I don't think we're ever gonna get a full backstory for Benoit Blanc, because the series seems pretty keen on harkening back to the Golden Age of detective fiction, and in most of the stories from that era the detective is more of a plot device than a protagonist.
Obviously they have personalities, and occasional hints at backstories, and personal relationships and all that junk, but it's never the main focus of the story. Hell, a lot of the time the detective isn't even the viewpoint character (as is the case in Knives Out and Wake Up Dead Man).
I think we're gonna keep getting casual lore drops, with no obvious flashbacks or deep dives. Frankly I'd be disappointed if that wasn't the case.
But I am fucking obsessed with what is implied about his backstory in Wake Up Dead Man.
His mother was very religious. They were close when he was a boy. They are not close now. Blanc tells the audience these three facts right before immediately latching onto this troubled young priest like a Kentucky Fried mother hen.
This isn't the same as how it was with Marta in the first film. Blanc stated later that he knew from the moment he met Marta that she was hiding something about her role in Harlan's death. He's kindly and compassionate in his dealings with her, but he's also consciously playing the role of the “slightly naïve country detective” to try and get her to give herself away.
This is not the case with Jud.
Benoit says, from the moment he sees Jud, that he knows the priest is innocent. He does not waver from this view, even when the evidence against him gets really strong.
Despite having been apparently hired by the police this time (rather than just working alongside them like in Knives Out), Benoit Blanc is incredibly uncooperative. Lying about Jud's location, obscuring evidence and going so far as to drag him by the arm out of a crowded police station, shove him in the back of his car and drive off with him, just to keep him from confessing.
When he first involves Jud in his investigation, he doesn't even pretend that it's because he needs his assistance. “Will you let me help you?” he asks.
He takes him into the autopsy room, not because it's necessary for the case, but because he genuinely seems to believe that it is necessary for this young man to feel absolved.
“See him as not the mythologised man you have built up in your mind, but flesh and blood.” There is a sense of desperation in his voice when he's snapping Jud out of his resultant anxiety attack. “You need to go through this with me” “we have to get your life back”.
(Was showing him the corpse of his former boss an effective strategy for helping him feel better? Not even slightly. But an effort is being made!)
Blanc is openly disdainful of religion, but he listens to Jud when he talks about faith— even if he doesn't agree with him— to the extent that it plays a key role in how he later resolves the case. He's clearly making an effort to be supportive during their interactions, even if he does get frustrated at points. He puts a hand on his arm or shoulder to comfort him more than once (iirc), and he accepts his hug at the end.
Blanc meets this young man who is not only being accused of a crime he didn't commit, but who is also struggling with the feeling that his faith and his church have turned against him, and makes a genuine effort to be the person who helps him through this crisis.
And I want to know… was there a person like that for a young Benoit Blanc? Or is that instinct to help borne of having gone through the experience of being cast out with nobody in his corner?
We know his father was a cop. We know his mother was religious. We know he grew up to be a private detective who rages against Christianity and regularly subverts police authority.
What did he think when he heard Jud say that he was worried about how he would go on if he lost his priesthood, and that he was worried that he had somehow caused bad things to happen in the world, purely through the power of Sinful Thoughts?
Was he trying to be the person who helped him? Or the person he wishes had been around to help?
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