One year ago, Thomas and Chloé return home to find Adèle
passed out in the bathroom with her wrists cut.
In the present, Toni and Serge walk through the woods
away from their house after Toni
shot at the police; though Toni is struggling and also worries about their
mother who he thinks they left behind (except, of course, she hasn’t returned from
the dead and it was just Serge’s way of hiding Léna). In the woods they find a
bonfire, with animal bodies in the ashes. In case there wasn’t enough creepy
They stagger through the woods for hours, walking in
circles until Toni can’t go on. Serge looks for a way out while Toni rests –
and he sees his mother, before she disappears in the woods. She may have
Returned
They swim across the lake rather than going round – and
half away across Toni struggles, but something drags Serge underwater. Toni
makes it out of the lake, but Serge is still missing
Léna, meanwhile has found a shower – and is cowering in
it. When she hears footsteps she hurriedly pulls on some clothes, locks the
door and gasps in panic when someone pulls the handle – until she hears it’s
Jérôme and she hugs him in relief.
Creepy Victor is till creepy and he wakes a sleeping
Pierre at Helping hands and tells him to follow; to look at the pretty lake.
While I was getting confused (Victor isn’t at Helping Hands), it turns out to
be just Pierre’s dream, he wakes up to Claire worrying and fretting and seeking
comfort. So she shows her his food bunker (not a euphemism – this guy stocks
like the end of the world is happening tomorrow or there’s an epic sale in the
local supermarket. Or like my grandmother). He rather ominously promises her
they won’t have to leave (I think being evacuated because the dam is breaking
and there’s no power makes leaving a pretty good idea) and shows her his big
stash o’ guns. This was supposed to reassure Claire? She doesn’t look
reassured, nor about him talking about protecting Camille. He also has a creepy
looking medical room (looks like a badly decorated dentist’s office) and starts
talking about the book of revelations.
Let it be said that Pierre is really really really bad at
being reassuring.
At Laure’s house Julie wakes up and beckons Laure over as she walks past – they kiss, passionately until Laure starts to lift Julie’s nightshirt. Julie is self-conscious because of her scars, but Laure reassures her, lifts the shirt and kisses the scars – which is when Creepy Victor appears being creepy. Laure yells at him to get lost and stop creepily watching them make out like the creepy thing he is and he leaves. Laure then apologises to Julie but worries if Victor is safe; Julie sensibly points out Victor is actually a child. Julie tells Laure her worry that she is one of the returned but Laure points out all of the Returned have been dead and buried for years – not Julie who was clinically dead for a few seconds 7 years ago and stayed around since then. But being one of the Returned doesn’t bother Julie – because it would give her a reason why the last 7 years she hasn’t been able to live. Victor goes to stare creepily out of the window.
Adèle has another awkward discussion with Chloé – about
Simon being an angel or just the returned dead and, therefore, able to stay.
Adèle reassures her it’s impossible – hah! She’s in for a surprise.
Simon wakes up (yes he was actually asleep) with Lucy;
he’s all moody while Lucy tries to convince him to stay away from Adèle, he
can’t have anything to do with them – he’s dead. She wants him to come with her
– apparently she knows where the dead should go, but he wants to understand
something first
Him and me both.
At Helping Hands, Camille and Mrs. Costa talk dead people
stuff – like her husband killing himself when she returned; Mrs. Costa gets
defensive and doesn’t want to answer Camille’s many questions. Mrs. Costa tells
her how she died – but it’s different from what she told Claire and different
again from what she told Jérôme. Camille calls her out for lying and Mrs. Costa
turns it back on her – the lies Pierre encouraged Camille to tell to give the
parents of the other crash victims “hope”. Camille is sure it helped them – Mrs.
Costa doesn’t think so and tells Camille to look in the storehouse. Camille
goes with Claire – and finds the bodies. And the others realise that Camille is
at least partly responsible, while Pierre continues to maintain his cult.
Jérôme brings Léna to the Helping Hand and there’s a big
family group hug reunion, Camille and Léna seem happy to be reunited.
