Un Village Français 6.01

Paris libéré 

or Paris Liberated

25 Aug 1944

The Resistance is split over what to do now that France is in the process of being liberated. The Allied armies have yet to reach Villeneuve. Antoine, Suzanne, and Raymond want to attack the jail and liberate the prisoners that are held there but everyone else is against it.

Janvier, the local French militia leader, and his troops remain loyal to the Vichy government. Janvier takes some of his men and murders Vernet, a former member of the resistance, and his family. Suzanne and Antoine witness the attack. She decides that they must avenge the dead family. She and Antoine, with help from a couple others, come up with a plan.

An American soldier contacts Marie. He wants her unit to take over or blow up a bridge near Villeneuve. She leads Raymond, Anselme, and a dozen or more other Resistance fighters to the bridge. Attacking the bridge during the day looks to be impossible. They wait until after dark and kill the only two German sentries before they can raise the alarm.

Daniel warns Hortense that Müller and the German troops are getting ready to evacuate Villeneuve. She doesn't believe him at first but later finds out from her lover that it is true. They talk about it and agree to flee to Switzerland, despite knowing that he will be declared a deserter by the German army.

Servier looks to cut a deal with the Resistance for himself and the policemen of Villeneuve. Daniel speaks to Marie on behalf of Servier and the others but she refuses to make any promises. She tells them that if anything happens to the prisoners at the police station then Servier, Marchetti, and the others will be held responsible. Marchetti tells Loriot to discretely liberate the prisoners after learning that there will be no deal.

The episode ends with Suzanne and Antoine carrying out their hit on Janvier's home. Janvier is killed. German soldiers show up just after the hit. Suzanne and Antoine, unable to reach the car in which they arrived, are forced to flee on foot.

Thoughts

Gustave makes a brief appearance but Jeanine Schwartz, and Lucienne and Jules Bériot are not in this episode.

It was intriguing to see how they jumped forward nine months, from where they left things at the end of the previous season. There is no mention of D-Day. It is pretty clear that lines are being drawn. The whole season takes place over the course of about two weeks. This is the beginning of the end of the war for the people of Villeneuve, although there is one more season after this one.

This was a very tense episode. It was a little too incredible that Suzanne and Antoine were able to stake out the home of Janvier without getting caught. That alone deflated some of the tension. Janvier was bit too much of a one note villain for me. If he had a mustache then he would have been twirling it. On the whole this was a decent episode. I'm curious to see how and where things go from here. I'm pretty sure that this season will end with the definitive liberation of Villeneuve.