It's December 11th, Raoul's fourteenth birthday, so Assane takes him and Claire on a surprise trip to an Arsène Lupin-themed festival in the Norman town of Étretat. Unfortunately, Léonard has managed to locate Assane, and follows the family onto the train. He calls Hubert Pellegrini and asks him what to do in light of Assane being with Claire and Raoul; Hubert orders him to dispose of Assane by any means necessary, but to leave his companions alone. Assane, however, spots Léonard in the background of a picture taken by Claire. Telling her that he is going to get drinks, he heads off to the back of the train. Léonard gets up and follows him.
Assane and Léonard engage in a Brutal Brawl that ends with Assane locking Léonard inside a storage closet, but as the train pulls into its destination, Léonard escapes and sits down next to Claire and Raoul. Claire is frightened by Léonard's menacing air, and only becomes more worried when Assane orders her and Raoul to disembark ahead of him, but ultimately does as he instructs. Assane manages to trick the local Norman police into arresting Léonard by indicating that he was the thief behind the Louvre heist.
While Raoul explores the Étretat beaches on his own, Claire asks Assane who Léonard was; to her distress he refuses to answer honestly. Assane entreats Claire to let him have one last chance to prove himself to her and Raoul, but just as Claire is about to give in to his plea, she notices that she cannot see Raoul anywhere, and begins to panic...for good reason, as it turns out, since Léonard has been released by the police, driven to Étretat, and kidnapped Raoul from the beach. Assane and Claire begin a hopeless search for their son, which is interrupted when Guédira (who had called in sick to work that day) unexpectedly appears next to Assane, thus providing the show's first installment with its Cliffhanger ending.
Episode credits:
Tropes that appear in this episode:
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Downplayed, but Assane and Claire spend part of the train ride to Étretat flirting and teasing one another playfully.
- Birthday Episode: This episode takes place on December 11th, the birthday of both Raoul and Maurice Leblanc (the author of the Arsène Lupin stories). It doesn't end up being one of Raoul's better birthdays.
- Cheer Up Episode: The opening scene sees Benjamin attempt to lift Assane's spirits following Fabienne's death, by pointing out that the more he lets it discourage him, the more Hubert Pellegrini wins.
- Cliffhanger: The ending sees Raoul getting abducted by Léonard from the beach in Étretat, Claire and Assane frantically searching for him, and Assane finally coming face to face with Guédira.
- A Day in the Limelight: A lot of the focus is placed on the difficulties that Claire experiences in her relationship with Assane, with flashback sequences to 2006 showing her meeting with a therapist because of the distress he causes her.
- Frameup: Assane initially convinces the police at the Le Havre train station that Léonard is "Paul Sernine" by placing one of the diamonds from the necklace in the pocket of his trenchcoat.
- Gut Feeling: Although Guédira has no real reason to believe that Assane will be at the Arsène Lupin festival in Étretat, his intuition serves him well.
- Hope Spot: Assane, Claire, and Raoul are having a wonderful day out in Étretat, and it's clear that the sparks between Assane and Claire haven't died down even though they're officially separated. And then Raoul goes missing.
- Ironic Juxtaposition: In one of the flashbacks, Assane tells Claire that he will do everything he can to protect their then-unborn child. Minutes later, in the present timeline, Assane's actions indirectly lead to Raoul being kidnapped by Léonard.
- Locomotive Level: Assane fights Léonard on the train to Normandy.
- Obviously Evil: Zigzagged. After Léonard escapes the storage closet, he sits down next to Raoul and begins questioning him about his family's itinerary for the rest of the day. Despite having no knowledge of who Léonard is, Claire immediately recognizes him as a threat, but Raoul naively spills their plans to attend the Lupin festival in Étretat without hesitation.
- Playing Sick: Guédira calls in sick in order to follow his hunch that Assane may be in Étretat.
- Say My Name: While Assane and Claire try to find Raoul in the episode's closing sequence, they both begin desperately calling his name. Assane bellows it in a voice that grows hoarser and hoarser by the second, while Claire's wails become increasingly high-pitched and distraught. The whole thing is paired with the jittery strings of the soundtrack to distressing and anxiety-inducing effect.
- Silly Reason for War: When Claire asks him why he was held up on the train, Assane claims that he got into a fight with a man who disagreed with him about which Arsène Lupin is the best. Claire doesn't believe him but ultimately decides not to create a fuss over it.
- Unflinching Walk: Assane walks away from Léonard without looking back while the latter is being arrested by the cops at the Le Havre train station.
