Chapter 2 (Lupin; Part 3)

Chapter 2 is the second episode of the third part of the Netflix series Lupin, and the twelfth episode overall.

Synopsis
An unfathomable loss rocks France, but Guédira and Raoul grapple with denial. A mysterious classified ad resurrects old ghosts and long-lost hopes.

1998
Assane meets Claire in a café and shows her the postcard from his mother Mariama. Claire initially doesn’t understand why it is addressed to “Sanni”, and Assane explains that this was his mother’s nickname for him as a young boy. He tells Claire that he and Babakar had waited months for Mariama to join them in Paris, but that she had never shown up, and that he has no idea where she is now.

Assane is staying with Bruno and his sister Anne, who have no parents. He is confused about how they manage to throw child services off of their trail, and Bruno explains that he has his “godfather” pose as his legal guardian. He brings Assane to the Boxing Beats club, whose owner, a large and imposing man named Jean-Luc Keller, is Bruno’s godfather. Assane is immediately intrigued by the atmospher of the club, in which hip hop music is playing loudly. Bruno introduces Assane to Keller, calling him a “new recruit.” Despite the fact that Assane has never boxed before, Keller agrees to accept him into the club. Assane soon discovers that he has a natural talent for the sport, and Keller compliments his toughness and grit.

Meanwhile, Claire has offered to help Assane find Mariama using the internet. However, when they locate her, they learn that she is serving an eight-year prison sentence in Senegal for aggravated theft. Assane and Claire call several prisons in Senegal, hoping to locate Mariama. When they eventually manage to get in contact with her, Assane promises that he will find a way to get her out. However, a tearful Mariama responds that she cannot help Assane anymore, and encourages him to forget about her. She begs him to forgive her, and hangs up. Assane is upset by Mariama’s reaction, asserting to Claire that his mother doesn’t care about him. Claire entreats him not to give up, but Assane responds that, as the son of two criminals, he isn’t worth anything to anyone.

Present day
While walking through the streets following Assane’s arrest, Guédira receives a phone call from Belkacem, who informs him that Assane escaped. He sees a group of people milling around nervously in an alleyway; when he asks them what happened, he is told that Assane fell from one of the adjacent roofs. Guédira is shocked to find Assane’s hat on the ground, surrounded by his blood.

Dressed as paramedics, Benjamin and Philippe Courbet wheel Assane into the hospital. Once in a deserted corridor, they change into lab coats and bring his body to the morgue. Once there, they are met by Dr. Daniel Martinez, the head mortician, who asks them who they are. Philippe claims that he is Dr. Vernes, a new hire, and offers to call the hospital’s administrator to verify his identity, suggesting that the administrator will be upset if he does so. Martinez relents, and Philippe shows him the identity of the man underneath the sheets; Martinez is shocked to discover that it is Assane. Philippe asserts that he and Benjamin will prepare the body, and asks Martinez to complete the paperwork.

Guédira is skeptical that Assane is really dead, telling an irate Belkacem that Arsène Lupin had faked his death many times. The two arrive at the morgue; Benjamin, worried that he will be recognized as he is a familiar face to the two officers, steals off into an adjacent room. Philippe tells Belkacem and Guédira that Assane’s internal organs and spine were destroyed by the fall, and that as such there is no need to perform an autopsy. Guédira is still unconvinced, and asks Martinez to check Assane’s heartbeat. Upon being handed a false stethoscope made by Benjamin, Martinez is unable to detect any signs of life. Annoyed, Belkacem orders Guédira to leave with her. Martinez calls Claire, who is one of his colleagues at the hospital, and breaks the news to her.

The following morning, Fleur is furious to learn that Arnold had visited the morgue the previous night and is breaking the story on Assane’s death. Aware that Fleur has been responsible for most of The Objector’s stories related to Assane, Guédira decides to meet up with her, and asks her how the press was able to get to the morgue before even the police showed up. When Fleur tells him that she has no idea, as she wasn’t the one who received the tip to begin with, Guédira reveals his belief that the entire thing was staged. He offers to give Fleur information on the connection between Assane and Arsène Lupin, as he is annoyed that he is still not being taken seriously in this regard. At the police station, Belkacem reveals to Guédira that Assane’s funeral is scheduled for the following Thursday at Père-Lachaise Cemetery.

The funeral is attended by a substantial crowd of people, including Benjamin, Claire, Raoul, Belkacem, and Guédira, as well as a number of Assane’s detractors. As the minister prepares to lead a prayer, Guédira abruptly halts the proceedings, voicing his belief that Assane is not dead and ordering that the casket be opened. Assane’s critics applaud the notion, while Claire breaks down in tears and begs Benjamin to put a stop to it. The casket’s lid is removed, but the spectators find Assane’s apparently lifeless body lying inside. An apologetic Guédira awkwardly tries to console Claire, who snarls at him in disgust. The casket is lowered into the ground, and the procession departs.

