Aahana Swrup
‘Blood Coast,’ the French Netflix show about the criminal underworld within Marseille, presents the story of law enforcement’s desperate attempts to bring peace to a city plagued with perpetual violence. After a feud arises between two lethal gang leaders, Franck Murillo and Ali Saïdi, Captain Lyès Benamar and his team of detectives, better known as “The Crazies,” become the best shot at saving the streets of Marseille. However, an internal affairs investigation and Alice Vidal, a new transfer cop from Paris, bring unexpected trouble to the team’s door.
Nevertheless, as the stakes continue to rise, Lyès and his team must do whatever it takes to keep their city safe. If this adventure has stirred your interest, you must be curious to see where this criminally fraught city takes the Detectives. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Blood Coast Recap
The detectives of Marseille, Lyès, and his team already have a bad reputation within the police department for their harsh methods that often infringe on standard protocol. Consequently, the team comes under some heat when a drug bust along a beach coastline results in the injury of a minor civilian. Even though the gravity of the situation, which involves bundles of cocaine and stacks of drug money, justifies their actions, Lyès and the others still fall victim to an Internal Affairs investigation.
Yet, the team is used to such things and brushes off their interviews with relative ease even if the Officer involved, Miranda, seems more eager than most to get Lyès sacked. Furthermore, the team also welcomes another member, Alice Vidal, among their ranks, whose transfer from Paris Interpol to Marseille Narcotics Squad effortlessly paves the way for suspicions. As such, people are quick to make the connection between her father’s death, which happened at the hands of Murillo, a Marseillais gangster, eight months ago.
Still, since Murillo was found dead a while later, Alice’s motives for moving to Marseille remain up in the air for her co-workers. However, unbeknownst to them, Murillo had only faked his death, a fact Alice is privy to. Therefore, while Lyès and the others try to get to the bottom of the new emerging cocaine trade business, Alice tries to track Murillo down through his mother, who resides in a retirement home.
As a result, Lyès and Alice cross paths during Murillo’s attack on the local gang leader, Ali Saïdi’s nephew, Kamela. Lyès, who had been hoping to catch Murillo in his undercover operation, ends up with nothing to show for his team’s efforts. Worse yet, the attack on his family brings Ali from his residence in Dubai to the French city. In the following days, as Alice accompanies the team in their investigation, she realizes the department has a deal struck with Ali. While Ali’s illegal projects keep the city at relative peace, the cops turn a blind eye to his misadventures.
For the same reason, Ali controls most dealings within the city. Thus, the new cocaine on the streets remains an obvious ploy to grab power. Lyès gets a lead about an elusive Indian man who seems to be at the center of these dealings. Shortly afterward, while Ali’s family is still in mourning, Murillo and his accomplice deliver another death— this time of Ali’s other nephew, Foudil. Meanwhile, Lyès’ desperation grows, leading him to a new lead by blackmailing a renowned lawyer for dirt on their sole perp connected to the crime.
As a result, Lyès and Alice travel out of town to work the lead, during which they come across Fanny Santiago, Lyès’ old flame from his time working undercover inside Murillo’s gang. Although the duo hopes to trail the woman back to Murillo, she catches onto their shadow and manages to flee. Nevertheless, her escape confirms and discredits Murillo’s faked death after Lyès catches a glimpse of the gangster.
As such, the case blows wide open, with Murillo as the prime suspect gunning after Ali even if his motives remain unknown. Although the investigation grows and even leads the team to the hideout where Ali’s rival gang and Murillo’s accomplices are hiding stashes of cocaine, the team ends up losing the same after one of them, Audrey, finds herself caught in a trap set up by the troublesome Indian man.
Eventually, The Chief of Police, who has been trying to get rid of Lyès, learns that Murillo is still alive after the gangster attacks Ali’s house in broad daylight. As a result, the case is taken away from Lyès and his team, with heavy repercussions to follow if they intervene. Still, with nothing left to lose, the team continues to work on the case. As they look into Murillo to get an idea of his motives, they come across the tragic accident that killed his 11-year-old son, Lucas, in a gang war in the streets of Marseille.
Blood Coast Ending: Who Killed Murillo’s Son?
Eight months before the show’s events, Murillo, a prisoner of the law, is allowed to attend his son’s funeral. However, the man uses the somber day to stage an attack and escapes with the help of his crew. Following his escape, Murillo only has one thing on his mind: revenge for his son’s untimely death. As a result, he fakes his death in Venezuela by paying the local authorities and planting a fake dead body with his identification. After establishing his own death and successfully escaping from under the law’s eyes, the gang leader embarks on his grand plan.
Murillo’s son had died on an entirely non-descript day after getting caught in the crossfires of a random gang war in the middle of a busy street. Someone had attacked Ali Saïdi, whose retaliation gunshots likely ended Lucas’ life. As such, Murillo teams up with Tarek Hamadi, a local gangster with manpower and weapons, and takes on the Saïdi family. Since Tarek wants to overtake the city, he’s more than eager to help the other man in his plan that involves his business rival’s death.
