Assane Diop's friends and accomplices, listed in the order he met them.
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Bruno
Bruno
Click here to see him as a teenager
Played by: Pierre Lottin (adult), Noé Wodecki (teenager)
A childhood friend of Assane's, who introduced him to Jean-Luc Keller's boxing gym.
- Always Someone Better: His dynamic with Assane has aspects of this. When Bruno brings Assane to the boxing club, Assane immediately becomes the favorite amongst the teenagers Keller looks after, much to Bruno's frustration. In the present day, while Assane has gone on to become one of the most (in)famous men in the country, Bruno is still living with his sister in the same dingy apartment they inhabited as children.
- Bait-and-Switch Character Intro: When we first see Bruno, he's in character as BRI commander Felix. It's only at the end of the Part 3 premiere, during the Once More, with Clarity segment, that we learn that he's that kid from the flashback, now grown up.
- Buttmonkey: Things don't go brilliantly for Bruno after he introduces Assane to Keller. He quickly becomes The Un-Favorite, and as a result of his obvious envy of Assane's newfound status as the golden child, he's forced by Keller to participate in a boxing match with Assane, which he loses in embarrassing fashion.
- Childhood Friends: With Assane, due to their having grown up in the same tower block in Montreuil.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: In spite of the Backstory Horror he endures, Bruno is one of the few characters who winds up in an unambiguously good position at the end of Part 3. After Assane gives him the black pearl, he sells it and uses the proceeds to re-open the boxing gym with a new Arsène Lupin-inspired theme. It's also suggested that he and Manon have reconnected.
- Establishing Character Moment: During his flashback introduction, Bruno establishes his thuglike but ultimately good-hearted nature by pinning Assane against a wall and making fun of his school uniform before letting him stay at his and his sister's apartment for the summer.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Bruno grows increasingly jealous over the attention and praise that Keller showers upon Assane. When he sees Assane getting closer with Keller's girlfriend Manon, he immediately becomes convinced that they are having a fling, and decides to report this to Keller. It backfires when Keller erupts in anger at Bruno, rather than Assane, for spreading rumors about one of his friends.
- Hopeless Suitor: Teenaged Bruno appears to have a crush on Manon, who doesn't return his affections because she is in a (very creepy) relationship with Keller.
- I Didn't Mean to Kill Him: While he, Assane and Keller are driving away following their ill-fated burglary of the jewelry store on the day of the 1998 World Cup final, Bruno shoots a police officer, having been ordered to do so by Keller (who threatened to kill Bruno if he didn't comply). After Keller crashes the car and Assane pulls Bruno out of the wreckage, Bruno stammers that he never meant to do it. Assane ultimately takes the gun from Bruno and puts it into the hand of a half-conscious Keller, who is arrested when the slain officer's colleagues arrive on the scene.
- Minor Living Alone: In 1998, he was living with his younger sister Anna in an apartment near the one where Assane and Babakar had lived. It's never made clear exactly what happened to their parents, although presumably they're dead. The pair pay Keller to pose as their guardian so that they don't get taken to child services.
- Obsessive Sports Fan: Bruno is probably best described as a likable soccer hooligan. He adores watching the French national team advance through the qualifying rounds of the World Cup, and on the day of the jewelry store theft, he paints his entire face in the colors of the flag of France, indicating that he'd much rather be watching the final match than participating in a heist.
- Stronger Than They Look: Downplayed. His wiry frame contrasts with Assane's stockier build, but he's still decent when it comes to physical combat. Having said that, Assane easily bests him in the ring when Keller makes them box one another.
Benjamin Férel
Benjamin Férel
Click here to see him as a teenager
Played by: Antoine Gouy (adult), Adrian Valli de Villebonne (teenager)
Assane's technologically-gifted best friend, who runs an antique shop while assisting Assane with his more elaborate crimes.
- Agent Scully: He's typically ready with a sarcastic quip whenever he thinks that Assane's ambitions and ideas are getting too outlandish.Benjamin: (on Babakar's letter to Assane) What, two spelling mistakes and it's a hidden message? You're really reaching.
- Ascended Extra: In a sense. Benjamin is clearly set up as a major character from his earliest appearances, but he gets very little screen time in Part 1. Come Part 2, though, and he's helping Assane with just about everything.
- Beleaguered Assistant: Comes across like this on occasion, particularly in Part 3, when Assane fakes his death and then has Benjamin lie to Claire and Raoul about it. Benjamin acquiesces to Assane's wishes, but it's clear that he's not thrilled about what he's doing. When Claire finally does get the truth out of him, he admits that he was against it from the beginning.
- Bromantic Foil: While Assane is seen charming women left and right, Benjamin lacks significant romantic relationships of any kind.
- Catfishing: Does this to Juliette when he's pretending to be a wealthy donor to her foundation.
