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 a music conservatory, and inquires as to 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 purposely 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 important audition in several days' time. Lorenzo offers to let her try a violin from his shelf. After testing it, Claire is very pleased, but its price of 3,000 francs exceeds her budget substantially.

Assane, who has (unbeknownst to Lorenzo and Claire) been hiding 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 with whom he can do business. Claire attempts to drag Assane out of the shop, but Assane remains stationary and calls Lorenzo a racist.



Lamenting the problem with Benjamin, Assane, taking inspiration from Arsène Lupin, decides to commit his first major crime by stealing an instrument for Claire, with the intention returning it after she has passed her audition. Using Benjamin as a lookout, Assane inelegantly breaks into the shop from the rear entrance while Lorenzo is out on a break. He 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 outside waiting for her with a violin case on his lap. Upon opening the case, Claire is astonished and overjoyed, and asks him what he did to get the violin inside. Assane claims that he didn't steal it; rather, he borrowed it. He asks Claire to perform for him, but Claire playfully refuses and instead tells Assane to come to her audition.

Sitting with Benjamin at the audition, Assane is pleased with the quality of Claire's playing. However, in the middle of her performance, Lorenzo enters with two police officers and an official who halts the proceedings and leads Assane and a highly dismayed Claire out of the building. As he is being escorted from the premises, Assane comments to Benjamin that he truly 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 Assane if he is looking for a child dressed up in an Arsène Lupin costume. Overhearing the conversation, 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 a boy fitting this description in a fight with another man in the parking lot. Assane, Claire and Guédira run towards the lot, but Raoul is nowhere to be found. Guédira tells them that the two have already left in a grey BMW. Assane demands to know what the person 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. Assane urges Claire to calm down, telling her to trust that he will bring Raoul back and entreating her not to call the police. Claire angrily responds that she stopped trusting Assane long ago.



Having unlocked the car, Assane gets inside, while Guédira sits down in the passenger's seat, claiming that he wants to help Assane find Raoul. Assane decides to let him come along. The two drive off, leaving a distressed Claire in Étretat. When two officers eventually answer her call, Claire is upset by the lack of urgency in their response to the situation, and stalks off.

In the car, Guédira checks a map and figures out that Léonard 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, who is just outside Bourneville, takes the now bound and gagged Raoul from the back seat of his car and shoves him into the trunk. After arriving in the center of town, he exits the car to make a phone call in a local pub. Léonard's reception from the townspeople 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 upset with Léonard, reminding him that he only wanted Assane. He orders Léonard 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. 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 their stolen 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 hunting lodge 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 his gag. Assane calls Raoul's phone, which is in Léonard's possession, and tells Léonard that if he hurts Raoul, he, Assane, will kill him.



As Assane walks away from the meadow, Guédira runs up to him and suggests contacting the police, but Assane refuses, claiming that the police are either incompetent, corrupt or both. Guédira disputes this, but Assane asserts 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. To his dismay, Guédira finds that Assane has discreetly tied him up. Assane steals Guédira's police badge and exits the vehicle.

Night falls, and Assane quietly steals into the lodge in search of Raoul and Léonard, the latter of whom is lying in wait with a hunting rifle procured from the house's extensive supply of weaponry. When Assane encounters Léonard, the two begin grappling with each other, Assane using a stick to prevent Leonard from being able to fire his gun. The fight ends with Assane throwing Léonard out of a window. As he looks for Raoul throughout the various rooms of the mansion, Léonard, injured but alive, gets up. Unbeknownst to Assane, Léonard has locked Raoul back into the trunk 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 to "try the car."



Dashing out of the house, Assane is horrified to see the burning BMW. 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 believes that 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 Laurent
 * Hervé Pierre as Hubert Pellegrini
 * Soufiane Guerrab as Youssef Guédira
 * Shirine Boutella as Sofia Belkacem
 * Adama Niane as Léonard Koné
 * 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 Haïdara as young Assane Diop
 * Ludmilla Makowski as young Claire Laurent
 * Etan Simon as Raoul Diop
 * Adrian Valli De Villebonne as young Benjamin Férel

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.
 * Most of the episode was directed by Ludovic Bernard, but the scenes in Étretat were shot by Marcela Said, the director of Chapters 4 and 5, in order to maintain continuity.