Adele (Clotilde Hesme) is the titular character of this episode and we learn some deep secrets about her past. Only one year ago, we find out that she tried to kill herself. Of course we don't know why. Perhaps it is some link to Simon (Pierre Perrier.) After all he killed himself too. This revelation was dark and shocking, but I also think it will become very important within the final episode. In the present day, Adele and her daughter Chloe (Brune Martin) find themselves to be neighbours with Julie and Victor who are in hiding with Laure. When Victor (Swann Nambotin) and Chloe are playing together on the trampoline, Victor makes Chloe see her mother's suicide attempt. I thought it was really interesting and long overdue about having Victor and Chloe together in one scene. They are the only children in the show and I think that the pair should have been put together sooner. I think that Swann Nambotin and Brune Martin worked really well together. It was a great scene and the two played off each other well. This is interesting considering the dark, twisted nature of the scene. Chloe decides to tell Victor that her father, Simon, is dead and Victor then reveals to her that he is also dead. This is before he makes her see her mother's suicide attempt, which again shows him to be the show's creepiest character.
As I have said throughout this season, I think that they've developed Julie's (Celine Salette) character beautifully. This episode continues to prove it. Julie and Laure (Alix Poisson) continue to rekindle their lost love, as more is revealed about Julie's past. Julie reveals to Laure that she has felt dead ever since her attack. She says that she is not afraid of being dead, but rather being alive. This scene is understated, subtle and very touching. It is shot as a close-up with the camera focusing entirely on Celine Sallette and Alix Poisson. The scene is incredibly intimate and you really get inside Julie's head. However, the emotional intimacy is broken by Victor who secretly reveals to Julie that, similarly, to Lena, he has an inexplicable rash/scar on his arm. Julie, panicking, tells Laure to drive them out of the town, which Laure agrees to, even though it will cost her job. However, the trio are unable to escape. They drive around the border of the town time and time again, until the message is clear. They cannot leave. The episode ends on a master shot of Laure's car on a mountain road, emphasising how small all of the characters are in the wider meanings of the show. What are these wider meanings? We will find out in the final episode, where all of these plot points will be explained, I hope.
Whilst Julie, Laure and Victor are trying to escape town, so are Serge (Guillame Goux) and Toni (Gregory Gadebois.) After Toni shoots at police coming to arrest his brother, the pair also decide to leave town. Firstly, they try to leave the woods, but are inadvertently led around in circles. The pair, both experienced hunters and woodsmen, identify that something is wrong and instead decide to head down to the lake and swim to the other side. However, halfway across, something pulls Serge under the water and he disappears out of sight. In another master shot, paralleling Victor, Laure and Julie's escape from town, Toni is left quite literally treading water, confused and frightened by his brother's disappearance. Even though, this sequence is shot well, I am still sceptical about Toni and Serge's relationship. In the episode dedicated to the pair, it is revealed that Toni buried Serge alive to stop him from killing anyone else. Now that Serge has come back to life, I find it difficult to believe that Toni is now so willing to help his brother escape. There is something very jarring about how in one episode Toni goes from killing his brother to helping him hide from the police.
Finally, we have found out about Pierre's (Jean-Francois Silvadier) endgame. I have always had an uneasy feeling about the man and have long suspected him to the be the series protagonist. This episode confirms it. In one of the episode's most unsettling sequences, he reveals to Claire that he believes that the Returnees are a sign of the coming apocalypse. An apocalypse he has prepared for. He has enough tinned food to last a millennium, enough guns to wipe out all the walkers in the Walking Dead and a surgical room that looks like it should belong in a Saw movie. Out of all the revelations in this episode, this is one of the most shocking ones and one most likely to kick start things for the season finale.
One character who has taken a bit of backseat hitherto is Mrs Costa who died thirty-five years earlier although she refuses to say how. In Adele, she takes a larger role interacting directly with Camille. Mrs Costa reveals some important information about the town's history and also lays down some foreshadowing for the final episode. Mrs Costa says that she starved to death when the dam originally burst flooding the town, but Camille quickly calls her out, claiming that Mrs Costa has been telling many different stories about how she died. After this, Mrs Costa tells Camille to look in the store cupboard, where she finds the bodies of the Koretskies who killed themselves to be with their son Esteban. Esteban died in the coach with Camille. However, in the last episode, Camille pretends to have communicated with him to bring peace to his parents.
Camille's (Yara Pillartz) reveal as a returnee was initially met with disdain and resentment, yet she grew to become accepted due to her work as a medium. However, this is all undone when the Koretskies' suicide was discovered. Camille is even accused of telling the pair to kill themselves. After their suicide is discovered, a memorial service is held for them. I found out it quite funny that Frederic and Lucha were there, considering that in the last episode, they were put in jail for digging up Camille's grave. This is a definite error, but a permissible one compared to this far bigger error: Lena's (Jenna Thiam) clunky and unrealistic return to her family. Lucy ended with Lena becoming lost in the nearby woods surrounding Serge's house. After hours of wandering around the woods in the dark, she stumbles upon a Jonestown-esque cult all gathered around a campfire. The cult look at her eerily and the episode ends. In this episode, Lena is first seen showering back in her own home. She doesn't explain her disappearance to her family nor do they ask. Her absence is simply addressed by Camille asking "where the fuck have you been" and it isn't mentioned again. I think this is a little clumsy of the writers, as I think this plot point is too important to be overlooked.
Whilst it isn't explained who the people that Lena encounter are, I think it is logical to assume that they are returnees like Camille and Victor. Why they haven't integrated back into society remains to be seen, perhaps they have nobody waiting for them, but their introduction seems like one of the more dramatic revelations. What is even more interesting is how Lucy (Ana Giradot,) who has done very little in this episode, appears to assume leadership over the Horde. The next episode is called the Horde, so I assume that this is what this wave of Returnees is called. For an inexplicable reason, the Horde have gathered in The Lake Pub, where Lucy goes to confront them. The camerawork is great in this scene. The Horde are kept in darkness, remaining mere silhouettes, whilst a bright light is spotlighting Lucy highlighting her position of strength over the group. Meanwhile, the Horde remain nameless and faceless. It's almost as if they're in a state of purgatory. They're not dead, but they don't have any lives to return to. The introduction to the Horde looks like a new dramatic subplot and one I can't wait to see resolved in the season finale.
Lastly, we have come to Simon. Similarly to Lucy, he also takes a backseat in this episode. He searches for some type of spiritual meaning at the local church, but the parish priest rats him out to the police. Simon is then arrested and put in a cell to be questioned by the police captain Thomas. This is where he finds out, that similarly to Victor, Lena and now Camille, his flesh has begun decaying on his stomach. Out of curiousity, he rips off some of the flesh on his body and then eats it when the police come to question him in the episode's most disgusting scene. What do these scars mean? Victor, Lena, Camille and now Simon all seem to be decaying in some way. It isn't just restricted to the dead, as Lena, who is very much alive, is affected.
This episode sets up a lot: new plot-points and new characters, secrets and revelations are revealed and question upon question upon question is raised. What happened to Serge? Why can't Julie and co leave town? What do the scars mean? Who exactly are the Horde? So many questions...so few answers.
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