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Introduced in parts 1 & 2
Léonard Koné
Léonard Koné
Played by: Adama Niane
Hubert Pellegrini's go-to cleaner, who causes all sorts of trouble for Assane and his family.
- Arc Villain: Serves as this for the subplot of Raoul's kidnapping.
- Asshole Victim: Gets killed by Pascal, another one of Hubert's Mooks, in Assane's apartment, both because of his failures to off Assane and for the purpose of framing Assane for murder.
- Foil: Much like Assane, he's a career criminal who experiences plenty of undeserved prejudice in his day-to-day work. Unlike Assane, he has no compunctions with violence or murder in the course of his duties.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Has a brief appearance in the pilot, smirking at Assane seconds before Babakar's apparent suicide is discovered. It’s revealed in Part 2 that Léonard had killed him.
- Even Evil Has Standards: He appears to have a crisis of conscience while kidnapping Raoul and seems shaken after Hubert tells him to get rid of him. This is subverted later as he tries to kill Raoul by leaving the kid tied up in his BMW's trunk, while the car is on fire, to spite Assane after he threw Léonard out a window during their fight.
- Frame-Up:
- Assane tricks the police into thinking that Léonard is him, leading to the hitman getting arrested. However, he's released thanks to the machinations of Dumont and because he doesn't match the police's sketches of Assane.
- In Part 2, he's murdered in order to frame Assane for his death.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Pretty much no one in Hubert's entourage has any issue with the idea of his getting bumped off.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: As proved by his impulsive decision to murder Raoul...because of his frustration at his inability to deal with Assane. In general he's almost as much of a Hate Sink as Hubert is.
- Karmic Death: Considering that Léonard's modus operandi was staging fake suicides by hanging, it's somewhat poetic that he dies while being strangled.
- Professional Killer: He's Hubert's go-to guy when someone needs to die. Or, at least he was.
- Psycho for Hire: Léonard is prepared to do any number of amoral actions at Hubert's command, and will not hesitate to use death as a punishment for not complying.
- Psychotic Smirk: Quite often, as he's one of the most Obviously Evil characters in the series.
- Small Role, Big Impact: He makes a brief appearance in Part 1 in a flashback and later, in the present, he kills Fabienne, tries to kill Assane on a train, and then ends up kidnapping Raoul. Then in Part 2, he gets killed himself after the whole kidnapping fiasco and his murder is used to frame Assane so that the police will go after him. It's also revealed that he was the one who bumped Babakar off.
- Stupid Evil: Léonard isn't exactly the world's top hitman. His master strategy of dealing with Assane boils down tailing him and going "I'mma wing it." Predictably, he repeatedly fails and just makes a bigger mess of things, paying the ultimate price for it in the end.
- Villainous Breakdown: After getting thrown out a window near the end of the premiere episode of Part 2, he tries to burn Raoul alive in his car, seemingly out of rage more than anything else. Then, after Guédira saves the boy, he attempts to kill them both with a shotgun.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After failing to kill Assane, and all of the problems that resulted from his kidnapping and later attempting to kill Raoul, Léonard is viciously strangled to death by Pascal with a garrote. Just as he'd done to his victims, Babakar and Fabienne.
Pascal Oblet
Pascal Oblet
Played by: Nicolas Wanczycki
Hubert's chief muscle.
- Book Dumb: When Philippe explains how the equipment they need is important for transferring the donations into Hubert's account, Pascal states that he doesn't understand how any of it works. Philippe's response? "I'm not surprised."
- Dirty Cop: Somewhat ambiguous. Pascal claims to be a cop, Guédira at one point refers to him as an undercover police officer, but Hubert calls him one of "my men" and he doesn't seem to be a part of the usual police hierarchy (for example, Dumont has no authority over him). Either way he's certainly dirty, and even murderous.
- Pet the Dog: He takes pity on Claire after she begs him for "a moment alone" with Raoul after Assane brings him back home following the kidnapping. Unfortunately for Pascal, Claire uses this moment to tell Assane to flee.
