Summer ‘36 Ending Explained: Who Killed Adrien Jacquart?

Originally titled ‘L’Été 36,’ Netflix’s ‘Summer ‘36’ is a French murder mystery show where one death unravels multiple half-buried hatchets and grudges in a bustling coastal city. In 1936, the city of Nice welcomes an unmatched crowd when the workers of the country earn their first paid vacation through their unionizing efforts. This is what brings unionist Eugénie Berthier and her family to the city, which happens to also be her estranged family’s chosen vacationing spot.

Furthermore, as fate would have it, Prosecutor Adrien Jacquart, a man from Eugenie’s past, is in town, staying over at the Riviera Hotel. For the same reason, when the lawyer is discovered dead inside his locked hotel room, Eugénie and various members of her family become potential suspects. As Detective Raven’s investigation expands, he and his reluctant partner, Leonie Morel, uncover that Multiple people might have had a reason to want the prosecutor dead. SPOILERS AHEAD!

Summer ‘36 Recap

On the night of August 8 1936, a maid at Hotel Riveira finds the dead body of Prosecutor Adrien Jacquart inside his room. The next morning, a police investigation is opened with Raven as the lead detective. In the absence of his usual partner, he has to rely on the help of the newly appointed police auxiliary officer, Leonie Morel. Although the latter is great at detecting and deducing, she also has an ulterior motive for her presence in the police department. Years ago, her father, Pierre, was arrested and convicted for the murder of a printshop owner. As his death row nears, the daughter is desperate to prove his innocence and plans on doing so by conducting a secret investigation into the case using her job to access sensitive documents. As Raven looks into the case, his attention is immediately drawn to the Pontavice-Caron family, who are staying in the same hotel.

Coincidentally enough, Henri Pontavice-Caron’s estranged daughter and Adrien’s ex-fiancée, Eugenie, also happens to be in the same city with her family. Shortly afterward, some evidence from the scene also reveals that the union rep’s sister, Blanche, was having an extramarital affair with the prosecutor. However, in light of the arrest, her husband, Edouard, ends up arriving at the precinct and confessing to Adrien’s murder himself. From the get-go, Raven and Leonie both believe the confession is a lie, made in an attempt to protect a faithful wife. Thus, in an effort to nullify this false confession, the female officer tries to learn about his real whereabouts on the night of the murder. In the meantime, another person drops dead in the Riviera, this time the hotel manager, Edgar, as a result of arsenic poisoning.

After a locket is found on the scene of a crime, Leonie suspects the involvement of the head housekeeper, Guilla, who also happens to be her half-sister. Although the latter has no direct connection to Edgar’s murder, she could potentially become a suspect. Guilla owed a huge gambling debt to Adrian, which he had threatened to reveal to her employer the day before his murder. Even so, Leonie helps her sister, erasing her as a potential suspect around the same time that the heat wears off of Edouard. However, just then, Raven learns a new tidbit that changes the course of the investigation. As it turns out, on the day of his murder, Adrien had found out that Eugenie’s son, Louie, is actually his biological heir. Naturally, this turns the suspicions on the woman’s husband, Jean. Yet, his alibi checks out as well. Meanwhile, another murder takes place in the city, this time with bartender Felix, whom Leonie was dating, as the victim.

Things take a turn once Raven finally discovers that Leonie is Pierre’s daughter and has been lying about her parentage this entire time. Therefore, he begins to formulate a new theory. He believes that the auxiliary officer and her half-sister planned the murder and executed it together. Furthermore, he believes that they recruited the help of another sister duo, Blanche and Eugenie, who have their own motives to want Adrien dead. This leads to a climactic confrontation where Raven puts the strings together, connecting all four women to the murder. However, something unexpected happens in that moment. Raoul, Adrien’s friend and Henri’s business rival, summons the authorities for a burglary in his room. Nonetheless, a preliminary search of the room uncovers pieces of evidence that incriminate the businessman in the murders of Adrien and Edgar.

Summer ‘36 Ending: Who Killed Adrien Jacquart?

Raven’s investigation begins to wrap up with the discovery of evidence that is impossible to overlook in Raoul’s room. The evidence unearthed includes a letter opener stained with the prosecutor’s blood, the businessman’s own blood-stained clothes, and a document revealing the victim was pursuing a legal investigation into a fraud case involving his friend. Thus, with the means, motive, and method secured, Raoul’s implication in the murder is inevitable. Still, even the detective can’t shake off the feeling that the resolution feels too easy. Instead of uncovering the pieces, Raven more or less stumbles across the answer in a twist of fate. As it turns out, his suspicions are correct, and Raoul isn’t Adrien’s real killer.

Instead, the killer is Anne-Marie, Eugenie’s aunt. The woman’s connection with the prosecutor goes way back. In her youth, Henri’s sister-in-law fell in love with a married man and gave birth to his child. However, given the scandalous circumstances of the birth, she couldn’t have raised the kid herself. Therefore, her sister, Marthe, helped her ride out her pregnancy in secret in Nice and adopt the child out to a local family. Over the years, as the family kept returning to the city for summer vacations, Anne-Marie tried to keep an eye on her son, Jules, believing they could eventually reconcile. However, this chance was taken from her when the young boy died in a roadside car accident.

