‘Lupin’ Is Back With Part 3: Where Did We Leave Master Thief Assane Diop?
Netflix said that Lupin Part 3 was “coming soon” more than a year ago, but the day has finally arrived. The third chapter in the French crime thriller starts streaming on October 5. And unless you’ve got the police file on Assane Diop (Omar Sy), you might need a recap of the story to date. We’ve got you covered.
The series — like its main character — is inspired by the stories of Arsène Lupin, a gentleman thief created by French writer Maurice Leblanc in the early 1900s. Lupin Part 1 laid the groundwork of the story, introducing Assane Diop, a Senegalese man raised on the stories of Lupin. Having become a master thief and master of disguise himself, Assane now seeks revenge against the wealthy businessman Hubert Pellegrini (Hervé Pierre) for framing Assane’s late father, Babakar (Fargass Assandé), for the theft of an expensive necklace.
Assane comes to learn that Hubert threatened police inspector Gabriel Dumont (Vincent Garanger) — who’d been investigating the theft as possible insurance fraud — into urging Anne Pelligrini (Nicole Garcia), Hubert’s wife, to pin the crime on Babakar. And then Babakar died in prison in an apparent suicide.
Assane abducts and interrogates Dumont, who eventually points him to a former investigative journalist named Fabienne Bériot (Anne Benoît), who had her own tussles with Hubert. Fabienne helps Assane connect Hubert to a terrorist attack, but Hubert skirts the potential scandal through his media connections, and he has his henchman Léonard (Adama Niane) kill Fabienne. And Part 1 ends with Léonard abducting Assane’s son, Raoul (Etan Simon), as Assane takes him and Claire (Ludivine Sagnier), Assane’s ex and Raoul’s mother, on a trip to a seaside town.
As Part 2 starts, Assane searches for his kidnapped son with an assist from Youssef Geudira (Soufiane Guerrab), a detective who’d been investigating Assane. They track Léonard to an abandoned mansion, where Léonard blows up the car in which he’d been keeping Raoul locked up. Luckily, Youssef freed Raoul from the car while Assane was confronting Léonard. But Raoul is effectively abducted a second time when Dumont tells an unsuspecting Youssef to bring the teen to a Paris hotel. Youssef follows those orders from his superior, and Hubert and Dumont hold Raoul captive at the hotel.
Assane hurries back to Paris and frees Raoul, but Claire, trying to take matters into her own hands, separately contacts Hubert to trade Assane for Raoul. And so when Assane brings Raoul back to Claire’s place, Hubert’s men are lying in wait. Claire warns Assane about the ambush, though, and Assane gives Hubert’s men the slip. He does, however, overhear Claire telling Raoul that Assane is dangerous.
Assane gets in touch with Juliette Pellegrini (Clotilde Hesme), Hubert and Anne’s daughter and his childhood friend, and gets her to talk to her mother about Hubert’s crimes. Anne confesses that Babakar was innocent and the necklace theft was an insurance scam. At Juliette’s urging, Anne provides that information to Youssef, who then arrests Hubert. But Hubert pulls strings with the Minister of the Interior, a friend of his, and suddenly, Hubert is a free man again.
Worse, Hubert has an associate named Pascal Oblet (Nicolas Wanczycki) kill Léonard in Assane’s apartment — marking the second time Hubert has framed a Diop for a crime. Assane, who has now become national news as a murder suspect, goes into hiding with Benjamin Ferel (Antoine Gouy), his best friend and accomplice. But he’s able to get information about Dumont’s corruption to Youssef. Youssef shares what he learned with Sofia Belkacem (Shirine Boutella), a lieutenant detective and his partner at work, who has evidence that Assane didn’t kill Léonard.
Assane sneaks into a Pellegrini Foundation concert — once in which Hubert had secretly arranged for 85 percent of donations to go into his wallet — and holds Hubert at knifepoint. Hubert confesses to (and practically brags about) framing Babakar and ordering Léonard to kill him. Assane records that confession on his smartwatch. From the stage, Assane tells the concert audience about Hubert framing his father, ordering both Babakar and Fabienne’s deaths, and embezzling the audience’s charitable donations.
As Youssef, Belkacem, and police captain Romain Laugier (Vincent Londez) arrest Hubert and Dumont, Assane evades the police long enough to meet with Claire and Raoul one last time, apologizing for all the danger he brought to their lives and vowing to leave to keep them safe.
Is anyone really safe in the world of Lupin, though? We’ll see what trouble Assane faces when Part 3 starts streaming…
Lupin Part 3, Thursday, October 5, Netflix