- Remember the New Guy?: Despite the fact that Pascal's working relationship with Hubert seems to have been longstanding, he's completely absent from Part 1 and appears suddenly in Part 2 with no proper introduction.
- Token Competent Minion: Dumont was manipulated against Hubert at least twice while Léonard failed to kill Assane. Pascal, on the other hand, is by far the most reliable of Hubert's underlings: he discovers that Assane has Benjamin as an accomplice, successfully dupes Guédira into handing Raoul over to Hubert and Dumont, and frames Assane for Léonard's murder. His only real missteps are getting tricked by Claire (see Pet the Dog above) and leaving a footprint on Léonard's trenchcoat which allows the police to figure out that Assane was not his killer.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: We never learn what happened to him after Assane knocked him out and left him in the storage closet at the Théâtre du Châtelet, although it's probably safe to assume that he was arrested and ultimately jailed.
Lucas Lacroix
Lucas Lacroix
Played by: Franck Mercadal
Hubert's longtime stockbroker.
- Alliterative Name: Lucas Lacroix. In its native French pronunciation, it's also a Rhyming Name.
- Boring, but Practical: Lucas is known for emphasizing stable, secure investments over riskier moves. Predictably, Hubert finds this approach annoying, and switches him out for Philippe Courbet the moment the opportunity presents itself.
- Buttmonkey: Things don't exactly go wonderfully for poor Lucas. He gets roughed up by Benjamin and loses one of his most high-profile clients. Although given where Hubert ends up, Lucas may well have lucked out.
- Horrible Judge of Character: After Assane tells Lucas about Philippe Courbet, he calls Hubert and relays the information to him. Which is to say, he tells a Corrupt Corporate Executive about the existence of an unscrupulous competitor whose riskier methods could make him millions. Whoops!
- Neat Freak: Lucas is extremely fastidious and meticulous in his work.
- Nervous Wreck: A disapproving glare from Hubert will inevitably make Lucas begin sweating profusely. Luckily, he keeps a handkerchief with him at all times for just such purposes.
J'accuse
J'accuse
Fabienne's dog, and her only companion until Assane meets her. After Fabienne is murdered by Léonard, J'accuse is adopted by Assane, who leaves Benjamin in charge of him.
- Cross-Cast Role: J'accuse is male, but the dog that plays him is female
. - Evil-Detecting Dog: As of Part 3 he appears to be able to detect treacherous behavior in general. Notably he barks when Assane assures Benjamin that following the bracelet heist in episode 3.04, they'll both escape the Château de Thoiry's grounds unharmed (in fact, Assane was already intending to betray him at that time).
- J'accuse!: Named after this phrase. This is because his former owner was trying to expose the Pelligrini family's corruption.
- Meaningful Name: It's a French work, and his name is French for "I accuse." Fabienne based J'accuse's name on her own goal of exposing Hubert Pelligrini's corruption.
- Precious Puppy: While it's hard to tell how old J'accuse is, he is still a small dog and very cute.
- Puppy-Dog Eyes: Episode 5 opens with J'accuse giving the camera sad dog eyes as we hear a recap of Fabienne's murder at the end of the previous episode.
- The Scottish Trope: Downplayed and Played for Laughs. Fabienne trained J'accuse to bark whenever he hears the name "Pelligrini."
Introduced in part 3
Jean-Luc Keller
Jean-Luc Keller
Click here to see him in 1998
Played by: Steve Tientcheu (present day), Salif Cissé (1998)
A cruel and abusive man who owned a boxing gym that Assane joined as a teenager, Keller serves as the main antagonist for Part 3.
- Bald of Evil: He's bald and is very menacing. Averted for the flashbacks, in which he has a full head of hair.
- Bad Boss: He insists upon Undying Loyalty but tries to murder Ferdinand, one his minions, just for failing his mission to kill Claire. It's this particular crime that leads to his second arrest at the end of Part 3.
