SPOILERS
So it's been quite a few months since i have last reviewed the Returned, but as I received S2 for my birthday I figured now was the right time to start again.
The Returned is a French television season set in Annecy, South West France, near the Alps. The Returned or Les Revenants are a group of dead people who have come back to life and try to reintegrate back into their old lives in their isolated mountain town. The dead are unaware of their recent demises, which makes it all the more painful for those left behind. The cast is large and sometimes confusing, but the cinematography is gorgeous and the storytelling is rich, even if the many narratives can be difficult to follow at time. Here is a brief summary of the characters and story so far.
Camille (Yara Pillartz) is a fifteen year old girl who dies in a coach crash behind her twin sister Lena (Jenna Thiam) and parents Jerome (Frederic Pierrot) and Claire (Ann Consigny) Camille is the first to return causing this family's world to fall apart. Another major character is Simon (Pierre Perrier) a young man who killed himself leaving behind his wife Adele (Clotilde Hesme) and daughter Chloe. (Brune Martin) Upon returning, he wants nothing more than to be with his family. However, Adele has moved on by starting a relationship with the captain of the police force: Thomas Mezache. (Samir Guesmi) Other major characters, both alive and dead, include the cannibalistic serial killer Serge (Guillaume Goux) and his big brother Toni (Gregory Gadebois) the psychic Lucy (Ana Giradot) who upon being killed by Serge becomes the leader of Les Revenants, as well as the morally questionable Pierre (Jean-Francois Sivadiar) a religious leader who runs the homeless shelter, the Helping Hand. Lastly, there is the creepy Victor (Swann Namboutin) a little boy killed in a burglary gone wrong. Upon returning he forms an inexplicable, but wonderful relationship with Julie (Celine Salette) a young hospice nurse whom before Victor had very little to live for. All of this is set against the backdrop of a town, which has been devastated by floodings in the past.
The end of the first season saw a horde of Returnees led by Lucy and Simon demanding that Camille, Victor and the other returnees join them, leaving behind their families. Camille and Victor comply and are joined by their respective mothers Claire and Julie. Then it is revealed that Adele is a returnee too, but Thomas refuses to give her up. He gathers the townspeople in the Helping Hand, whilst he leads the police to fight of the dead. Come morning, the police and the dead have disappeared and the town has flooded.
Perhaps, a little confusingly, this isn't where the second season starts. Rather it begins with a six month time jump with everything in between condensed into expository dialogue. I understand that this is only the first episode and more cold be sown later, but I feel that in this case, showing would have been far stronger than telling. Anyway, the season starts with Adele being rushed tot he hospital after complications with her pregnancy of which Simon is the father. Yes I know that Adele and Simon are dead and therefore cannot have children, but the dead also can't get come back to life, so this isn't a point worth arguing. What is interesting is that Adele is afraid of whatever the child is, she later confides in her priest, that she tried to have it aborted. Whilst it didn't follow on from the last season, this certainly made it hit the ground running.
After this,w e are introduced to the character of Berg who has been sent to investigate why the town has flooded. At this moment, Berg, whilst being creepy and obviously having ulterior motives, was largely used an audience surrogate. Through him, we learn that part of the town is completely submerged with another part being cut off completely. The residents were stranded had to be airlifted out and the bodies of the police officers were never found. Whilst this exposition is necessary, it wasn't the most interesting way to introduce a character.
What was far more interesting was the reintroduction of Toni who Berg hits with hits driving on a dark road. Toni was the landlord of the Lake Pub, quite a prominent landmark in the first season, and big brother of Serge the serial killer. Toni actually killed Serge to stop his murderous ways, but has been racked with guilt ever since. In the penultimate episode of season 1, Toni dies via "suicide by Victor." The little boy makes Toni hallucinate Serge (again, bigger picture, folks) who encourages Toni to shoot himself. When he reappears, it is obvious that he has returned, not that Berg knows that of course. He rushes Toni to the nearest hospital, which is also the same hospital where Adele is, and this is where Jerome, Lena and Pierre are reintroduced. They know full well about the Returned and Toni's less than alive state.
