Paris Police 1900 Recap: S1 E7

Like other penultimate episodes, Paris Police 1900 is amassing the ingredients for an epic showdown. Alliances are made, sides are chosen, and resolve has hardened. Buuuut there’s always some people with tricks up their sleeves and we’re only given the slightest hint at the mischief they’re up to (I’m looking at you Madame Lépine).

Guérin is still holed up at Rue Chabrol, with the police camped out below. The rest of the Leagues are organizing and making their way towards Rue Chabrol, encircling the police in the process. Lépine knows he’s outnumbered yet resists calling in the French army, which is only allowed to enter Paris upon his request. At the outset Lépine has few advantages, but one seems to be a peculiar superstition on the other side. When Drumont, a staunch Guérin ally and séance enthusiast, meets with Lépine to negotiate, he is rattled when Lépine counts the Antisemite leader numbers at 13. Cue the eye rolls.

Drumont is still rattled when he returns and argues for waiting until the Dreyfus trial concludes before escalating the confrontation. He is met with more than eye rolls from Guérin’s mother. She shouts for action now because, you know, riots are expensive! She is clearly running the show. While Jules remains the face of the Antisemites, she takes Louis aside and starts coaxing him into attempting to assassinate Lépine. She pitches the act of giving Louis a pistol for said assassination as an expression of a mother’s love. Dear God, this family is something else.

We then begin to unravel the full tale of the Sabrans spliced between Antoine questioning Joséphine Berger’s mother and Fiersi sneaking up on the Sabran household in the dark with a rifle in hand. Grandma Berger’s husband – also named Matthias – was executed for cowardice in the army by the Count making the Sabrans responsible for the deaths of both father and daughter. Meanwhile a bedraggled Fiersi who is typically pretty good at lurking, totally loses the element of surprise with Count Sabran who just casually invites him into his office. Like any villain, the Count is calm while he emotionally dissects Fiersi. Why are you here? Oh, for revenge? I’m the wrong guy for Joséphine’s murder (yeah right). He even tries to goad Fiersi into killing him. The count seems to know his rescuer is coming as he shares that he’s about to be arrested by Puybaraud, who is knocking on the house door right that minute. Fiersi loses his nerve and makes a run for it.

Once inside Puybaraud makes a show of arresting Sabran for messing around with national security, but then gets quickly sidetracked into a manhunt for Fiersi. He is pulling out all the stops to be convincing in trying to get Fiersi to give himself up. Fiersi is not fooled and again makes a run for it.

As if this episode weren’t literally dark enough, the oppressive nighttime color palette continues into Meg’s house. She hears a noise and starts walking through the house. I half expect a ghost to pop out of nowhere, but instead its Pontevès. We get more of the Sabran story with this exchange. He apparently thought his father was just going to pay Meg off rather than try to kill her. Meg asks about Joséphine and Pontevès claims his innocence in her death. His confession of having a son (Matthias) and intention to “save him” is quite convincing – at least for me. I’ll take a hiatus from referring to him as his baby mama’s killer even if he did break into Meg’s house just to jump out at her for a quick chat. Later in the episode we see a nervous Meg having an honest relationship chat with her husband. He confesses that this is the precise moment he’s been waiting for to paint her finally and truly. Right when the world is against her, and she’s backed into a corner. He knows he’s not enough for her, and she pretty much tells him so. Girl craves more out of life than what he’s got to give.

Meanwhile Antoine is still hard at work following Cochefert’s orders to find the chimney sweep aka assassin. After much sweet talking the police archivist, he finds that the man Jeanne killed in self defense (for which Antoine takes the blame) was suspected in other deaths by asphyxiation. One of these victims was a meat trader involved in the rotten meat scandal which the Sabrans financially benefited from. Everything is finally coming together, but not within the police department itself. Puybaraud basically has the run of the place with Cochefert wounded and Lépine otherwise up to his eyeballs in rioting League members. He also notably finds Joséphine’s file on Cochefert’s desk, because of course he ransacked the place.

The one League not under Guérin’s spell are the anarchists. Sebastien, head anarchist and awkward breakfast companion of Antoine’s from the last episode, negotiates a one-night-only alliance with the police to fight the Leagues. Lépine is smart to take this gift of resources. Interesting he’d rather go this route than through the army, which he clearly does not trust. The invisible puppet master here is Weidmann (Jeanne’s boss) who encouraged Sebastien to help the police. I hope his motives are pure.

Weidmann is also hard at work with negotiating a related alliance of adversaries between Gabriel Sabran de Pontevès, Joséphine’s mother, and the police. Pontevès and Weidmann are using their connections to help Joséphine’s mother & son Matthias hide in the German embassy. The only one skeptical of this arrangement – and who wouldn’t be – is Jeanne. She has witnessed enough of the Sabran family’s wrongdoing to be outwardly hostile towards Pontevès, telling him to STFU multiple times during this exchange (I love her). Pontevès seems genuinely sentimental towards his son, who he has just met through this exchange.

The episode wraps up with a dramatic Braveheart-style charge with Lépine leading his ragtag alliance against the Leagues. Guns are out in the open for a pending battle, but there are hidden undercurrents all around. Unbeknownst to the Leagues, the Anarchists are up to something nefarious. And unbeknownst to the police, Louis is struggling to go through with his mother’s request to assassinate Lépine. It’s all very intense and sets up the finale nicely.

But there’s one more thread running through the episode, which is perhaps my favorite. Madame Lépine is planning her next move, getting subsequently drunker with each scene. Wine apparently pairs very well with plotting revenge. We end with her agreeing to meet someone framed by Puybaraud while admiring the gun she stole from the evidence room. What could go wrong?