- Berserk Button: Keller seems to reserve a particularly intense strain of hatred for those who snitch on members of their inner circle. When Bruno tells him that he thinks Assane and Manon are having an affair, Keller is furious with Bruno for spreading rumors about Assane, and makes them fight in the ring until they learn to respect one another.Keller: (to Assane) Real friends never turn their backs. Reflect on that.
- Big Bad: Of Part 3. He's the one who kidnapped Assane's mother and later tries to kill the rest of his family. He's also the antagonist in the flashbacks, where he pits Assane and Bruno against each other and forces them to commit crimes for him.
- The Big Guy: He's an absolutely massive hulk of a man. When they're standing next to one another, he makes Assane—who is certainly an imposing physical specimen in his own right—look borderline scrawny.
- Control Freak: Demands the uncritical allegiance of every kid in his boxing club. Even his relationship with his girlfriend is extremely controlling.
- The Corrupter: Keller's modus operandi was finding impoverished and vulnerable teens and turning them into his personal lackeys via his cult-like boxing club. Eventually he began using them as Mooks in criminal schemes.
- Divide and Conquer: Keller uses strategic favoritism to turn Assane and Bruno against each other, with the ultimate goal of having them swear loyalty to him and him alone. He also tries to manipulate Assane against Claire, arguing that she treats him like a child, although this is less successful.
- Drives Like Crazy: His getaway driving following the jewelry store heist certainly qualifies as this. He winds up crashing and overturns his Jeep.
- Evil Former Friend: When Assane first met Keller, he looked up to him as a surrogate father figure. He eventually realized that Keller was anything but that.
- The Fagin: He takes lost children under his wing only to groom them into thieves who work for him.
- Family-Values Villain: In the flashbacks, he's shown making a big deal about how his boxing club is like a family.
- Hate Sink: While he's not as systemically awful as Hubert Pellegrini, Keller is nonetheless a despicable person—a manipulative hypocrite who preys on lower-class teenagers in need of guidance and support. Not to mention that he is in a relationship with a woman who seems to have been underage when they got together, and he sees no problems with personally murdering innocent people as Revenge by Proxy.
- Hidden Villain: For most of Part 3, Assane is unaware of who is behind the various misfortunes that are befalling him and his loved ones. It's only at the very end of the fifth episode (out of seven) that he, and the viewer, learns it's Keller.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Keller technically succeeds in his aim to create a squadron of clever criminals who are Made of Iron. Unfortunately for him, they all wind up turning on him, and eventually work together to get him jailed a second time.
- Interim Villain: Becomes the main villain after Pellegrini is sent to jail. When he's defeated, the last scene of Part 3 reveals that Pellegrini isn't done with Assane.
- It's Personal: In the present day, he blames Assane for the fact that he's spent the past two decades in jail. He's not entirely wrong, since the reason he was given such a long sentence is because Assane made it look as though Keller had shot a police officer, when in reality it was Bruno—although Bruno was acting under Keller's direct orders (not to mention that the entire crime that got them in that situation to begin with was a plot that Keller had cooked up).
- Meaningful Name: His surname sounds similar to the English word "killer."
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Keller is a chauvinistic, violence-obsessed megalomaniac with a remarkable ability to draw struggling or directionless boys into his inner circle, much to the horror of the women who care about them...which is to say, he's basically the show's version of infamous social media influencer Andrew Tate.
- Paid-for Family: One way that Keller maintained the loyalty of the teens at his boxing club was by posing as their guardian so that they wouldn't get taken to social services.
- The Sociopath: He plays the role of father figure to the kids in his club, but is willing to throw them out in the cold if they don't have the money to enter anymore (not to mention that he keeps raising the price). He helps them with social services only to blackmail them later and force them to commit crimes for him. Even his supposed love for his girlfriend is very controlling and creepy, considering he groomed her when she was a teen. When he gets caught by the police, he takes no responsibility and blames Assane, and his idea of revenge is to kill all of Assane's loved ones.