Back at Laure’s, Laure goes to work (and Julie kisses her
goodbye), warning Julie to keep Victor inside. Victor goes out before the
echoes have even died to go see the neighbours – Adèle and Chloé; he wants to
play on the trampoline and how can Julie reasonably object?
Julie and Adèle talk, they used to be old friends, and
Julie tells Adèle that Simon came to visit her asking after Adèle - and yes he’s
dead, Julie knows that. But that isn’t stopping people moving around these
days. Outside, Chloé tells Victor her dad is dead and came back, and Victor
said he did as well. She doesn’t believe him, so he sets a vision on her (of
Adèle with a slashed wrist) and she passes out.
Simon has gone to church, where the priest remembers him;
but isn’t surprised. He’s been expecting one of the Returned to come see him
(how does he know about the Returned? People have only spoken to him in the
most cryptic of terms).
What he wants to understand is not why he’s back but why
he died –why did he commit suicide. The priest wasn’t surprised by the suicide
– Simon was depressed but he says he’s changed now and can make Adèle happy;
but Thomas and the police arrive, scapegoating Thomas for the serial killing so
Thomas can do away with his competition. The priest betrayed Simon
At Helping hands, Camille and Léna discuss Frédéric and
do a lot of bonding as sisters – animosity forgotten. But Camille has a mark on
her cheek, a black mark, similar to Léna’s back wound (has that just
disappeared?) They put concealing make up on it while Jérôme tells Claire he
was wrong about Pierre and maybe he isn’t all bad (yes he is) and admits he was
jealous. Claire hugs him and Pierre watches with evil creepy eyes.
At the funeral for the suicide victims (lead by Pierre) Mrs. Costa remarks to Claire how beautiful her daughters are – and what a shame it is because it won’t last. The ceremony continues with Pierre doing his best to make himself seem like a cult leader – and Sandrine, one of Camille’s critics suddenly staggers and falls in pain; she sees to be bleeding heavily from her legs or crotch.
At Laure’s Julie comforts Victor when he assures her that
he didn’t mean to hurt Chloé. And she sees Victor’s own black stained burn
wounds on his arms. At Adèle’s, Thomas learns about Victor and starts asking
Laure questions; he wants Victor taken to the police station. Laure goes to
Julie and finds her tearful and asking to be taken away from there.
In Laure’s car they drive out of town, ignoring her
police station, Laure planning to leave her job. But as they drive they loop
round to the dam again. They keep driving – and just loop back again to the dam
– they can’t leave.
Chloé wakes up – and asks Adèle why she wanted to die
In the prison, Simon has his own blackened, nasty wound
on his side. He peels a piece off – then eats it to hide it from the police
(ewwwwwwwwwww ukies ukies). He’s taken to Thomas who questions him about the
Returned, but Simon just talks about Adèle causing more antler clashing
In the pub, Lucy comes out of the back room to find a
whole crowd of people waiting for her, silently.
I feel that the narrative has leaped excessively. We now
have this narrative of having to protect the resurrected, that people want to
hunt and kill them – but the only hostility we’ve seen is from Thomas, aimed at
Simon (and, frankly, I think Simon being alive, dead or undead is far less
relevant to that conflict as much as him having sex with Adèle, Simon’s
fiancée). Yes he’s asked to see Alice, but so far has been more gruff than
violent, but we open with Creepy Pierre and his arsenal of guns he had stocked
up just for such an eventuality (yeaaaah why does he have these? He must have been
amassing them long before the dead started rising. He’s looking more and more
cultish). And then Laure worrying that Victor is dangerous for Julie? Where is
this coming from?
Now how does Mrs. Costa know the bus-crash parents
committed suicide? Is it the same way she seems able to infallibly pick out the
dead? Perhaps, like Victor’s ability to cause visions, all the dead may have a
trick?
And why are the dead turning black and rotten? Is it
because they aren’t eating enough brains?
I do like to see Laure and Julie as a couple, they have
good chemistry, even with Julie’s fragility and leaning so heavily on Laure
