Un Village Français 4.12

La Frontière

or The Border

14 Nov 1942

The meeting at Marie Germain's farm is interrupted by a knock at the door. Marie let's Rita in to her home. Rita explains who she is and that she needs help getting to Switzerland. Rita recognizes Crémieux and tells the others about how she saw him at the police station talking to Marchetti.

Marchetti tries once again to talk Servier into calling off the attack on the farm. He refuses so Marchetti runs and tells Müller about what is going on. Müller is interested and goes to the stakeout operation and takes over. He brings in a couple units of SS troops.

Marie and the others decided that they have to make a break for it during the night. Marchetti tries to get Rita out of there but when she sees him hiding in the shadows she walks in the other direction. Crémieux is given a chance to redeem himself by creating a distraction. Marcel gets away but Rita is captured. Marcel makes it back to his Communist pals. Marie gets separated from her son Raoul who is wounded and captured. Crémieux is killed while creating a distraction. Marie and Vincent get away but later Vincent is shot and killed by a French policeman.

Chassagne is very happy with the operation but Müller is not. Müller hands Rita over to Marchetti whom she doesn't want anymore. He helps her escape to Switzerland.

Thoughts

There are a number of characters in the story who make brief appearances in this episode that I did not mention above. The only one that comes to mind who did not appear is Jeanine Schwartz.

The final scene with Marchetti and Rita is played as if it should be something that is terribly moving. I wasn't moved by it. I don't care what Marchetti's motivation are. He's done so much wrong that he is practically unredeemable.

What's next for Marie Germain? What about Marcel Larcher? Will they be in the next season? They can't exactly move back to town. The funny thing about the way this season ends is that there aren't any huge cliffhangers although lots of things seem uncertain.

On the whole this episode didn't impress me very much. It was okay but it was nowhere near the best that this show has had to offer.