Le Bazar de la Charité (Bonfire Of Destiny) – Episode 8 Recap & Review

Fin

The finale of Le Bazar de la Charité (Bonfire Of Destiny) begins with Rose meeting Jean in the stables and as they kiss, Jacques appears with a gun, threatening to kill him. A fight ensues between both men, ending with Rose repeatedly hitting him with a baton and killing Jacques in the process. Jean wants to run away but Rose decides to make his death look like an accident as she doesn’t want them to be fugitives.

Adrienne is finally reunited with her daughter. She tells her to leave today and promises to join her later as the police are coming to arrest her dad, while Auguste is still trying to convince Alice to write a retraction. She refuses and claims that women should have more freedom. Back in his office, Marc-Antoine demands a retraction from Auguste to make sure Victor gets executed in the afternoon. He then threatens to have Alice interned if she doesn’t tell the truth.

After Julien finds out the truth about Victor, he heads off to see Alice and promises to help her see him one last time, while we see Adrienne arranging for Camille to leave with Leo. Meanwhile, Madame Huchon finds Jacques dead and comes to the conclusion that he may have been killed by a horse. She then relays the news to Thomas and Rose.

Julien manages to arrange for Alice to see Victor and as she heads into prison, she also sees Celestin locked up. She reaches Victor’s cell and embraces him, telling him she told the truth to the paper which should free him. Unfortunately, he tells her he has been tried behind closed doors and they’re going to execute him the next day at dawn.

The next morning, Madame Huchon confronts Rose as she found an item belonging to her in the stables. Rose reveals the truth about Jacques’ death and tells her she was planning to run away. Madame Huchon tells her she doesn’t have long to live and asks her to raise Thomas as her own. Refusing to leave Jean, Madame Huchon reminds her that she will be rich and technically a widow, therefore she will be able to marry whomever she wants.

Meanwhile, Victor is taken to the guillotine as the crowd cheers for his death. Alice is also there and screams for his innocence. Just as his head is lowered into the device, Auguste arrives to save the day and claims that the fire was an accident and he is the one responsible, prompting the prefect to stop the execution. The prefect takes Auguste to the station who finally reveals who Marc-Antoine really is. The truth is finally out when they take Celestin out of prison and he explains what Marc-Antoine has done to Eva Schaff as well as his involvement in spying for the Germans.

The prefect and Celestin rush to Marc-Antoine’s house to arrest him after seeing the music sheet. As they tell him he’s under arrest for freedom, Marc-Antoine demands no trial or prison but to be able to die with honour. Believing he’s going to kill himself, they leave him to it while searching for Adrienne. Unfortunately, this was a ploy to reach his wife first and he threatens to have her burnt alive. After toying with her, he leaves the room and escapes the house.

After Victor is freed and reunited with Alice, the latter heads to Rose’s house. Seeing Jean riding a horse with Thomas, Alice asks her what he’s doing there. She then finally reveals her true identity and the reason why she hid herself. As Rose tells her she hopes she will forgive her, Alice tearfully apologises and embraces her as the episode closes.

With the series all but wrapped up, the final pieces of the puzzle slot into place nicely and round out this mini-series with a definitive ending. While the show has been a little too melodramatic and leaned a tad too heavily into its own soap opera elements, Le Bazar de la Charité has been an entertaining watch nonetheless. As predicted, the guillotine that’s been shown throughout the season plays a big part here and those scenes in particular were really dramatic.The show bows out with a decent finale and although it’s far from the best period drama of the year, it’s been a highly entertaining one nonetheless.