Un Village Français 2.06

Coup de Grace

or Death Blow

11 March 1941

Lorrain is ready to kill Raymond. Marie begs him not to do it. He ties Raymond up in the barn and takes Marie into the house. Marie talks him into letting Raymond live but Lorrain insists that he will have to leave Raymond crippled.

Doctor Larcher is confronted by a mob of mothers who are desperate because they don't have any food for themselves or their children. He tries to tell them that everyone has it bad. They don't back off until German soldiers show up.

Janine Schwartz goes to the police station looking for Raymond. She tells De Kervern what she knows. He encourages her to go home, it is after dark and after curfew. De Kervern goes to the Germain farm. He gets there just as Lorrain is getting ready to cut Raymond's throat. De Kervern shoots Lorrain in the hand. Marie helps De Kervern to tie up her husband. Schwartz goes home to his wife and tells her that it is over between him and Marie

Dr. Larcher comes home and finds Hortense reading a letter from Marchetti. Daniel thinks that she slept with Marchetti because she was lonely. She tells him that she is in love with Marchetti.

De Kervern goes home. He is talking to Judith when someone knocks on the door. It is Natasha. She is scared. De Kervern decides that they can't take any chances and that he needs to get her out of town. He takes her in his car. They run into problems at the border. They drive through but the German guards shoot at them. Natasha is hit in the shoulder.

Muller leads an investigation searching for Natasha. It leads them to the brothel. There they learn that she associated with De Kervern and Von Ritter. They keep looking and Muller turns to Servier, the deputy prefect of the region, for help.

Dr. Larcher comes up with a plan to get more food for the town. He tries taking it to the deputy prefect who implies that it is a communist plan dreamed up by Daniel's brother. Daniel realizes his plan has no chance of working. 

Von Ritter visits Raymond at the sawmill to tell him that he has been transferred back to Bohemia. He thinks that Muller is behind it.

De Kervern brings Natacha to the Germain farm. Marie helps to dress her wound. They leave and head to an abandoned farm. They take Lorrain with them. De Kervern, Marie, and Natacha argue about what to do with Lorrain. He gets free while they are talking. He gets his hands on his hunting rifle and tries shooting Marie or De Kervern but hits Natacha instead, in the stomach.

Natacha dies in De Kervern's arms. They hear the Germans closing in. De Kervern and Marie know that they can't trust Lorrain. She kills her husband in cold blood. They escape into a tunnel minutes ahead of the Germans. 

Thoughts

Marcel, Gustave, Kurt, and Lucienne are not in this episode.

I don't understand how De Kervern and Natacha got their hands on a car after their car was damaged. That was never explained.

Doctor Larcher's part in this episode didn't seem to go anywhere. Maybe it will be picked up in a future episode. It does show that he is waking up tp the reality of life under German occupation. 

What happens next? This is the final episode of the season. I believe, from what I've read, that the next season picks up about six months later. Where will Henri De Kervern and Marie Germain be by then? What will happen to Judith? What will Raymond's life be like without Marie? Will they ever see one another again?

This was a good episode. It had some very tense moments. I wasn't sure how it would all turn out. I didn't find myself terribly moved by anything in the episode but I did enjoy it. It did feel a little like they rushed some things.