Lupin Season 4 Ending Explained: Does Assane Die?

Gentleman thief Assane Diop returns for a brand new heist in the fourth season of Netflix’s ‘Lupin.’ At the end of the previous season, he had decided to retire from the life of crime and theft, ready to serve out four years in prison. All he wanted was to be with his family again. However, things change when a daring double heist takes place, and Assane is blamed for it. The quest to prove his innocence leads him to discover some very shocking truths. At the same time, he is also tempted to go after a treasure he’d dreamed of since he was a scrawny teenager, still learning the ropes. The eight-episode season takes many twists and turns, but the ending unravels everything so shockingly that no one, including Assane, knows how to react. SPOILERS AHEAD.

Lupin Season 4 Recap

Assane Diop has served four years in prison, and one week later, he will be released early on good behavior. He could have escaped in all this time, but the point was to serve his time and come out a free man. Once he is back, he plans to take his son, Raoul, to Senegal to show him where he comes from. However, everything turns upside down when a thief posing as Lupin reveals their plan to carry out two high-profile robberies simultaneously. Even as Assane tries to convince everyone it isn’t him, the cops take all sorts of measures to cage him. Still, the robberies happen, and Assane becomes the prime suspect. To prove his innocence, he breaks out of prison and soon tracks down the copycat, who has been replicating his methods to steal very precious items.

It turns out to be a girl named Adele, who intends to find the fabled treasure of Louis XVI’s French Crown Jewels. Assane tries to dissuade her, saying he has looked into the treasure before and that it’s just another myth. He also has the girl arrested, but soon discovers that she is his daughter. Twenty years ago, Juliette got pregnant with his child, but she never told him about it due to her father’s fear. The baby was sent away to an orphanage in England as soon as it was born, and Juliette was told it was stillborn. By that time, her and Assane’s ways had already parted, so she thought there was no point in telling him. Now, their daughter has come looking for her birth parents. On top of this, Juliette has also been helping her find the treasure, which she confirms is very real.

The treasure is under the protection of four families called the Guardians. They were tasked with keeping the jewels and treasure safe and have passed on this responsibility to their descendants over the generations. The Pellegrini family happens to be one of them, which is why Juliette knows so much about it. While she may be helping Adele and Assane, the other three families are ready to do whatever it takes to protect the treasure. However, Adele and Assane’s team-up is not so easy to beat. Meanwhile, Ben and Claire are found to be in a happy relationship, while Raoul struggles to get his father’s attention. Eventually, being attention-starved leads him to take drastic action, one his father can no longer ignore.

What Happens to the Treasure? Does Assane Steal It?

Assane Diop begins this season with no intention to get back in the game. But when he is pulled into it, every choice pushes him further into his past life. At first, it is about finding the copycat and proving his innocence. Then, he discovers that the copycat, Adele, is his daughter, and her quest to find the treasure has put her in the crosshairs of the Guardians of the Treasure. They want to stop her at any cost and are ready to kill her, or anyone else who even knows about the treasure. This is why she had to fake her death in England after she stole the sapphire.

Now, Assane figures that the only way to get the Guardians off their back is actually to steal the treasure and take away their power. If there was any doubt about going forth with the heist, the decision is further validated when Raoul reveals he has made a huge mistake. He will be arrested for his transgression, and the corrupt cop Korvin will use him to reach his father. Once again, stealing the treasure will render Korvin powerless, allowing Raoul to take responsibility for his actions without being used as leverage against his father. Thanks to the heist Assane, Juliet, and Ben had attempted years ago, they know that the treasure is hidden underground.

He and Adele find their way to it but are interrupted before they can even think about moving it. The security will be doubled now, which means they can’t go back in, let alone get even a single thing out of that airtight vault. The only way they can get their hands on the treasure is to get it out in the open. So, they tinker with the mechanism that overflows the Seine. The flooding triggers an alarm, forcing the Guardians to retrieve the treasure. The plan is to transport it out of Paris and take it to a different storage space. The transit is Assane and Co’s best chance to get their hands on the treasure, so they come up with an elaborate plan.

Thanks to technology, they can create Korvin’s mask, which Juliette wears to take her place while the cop is trapped in the back of her own car. Assane distracts the accompanying guards by appearing in the middle of the street on a horse. While they chase after him, the treasure is left unattended, and Juliette easily drives away with it. Adele uses a drone to cut off the truck’s GPS, leaving the Guardians with no way to track it. At the end of it, everyone is supposed to meet at a rendezvous point, from where they will escape to their new lives. Everything goes according to plan, but then something entirely unexpected throws them off. Shockingly, they are forced to hand over the treasure to none other than Pellegrini.

Who Freed Pellegrini?