- Stupid Evil: Keller is decidedly not a criminal mastermind, nor does he have the many layers of connections that Hubert Pellegrini had. He's big, he's intimidating and he's ruthless, and that's about it. He's very good at abusing and forcing kids to commit crimes for him, but when he actually has to take the reigns, he proves to be completely and utterly inept at virtually everything. He even blames his own henchmen for his own fuck-ups, such as when Assane's mother escaped on his watch. Fittingly, once he runs out of Mooks, he gets outplayed rather spectacularly.
- Would Hurt a Child: Keller is outraged when Assane's machinations result in Manon getting sent to prison. His idea of an appropriate retaliation is murdering Claire and Raoul. Luckily, he doesn't succeed.
Manon
Manon
Click here to see her in 1998
Played by: Sandra Parfait (present day), Sandya Touré Maite (1998)
Keller's girlfriend and accomplice in his present-day crimes.
- Action Girl: She's a sleek, athletic woman who was a boxer in her younger days.
- Backstory Horror: Manon appears to be about the same age as Assane and Bruno, which would mean that her relationship with Keller was the product of grooming on the latter's part.
- Bald Head of Toughness: In the present day she has a shaved head.
- Cop Hater: Manon makes little effort to conceal her disdain for Belkacem when she's getting interrogated.
- Distaff Counterpart: She can be seen as a female version of Benjamin, in that like him she's a competent and loyal Number Two. (She's a much better fighter than he is, though.)
- The Dragon: Keller's right-hand woman and girlfriend.
- Heel–Face Turn: When Assane explains the truth of what happened to him and Bruno on the day of the 1998 world cup final, Manon agrees to turn on Keller, and helps set him up for Assane's final trap at the top of the Arc de Triomphe. The final scene of Part 3 shows her and Bruno re-connecting after more than two decades.
- The Lad-ette: She's part of a crew with Keller and another acolyte named Ferdinand, and generally seems to spend the vast majority of her time hanging out with pugilistic, intimidating guys.
- Nerves of Steel: The only time we really see her display any significant vulnerability is a brief moment, right after she's released from prison, when Assane jumps her and places her in a (harmless) headlock.
- Tragic Villain: Manon fell into villainy as a result of her initial Undying Loyalty to Keller, as she viewed him as someone who cared about her when nobody else did.
Fleur Bélanger
Fleur Bélanger
Played by: Martha Canga Antonio
A journalist at The Objector who has been covering Assane's story.
- '70s Hair: Her afro wouldn't look out of place at a Black Panther party meeting.
- Child-Like Voice: Fleur's speaking voice is very wispy and high-pitched, belying the fact that she's an Intrepid Reporter who will stop at nothing to get her scoop.
- Immoral Journalist: Shows no qualms in essentially stalking Claire and attempting to force an interview out of her, even going so far as to loiter outside the court where Raoul has his basketball lessons.
- The Rival: She has a rivalry with her colleague, Arnold de Garmeaux. The two frequently compete with one another for stories and bicker over who deserves a given day's front page.
- Romantic False Lead: For Guédira. The two get a few Ship Tease moments but by the end of Part 3 it's made clear that his heart lies with Belkacem.
- Workaholic: She claims that she can be reached all day, every day.
Cisco
Cisco
Played by: Vincent Overath
The diminutive thug-like leader of a criminal gang that Assane joins in order to steal a painting.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": His real name is Nicolas. Only his mom gets to call him that.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: He may be a vicious gangster but he cares enormously about his sickly mother and makes sure she's well taken care of.
- Insane Troll Logic: Cisco's method for deciding whether or not to kill someone he's suspicious of is by handing them a deck of cards at gunpoint and ordering them to draw an ace. One wonders just how many loyal people Cisco murdered using this method (and how many turncoats he unwittingly spared).
- Monster of the Week: He's the main antagonist of his only episode, although he's more Stupid Evil than anything else, and the rather bumbling villainy displayed by his gang is generally played for comedy.
- Post–Wake-Up Realization: When we last see Cisco, he's awaking from an unconscious state after being caught unawares by one of the enhanced smoke bombs made for Assane by Benjamin. He slowly comes to the realization that he's surrounded by a circle of cops.
- Signature Line: "An ace or you're dead."