Once everyone is gone, Assane switches a flashlight on and begins to worm his way out of the coffin, which is connected to a trapdoor that opens to to an underground passage beneath the cemetery. The passage ultimately leads to a disused sewer system and Assane, who has put a garden worker’s jumpsuit over his funeral tuxedo, exits back into daylight with ease.

Shortly after the funeral, Assane spies a classified ad in the newspaper asking for “Sanni”, with a phone number beneath it. Assane is shocked by this and when he places the call, the woman on the other end claims to be his mother Mariama. The woman tells Assane that she has been kidnapped, and that her captors are asking for the black pearl as a ransom. When Benjamin meets up with Assane to tell him that he has found a buyer for the pearl, and thus they can use the money to buy a safe house for Assane, Claire and Raoul, he is stunned to hear that Assane wants to scrap the entire plan. Assane informs Benjamin about the phone call with his mother. Benjamin is skeptical that the woman on the other end was really Mariama, but Assane maintains that even if she is not, it is concerning that somebody knows he is alive.

Assane goes to the church that Mariama had specified in her phone call, where he hears a cell phone ringing. He finds it taped to the underside of one of the pews, and answers. On the other end, his mother tells him to leave the black pearl in the church’s donation box, and then to leave as soon as possible. Mariama claims that if he does not do as she says, her kidnappers will kill her. Assane asks Mariama to prove her identity; Mariama begins to sing a song in the Wolof language that she had often sung to Assane when he was very young. After she is done, she tells Assane that he must now work for her captors, and hangs up. A stone-faced Assane drops the pearl into the donation box and strides out of the church.

Meanwhile, Claire encounters Raoul exiting their apartment, becoming concerned when she notices his nonchalant attitude so soon after his father’s funeral. Raoul tells Claire that he doesn’t think Assane is really dead, and leaves. Claire is distressed by Raoul’s reaction, believing that her son is engaging in an extreme form of denial. Raoul, meanwhile, goes to the library, where he inquires after a Napoleonic map of the Parisian sewer system. The librarian is somewhat confused by Raoul’s request, but grants him access. Raoul overlays the older map on top of a newer map of Père-Lachaise Cemetery, with the spot where Assane was buried marked out. He is excited to find that Assane’s resting place is very close to the ancient sewer tunnels.

Cast

 * Omar Sy as Assane Diop
 * Ludivine Sagnier as Claire Laurent
 * Antoine Gouy as Benjamin Férel
 * Soufiane Guerrab as Youssef Guédira
 * Shirine Boutella as Sofia Belkacem
 * Stefan Crepon as Philippe Courbet
 * Mamadou Haidara as young Assane Diop
 * Etan Simon as Raoul Diop
 * Jean Benguigui as Alberto
 * Clotilde Hesme as Juliette Pellegrini
 * Adèle Wismes as Clémentine Vidal
 * Xavier Robic as Nicholas Imbert
 * Martha Canga Antonio as Fleur Bélanger
 * Julien Pestel as Arnold de Garmeaux
 * Daniel Hanssens as Franck Robert
 * Salif Cissé as Jean-Luc Keller (1998)
 * Sandra Parfait as Manon (2021)
 * Sandya Toure Maité as Manon (1998)


 * Seyna Kane as Mariama (1998)
 * Naky Sy Savané as Mariama (2021)
 * Jean-Luc Diquéro as Dr. Martinez
 * Athaya Mokonzi as Djibril
 * Armand Eloi as casket-maker
 * Gabrielle Atger as morgue nurse
 * Bertrand Lacy as master of ceremonies
 * Aurélie Casse as herself
 * Cécile Ollivier as herself
 * Cesare Capitani as art gallery director
 * Vladimir Perrin as waiter
 * Malick Baulet as client #1
 * Cyril Brossaud as client #2
 * Ludmilla Makowski as young Claire Laurent
 * Noé Wodecki as young Bruno
 * Edouard Michelon as librarian

Music

 * original music by Mathieu Lamboley
 * "Wanna Play" by Curtis Eugene Cross II, Pablo Love, and Campbell E. Browning
 * "Fat Pockets" by Thomas Coster Jr
 * "What a Man" by Linda Lyndell

Trivia

 * The photograph of Raoul that Assane uses for his home screen on his cell phone is his "Part 1" page image on this Wiki.
 * Assane's funeral took place on December 9th, two days before Raoul's fifteenth birthday.
 * Assane's surname "Diop" and the song that Mariama sings to him indicate that he is part of the Wolof ethnic group.