Un Village Français 5.02

Le jour des alliances

or A Day for Exchanging Rings

24 Sep 1943

Antoine and his new friend run from the police. They take shelter in a farm but the farmer kicks them out. They are joined by another man who is also seeking to avoid being sent to Germany. They head out into the forest where they find a handful of young men camping out. No one has any food.

Marcel, Suzanne, and the other communists stop a German supply truck. Marcel and one of the other men are disguised as French policemen. It doesn't go well. They were hoping just to take some weapons but there were more German soldiers in the back of the truck. Two of the Communists and three of the German soldiers get killed.

Lucienne is suspicious of the new teacher. She gets a look at a letter that the new teacher received. She shares what she remembers of the letter with Jules and tells him about her suspicions. He talks to the new teacher and learns more about her. She asks her if he is with the Resistance. He says that he is not.

Müller gets blamed by Kollwitz for the deaths of the three soldiers. Müller is in a lot of pain. His morphine runs out. He has trouble getting more. Hortense goes to Daniel for help but he refuses to give her any. She winds up giving her wedding ring away in order to get her lover more morphine.

Suzanne's husband is making plans to head to Switzerland with their child. He wants her to go with them. Suzanne tells her husband that she doesn't want to be with him anymore and gives him back her wedding ring.

Antoine's new friends decide that they should steal from the farm. Antoine is against it but goes with them and doesn't try to stop them. The farmer confronts them but doesn't stop Antoine's new friends from taking a chicken. They are back at their camp eating the chicken when some men with guns show up. They are led by Marie Germain and include the farmer from whom they stole the chicken.

Thoughts

Chassagne and Servier are in one scene with Müller but it doesn't last very long. Raymond Schwartz, Josephine, and Marchetti are not in this episode.

There was some emphasis on wedding rings in this episode. Alliance is the French word for wedding ring.

The interactions between Suzanne and Marcel, and Suzanne and her husband were the most interesting to me. I have trouble getting invested in Hortense's problems. I have little to no time for caring about Müller and his back problems. Daniel is only in this episode briefly. The stuff with Antoine felt like it lacked substance until the end of the episode. 

This was an okay episode. It wasn't awful but it also didn't blow my socks off.