Lupin Season 3 – TV Series

Episodes 01

“Chapter 1”

One year after Assane’s showdown with Hubert Pellegrini, he lives incognito in Marseille. Assane remains the most wanted man in France and has unintentionally become a folk hero. Claire and Raoul, meanwhile, are tormented by constant media harassment. Assane is furious at their treatment and decides to return to Paris, initially approaching Claire with a plan to spirit her and Raoul out of the country, but Claire is upset with Assane and rebuffs his offer, telling him that the only way he could truly repay them would be to turn himself in. Undeterred, Assane plots to fund their escape by stealing an exorbitantly expensive black pearl from a luxury boutique located at the Place Vendôme, sending a letter to the shop’s owner as well as the staff of the newspaper The Objector, explicitly stating his intentions. A squad led by Belkacem is summoned to the scene, where they find a large crowd of Assane’s supporters eagerly awaiting the burglary. Although he has not been assigned to the case, Guédira decides to tag along and mingles with the fans. Helped by Benjamin and another childhood friend, Bruno, both disguised as BRI officers, Assane’s heist is successful. He escapes across the high roofs surrounding the square but fails to get a foothold on one of his attempts to jump to an adjacent building, and plummets to the streets below.

Episodes 02

“Chapter 2”

Assane survives his fall, having planned to fake his death using an airbag and a vial of his own blood. His seemingly lifeless body is spirited off in an ambulance by Benjamin and Philippe Courbet before the police can arrive on the scene. Dressed in lab coats, Philippe and Benjamin use a broken stethoscope to successfully manipulate a doctor at the morgue into confirming the death, and the news of Assane’s demise breaks shortly after. A funeral is held for him at Père-Lachaise Cemetery, where Guédira, skeptical of the reality of Assane’s death, demands that the casket be opened, to the horror of Claire and Raoul. After the event has finished, Assane escapes the casket through a tunnel underneath the cemetery and reunites with Benjamin, who has managed to find a dealer who can get twenty million euros for the pearl. However, Assane’s plans are put on hold when he receives a phone call from a woman claiming to be his mother, Mariama, to whom he had last spoken in 1998, when she was serving a prison sentence in Senegal. She pleads with Assane for help, telling him that she has been kidnapped and that her captors are requesting the black pearl as ransom.

Episodes 03

“Chapter 3”

Frustrated that his ideas about Assane’s connections to Arsène Lupin are still not being taken seriously by his colleagues, Guédira makes a deal with Objector journalist Fleur Belanger to provide her with his evidence. The resulting story ultimately winds up rekindling public interest in Arsène Lupin. Like Guédira, Raoul is refusing to accept Assane’s death, leading Claire to grow worried about his mental state. She gives her phone number to Raoul’s new basketball coach, Alex, and asks him to let her know if her son is having any difficulties. Mariama’s kidnappers order Assane to steal a painting by Edouard Manet, currently in the illegal possession of a gang leader named Cisco. In disguise, Assane ingratiates himself with Cisco’s gang, managing to gain a position as a getaway driver in a robbery that they are planning. With some help from gadgets designed by Benjamin, Assane double-crosses the gang, leaving them to be arrested by the police, and makes off with the painting, which he gives to Ferdinand, one of the kidnappers, at an arranged rendez-vous point. Having placed a tracking device made by Benjamin onto the painting, Assane impulsively decides to follow Ferdinand but does not manage to locate Mariama.

Episodes 04

“Chapter 4”

While at work, Claire is informed that the doctor who examined Assane’s body is not in the hospital’s database. Beginning to have doubts about what happened to Assane, she finds Raoul’s written attempts to prove that his father is alive, in which he has highlighted the name of the Arsène Lupin story Edith Swan-Neck. After a semi-incognito trip to the library, Claire acquires the book and, while reading it, stumbles upon the phrase “with Lupin, there’s no such thing as death”. Meanwhile, Assane is forced by the kidnappers to plan the theft of a bracelet belonging to Tara Zang, wife of real estate magnate Max Moller, both of whom will be appearing at a gala at the Château de Thoiry. In preparation, Assane shows Benjamin how to escape through a hedge maze on the grounds of the château. Assane and Benjamin appear at the gala, posing as footmen. Unbeknownst to Benjamin, the actual price that Mariama’s kidnappers had demanded was his own imprisonment. When Assane slips the bracelet from Zang’s wrist, he drops it on the ground. As Benjamin leaps to pick it up, he is immediately spotted by Moller, who orders his capture. A panic-stricken Benjamin dashes out of the château into the maze but is horrified to find that a large hedge is blocking the path that had been specified for him. At that moment, Guédira and Belkacem, who had previously been called in by Assane, appear on the scene and arrest him.