- Childhood Friends: Assane and Benjamin met at an elite boarding school where Benjamin was one of the few students to attempt to make Assane feel welcome.
- The Confidant: Benjamin is the only one of Assane's inner circle that knows absolutely everything he's been doing, and is able to keep it secret. He also directly profits from Assane's criminal activity, as he sells some of the stolen goods in his shop.
- The Engineer: This is his role a lot of the time when it comes to Assane's capers.
- Facial Horror: Downplayed, but during his stint in prison he's seen with cuts and bruises all over his face. It's not specified exactly how he got them, but what's definitely clear is that he's having a downright awful time.
- Foil: Benjamin is quieter, more cautious and a lot smaller than Assane. Contrasting further with Assane's status as The Ace, Benjamin's mild anxiety tends to get Played for Laughs.
- Glasses-and-Ponytail Coverup: Halfway. Benjamin's disguise in Chapter 10 sees him wearing hair extensions, but dispensing with the Nerd Glasses he usually wears.
- He Cleans Up Nicely: He manages to look borderline suave while dressed as a security guard during the infiltration of the Pellegrinis' concert.
- Heroes Love Dogs: Averted; Benjamin finds Fabienne's dog J'accuse extremely annoying and hands him back over to Assane as soon as possible. As of Part 3, however, his views on J'accuse seem to have softened a bit.
- Hidden Depths: He's a talented visual artist, as evidenced by the fact that he manages to produce a convincing fake of a Pissarro painting in merely a few days' time.
- Honorary Uncle: He's basically this for Raoul, as he's good friends with both Assane and Claire.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: His expert knowledge of antiques and strong technical capabilities have helped Assane on many occasions. In particular, he seems to be able to whip up extremely complex gadgets for Assane in a matter of days.
- Interclass Friendship: He and Assane seem to share one of these, since the flashback scenes suggest that Benjamin comes from a fairly wealthy family.
- Jeweler's Eye Loupe: Uses one of these in his job as an antiquarian and jewelry specialist.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Benjamin is spared the media firestorm that engulfs Claire and Raoul following Assane's flight from Paris—even though he's the one who is actually Assane's active accomplice—and seems to have managed to keep his antique shop in business although it's moved to another location. However, things get much worse for him when Assane decides to sell him out to the police in exchange for Mariama's safety.
- Nervous Wreck: Benjamin is substantially less comfortable than Assane is with being a wanted criminal. In the Part 2 finale he lampshades this by describing himself as "the nervous one."
- Nice Guy: He's generally depicted as a good-natured and helpful guy.
- No Sympathy: Zigzagged. On the one hand, he seems to enjoy manipulating Juliette with fake news alerts, and encourages Assane to cut her off the moment she isn't of any use to them. On the other hand, he frequently demonstrates more awareness of the strain that Assane's actions place upon Claire and Raoul than Assane does himself.
- Oh, Crap!: When he discovers that Assane has blocked his path through the maze in episode 3.04.
- Out of Focus: He's largely absent in the flashbacks for Part 3, as a result of his being forced by his parents to stay with a wealthy family friend during the summer of 1998. He also doesn't get a lot of screen time in the second half of the season due to his being stuck in jail.
- The Reliable One: No matter how much of a cynic he can be about Assane's schemes, he inevitably winds up helping out.
- Satellite Character: Benjamin is almost never seen outside the context of his interactions with other characters who drive the plot forward more than he does (typically Assane, but also sometimes Claire), and he hasn't yet had any significant arcs of his own—even his spell in prison in Part 3 just sees him get Demoted to Extra for the most part.
- Took a Level in Badass: His actions in the finale of Part 2 in particular prove that he's much more than just a guy who likes tinkering with antiques.
- Trauma Conga Line: Suffers one of these in the second half of Part 3. With Assane, he participates in a jewelry theft at a swanky reception, only to discover that the whole thing was a set-up from the beginning since Mariama's kidnappers had ordered Assane to sell him out. After he gets captured by the police, he's sent to prison, where it's implied that he's beaten by one or more of the other inmates. And just as he's hitting Rock Bottom, he receives a visit from Claire, who is genuinely distressed to see the state he is in, but even so manipulates him into revealing that Assane is still alive.
- Undying Loyalty: Even after Assane betrays him, sabotages his escape and leaves him to be arrested by the police, Benjamin still refuses to rat him out. Assane gets him freed eventually.
Fabienne Bériot
Fabienne Bériot
Played by: Anne Benoit
A former journalist with a vendetta against the Pellegrinis to match Assane's.
- Career-ending Misdemeanor: In-Universe example. After she published a book detailing Hubert Pellegrini's corruption, he made sure she would never work again.
- Character Catchphrase: "A good journalist never reveals her sources."
- Crazy Cat Lady: Fabienne claims that Hubert made her out to be this in 1996 in order to discredit her work. Assane jokes that this was clearly a lie—she's more of a dog person.
