Lucy!

The Returned seems to have turned a corner as the series progresses, from exploring relationships to a more menacing vibe, where events become ever more heated in more ways than one.

The show’s creator Fabrice Gobert admitted that True Blood was an inspiration for the series, which might explain why many characters suddenly had an overpowering need to have sex during this episode.

Feeling a bit disappointed again with the title ‘Lucy’, as with the episode focussing on ‘Julie’ – we actually don’t get to learn that much from the character. Sure we learn that Lucy (Ana Girardot) arrived at the village a year previous, with no money or prospects and gets hired on the spot as a waitress by The Lake Pub owner Toni (Grégory Gadebois). Taking residence in one of the backrooms of the bar, where she also performs her abilities as a medium. Jérome  (Frédéric Pierrot) is one of her trusty clients, as Lucy seems able to communicate with Camille (Yara Pilartz) – while they have sex!

Lucy wakes from a coma, the doctors pronounce her a ‘miracle’ as she’s completely healed and regained full health after the injuries inflicted by Serge (Guillaume Gouix). With the help of a sketch artist she’s able to form a portrait of Serge, much to the surprise of the police as they still thought the attacker was Simon (Pierre Perrier). As predicted, shooting a bullet in the heart of the returned makes no impact, as Simon regains consciousness in the hospital morgue with no trace left of the wound. With no explanation, Lucy can sense his presence and asks Simon to follow her back to the pub as they leave the hospital together. Lucy seems to have a new spring in her step, she seems to understand things about The Returned  as she tells Simon to forget about Adèle (Clotilde Hesme) and makes her point by – having sex with him.

Things get heated, but in a different way at the house of Camille, as Claire (Anne Consigny) and Pierre (Jean-François Sivadier) organise a meeting to inform other parents and friends of Camille’s return. It’s quite an emotional scene as you feel for the parents who lost their child in the same bus crash, wondering why theirs didn’t return. There’s a lot of anger, horror, disbelief and jealousy to be found among the reactions.

Watching a series like The Returned, you expect some plots in the story to not always make much sense, but there is however a limit. Léna (Jenna Thiam) is recovering from her scar at the lodge with Serge. She hears from Toni why he had to kill his brother, yet moments later we find Serge and Léna having sex. She might find Serge attractive and he did nurse her back to health, but Léna finds out he’s one of the returned  and must have heard of the serial killer – any normal person would try to leave the lodge, not rip each other clothes off!

The episode does redeem itself by the clues to the mysteries, leading to possible answers. One of which is the water found in Camille’s coffin. The engineers of the dam have given up all hope on the electricity coming back. Presumably all that water must have gone somewhere – the graveyard. More of the returned have come back as the American Diner has been victim of a rampage and Léna sees more of them in the forest. But answers also come with more questions: Victor (Swann Nambotin) suffers from scar tissue on his arms, are the returned meant to decompose?

People gather at the shelter, as Pierre tells Camille she could do a lot of good by providing comfort and hope to the people who need it the most. The last scene is exceptionally powerful as all the talk about the afterlife proved too much for one set of parents, as they commit suicide together to join their son, in the hope to meet him.

Continuing to explore the themes of the afterlife, death and suicide as the village turns into a real ghost town, It’s still exciting to see what will happen next, especially regarding Lucy as she seemed to have become all-knowing about the purpose of the returned. This episode is a bit hit and miss, as some scenes were very emotional to watch, while others made you wonder if they simply added another sex scene for the fun of it.

Next episode will focus on Adèle and how she coped with Simon’s death, as Simon goes searching for answers before he’s ready to follow Lucy.