Before Assane went to prison, he sent his old nemesis and archenemy, Pellegrini, to prison. At the beginning of this season, it is revealed that he helped Pellegrini escape from the French prison only to ship him off to Malaysia. Pellegrini is wanted in Malaysia, which has no extradition treaty with France and has no contacts whatsoever to bail him out. His daughter, Juliette, could have helped him, but she hates him so much that she prefers he stay oceans away in a prison rather than return home to ruin her life again. With the arrival of Adele and the matter of the treasure, Assane completely forgets about Pellegrini. This is why he is shocked when the man shows up right after the heist.

Assane and his group were supposed to assemble at a single location after the heist. However, Adele and Raoul don’t show up because they are abducted. Assane learns about it when Pellegrini calls, asking him to bring the treasure to a location of his choice. The thief doesn’t think twice before driving away with the stolen treasure, which he will readily hand over in exchange for his children. While Pellegrini presents Adele to him, bound with a ticking device taped to her back, things are a bit different with Raoul. Assane notes that his son is not bound or scared. Instead, he appears rather confident and in charge of the situation, which can mean only one thing: he is not a victim but one of the perpetrators. He is the one who brought Pellegrini back.

Why does Raoul Betray Assane?

Assane may have been a master thief, but he never really became a good father. His heists took him away from home, leaving his son starving for his father’s attention. His status as a man on the run prevented him from giving Raoul the love and care he needed. So, when Assane promises he is done with all that and will live a clean life after his prison sentence, Raoul looks forward to finally spending time with his father. But then Adele comes into the picture, and everything is disrupted. The more Assane gets invested in the treasure heist, the farther he gets from his son. He lies about his new work and even fakes a passport problem so he doesn’t have to go to Senegal with his son. When Raoul finds out about it, he is deeply hurt. He knows his father is working on something and tries to work with him.

But Assane doesn’t want to pull him into that life and keeps him at an arm’s distance. One day, Raoul follows him and finds him happily discovering something crucial with Adele and Juliette. Since his father won’t give him the answers, Raoul reaches out to Juliette’s father. Pellegrini is surprised by this unexpected contact, but he sees a huge opportunity. To begin with, he asks Raoul for help in getting out of the Malaysian prison in exchange for telling him everything. The deal works for them both, but while Pellegrini gets to come back home, Raoul’s life is changed when he discovers that Adele is his half-sister. Since his father won’t tell him the truth and come clean by himself, Raoul decides to make him choose. He conspires with Pellegrini to fake the kidnapping, using it to bring Assane and the treasure together.

He comes clean about the whole thing and gives Assane a choice. He can either choose to be with Adele or come with Raoul, and they can work on their own heists together. Assane refuses to choose between his two children, saying he loves them both equally. He tries to apologize to Raoul, knowing that his ignorance pushes his son to take these drastic steps. However, Raoul takes his not choosing as a sign that he is choosing Adele. So, he chooses his own too. He refuses to return to a life of being lied to and neglected. Since Pellegrini is the only one capable of being honest with him, Raoul decides to go with him. In the end, he steps into the helicopter with his father’s enemy and flies away.

Does Assane Die?

Even before he collaborated with Pellegrini, Raoul had been on a dangerous, criminal path. We see him collaborate with another thief called Esteban, whom he later beats to a pulp. But even before that, he unintentionally does something really bad. When the copycat threatens to execute two robberies at once, Assane thinks his father is going back to his ways. Desperate to see Assane again, he ends up at the museum where the robbery is supposed to take place. At the same time, the cops arrive and chase the fake Lupin. Sofia chases the culprit, threatening to shoot them if they don’t stop. Raoul thinks the thief really is his father, and to stop Sofia from shooting him, he pushes her off the balcony.

At first, everyone thinks the copycat pushed her, but when she recovers her memory, she realizes it was someone else. In the end, when Assane is confronted by the neglect towards his son, Sofia arrives on the spot with the rest of the group. When she sees Raoul stepping onto the helicopter, she threatens to shoot him if he doesn’t get down and surrender himself to the law. Assane realizes she is actually going to shoot, and to protect his son, he jumps in front of the bullet. It hits him in the chest, and this time, he has no metal plate or secret vest to protect him. As he falls to the ground, everyone comes to his aid. However, Raoul is unmoved, which surprises even Pellegrini.

Raoul watches his father bleeding on the ground as the helicopter ascends and then flies away, leaving his old life behind. Meanwhile, the group surrounds Assane, coming to his aid. Considering that he is the main character, Assane is not going to die just yet. He might take more time to heal and recuperate, but the thought of his son being with Pellegrini will not allow him to rest for too long. Raoul’s betrayal has likely given him a harsh reality check. This isn’t something Assane will take lightly, especially since he knows Pellegrini will further poison his son against him. The simple thought of saving Raoul from falling into Pellegrini’s hands will be enough to bring Assane back from the jaws of death. Getting his son back will be his most important heist yet.