SPOILERS
That's it. I'm calling it now. Pierre is definitely the bad guy of the series. Although he barely features in this episode, his presence is felt throughout. We soon find out that he has been torturing Audrey whom he sees not as a returned human, but as some type of demon. He is torturing her to find out where the other Returnees are. Meanwhile Audrey's mother Sandrine who refuses to acknowledge her daughter's return, until she sees the pain that Pierre is putting her through and decides to help her. What happens next? We'll find out next week.
Pierre's reach extends even further when he sends Frederic and Lucho to track down Victor and Mrs Costa who are hiding in Julie's apartment. Although this episode is named after "Esther," whom we'll get to later, Victor took centre stage in this episode. Frederic and Lucho demands that Victor and Mrs Costa go with them back to the Helping Hand. Unsurprisingly they're ignored and Lucho in a fit of panic "kills" Mrs Costa. However, Lucho pays for his mistake when Victor "influences" him to jump out of a window thus killing himself. For me this was a scary moment in a quieter episode. It reminded us of how powerful Victor is and why everyone seemed scared of him. Although, I did have to question Pierre's judgement here. We've seen before that Frederic and Lucho aren't the brightest so why exactly did Pierre send THEM to track down Victor and Mrs Costa? Surely there must have been more suitable choices.
But anyway, Victor is also at the centre of some of the biggest revelations of this episode. Firstly, centring around Esther, one of Serge's victims. Starting the episode we get a flashback from ten years ago where we see Victor warning Esther not to go into the tunnel, but he is too late to stop her from being murdered by Serge. So if we think of the timeline hitherto, we know that Victor has been a "Returnee" for 4-5 years, we know that he caused the bus crash that killed Camille and Audrey, but now we find out that he has been "around" for at least ten years. Although, one does have to wonder, what has Victor been doing for ten years?
The second revelation is perhaps the most telling. Julie, who is still hiding in the hospital, visits Victor's bedridden father, who reveals that Victor isn't actually his son. Victor was adopted; as we see in a flashback, he wanders in out of the night in the Lewanski's household, much like how he entered Julie's life. Just what is the deal with this kid? Where is he from? How did he die? Just how long has he been in his "undead state." It seems to be at least 35 years.
And as a last mystery, what is the meaning of Victor's hallucinations? Why is he seeing Julie jump into the sinkhole? Why does Lucy ask him to help "us?"
So now that we've finished on the "Victor" discussion, as I said he features heavily in this episode, but before we move onto something else, there was one problem I did have with this episode. Julie. Whilst it was interesting learning more about Victor's past, I'm sadly getting quite annoyed with her storyline. I wish she was doing something a bit more than just standing around in a hospital. For me the strongest parts of the show has been her relationship with Victor, and now that the two have been separated, I find Julie's sections very lacklustre.
Onto the eponymous character of this episode; Esther. As we've already discussed, she is one of Serge's previous victims who has returned to him. To make amends, Toni says that they must return her to her family, but she would rather go back to the tunnel where Serge killed her. Toni demands that Serge asks for forgiveness and once again we see Serge's remorseful side. I don't want to make it seem like I'm justifying Serge's actions, but he is definitely a pitiable character. I've always thought that a mental issue or his nasty father Milan has been the cause of his murderous tendencies, rather than any malevolent thoughts.
Meanwhile, Milan has been discovered and rescued from his watery grave where he "returns" once again. All he says is "I lost her. I love her. I never told her." Gwilym Mumford of the Guardian speculated that he was talking about Lucy, which I think makes sense. Maybe Milan made advances towards Lucy. She rejected him and instead went for a younger Morganne. Milan killed them both in revenge, under the pretence of "saving them."
Milan isn't the only character to return in this episode; there is also the former police captain and Adele's husband Thomas. The missing policeman's body is discovered and he appears to Adele in a ghostly apparition. She goes to see his body, but instead he warns her about Simon saying that he is the one who killed him. Again this makes sense considering Simon's jealousy before.
Mumford points out that Adele has good reason not to trust Simon, as he identifies Lucy's comment that "no one could hurt Adele like he did," during a confrontation between the two at the church. Simon is stopped short from choking Lucy by Morganne and another of her goons. Mumford also raises the good point that out of all of the returnees, Simon is the only one whose backstory hasn't been properly explored. Just why did he commit suicide? If he really did care about Adele, then why did he commit suicide?
Lastly, we go to Camille's narrative. Anyone else find it interesting despite how Camille, being the first character to be introduced in the show and supposedly the protagonist has been completely superseded by Victor. Judging from this episode, Victor is much more important to the grand scheme of things than Camille. Although what the grand scheme things actually is, I'm not quite sure. Anyway, Claire discovers Virgil and Camille together and demands that he leave threatening him with a knife. Next thing we know we see her attacking herself influenced by the undead Virgil. In a later moment, Camille reveals to Lena that this isn't the first time Claire has tried to hurt herself. It wasn't the Horde that beat her unconscious but herself. She instead hallucinated the Horde attacking her.
Meanwhile, we see Berg and Jerome trying to sneak into the town by going through the woods. On their way, they find another sinkhole like the one at the dam and also spy on Virgil helping another group of returnees. Why is he helping them? Let me know what you think. When Berg and Jerome eventually reach Camille and the others, they have a touching reunion, before mounting their escape. However, this is stopped cold by the Horde.
So another interesting episode with plenty of revelations especially about Victor who I think is the true protagonist of the show. I'm looking forward to see how it winds down and how everything ends.
In the meanwhile, let me know your thoughts to the questions below.
1. Why do you think Simon killed himself? Is it any way related to how his parents killed themselves?
2. What is the deal with Victor? Where did he come from? How long has he been a returnee?
3. Was Milan talking about Lucy?
4. Who were the people that Virgil was helping?
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