S5e06 “First dance” (aka *me: sighing disconsolately* Lucien this time you really made a mess of things)
The scenes of Lucien and Jean’s domestic life are always my favourite. She’s knitting (one day I’d like to see one of her creations because she knits all the time, but we don’t get to see the final result of all her work, unless they are all the cardigans she makes for Lucien for which I’m so very grateful that I’d like to start a campaign “more cardigans for Lucien!” Thank you very much) Matthew is reading and the good doctor is trying so very hard to concentrate on playing the piano, but it doesn’t take much to see he’s totally annoyed at being stuck in his home convalescing. As soon as the perfect occasion presents itself he jumps on his feet and is ready to spring back into action, only to be stopped by his fiancée and his friend. He wants to help....he must help! Alice, being such a wonderful friend and knowing Lucien repulsion at feeling useless gladly accepts his help. But the phone call and Alice delivering the autopsy report herself into his hands (“Lucien go back to bed!”...but then some time later she says she’s not his mother 🤣) is not enough. Alice is so proud for having followed his instructions and for having used the dark room at the Courier to develop the pictures...she just lights up like a Christmas tree when she tells Jean, who answers absentmindedly because she’s drawn to the pictures on her table...visibly distressed. She doesn’t even hesitate, though, when Lucien suggests he could be more helpful from the morgue...she wants to go with him, she can’t leave him out of sight.
Finally she can see how he works in there with Alice ( I loved that she could see what he does, how he respects his job and the deceased and how he keeps searching until he finds the truth) but when tortures and abuse are mentioned, it becomes too much for Jean and she has to leave the room. When they come home it doesn’t get any better, she tries to distract herself with Lucien’s breakfast, but she can’t fool him. He knows how overwhelmed she is and he so gently lets her say it, out loud, what it is that is bothering her and then once again she helps with the case and the burns on the victim’s body. Together they discover that the burns were self inflicted ( careful there Lucien, we need those thighs in one piece for the honeymoon 😉)
The day after we are faced with Lucien’s first not very bright idea to go and investigate with Rose. She even tells him, but he doesn’t listen and at the end of the day he ends up with ruptured stitches and tries to sneak back inside the house...as if Jean didn’t know him! For being such a smart man, sometimes he’s totally clueless...or probably not really clueless just impulsive. I mean...he’s just promised to be more careful and now he goes and comes home bleeding again. She’s right, she’s not his mother, he can do whatever needs to be done....she just wants to know the truth. It’s no more Lucien or Jean, it’s “them” now (I’m going to be your wife....she underlines it) but again he promises not to lie to her and then after he has solved the case, he can’t keep his promise, in good faith, I’m sure he really wants to do the right thing and spare her the heartache but he keeps the truth from her nonetheless.
This case involving a young girl who could have easily been a younger version of Li, really touches Lucien and when he talks with the girl’s father well...I think Lucien would have gladly walked through fire to have the chance to see his daughter grow and experience all the usual teenage daughter-father issues
Seeing Jean revealing once again a bit of her past and Lucien telling Robert of his struggle when he thought he lost his family, how he had tried to kill himself well...Craig was superb there!
All the pain he had to endure for years, but now he has found something to live for and he wants to be a better man, he wants to make things better as he says in the kitchen to his Jean. The heartfelt, overwhelming line Nadine delivers “you do make things better, Lucien” well... I have no words for it! Just perfect!
But it’s too late, he’s already sent his affidavit and he hasn’t got the courage to tell her and the kiss that ensues is proof enough. For what I can see, usually Lucien is the one who embraces and touches her more. When they kiss usually Jean’s hands and arms are around his neck (even during the cocoa kiss her arms are on his neck, though she manages to find the skin that’s not covered with his shirt, but still they are there) while Lucien’s hands wander on her back, her arms, her face. Well...in this kiss he doesn’t even touch her and when they part she’s the first to smile, he smiles back but a couple of seconds later, she’s already smiling at him and he doesn’t wear that smug, love struck expression he always has when he looks at her. He’s trying to distance himself from her because he can’t bear to know he has failed her again by not keeping his word. This is not going to be easy, right?
