SPOILER ALERT
Review of episode 1: L'enfantReview of episode 2: Milan
This episode might have been valled Morganne, but he was more of a clue to Lucy's past more than anything. Just the same as last episode, Morganne opened with a flashback to 35 years ago. We saw Morganne sharing a bed with Lucy, showing that she is far older and more complicated than we first thought. Afterwards we see them running across the dam, just before it bursts and floods the town. Lucy and Morganne join Milan, Victor and Mrs Costa in watching the town flood. We know the town has flooded before, but it was something else to see it on screen. This episode hit the ground running.
Gwilym Mumford of the Guardian identified that in this episode, Milan continues to cause trouble which I would agree with. He's shaping up to become the villain of the show.
Milan continues to bully his terrified son, Serge, but things become more complicated when Lena arrives at Serge's cabin out of the blue. Milan tells Serge to take her into the forest and kill her, as according to him, the reason that he and the others have returned is to help the living join their ranks. Serge stands up to his father by first lying to him and then shooting him, but not before Milan stabs Lena. Will Milan be back? I reckon so. As we've seen before, it's possible to return more than once. This is exactly what happened to Lucy who in a following flashback is shown to have been killed by Milan who was trying to cleanse her off her sins.
Religion is a big theme in the Returned. Adele is constantly confiding in her priest (but more on her later) and Pierre has seen the returned as a coming sign of the apocalypse. Yet I think Milan killing Lucy to cleanse her of her sins, very much sounds like him trying to justify his actions. He thinks he is, if you will, performing an act of God by killing Lucy. He is in full control of his actions, unlike Serge, whom I think has some type of mental health problem, thus causing his murderous tendencies.
Milan offers one interpretation to why the Returned have returned. You've already seen my scepticism to his justifications, but what do you think? Did the dead return to kill the living? Give me your thoughts.
Whilst Milan is bad through and through, Serge does have glimmers of light. He takes the wounded Lena to Camille and Claire whose relationship is at breaking point. Claire is desperately still trying to protect Audrey and Esteban from the truth of their situation, but Camille impatiently tells Esteban that his parents committed suicide. Later Esteban sneaks out and the mysterious boy in the bomber jacket comes to Camille's house to lead her to Esteban. Claire tries to stop Camille from going, going so far as to slap her, but it doesn't help.
Camille and bomber-jacket boy find Esteban at his old house and bomber-jacket boy provides answers of sorts. He explains that the Horde, essentially the Returnees who aren't main characters and are lingering around in the town, are the dead who had nobody to return to. Nobody was looking for them. As I said last week, I think that's one reason some people are so scared of death. It's not the dying that's scary, but the possibility that nobody may mourn or miss you.
The bomber jacket boy is part of the second wave of Returnees who all seem to be congregating at Lucy and Simon's house. Morganne is also part of this new wave and soon goes back to Lucy's bed. It's interesting that these Returnees have all latched onto Simon and Lucy. Their house becomes a shelter for the Returned who have become refugees of sorts, looking for Lucy and Simon for leadership.
The image of the dead gathering together is paralleled nicely with the living, including Audrey's parents, collecting in Pierre's 'the Helping Hand' shelter. Meanwhile, Pierre has Toni hostage and is interrogating him to discover where the Returned are. With these two scenes, the board is starting to e be set with sides being chosen. Could all this be building to some confrontation between the living and the dead?
In the storyline most removed from the main action, we find that the murdered police officers were all shot dead, before being tied to the trees. However, one of the officers was missing. In Mumford's review he speculated that it was Julie's ex girlfriend Laure who was missing, but I think it could be the police captain-Thomas. Let me know who you think it is.
Meanwhile, the sinkhole, that was discovered last episode, was explored with the cameras picking up a creature in a shot straight out of a horror film. What is the creature? Another Returnee? A demon? A chupacabra? Who knows?
I was speaking about sides before and I think that Simon is struggling to stay neutral. He keeps going to see Chloe who is feeding him information about Adele's child, yet he always returns to Lucy. Although I wonder how Morganne's return will affect their relationship. Simon didn't look the happiest when he saw the two sharing a bed. But Chloe and Adele is what's tying Simon to the living world, and I wonder whether soon, he'll be forced to choose between siding with the living or the dead.
Mumford identified that this episode was all about characers rejecting one another. For example, Adele continued to reject her baby son, which Chloe calls Nathan, after Adele refuses to name him.
However, in my mind , the far more significant and hear-breaking rejections was Victor's rejection of Julie. Yes i know that Victor's real name is Louis, but I'm going to keep calling him Victor. Anyway, Victor finally seems to be accepting his mother and his newly returned brother Paul, so much so, that Julie begins feeling redundant. In a cruel and emotional scene, Victor tells Julie that although he no longer needs her, she still needs hm. Before him, she had nobody and she should leave now. Mrs Costa adds insult to injury telling Julie that she "doesn't belong here." Anyone else find it weird why Mrs Costa is living with Victor and co, and not with Lucy and the rest of the horde?
Anyway, the devastation is evident on Julie's face and all credit to the wonderful Celine Sallette for portraying this. The final gorgeous shot sees Julie walking to the flood to perhaps drown herself. I hope she doesn't die, but it would make sense. Without Victor, she had absolutely nothing in her life. Nowhere to go and nobody to turn to. Although, as we already know the dead don't stay dead long e.g Lucy and Simon.
This was a thought provoking episode that for once provided some answers of sorts. It was also heart-breaking, especially Victor's ice-cold rejection of Julie. But also the Horde having nobody to return to. In some ways this is even sadder. They're "living some type of "purgatory" or "hell," condemned to "Life" without their loved ones.
Some questions I'd love to hear your thoughts on:
- Why do you think the dead have returned? Do you agree with Milan?
- What does Pierre want with the Returned?
- What was the creature in the sinkhole?
- Who is the missing police officer?
- What's going to happen to Julie?
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