Diksha Sundriyal
Assane Diop in Netflix’s ‘Lupin’ has many enemies. Over the years, he has robbed many people and troubled many fellow criminals, often landing them in jail even though they’d been in cahoots with him on a job. All of them want to destroy Assane, which is why it is difficult for him to pin down the identity of the person who’s causing him so much trouble. The third season of the show focuses on Assane’s efforts to get his mother out of the clutches of a mysterious kidnapper who is forcing the thief to steal things in return for his mother’s safety. They also threaten his friends and family, and the only way to get out of this pickle is to figure out who’s behind it all. Here’s what Assane finds out. SPOILERS AHEAD
The Identity of Assane’s Mother’s Kidnapper
Assane and his father came to France without his mother. They didn’t have enough money to get her on the same boat and waited for her to join them, but things never worked out, and she stayed back in Senegal. A young Assane grew up believing his mother was good as dead, and even when he tried to get in touch with her, she cut off all communication, following which, Assane forgot about her and lived the next couple of decades not wondering what happened to his mother, Mariama.
Very few people in Assane’s life knew about his mother. Benjamin knew because he and Assane discussed everything. Claire didn’t know because he didn’t want to involve her in the darker things about his life, which is why he keeps her away from the robberies, too. The only other person that he’d talked about it to was Bruno, who told it to a man named Jean-Luc Keller.
Assane met Keller through Bruno, whom the man had taken under his wing. Both of Bruno’s parents were gone, and he’d have been taken by social services, but Keller posed as his guardian, which gave Bruno his freedom. When he got into trouble, Assane ended up living at Bruno’s place and later visited Keller’s gym with him. At first, Keller doesn’t pay much attention to Assane, but then the boy turns out to be good at fighting and thieving, so he takes Assane under his wing, too.
At first, it looks like Keller is the guardian angel they need, someone who has their back and takes care of them. But then, he forces Assane and Bruno to rob a jewelry store while the public is focused on the Soccer World Cup. Assane knows the robbery is risky, and he tries to reason with Keller, but the man doesn’t care. He forced the boys to steal for him. As expected, things go awry, and as Bruno and Assane run out of the store with the stolen jewels, they are chased by the cops. They get in Keller’s car, hoping to drive away, but a cop chases them on a motorbike.
To get rid of the cop, Keller told Bruno to shoot the cop. This was crossing a line because the boys never wanted to hurt anyone. Once again, Assane tries to reason with Keller, but he doesn’t seem to care and forces poor Bruno to shoot anyway. The cop is hit, falls off his bike, and dies on the road. However, soon after, Keller loses control of the car. Assane gets out of the wreckage and pulls away Bruno, too. As he hears the sirens in the distance, he realizes that the cops are catching up, and this time, it’s not just robbery. It’s also murder.
If Bruno were caught, he would have gone to prison for the rest of his life. But it wouldn’t be fair because it wasn’t his fault. It was Keller’s, so he should be the one to pay for it. Because Keller is too injured to get out of the car, Assane puts the gun in his hand and runs away with Bruno. When the cops arrive, they arrest Keller for the robbery and the murder. Because he killed a cop, he is sentenced to a longer prison time, and Keller blames Assane for all this. All his time in prison, he plots his revenge, finding a way to get to him. He remembers Bruno telling him about Assane’s mother. Through his contacts, Keller tracks down Mariama and kidnaps her to get an upper hand in the fight against her son.
Read More: Lupin: How Does Benjamin Get out of Prison?