One thing that the show has always done well has been its portrayals of character relationships. This is best established in Jerome and Lena. It is obvious that the father and daughter have fallen apart since Camille and Claire were taken. The grief hasn't united, but divided them and resentment bubbles just below the surface. Jerome's unshaven face, messy hair and Lena demanding that he leave are all that's needed to say that all is not well. This was a great example of when "less is more."
So Pierre, Jerome and Lena were all at the hospital to determine what to do with Toni, whom they know is dead, even if nobody else does. Pierre is still running the Helping Hand shelter and I've always gone back and forth between him being the true villain of the show. He had a hand in victor's death and has always seemed morally questionable.
However, as I have come to realise, the Returned is a show where there are no clear-cut heroes or villains- the Returnees aren't zombies vampires or malevolent spirits, but lost people, so it isn't entirely fair to say that Pierre is a villain.
In the hospital, there is a great face-off between Pierre and Berg, but the hospital scenes also caused a problem for me. It is revealed that two childhood friends of Lena and Camille, Frederic and Lucha are now working for Pierre. There isn't any explanation given as to why this is, which I feel is wrong. Whilst it's obvious that they are suggestible and not too smart, I thin that their motivations need to be properly addressed.
Whilst the first half of the episode focused on the living, the second focused on the Returnees. This began with the introduction of Audrey- one of Camille's classmates who died in the bus crash. She escapes from her soldier escort only to run into Lucy- the leader of the Returned, who takes her via raft, and some stunning cinematography, to the stranded section of town, where Camille and Claire are. The parallels between them and Jerome were great to see, with Camille and Claire having a similarly tense relationship. Claire feels it best to lie to Audrey, but Camille is determined to tell her the truth. Whilst I've gone back and forth about liking Camille, I feel that she's right here. Audrey's going to find out eventually and Claire's well-intentioned but misguided attempt to protect her is going to do more harm than good. Besides there are bigger things threats, such as how the Returnees won't let Claire or Camille leave their house. Seriously, how creepy was that shot of all of the Returnees stepping up to the house out of the dark?
From here we jumped to Simon who we've seen throughout the episode walking through town to finally meet up to Lucy who ominously claims "that soon, they'll join us again." I feel that they are laying the foundations for this season's story-arc. I say story-arc loosely, as for the most part, the Returned is largely episode with self-contained, disparate narratives.
The episode ended on my two favourite characters Victor and his surrogate mother Julie. Their bond is the most touching part of this series. There is something undoubtedly creepy and off about Victor, but I still find him misunderstood. He's a lost, scared little boy, which is one reason why he attached himself to Julie. Just like Camille and Claire, Julie and Victor are also trapped in a house by the Returned. However, unlike the former, these two have become stronger for the experience. Their relationship is one of love and respect, which is why the final shot of the scene is so powerful. In their house, Victor's mother, who died with her son in the burglary, is revealed to have returned. She embraces Victor and we see Julie's confusion and heartbreak. Before Victor, Julie lives a dull, mundane life and Victor gave it meaning. Now this meaning could be snatched away. Although Victor didn't seem the happiest to see his mother again. What is more interesting is how the camera pans over the drawings that Victor drew during his imprisonment. As we've seen in season 1, these drawings have also acted as premonitions. The camera focuses on a picture of Adele and her unborn child asking the importance of this child, which the episode is named after. I'm only presuming that "L'enfant" is referring to Adele's unborn child, it could just as easily be Victor, Camille or some character we haven't seen yet. But I think it's the unborn child. Adele is obviously scared of what it could be and I'm sure that we'll find out what this is soon. Or not. This show's never been big on answers.
So as a season opener, L'enfant wasn't too explosive, but the Returned has always been on the subtler side. What it did do was lay out a bunch of new narrative treads that's made hungry for more. True, it wasn't always the most engaging, but the great cinematography and focus on character relationships reminded me of why I loved the show in the first place.
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