Countless question marks later, we’re already at the penultimate episode of The Returned Season 2.
Gone by quick, hasn’t it? Ah see, there’s another question mark right there. This show breeds them, like lapins.
But there are fewer opportunities to jab at the ‘?’ button like a demented Riddler this week, as once again we start in the show’s foundations ‘35 Ans Plus Tôt‘, as Milan and his cult stand in a circle and commit mass suicide. Just like Victor’s drawing showed us several episodes earlier. Victor watches it happen. Just like Victor always does. He watches. And he watches Pierre change his mind at the last minute and not kill himself. Make a mental note of that, it may be important in the future…
For a kid who has to walk everywhere (and this is the Alps, so half of it’s uphill), Victor sure does get about, also knocking on the door of Etienne (un-excitingly revealed as Berg’s father) and telling him not to build the dam because it will break. But architects don’t take notes from children, which is why more buildings aren’t shaped like Peppa Pig or dinosaurs.
So there’s a whole lot of history, but still plenty of mystery. Back in the present some of the returned are on the move, but who knows where? Not even leader Lucy knows – she’s basically bullshitting her way through the woods like a bad scout leader, hoping that she can get her hands on Adele’s baby and that it will show her ‘the path’. Nothing like instilling confidence in your followers by telling them you plan on using a one-week old as a sat-nav.
Meanwhile, the family Seguret prove themselves to be better at orienteering, managing to escape the undead village and be welcomed by the military with a hot meal and a jail cell. After weeks of standing around doing little, the military are locking up and interrogating the returned and anyone to do with them: Milan, Victor, the Segurets, and Mme Costa, fresh off the slab she so nonchalantly wakes up on. I’m surprised her first words weren’t to ask for a cigarette.
Talking of waking up on slabs, this week’s Returned offers a peak bit of Returned-ness; a scene that reminds you how disorienting and Lynchian it could be in the early days, when we didn’t know what the hell was going on but tuned in anyway, sort of like glugging down a wine you enjoy but know nothing about.
Out of nowhere, and for no apparent reason, we see Julie lying on a morgue slab. Wait, wasn’t she just alive and having all that sexual chemistry with the nurse? Mogwai’s ‘What are they doing in Heaven today?’ plays, which feels weird in itself, hearing Glaswegian warbling after tuning your ears for French. Ophelie the nurse leans over and kisses her. She wakes and kisses back. Mogwai sing. Ah! No, it’s all been a dream!
It’s terrific, and like a dream it leaves you disoriented and happy but also sad that it wasn’t real. All of it, all at once. Much like Victor’s dreams leave you feeling unnerved and questioning all at once. Among all the history and mystery and the long-demanded filling in of gaps, The Returned still has room to play with your senses.
Not even stopping to attempt to pash on Ophelie, Julie heads to the Helping Hand to look for Victor, only to become the latest of Pierre’s basement captives. For such an inept man, he’s oddly good at taking people prisoner, the git.
And as she’s chained up, Victor makes his escape from the military holding facility by mentally tinkering with the lights and also the mind of the Police Captain. Sorry sir, didn’t catch your name, and it probably doesn’t matter, as a lovely bit of tension, terror, and death follows. Most creepy of all? Victor just calmly walks away from it. The lights flicker back on and he’s off to find Julie.
Now, I’m just guessing here, but if Victor can make you pick up a gun and hallucinate, and you’re holding someone he likes, then it’s probably not a good time to be Pierre and have Julie locked in your basement, is it? Ah see, there’s another question mark right there.
Aired at 10pm on Friday 27 November 2015 on More4.
> Buy Season 1 on DVD on Amazon.
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