MovieChat Forums > Secret Army (1977) Discussion > Why on earth did Monique help Madeleine ...

Why on earth did Monique help Madeleine in the final episodes

posted 15 years ago by jamessussex
12 replies | jump to latest

Now I know that Madeleine had struck up a sort of friendship with Monique, and that Monique could not have known (though might have suspected) that Madeleine intended to use the false papers which Monique supplied to ensure Kessler's escape, but after the events of the final episodes of series three WHY did Monique agree to help? She had after all only narrowly escaped a shaved head after falsely being accused of being a collaborator herself, with a braying crowd shouting "Shave her" and "Collaborating whore!". Madeleine was precisely the sort of person the crowd mistook Monique for, and you may have thought after how traumatised Monique was by the experience (indirectly leading to her break with albert), she may have felt some resentment towards Madeleine (as indeed I do!) at getting away scott free. It seems extraordinary that Monique could forgive or at least overlook Madeleine's dubious behaviour, when it seems she was unable to forgive Albert for not being there for her to save her from a shaved head, when he himself was still recovering from being hung by the communists as a collaborator himself.
Answers please (but not of the 'Because Monique was a nice person' variety)

[–] tipi-5 15 years ago

Not to sure myself as I do find it hard to believe she'd let Kessler get away. I can only think it may be that as the war was ending, she'd had enough of the violence of the past years. She possible thought that an act of kindness would help to start putting the war behind her.

[–] jamessussex 15 years ago

Yes perhaps you are right, but it does slightly suspend belief since the accusations of "collaborator" were so recent and painful to Monique.

[–] chuffnobbler 15 years ago

Monique and Madeleine had always had a bit of an understanding, and that continued even after the war. Madeleine is a bit of a tragic, needy character sometimes, and Monique certainly understands what it is to suffer for love.

[–] joyfarrah 15 years ago

Kessler is assumed to be dead, so Monique probably thinks that Madeleine has found a new lover.. and she is willing to facilitate her getting out of Belgium because she IS a nice person. She hasn't let her war work harden her or corrupt her the way that Albert has done... She has always been friendly with Madeleine, perhaps because she has felt herself at times to be in the same position, living with a man who can't or won't marry her... and now that she is happy with Stephen, she is wiling to do someone else a favour....

[–] chuffnobbler 15 years ago

Excellent answer, Joyfarrah. Spot-on.

[–] frantz21 14 years ago

the relationship started earlier when Madeline let Monique have some Luxury clothes - one of which was a designer fur which helped an airman traverse the pyranees ( whom Monique liked ) and when the item was found she did not identify it and link it to Monique .

Monique and Madeline bonded as young women in the throes of a beastly war

there was no black and white

Madeline helped Monique without question
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Monique helped the squadron leader escape ,
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Monique helped Madeline
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and Madeline saved Kesslers bacon when he was in the POW

it is about being human and surviving

[–] joyfarrah 14 years ago

Hmm I think that Madeleien's helping Monique is more to do with teh fact that she was lonley and glad to have a friend... and knowing that Mon is a decent person who does not hold a grudge, thinks that she may be able to get her to help iwth ID papers when she wants to spring Kessler...

I dont see anything admirable about Madeleine's "helping" ... she says nothing about the coat which helps Monique - because Monique is a friend of sorts, but helping Kessler to escape is not "surviving" IMO... she knows what he has done, she knows that he should be tried for war crimes..

[–] Startanew 14 years ago

I like this response. Monique says "I'll get the papers for you and your... brother". Knowing that it isn't really the brother. But it HAD been several months I believe, and Madeleine had been a displaced person, perhaps Monique thought that Madeleine, like Monique, had found someone else and moved on.

http://bringinghimback.blogspot.com/2009/12/merry-bloopy.html
My fave Christmas Song

[–] joyfarrah 12 years ago

I know it is a while, but thinking of this again, I think that Monique probably felt that most women needed a man to help them out and that Madeleine was particularly unable to function without a lover to take care of her... She had been Kessler's mistress and before that the mistress of the Baron, so she was not at all capable of taking care of herself without a man whereas she (Monique) was at least able to earn a modest living.
So while she didn't belieive that it was a brother, she didn't want to ask too much about who Madeleine was now attached to. Perhaps she half suspected it was another man who had some money but was a collaborator who also wanted to get away, and that Madeleine was again invovlved with someone dubious but she didn't hold any grudges....I dont think she'd have helped if she knew it was Kessler.

[–] denham 11 years ago

Monique's compliance is one of the more implausible moments in the (generally very good) last episode, as it seems most unlikely that she would fail to associate the 'brother' with Kessler and further unlikely that, having made such an association, she would choose to give Kessler a 'Get out of jail free' card - despite having some sympathy for Madeleine. More likely, having regard to Monique's character, would have been a straight question about Kessler. Then to get the documents, Madeleine would be required to lie convincingly. The plot then resumes. (Another implausibility is the Canadian sergeant who turns out to be equipped and able to distinguish gemstones from glass, besides unquestioningly taking Madeleine's word for the value of the necklace.)

"I beseech ye in the bowels of Christ, think that ye may be mistaken."

[–] Startanew 14 years ago

Madeline wasn't a bad person, nor was she a 'whore'.

http://bringinghimback.blogspot.com/2009/12/merry-bloopy.html
My fave Christmas Song

[–] megatosspot 14 years ago

Compassion. The rage against 'collaborators' was largely displaced guilt at being supine themselves. Suddenly everybody had been in the Resistance all along, and what better way to prove it than to victimise someone else?