Actions have consequences in Spiral. For various reasons, Roban, Mayor Mangin and Gilou are humbled this week as past sins come back to haunt them. How they react will define their fortunes as we enter the finishing straight.
The Mercier case
To a backdrop of riots, the big players move their chess pieces around before the final double bill next week. The unrest in Cléry puts the investigation on pause for a while, which frustrates the hell out of Laure. Beckriche correctly urges caution, but we know perfectly well CID don’t do caution. Laure and Gilou decide to park themselves right in the belly of the beast and it is only Tintin’s bravura Super Mario cosplay that saves their bacon as irate youths threaten to torch their van.
The tension in Cléry is not surprising: an unarmed black man fatally shot in the back by police will have that effect. The aftershock from Bakary’s death is felt far and wide. Prompted by his grief (or perhaps the slap in the chops his father gives him), Drissa decides to move into real estate and build a block of flats on the Roma camp that CID flattened. Ironically, it may be this attempt to go legit that proves his downfall. When his boy Koffi menaces the mayor after the move for the camp is scuppered, it spooks her enough to reach out to Herville and tell him everything she knows about the Camaras. When your friends in high places start to turn on you, that is when things get ugly.
Despite what Jolers thinks, though, Drissa is no fool. That is why he has footage of Gilou stealing the gold. The scene at the motorway service station where Drissa plays him the clip felt like Gilou finally using his ninth life. Serious consequences are incoming; it is hard to see even a grizzled survivor such as Gilou emerging unscathed.
The search for Maria hits a snag when she is recaptured by the Moldovan and his wife. If CID don’t get to her in time, she will be sold as a child bride. Finding Maria is the key to all of this. She will be the star witness in any prosecution and that is why you have to worry about her survival chances. Among all the drama, it is easy to forget about the guy who kicked off all this, Laurent Mercier. It is now becoming clear that Mercier was just good police trying to protect a vulnerable girl. Maria’s friend Natalia confirms that Mercier did not touch the girls in the camp – his motives were pure. You can’t often say that on Spiral, even about the good guys.
Joséphine
It is interesting how someone as smart as Joséphine is a slave to her passions like anyone else. The case against Roban and Machard is futile, pisses off the judicial establishment, puts her at odds with Edelman and certainly doesn’t serve the public interest, yet she sees it through doggedly to its inevitable conclusion and failure. “I’d rather die than back down,” she says. While that is absolutely true, ultimately it is destructive.
Roban
He may be dying, losing his faculties and at his wits’ end, but our boy is still the smoothest operator on the show. After Drissa gets a redshirt to cop to the Chinese heist so they can get access to the police files, Roban holds back the info on the phone taps because he is just that much of a gangster. Then, when Joséphine drags him to the magistrate’s court on a charge of perverting the course of justice, he beats the rap without breaking stride. That said, I don’t think I have seen anyone less happy about lying.
Thoughts and observations
- Herville talking about the importance of sensitive riot policing as the rioters approach his window to attack the station was top comedy.
- Tintin sees Laure and Gilou making out in the bathroom and all those stolen glances and furtive conversations suddenly make sense. Does he confront them or continue silently to pull their arses out of the fire every time they screw up?
- You have to love the French: they name estates after Pablo Neruda, districts after Molière, schools after Karl Marx, roads after Émile Zola and lawyers after Albert Camus.
- Calvi’s misgivings about his partner in crime are well founded. Jolers is remorseless, moving forward with no exit plan, just one high-risk act after another. The way things are going, I will be surprised if Calvi doesn’t play a part in taking him down.
