I don’t which season because just caught this show on US tv PBS. It’s the one with the rats in the tunnel, the gas mask caberet, the ugly Charlie Chocolate Factory French kid, and a ton of other stray plots going on. I lost track of the crime they are investigating? Was it the eat attack or the kidnapping of the British kids or the Charlie kid ? What does that french chef and his son have to do with anything? This show is so out there!
shareAnd I was the one who thought of his chair there! I ain’t watching it again either
shareYes, they are convoluted plots, kind of like real life. Apparently the kidnapping of kids was to draw attention to the fact that children of refugees weren't sought for nearly as well as children of citizens, especially those who were well off. As I recall, the male detective (Karl) said something to the effect that if the kidnappers killed 3 blond English kids, they would have the whole country looking for them, which kind of underscored the difference. The refugee mother who had lost her son and didn't know whether he was alive or dead wanted a proper investigation into what had happened to her son. She had teamed up with a psychotic young man who wanted revenge on a guy who was an internet troll and had somehow lead him on to think that his missing mother was still alive. They used scopolamine on the kids so they could manipulate them, and then on some other people, including the boyfriend of the psycho boy's twin sister, and branded the boyfriend while making him and others watch the internet troll being chopped up. The detectives tried to find out what happened to the missing refugee son, Saban, but were told he was dead.
As the detectives were investigating, they discovered some kids that were being trafficked for sex, including the Charlie kid, who had been thought to have been killed by his alcoholic father. The female detective (Elise) had been instrumental in getting the dad convicted of murder, so he had been in prison for the intervening 8 years. She felt very guilty about that, so she tried to help the dad as well as solve the case of who had abducted Charlie. As it turned out, Charlie had been abducted by a pedophile ring that used the nearby hotel as a base. That hotel was not investigated when Charlie went missing, on the orders of a previous French cop who had been the boss at the time; he was the now-retired dad of the current new boss (a bit of an A-hole who treated Elise badly -- Elise had autistic traits that tended to make her unpopular and misunderstood, but like Sherlock Holmes she had amazing perceptions and instincts that helped her solve difficult cases). As it turned out, the retired dad knew about the pedo ring and was on the take, so he turned a blind eye. He had been taunting his son about his being too soft to kill the bugs that he had been collecting when he was young; however, the son was not too soft to arrest his own dad for his part in the sex trafficking of kids -- the actual pedophile had developed a health problem that made him helpless, so he had burned to death in his house fire. That was the justice for Charlie that Elise was asking for near the end.
shareAs Saban's mother had been told he was dead, she went along with her psycho boyfriend in killing a nice old lady she had worked for as an in-home helper so they would have a place to stay. Then they abducted a bunch of people to gas to death in a meat truck if Karl wouldn't blow up his best friend and fellow detective, Elise. (Not sure why they thought that was appropriate.) Their end game was to commit suicide together. However, in the meantime Karl had discovered that Saban was not dead, but had been adopted by a nice couple (unofficially), and was happy and engaged to be married. The French chef was his adoptive dad, his adoptive mother had apparently died of cancer. Karl was trying to tell Saban's mother this information, but the psycho boyfriend knew she wouldn't go along with the rest of his mayhem if she knew her son was alive, so he didn't let Karl talk to her on the phone. After Karl made their car crash, he told her about Saban. She realized she had been used by the psycho and shot him. She was going to commit suicide herself, but Karl stopped her. He then talked to Elise's re-instated previous good boss and decided not to tell Saban about his murderous mother. Rather than ruin Saban's life, Karl gave his dad a birth certificate showing he was his biological son -- not sure how he got that. Then he visited Saban's mom in prison and gave her some photos showing Saban as a kid and older, looking healthy and happy. Then Karl got back with his wife and kids that he had been separated from at the beginning of this series.
shareShe's lucky she got photos of her son. If I were in Karl's place, I don't know if I would have been so kind.
Then again, Karl himself had lost a son, so he may believe that Lana will only realize the consequences of her crimes when she is left only with photos of Saban, knowing that her punishment is that she will never be able to see, hear, or hold him.
Considering she was at least partially responsible for the deaths of a number of people, including Elise, and the wounding of BB, I thought he was remarkably charitable in stopping her from committing suicide and bringing her the pictures. I believe he empathized with her despair in believing her son dead, and years of torture not knowing what had happened to him. On the plus side, she could possibly provide family medical history information down the line that could prove useful, or even be an organ donor if needed. I thought the scenes of her at the end were full of pathos, especially when she was looking at the pictures. Although her actions did not help her son in any way, as he was fine and happy, they did at least lead to uncovering the pedophile ring, and the corrupt cop who let them operate, plus getting Charlie's dad out of prison.