Sur la terre comme aux ciel
or On Earth as it is in Heaven
Oct 15, 1940
Jacques is walking through the woods near Villeneuve when he sees a parachute. He finds the man who landed nearby. He is an English pilot and he's wounded.
A man shows up at the home of Daniel Larcher. The man is looking for his new born son. He has a picture of his wife. The woman in the picture is the mother of Tequiero. Daniel claims he wasn't in town the day that the man says his son was born, Jun 12. The man leaves empty handed. Daniel doesn't tell Hortense, his wife, who was at the door.
Raymond Schwartz is driving Marie Germain home when they get stopped by Jacques. He has a gun and he insists that they come with him. He takes them to the English pilot. Together they get him into a small abandoned cabin. Marie tries to care for him but he is badly wounded. Raymond has to leave. He has a meeting with Von Ritter.
Tequiero's father goes to see the police, De Kervern and Marchetti. They ask him some questions and recommend he talk to Dr. Larcher. He explains that he already did but Dr. Larcher lied to him.
Word gets out that there is an English pilot somewhere in the area. Raymond Schwartz and Von Ritter were supposed to inspect the sawmill but instead they go to supervise the search for the pilot. Raymond recommends a route that gets the German commander's car stuck in the mud, which delays the search.
Marie convinces Jacques to let her go find a doctor. She goes to see Dr. Larcher. She makes up a story about a farm accident. He follows her only to discover that she was lying. They hear German soldiers and get away from the cabin.
The cabin was empty when Marie and Dr. Larcher arrived because Jacques helped the wounded pilot to leave once they heard German troops getting close. Jacques carries him for a time but the pilot dies before they can make it to safety. The pilot gives Jacques his wedding ring and asks him to get it to his wife. Jacques leaves the body and scurries away before the German soldiers find him.
Judith Morhange, the principal of the school, is fired for being Jewish. Lucienne saw the envelope with the letter and thought she was the one getting fired. She is stunned to learn that Judith has been fired. She suggests they can appeal it but Judith doesn't see any hope in that course of action.
Marchetti goes to see Dr. Larcher. He tells him about the Spanish man who came to the police station. Marchetti sees that Larcher is uncomfortable about what happened. He tells him that the man doesn't have papers. It's Dr. Larcher's word against that of a poor foreigner. He promises to back Dr. Larcher up but Dr. Larcher is starting to have second thoughts about how he treated Tequiero's father. Daniel and Hortense talk and argue about what should be done. He is thinking about giving Tequiero back to his father. She wants to keep him.
Lorrain Germain, Marie's husband, who was thought to be dead shows up at the sawmill. He explains that he exchanged papers with one of his dead comrades. He needs help getting home. The only way there is by crossing a bridge guarded by the Germans. Raymond agrees to help him. It takes some finagling but Raymond gets him across the bridge and back to his wife, Marie, with whom Raymond has been having an affair. Marie was not expecting Lorrain and is stunned to see that he's still alive.
Marchetti goes to see Hortense. He explains to her that he can get Tequiero's father arrested. He just needs to know that it is what she wants. She can't say anything about it if he does it. She decides that is what she wants and asks Marchetti to go through with it.
De Kervern goes to the school. Judith Morhange is on her way out the door. It is the first he has heard of her firing. She doesn't know where she is going to go. He decides to help her out. There is a house where she can stay in town, it is currently unoccupied. Lucienne is given the task of cleaning up the body of the English pilot for burial. The episode ends with her doing her best to compete that task.
Thoughts
I'm not sure but for a second there at the very end of the episode it looked as if Lucienne noticed that the pilot was missing his wedding ring. She is looking at his hand but it is hard to tell if she noticed anything strange about it.
All of the threads that flow through this episode were gripping: the English pilot, Tequiero's father, and the return of Lorrain Germain. I wonder how long it will be before Daniel finds out about what Hortense asked Marchetti to do. It was Marchetti's suggestion but she agreed to it.
Marie didn't exactly looked overjoyed to see Lorrain. It was hard to read why that is. She acts as though she is in shock. It has been six weeks since he was declared dead. She claims that's why she acts the way she does. What isn't clear is if there was something else there, other than her affair with Raymond Schwartz, to keep her from being happy to see her husband back.
The final scene with Lucienns cleaning the body was very moving. She is singing a nursery rhyme as she washes his body clean. It is a task which she has been pushed in to doing. I doubt that her background has in anyway prepared her for it. Not much has been revealed about her other than the fact that she is a young teacher.
This show continues to impress and move me. I'm eager to keep watching.
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