Chapter 1 (Lupin)

Chapter 1 is the first episode of the first part of the Netflix series Lupin.

Synopsis
Years after a tragic injustice, Assane seeks to settle a score — and a debt — by stealing a diamond necklace, but the heist takes an unexpected turn.

1995
Babakar Diop, a Senegalese immigrant with a teenaged son named Assane, is employed in Paris as a driver and occasional housekeeper for the wealthy Pellegrini family. Babakar and Assane’s interactions with the Pellegrinis are mixed: Madame Anne Pellegrini seems to like the pair, calling Babakar a “gentleman,” while daughter Juliette flirts with Assane. On the other hand, Hubert, the family patriarch, behaves coldly towards Babakar. Anne apologizes to Babakar for Hubert’s attitude, and offers him any book from their library to give to Assane for his upcoming fourteenth birthday. Babakar selects Arsène Lupin, Gentleman Burglar by Maurice Leblanc.



Later, a diamond necklace that had originally belonged to Queen Marie-Antoinette disappears from a safe in Hubert Pellegrini’s study, and Babakar is brought in for questioning. Hubert accuses Babakar of having taken the necklace due to resentment regarding his status in life compared to that of his employers. Gabriel Dumont, the detective called in by Hubert, offers to take Babakar to the police station to clear everything up. Babakar becomes enraged, swears on Assane’s life that he was not the thief, and begs Anne for help; however, she remains silent.

After being found guilty, Babakar is sent to prison. On one of Assane’s visit days, the guards discover that he has hanged himself in his cell. Devastated by his father's death and convinced of his innocence, Assane is furious at the Pellegrini family. Later, while going through Babakar’s belongings, he finds the Arsène Lupin book, and is immediately entranced by its contents.

Present day


Assane meets his ex-wife, Claire, in a café, to give her an alimony payment and to discuss his visit schedule with their thirteen-year-old son Raoul. Claire wants Assane to be more involved in Raoul’s life. Assane promises to visit them the following weekend and claims that things are going to change; Claire, having heard this many times before, is hopeful but skeptical.

Under the alias Luis Perenna, Assane gains employment as a janitor at the Louvre museum, where the newly-recovered Queen's Necklace is being auctioned. Assane intends to steal the necklace in an act of vengeance for his father's death. He appeals to three loan sharks, Kevin, Vincent and Rudy, for help with the crime; although initially reluctant they agree after he presents his plan of action. On the day of the auction, the loan sharks infiltrate the museum disguised as janitors carrying spray bottles filled with chloroform. Assane adopts the persona of a multimillionaire American tech businessman named Paul Sernine and enters the auction, which is being overseen by Juliette Pellegrini.



The heist does not go according to plan, as the loan sharks find out that their spray-bottles of chloroform are ineffective in knocking the museum’s security guards unconscious. They are thus forced to fight them physically, creating a commotion and costing precious time. Assane, meanwhile, begins bidding increasingly lofty sums for the Queen's Necklace due to competition from a wealthy German collector, driving the price up dramatically, until he finally makes a winning bid of sixty million euros. Kevin and Vincent, now wearing the uniforms of the security guards, decide to betray Assane in order to get the necklace for themselves.



As the necklace is being presented to Assane by Thibault, the auctioneer, Kevin and Vincent attack them and tie them up, grabbing the diamonds for themselves and racing out the door and into an inconvenient and ostentatious Ferrari that Rudy has brought as a getaway car. Because of Rudy’s poor driving, the car winds up jumping the embankment surrounding the museum and crashing through the Pyramide Inversée. After the police arrive and retrieve the Queen's Necklace, all three men are arrested. Assane is briefly questioned by Captain Romain Laugier, who finds him suspicious but ultimately allows him to leave after failing to find any evidence that ties him to the crime.



Unbeknownst to everybody, Assane, having anticipated that Kevin, Vincent and Rudy would try to double-cross him, switched out the necklaces during the fight, allowing Kevin and Vincent to make off with a fake created by Assane’s close friend Benjamin. After changing back into the uniform of a janitor, Assane exits the museum with Marie-Antoinette’s diamonds safely in tow. The next day, Assane upholds his earlier promise to visit Raoul and Claire. While walking along the Seine with Raoul, Assane gifts him the same collection of Arsène Lupin stories that his own father had given him twenty-five years earlier.

Cast

 * Omar Sy as Assane Diop
 * Ludivine Sagnier as Claire
 * Clotilde Hesme as Juliette Pellegrini
 * Nicole Garcia as Anne Pellegrini
 * Hervé Pierre as Hubert Pellegrini
 * Antoine Gouy as Benjamin Ferel
 * Fargass Assandé as Babakar
 * Kamel Guenfoud	as Kevin
 * Grégoire Colin as Vincent
 * Arthur Choisnet as	Rudy
 * Soufiane Guerrab as Youssef Guédira
 * Vincent Londez as Romain Laugier
 * Johann Dionnet	as young Gabriel Dumont


 * Xavier Lemaître as Thibault Du Quenoy
 * Jocelyne Vignon as Aminata
 * Mohamed Nouar as Ibrahim
 * Charlotte Saliou as Louvre museum guide
 * Adama Niane as Leonard
 * Ary Gabison as Louvre security guard
 * Martin Trouvé-Dugény as Thomas (control room security guard)
 * Xavier Gojo as policeman (Ferrari)
 * Mamadou Haïdara as young Assane
 * Lea Bonneau as young Juliette Pellegrini
 * Etan Simon as Raoul

Music

 * original music by Mathieu Lamboley
 * "Sensualité" by Axelle Red
 * "I Got the..." by Labi Siffre

Trivia

 * As indicated by Assane's invitation card, the auction at the museum took place on Friday, October 16th, 2020.
 * Chapter 1 is the only episode in Part 1 not to have been written or co-written by François Uzan.