Once Lyès and his team decide to work the case despite a lack of orders, they try to use Fanny to track Murillo down. Even though the woman had run away with the gangster, Alice learns about her daughter, Zoe, whom Fanny would most likely return for. As such, the team is able to track Fanny back to Murillo. Yet, where they had hoped to storm his hideout on their own, other officers arrive on the scene, and Murillo slips through their fingers.
Still, Lyès tries to use Ali’s arrest as bait to lure the other man out but fails to do so when the man erases all evidence of his connections to a recent crime. Thus, Lyès resorts to reopening the past and looks into Lucas Murillo’s death. After interrogating a witness, Lyès realizes that the kid could have died from the other gang’s attack instead of Ali’s defense. Furthermore, no one would have more reason to attack Ali than Tarek Hamadi, the city’s aspiring drug dealer.
Through a quick forensics test, Lyès realizes the same to be true. Tarek attempted to kill Ali in broad daylight but failed and killed Murillo’s young son instead. Therefore, he decided to use the incident to manipulate Murillo into thinking Ali was responsible for Lucas’ death. As a result, Murillo ends up directly helping Tarek accomplish his goal by hunting down his competition for him.
In the end, Lyès uses Murillo’s mother to get the information to the gangster and attempts to use Tarek as bait. Even though the man hires some low-level criminals as muscle for protection, they end up abandoning him once the police catch up to him. Yet, when Lyès and the others try to stash him away to be used as bait, the criminals return and shoot Tarek dead as retribution for his sour attitude. As a result, while the trap is perfectly set for Murillo, the team loses the bait at the eleventh hour.
Do Franck Murillo and Ali Saïdi Get Arrested?
Even though their plan starts falling apart at the seams, Lyès’ team persists and bribes Tarek’s killers into keeping his death quiet. Consequently, the news doesn’t reach Murillo, who believes his son’s killer is still alive. As such, he arrives at the planned location to confront Tarek, only to be ambushed by Lyès and his team.
Even though Murillo gives them a chase and tries to flee with his life, Alice manages to catch up with him. With a trained shot at his legs, the cops leave the gangster incapable of walking and to her mercy. While for a moment Alice considers ending Murillo’s life as revenge for her father’s murder, she decides against it, knowing it’s best to leave him to the law. As a result, Murillo gets arrested for his crimes, allowing Lyès and his team to be welcomed into the department as heroes.
However, another threat looms over Lyès’ head. Throughout the show, the man remains under investigation by Internal Affairs Officer Miranda. The higher-ups aren’t pleased with Lyès’ methods since his method ruins the police’s public reputation. Therefore, even though Commissioner Fabiana tries to stand up for him, insisting the crazy city needs an unconventional hero like Lyès, Miranda remains set on his mission to arrest the other man.
Consequently, Miranda tries to blackmail the other officers on Lyès’ team to snitch on their leader and provide him with incriminating evidence. Since Miranda threatens to reveal Arno’s affair to his cancer-stricken wife, it leaves the detective in a tough spot. Furthermore, the former also tries to go after Tatoo, another detective’s job. Eventually, the pressure becomes too much, and Arno reveals Miranda’s proposition to Lyès.
Lyès wants to protect his detectives from losing their jobs, especially since it’s one of the only things keeping them going. Therefore, he agrees to give Arno a recorded confession that he can hand in once Murillo gets arrested. Arno does the same after the gangster’s arrest is processed. However, Lyès’ confession goes into detail about his involvement in striking a deal with Ali, the detective’s one true crime.
As a result, the cops have to arrest Ali. Nonetheless, the man has many contacts, especially due to his latest political endeavor. As such, he manages to fight back against his arrest in return for a promise to restart his old shut-down illegal business. In the end, despite a mountain of evidence against him, Ali continues to walk free.
Does Miranda Arrest Lyès?
Once the dust settles on Murillo’s case, Lyès allows himself to take a breath. Over the course of the investigation, a lot has happened to the man, including his brief reunion with Fanny Santiago, which revealed the existence of Zoe, who could potentially be Lyès’ daughter. Therefore, even though the kid returned to live with her grandfather after her mother’s arrest, Lyès gets a DNA test done to learn the truth about Zoe’s paternity.
Furthermore, Lyès and Alice also give in to their attraction toward each other and end up in bed together now that their entanglement won’t get in the way of their active case. However, their blissful relationship development is cut short when Miranda arrives outside Lyès’ house with a squad, prepared to arrest the man. Even though Arno’s evidence was unusable due to its incriminating nature toward Ali, Internal Affairs could still pin Lyès with charges of other smaller crimes such as burglary, extortion, and blackmail.
Ultimately, the show ends with the cops outside Lyès’ house, ready to arrest him. Yet, the man only stares them down with a grin and a glare, suggesting he may have something else up his sleeve. Although we never get to see the end of this interaction, Lyès either gets arrested at the moment or goes on the lam. Either way, this storyline leaves the plot for riveting development in a potential future season.
Read More: Is Netflix’s Blood Coast Inspired by Actual Gangs?