- Cool Old Lady: Although she's getting on in age, she clearly has a lot of fun helping Assane with his criminal activity.
- Defiant to the End: When Léonard orders her to tell him where Assane is, her response is to deliver her catchphrase. She pays for it with her life.
- The Eeyore: When Assane first meets Fabienne, she's clearly extremely depressed (and even seems to be something of a hoarder). Considering her career and reputation were destroyed by Hubert, one can hardly blame her.
- Face Death with Dignity: Barely flinches when Léonard grabs her by the throat, and refuses to capitulate to his demand that she give up Assane's location.
- Good Is Not Nice: Although her manners were rather gruff and unrefined, she cared greatly about fighting for good causes and exposing evil.
- Intergenerational Friendship: With Assane, bordering on a Parental Substitute relationship. They first meet when she is in her late 50s and Assane in his early 40s, however their attitudes and appearances make their ages seem further apart. At first they only band together due to their similar motives in taking down the Pellegrini's lies, but they truly warm up to each other during their singular episode; She even kisses Assane on the cheek at one point, as a thank you for bringing her old self back. This makes it all the more tragic when she is killed at the end of the episode. Despite this, the impact she had on Assane echoes throughout Parts 2 and 3, with her dog J'accuse being taken in by him, as well as him remembering her Plain Jane quote when he speaks with his mother.
- Intrepid Reporter: She was willing to get her hands dirty in service of her career.
- It's Personal: Downplayed. In 2020, she had undeniable personal reasons for wanting to see Hubert Pellegrini brought down, but her initial motivations for going after him were due to a broader Capitalism Is Bad-influenced desire to expose corruption on the part of large corporations. This contrasts with Assane, whose hatred for Hubert stems almost entirely from what he did to Babakar.
- Jeanne d'Archétype: Fabienne was always ready to fight injustices committed by big business. And it cost her her career, and ultimately her life.
- Plain Jane: She invokes this to explain why Hubert's defamation lawsuit was so successful.Fabienne: When you're a woman, and you're my age and you look like me, your case gets decided quickly: you're trash.
- Third-Person Person: Often referred to herself in this manner.
- Tragic One-Shot Character: Much of her later life was unhappy as a result of her blacklisting by Hubert Pellegrini, and she gets killed at the end of her only episode.
Philippe Courbet
Philippe Courbet
Played by: Stefan Crepon
A young broker hired by Hubert Pellegrini after hearing about his willingness to carry out unscrupulous actions regarding his clients’ finances in order to achieve greater monetary output. However, it later turns out he’s really a Lupin fan who Assane and Benjamin hired as an accomplice.
- Ascended Fanboy: He’s a young Lupin fan who gets to help a real-life equivalent pull off a con.
- The Cameo: Although he's not deeply involved in Assane's activities after Part 2, he makes a brief appearance in episode 3.02, now impersonating a doctor at the morgue where Assane's body is inspected. He seems to have made a career of assisting criminal operations, and it's mentioned that he charges a lot for his services.
- Dark Is Not Evil: He dresses in dark suits and his civilian attire consists of dark clothing and makeup, but he’s really a good guy.
- Evil Genius: His role in Hubert's operation is to use his knowledge to wire most of the donations into Hubert's account. Subverted when he turns out to not be evil at all. In truth he's more along the lines of a Guile Hero, using financial knowledge and charm to con Pellegrini into a situation where Assane can expose him.
- For the Lulz: Part of the reason he’s doing this (other than getting paid in diamonds), is to be part of a real life Lupin caper.
- Good All Along: It’s revealed that he’s actually working with Assane and Benjamin in order to stop Pellegrini and is shown to have concern over Pellegrini actually succeeding in his embezzlement scheme.
- Goth: His appearance when Assane and Benjamin first met him is a textbook example. The "Courbet" guise is the result of a substantial makeover.
- Hidden Depths: Despite being a random, young emo kid Assane and Benjamin found in a library, he knows enough about finances and the economy in order to pose as a corrupt broker.
- The Mole: He was really hired by Lupin to help him screw over Pellegrini’s scheme to embezzle money from the charity concert.
- Nerd Glasses: Invoked; he tries on several pairs so that he’ll look the part of a smug broker.
- No Name Given: ”Philippe Courbet” is an alias; the kid’s real name is never revealed.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: He wears nice, expensive looking suits as a broker.
- Sherlock Scan: He spots Assane and Benjamin spying on him by noticing that Assane was only pretending to read his book and that Benjamin had his upside down, all of which was part of a Secret Test of Character devised by the two.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Philipe has a very limited role in season 2 yet plays a big part in exposing Pellegrini's corruption.
- Vague Age: Frequent comments are made about how young he looks, but it's never made clear whether he's actually a teenager.
- Walking Spoiler: Well, just look at all the tags...
