Monday, February 8, 2016

The Returned, Season 2, Episode 6: Esther



The Esther this episode is named after is one of Serge’s victims (who have all converged on Serge’s house to be creepy and manikin like) – we get a flashback of Serge murdering her after she ignored creepy Victor’s warning. Yes that kid gets everywhere. Toni, still torn between love for his brother and horror for what his brother has done has grabbed onto this as a sign that Serge is being given a second chance (whether he wants it or not – and maybe Serge doesn’t want it, but Toni certainly does).

All of them are pretty much catatonic so Toni decides to take Esther to where she lived, since he recognises her. That doesn’t do a lot – she’s still unresponsive until she decides to set off walking until she arrives at the tunnel where she died. Here Toni screams at his brother to apologise (this whole scene is far more about Toni’s guilt than Serge’s) and, when Serge does, Esther is suddenly conscious – and asks about Victor.

Victor himself is still lurking with Madame Costa when Frédéric and Luccio (followers of Pierre) find them. Madame Costa argues with them, not impressed by the brandishing of weapons… and Luccio shoots her. Since she’s returned I shouldn’t think it will stick though

Of course he shot her in front of Victor – which means his subsequent suicide could be driven by guilt – or by the very angry and spooky Victor. Frédéric probably isn’t long for this world.

The death does distract Pierre enough for Sandrine to finally reach Audrey, imprisoned in the “Helping hands” and see how much they’re cruelly tormenting her. No matter how much Pierre tells her that Audrey isn’t her daughter I don’t think Sandrine will be able to hold on to that.

Camille’s family drama continues to be dramatic – with Claire trying to attack Virgil with scissors because she hallucinates him holding a knife. Camille, in her less than pleasant way, tells Léna this isn’t the first time – in fact her whole story about being attacked by the zombies was fabricated and Claire just lost her mind and started attacking herself. By the way Camille says it, this is true and not just Camille sticking the knife in.

Léna seems to call Camille’s bluff – determined to go and get help. After all if the zombies didn’t attack Claire then there’s no threat… she goes out being well and truly terrified by the creepy zombies and runs into… Jerome (and the guy who has been hanging around with him. I actually don’t’ know who this is since I thought it was Pierre for a while). Anyway this apparently counts as help so she brings him home for a family reunion


The family back together, they all agree to leave undead island and go home – only to find a huge horde of undead waiting for them outside. All though this episode Claire and even Léna have insisted that Camille is different from the other zombies  the fact they are so insistent that she stay may actually prove it’s true (they didn’t stop Audrey leaving).

Hallucinating seems to be all the rage now – with Adèle hallucinating Thomas’s ghost since his body has been revealed by receding waters. She goes to the police, despite being in hiding, and has to wave a very thin story about baby Nathan being kidnapped to explain why he vanished. She’s probably going to be with them a while – while Thomas’s ghost insists that Simon murdered him.

Simon has his own problems since Lucyand her minions have caught up with him. She is not impressed by his devotion to Adèle and cruelly taunts him about his suicide (showing a common yet ignorant opinion of suicides that they don’t love the people in their lives).

Julie brings the show back to face Victor – and increasingly it’s becoming clear this is all about him and his creepiness. Victor’s elderly father wakes up so Julie can speak to him (helped by Ophélie who is helping Julie for some strange reasons – because you always let strange women squat in your hospital) though talking about Louis nearly gives him a heart attack which delays things a little. Thankfully Ophélie is a really chatty Cathy for a nurse and tells Julie that the old man only has one son on record, Victor’s brother Paul.

She’s also violated Julie’s privacy so she can nosy at her medical records and learned all about Julie being attacked. She decides to say how much she understands (which is, generally, a terrible thing to say to an abuse survivor unless you actually do understand) and clumsily reveals that Julie was pregnant when she was attacked.

Despite all the time shenanigans, I’m pretty sure Victor will turn out to be her baby – especially when she goes to victor’s father and confirms Victor was adopted – he just turned up on the doorstep just like he turned up on hers.

I think if we do get a reveal it’s going to be that all of this is about Victor – possibly Camille – but Victor is the lynchpin.