Lupin – Season 3 Episode 2 Recap & Review

Chapter 2

Guidera calls Sofia who informs him that Assane Diop has got away and did not really get arrested. Guidera reaches the spot where Assane fell from the roof.

Back at The Objector newspaper office, Arnold (the one who did not get the front page again) sees the news of Assane’s disappearance and sees it as an opportunity. He sneaks upon Fleur’s laptop, notes down the message for her and deletes it.

At the crime scene, the police ask the crowd to verify Assane’s identity. Apparently, a doctor came and took Assane away in an ambulance. They decide to head to the hospital Assane was taken to. The doctors are none other than Assane’s friends.

They get into doctor’s disguise and confidently lie their way in. They meet Dr Martinez, head of the morgue, who reveals that the body is Assane’s. They ask Dr Martinez to get started on the paperwork.

Sofia and Guidera arrive at the hospital. They have a tiff on their way because Guidera thinks Assane faked his death just like Lupin does in the books. Sofia refuses to believe it. 

The two arrive at the morgue and Assane is seen to be truly dead. It is the same hospital that Claire works at and she gets a call to urgently show up.

The scene cuts to 1998 when Assane shows his mother’s postcard to Claire. He and Bruno arrive at a boxing club. Bruno says the person named Keller is his pretend godfather. Keller also runs the boxing club, and Assane joins.

Back in the present, Fleur is angry that Arnold got the front page based on Diop’s news. The two engage in a verbal battle. Arnold announces that he already has tomorrow’s front page news, and prods Fleur further.

Sofia announces to Guidera that Diop’s funeral is on Thursday and she plans to go incase his accomplices attend. Sofia still does not have a clue where the Black Pearl is. Guidera finds it suspicious that Arnold is suddenly covering the news about Diop instead of Fleur.

Guidera cross questions Fleur about Diop’s case. Guidera says that Diop’s death might be staged just like Lupin does in the stories. He makes a slight offer to her to help him in the case. 

Diop’s funeral is all over the news. Claire, Raoul and Ben are in his funeral procession along with a handful others. Guidera arrives at the cemetery and asks for the coffin to be opened. Assane’s corpse is in the coffin.

Suddenly, after the coffin is put into the group, Assane wakes up. The scene cuts to two weeks earlier and the events until Assane’s fall are summed up again. Assane reveals that the fall is also a part of his plan. 

The scenes proceed to show Assane’s meticulous planning to stage his own death. Ben and Coulard take Assane to the hospital, disguised as doctors and prepare Assane’s very-much-alive body to look like a deceased patient.

Ben was the one who leaked the photo to the press. Assane also told him to take the Black Pearl to Alberto, and in turn inform Claire and Raoul about everything, including leaving to the country.

J’accuse, the dog, is also a part of Assane’s plan. Assane proceeds to take the final stages in his death plan.

Assane starts his attempt to get out of the coffin. All his earlier training of boxing comes to his aid. He crawls his way out of the tunnel and calls J’Accuse, who has a key to a suitcase. Diop changes his clothes and gets out with J’Accuse.

Back in the 1998 flashback, Claire and Assane search for his mother on the internet. They find that she is sentenced to 8 years in prison for aggravated theft.

In the present, a woman is looking for an address. A mysterious woman comes to her aid, but her expressions are suspicious. Ben meets with Alberto and they discuss a deal to sell the Black Pearl, eventually settling on twenty million.

Raoul is heading to his practise when he crosses paths with Claire. He believes that Assane is not truly dead. Raoul is at a library instead, doing research on Lupin.

Raoul and Guidera are reading the same book as they try to connect the dots. The Librarian hands Raoul a map and gloves. Raoul figures out that Assane might have actually escaped from a tunnel.

Assane finds an ad in the newspaper with his nickname ‘Sanni’. The text has a number and the message asks Assane to call. Diop hears a pre-recorded message in a woman’s voice asking him to bring the Black Pearl to a specified location.

Diop heads to Ben’s in haste, asking about the Black Pearl and for Ben to cancel all plans. He is suspicious that someone out there knows that he is alive. Only his mother called him ‘Sanni’ and her contacting him after 25 years is nothing but suspicious.

He is determined to meet the person who called him though. Diop finds a burner phone ringing in the church. He answers to find his mother asking him to leave the pearl, take the phone and leave. Someone is threatening to kill her.

He asks how he can be sure that it is his mother when the woman on the phone sings a lullaby for him. She warns him about her kidnappers so Assane leaves the Black Pearl as asked by his mother and leaves.

The Episode Review

We all knew that Assane Diop is not a man who would be put to prison or be dead so easily. In this episode, it was quite interesting to see a new character addition too.

Diop has had a tumultuous relationship with his parents and his childhood memories are in a way a deciding factor in his present actions.

Once again, the episode fared well on two fronts – it gave a good detail of Assane’s plan without making it sound technical and it also kept up with its pace so as to not bore the viewers.