One year on from the downfall of Hubert Pellegrini. Assane is still the country's most wanted criminal, and he's been hiding out in Marseille with J'accuse. He has also become an In-Universe Base-Breaking Character, with half the French population viewing him as a Robin Hood-esque folk hero, while the other half very much desires that he get placed behind bars. This continuing fixation, meanwhile, has shattered the lives of his family—Claire, suspected of being an accomplice of Assane, is closely watched by the police and the media alike, while Raoul is subject to teasing and general nastiness from his schoolmates. Assane is enraged after witnessing a news report that features shots of Claire and Raoul being tortured by a gaggle of journalists and photographers, and resolves to get them out of France.
Perhaps not all that surprisingly, Claire isn't too happy to see Assane, accusing him of selfishly throwing her and Raoul to the wolves. Despite her refusal to accept his offer of leaving the country, Assane makes plans to pay for their escape by stealing a rare black pearl from the Maison Everlin, a luxury boutique in downtown Paris. He sends a letter to the owner of the store as well as a journalist named Fleur Bélanger, in which he explains his intentions. The news that Assane is back on the scene generates a frenzy amongst the Parisian public, with a crowd of his supporters gathering outside the boutique prior to the robbery, much to the irritation of Belkacem, who has been dispatched along with her squad to manage the situation.
Despite having stationed officers and special forces all throughout the boutique, Belkacem is enraged when the pearl vanishes at exactly the time Assane had said it would. As it turns out, one of the masked special forces agents is actually Assane, another is Benjamin, and their ostensible commander is Bruno, a former childhood friend of Assane's who was in on the plan. Assane makes a break for it, but is "caught" by Bruno and Benjamin, who drag him out of the boutique to a waiting car. After they've driven a few blocks, Assane gets out of the car and climbs onto a nearby rooftop, where he begins Roofhopping across the buildings. On one of his attempts to jump, however, he fails to catch his balance and falls several storeys to the pavement below.
Episode credits:
Tropes that appear in this episode:
- Beardness Protection Program: While he's hiding out in Marseille, Assane grows a large beard and wears long robes, giving himself the appearance of being a devout Muslim.
- Bully Magnet: Assane's antics have caused Raoul to become this, with his peers on the basketball team teasing him about his having been abandoned by his criminal father.
- Cliffhanger: The episode ends with Assane seemingly falling to his death from a building. (Had it ended seconds earlier it would have counted as a Literal Cliffhanger.)
- Conflicting Loyalty: During the heist, Guédira (who hasn't been assigned to the case) stands outside the Maison Everlin, hanging out with the crowd of Assane's fans, among them journalist Fleur Bélanger. He's visibly delighted when the alarms in the boutique start going off, knowing that the guy he idolizes has managed to pull it off again.
- Coincidental Broadcast: Assane returns to his dingy apartment in Marseille and switches on the television only to be confronted with a news report about his continuing status as France's most wanted criminal, accompanied by footage of Claire, on the verge of tears, desperately begging a Media Scrum to leave her and Raoul alone. It's seeing this that convinces Assane that he needs to get them out of the country.
- Ditzy Secretary: Madame Simon, the receptionist at the Maison Everlin. Assane convinces her that he's not the man she thinks he is by pointing out that his eyes are brown. When she later gets informed by an extremely exasperated Belkacem that Assane does in fact have brown eyes, she is extremely embarrassed.
- Flashback Within a Flashback: A flashback has teenaged Assane going back to his old apartment to retrieve some letters that have been sent there from Senegal. Within that flashback, young Assane has a flashback to an even earlier time when he lived with Babakar in that apartment, before his arrest.
- Held Gaze: As he's getting marched out of the Maison Everlin by Bruno and Benjamin, the latter two disguised as special forces, Assane spots Guédira in the crowd of onlookers and nods at him with a knowing smirk.
- In Touch with His Feminine Side: Monsieur Imbert, the proprietor of the Maison Everlin, behaves in an effete manner and speaks with a high-pitched, delicate voice. Assane's letter of intent to rob him also takes a dig at the guy for making appointments to have his hair dyed.
- Public Domain Soundtrack: In a hilariously (and intentionally) over-wrought sequence, Assane is dragged out of the boutique—in slow-motion—and shoved into a back of the police car to the strains of the "Lacrymosa" section of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Requiem.
- What the Hell, Hero?: To Assane's shock and disappointment, Claire isn't happy to see him—rather, she's justifiably upset that he skipped town and left her and Raoul to be tormented by incessant scrutiny from both the media and the general public, and makes him aware of exactly how awful things have been for them:Assane: I know you're angry with me. I know what you and Raoul have gone through.Claire: Oh, you know? What do you know? Do you know the fear? The shame? Do you know the stares of contempt? Do you know that Raoul wakes up in the middle of the night, screaming? No! And don't tell me that you're sorry, because you're not sorry about anything. You're a selfish asshole, Assane, and that's all.
- The Whole World Is Watching: Well, all of France, anyway. After Assane makes his intentions to steal the black pearl known, the news coverage of the heist becomes must-see television.
