Capturing The Crooked Cop
Episode 3 of Lupin begins with crooked cop Dumont getting ready for the day ahead. With cameras planted all around the house, Assane easily hacks in and begins watching and studying his routine. The first part of his plan comes from posing as an IT technician called Max. He makes a big song and dance about porn on his computer, eventually taking Dumont into a secluded hallway at work where he knocks the man out. Destroying his SIM card and bundling him into a trunk, he takes off in a van. Armed with a distorted voice, Assane interrogates Dumont who happens to be tied to a chair, Assane begins questioning this man about Babakar. Given Dumont’s name is directly linked to all the files on his Father, Assane asks outright exactly why he tried to frame him. Dumont shakes his head though, telling Assane he’s got it all wrong. Dumont seems to have done his research too and mentions the Louvre and how he could be connected to that. Assane’s wry smile soon fades, as he presses a button and has the TV playing again, sliding through a series of different inmates with dirty records. Those records happen to link straight back to wiring money to the Commissioner. We then jump back to 1995 as Dumont arrives at Hubert Pellegrini’s and exhibits doubts over Babakar being the one responsible for taking his necklace. Given Hubert increased the value of the necklace after it was “taken”, it makes him seem a little suspicious. Elsewhere in the past, we see Claire and Assane growing closer together at the private school as the former tells Assane about a story involving knights and barbarians. Back in the present, the police catch wind of Dumont’s disappearance and begin a manhunt to try and find him. While they track down the van, Assane threatens Dumont with deepfake videos…before blowing his cover and revealing that he’s Babakar’s son. Assane realizes his time is up and leaves Dumont tied to his chair. He hurries outside before the police eventually find Dumont. With Assane back in hiding, Dumont returns home and immediately starts taking down all the hidden cameras around his house. Assane watches disapprovingly on his monitor. As we jump back in time to 1995, Dumont believes Babakar is innocent and mentions to Pellegrini how the man’s alibi doesn’t match up. Dumont promises to see this investigation through to its conclusion… until Hubert threatens his family. This is why he was forced to put Babakar away and make him sign a confession. As we soon find out, Hubert also hid this from his wife too. As the episode comes to a close, Dumont decides to speak up about Babakar and how there’s another party involved. That conversation he makes happens to be to Hubert Pellegrini. When Juliette returns home and hears the message herself, Assane smiles confidently in his office, killing two birds with one stone. Not only does he know there’s another party involved, Juliette now sees Dumont’s true colours.
The Episode Review
With Assane free from prison and back on the case, episode 3 doubles down on the espionage shenanigans as the attention turns to Dumont and what he knows. The entire cat and mouse game between Assane and the police continues to intrigue too, adding an element of suspense to the whole series, while Assane closes in on the truth. It’s now clear that Pellegrini is the one behind everything and quite how Assane will take advantage of that, remains to be seen. The flashbacks chosen this time around are pretty revealing too and just goes to show how far Pellegrini will go to cover his tracks. It also shows how much sway he has over his subjects. So far so good; Lupin is shaping up to be quite the enjoyable crime thriller this year.