Episodes 05

“Chapter 5”

Despite Assane’s betrayal, Benjamin staunchly refuses to give him up to the police. However, Guédira is shocked when he discovers Assane sitting in his office. Assane promises that he will allow himself to be arrested if Guédira helps him out. Although apprehensive, Guédira accepts the offer. Assane disguises Guédira as a collector of stolen art and instructs him to meet with Manon, another of the kidnappers, and Ferdinand, in order to buy the Manet painting from them. Assane calls Belkacem and tips her off about the trade. As the deal is being done, she arrives and arrests Manon, while Ferdinand manages to escape. Assane tails Ferdinand and discovers that he is an accomplice of Jean-Luc Keller, a man whose boxing club Assane had joined as a teenager. Keller had forced Assane and Bruno to take part in a jewellery theft, but he had been the only one arrested for the crime and has carried a vendetta against Assane ever since. Under the guise of granting him an interview, Claire meets with Objector journalist Arnold de Garmeaux, who was present at the morgue when Assane’s body was inspected, and asks him to describe the attending doctor to a sketch artist. She is startled when the sketch turns out to be a portrait of Benjamin. Claire visits Benjamin in prison and deceives him into thinking that Assane had confessed everything to her; Benjamin responds by asking what Assane’s current plans are. Having received confirmation that Assane is alive, Claire begins to weep with joy.

Episodes 06

“Chapter 6”

In retaliation for Manon’s arrest, Keller orders Ferdinand to kill Claire and Raoul. Claire notices Ferdinand stalking her and manages to evade him, but her worries about future attacks lead her to invite Alex, Raoul’s basketball coach, to stay for dinner. Claire has become smitten with Alex due to his softly-spoken bravery and his protectiveness of Raoul. After Raoul has gone to bed, Claire attempts to kiss Alex, but to her dismay, he gently turns down her advances and leaves after showing her how to set up her alarm system. The following morning, Claire finds a ketchup bottle standing upside-down in the refrigerator, a quirk of Assane’s that she had first noticed when they were teenagers, and comes to the realization that Alex is in fact an extremely elaborately disguised Assane. Meanwhile, Mariama manages to escape captivity and places an advertisement in The Objector, asking Assane to meet her. Assane and his mother enjoy a happy reunion in a metro station. Keller is outraged by the loss of Mariama and Ferdinand’s inability to catch Claire and throws him from a balcony, deciding to take care of Assane’s family himself. Claire happily lies in bed, with her romantic feelings for Assane fully rekindled, but grows terrified when she hears Keller begin to break down the door of her apartment.

Episodes 07

“Chapter 7”

Claire hides in a closet with Raoul and throws Keller off the trail by making a call to her home phone, in which she implies that neither she nor Raoul are there and that a police officer will be visiting. Afterwards, she calls Assane and begs him to pick her and Raoul up. Assane brings Claire and Raoul to his hideout, where they meet Mariama; he promises that he will get all of them out of Paris. Assane and Mariama infiltrate the offices of the minister for the interior and steal his phone. After threatening to send the contents of the phone to the press, Assane orders the minister to let Manon out of prison. Assane finds Manon and asks her to help him catch Keller. She is initially reluctant but has a change of heart when Assane explains Keller’s manipulative behaviour. She calls Keller and tells him that she has found a buyer for the black pearl at the Arc de Triomphe. When Keller arrives for the rendez-vous, he finds only Assane, who has called the police. Keller realizes that he has been set up and tries to run, but he is captured. Making good on his earlier promise, Assane allows Guédira to arrest him, on the condition that Benjamin be set free. Claire arrives at the train station the following morning with Raoul and Mariama in tow, eagerly awaiting Assane’s arrival. However, it is Benjamin who turns up, carrying a letter from Assane in which he explains his actions and assures a heartbroken Claire how much he loves her. Assane settles into life in jail but is shocked when he receives an envelope from a neighbouring inmate, containing a photograph of Assane as a teenager holding an Arsène Lupin book, Cagliostro’s Revenge. The fellow prisoner turns out to be none other than Hubert Pellegrini.