Although the perpetrator was never caught, Anne-Marie hired a private detective and learned the identity of Jules’ killer: Adrien Jacquart. In fact, when the prosecutor’s car hit the young boy, he was still alive. Even so, he chose to leave him to the side of the road to die in an attempt to avoid a scandal befalling his reputation. For years, the grieving mother has been sitting on her anger without acting upon it. However, she loses her cool when she sees Adrien in Nice, vacationing without carrying a speck of guilt about the life he had taken. For the same reason, on the night of his murder, she had stolen his hotel room key from Blanche and confronted him in the dead of the night. When he diminished her grief and tried to buy her silence, Anne-Marie snapped and stabbed him in the neck with his own letter opener.

Who Killed Edgar?

As suspected by Raven, Edgar’s murder is also connected to the killing of Adrien Jacquart. Likewise, despite being arrested for it, Raoul isn’t to blame for the incident. The hotel manager has a lesser-known habit of spying on the guests through their windows via binoculars from the gardens. Therefore, on the night of Adrien’s murder, Edgar had witnessed the entire sordid affair between him and Anne-Marie. For years, the hotel owner had been infatuated with the woman who never reciprocated his affections.

Therefore, Edgar uses this information to lure her back to his room, where he assaults and rapes her, using the knowledge of his crime as leverage to force her silence. No one knows of this incident but Anne-Marie’s sister, Marthe. As a result, once she learned about the attack, she wanted to avenge her sister. Furthermore, she knew that as long as the hotel manager was alive, he could leverage the truth of Adrien’s murder over Anne-Marie to continue his monstrosity towards her. Thus, she paid him a visit in his office and secretly poisoned his drink with arsenic. Edgar died shortly afterward, and Marthe, the vengeful sister, vanished from the scene.

Why Does Anne-Marie Confess? Why Does Raven Not Believe Her?

Raoul’s arrest ends up saving Anne-Marie and her sister from facing the consequences of their involvement in the real murder. This is thanks to the collaborative efforts of Blanche, Eugenie, Guilla, and Leonie, who all work together to frame the businessman. Even though they also figure out the elder sisters’ involvement in the crime, they agree to stay silent about the matter, empathizing with Anne-Marie’s plight. Even so, in the end, the woman arrives at the police station, where she tries to confess to Adrien’s murder. Moreover, she also tries to take responsibility for the murder of Edgar and the framing of Raoul. She committed the crime in a moment of revenge-fuelled passion.

Thus, Anne-Marie isn’t a killer with any menacing motives. This means that in the aftermath of the crime, she begins to be wracked with guilt about her actions. She has held Adrien in contempt for years for running away from a murder and refusing to take responsibility for it. As such, she can’t in good conscience commit the same sin and let another man take the fall for her crimes. Even so, despite her confession, Raven refuses to believe her. While the detective believes something shady has happened with Raoul’s arrest, he also knows that the solution doesn’t lie in Anne-Marie’s sole participation. Framing Roul would require teamwork, and since she isn’t willing to name any names and instead bear the burden of the entire scheme, her story simply doesn’t make sense. For the same reason, the detective can’t arrest her.

Why Do The Women Frame Raoul?

While Anne-Marie and her sister, Marthe, are the real culprits behind the murders, they have no direct hand in the framing of Raoul. Instead, that is done entirely by Blanche, Eugenie, Guilla, and Leonie. The latter discovered the identity of the real killers during the investigation and even unearthed the motive compelling Anne-Marie to commit the murder. However, she empathized with the woman and didn’t wish to see her behind bars. Instead, there’s someone else whom Leonie wanted to punish. After Edgar’s murder, another dead body was found. Nonetheless, Felix’s murder wasn’t considered a top priority, due to his racial and working background. Furthermore, Raoul had the resources needed to cover his tracks despite the fact that Leonie had seen him at the scene of the crime.

Yet, Leonie isn’t the only enemy that Raoul makes. Shortly after Adrien’s death, he begins harassing Guilla, whose debt he had bought from the prosecutor. He wants the head housekeeper to break into Henri’s safe to steal an important notebook from him. When she refuses to comply, he begins to target her daughter, Suzanne. After acquiring the notebook, Raoul uses it as leverage to try to push Henri out of his company so he can take control. Naturally, this doesn’t sit well with Henri’s daughter and future heir, Eugenie. Lastly, he has a history of publishing anti-Semitic articles about Edouard. Thus, all these women have a reason to want Raoul behind bars. For the same reason, they work together to frame them.

Is Pierre Released? Who Committed the Real Murder?

Throughout the series, a secondary murder investigation also takes place that has no direct connection to the death of Adrien Jacquart. This is an unofficial investigation that Leonie is conducting in an effort to prove her father’s innocence. Early on, she and Felix uncover a corrupt practice unfolding in the printshop whose owner, Pierre, has been accused of murder. As it turns out, they have been creating and selling fake IDs. However, things take an unexpected turn when Leonie learns that her father was involved in the business and was, in fact, the one creating these IDs.

This momentarily shakes Leonie’s confidence in Pierre, compelling her to believe he might just have committed the murder he has been denying all this time. Nonetheless, eventually, she uncovers evidence that suggests otherwise. The only thing implicating her father in the murder is the alleged eye-witness statement of Frederic, the son of the victim. However, in the statement, he claims that he witnessed Pierre exiting the shop when he returned to look for his glasses. This creates an obvious hole in the story since Frederic’s eyesight is bad enough that he wouldn’t have been able to make out anyone’s face without his glasses. During the initial investigation, Raven, who is Frederic’s godfather, allowed his own grief to cloud his judgment. Yet, the truth emerges now, finally earning Pierre his freedom.