjamin Ferel’s shop to collect evidence. Once there, they are unsure of what they are looking for, but eventually Belkacem finds a location card for a storage unit where, the two correctly believe, Benjamin and Assane are hiding. They make their way to the unit, and when they break inside, they find that the two criminals have escaped into a dark passage. Laugier and Belkacem enter the passage and eventually run into a tour group, at which point they realize that they are in the Catacombs of Paris. Laugier calls for assistance, and the Catacombs are cleared, but the two officers are unable to catch Assane and Benjamin.

The following day, shortly after new evidence suggests that Assane did not commit the murder of Léonard, Guédira shows Belkacem and Laugier the evidence from Assane’s USB drive. In the interrogation room, the three discuss the situation, and conclude that Babakar’s and Léonard’s deaths are both connected to Hubert and Dumont. The three decide to attend the concert at the Théâtre du Châtelet in order to arrest their commissioner.



That night, the three officers are able to enter the theater upon flashing their police badges. They sit at the back of the hall when the musicians are playing, with Laugier keeping a close watch on Dumont. When Dumont gets up to leave, the three follow him and find him attempting to arrest Assane. Laugier, trailed by Belkacem and Guédira, points his gun at Dumont and tells him that he himself is under arrest for corruption and influence peddling. Dumont is horrified as Laugier places him in handcuffs, while Assane walks free.

Personality and relationships
Laugier devotes his energies to excelling in his job as a police captain, and is able to quickly take charge in most situations. Approaching his work in a by-the-book fashion, he tends not to be receptive when his associates think too far outside the box. Laugier is skeptical of theories he sees as fanciful, instead preferring to work with what can be clearly established as fact. These aspects of his personality make it difficult for him and his team to catch Assane, which frustrates him deeply.



Although Laugier is open to Guédira’s idea that the necklace theft and Dumont’s kidnapping are connected in some way, he initially draws the line at the theory about their links to the Arsène Lupin stories. Laugier is particularly exasperated when Guédira argues with Dumont about the merits of this proposal, and after Dumont removes Guédira from the case, Laugier advises him to keep his head down. Laugier appears to have a good working relationship with Belkacem, and often takes her with him when he is assigned to investigate new evidence.

Generally, of the three officers working on the necklace case, Laugier is shown to be the most rigid about following official protocol and is highly respectful of rank; he is consistently the least willing to disobey Dumont’s direct orders, since Dumont is the commissioner. However, Laugier does have a strong moral code and, when shown enough hard evidence that Dumont is involved in corruption, is able to quickly make the executive decision to arrest him.

Appearances

 * Part One


 * Chapter 1
 * Chapter 2
 * Chapter 3
 * Chapter 4
 * Chapter 5


 * Part Two


 * Chapter 8
 * Chapter 9
 * Chapter 10

Trivia

 * Laugier is ranked as the 13th most popular character in the series on the online tracking platform TV Time.