Who is that at the end of season 3? – MyCyberBase

The suave Arsène Lupin superfan went into the police to sit down with his own superfan detective Guedira (Soufiane Guerrab) and laid out the three conditions for his surrender: release his wrongfully imprisoned sidekick Benjamin (Antoine Gouy), deliver a letter to be given to his childhood sweetheart Claire (Ludivine Sagnier) and, finally, fit his cell with the complete works of Maurice Leblanc’s burglar stories.

So we leave Assane just as he’s nestling into his bed with the first copy of his extensive reading material, when a prison guard comes knocking with a letter from the jailbird next door.

Inside the envelope, Assane finds a faded Polaroid picture of his teenage self holding a copy of the Lupin book La Cagliostro’s Revenge – as a look of concern flashes over Assane’s face.

We then hear his voiceover start to read from the pages of the novel: “The riddle was within you, within the secret of your soul. In order to trap you and to earn your trust. I welcomed the love you showed me.”

Suddenly, the episode cuts to Assane’s mother Mariama and her voice begins to blend into Assane’s as they read the passage. “Perhaps you believed I felt it myself,” she says. “And so you truly loved me. And thus, you lost all clarity.”

We then shift to the neighbouring cell, where the figure within slowly turns around to face the camera, revealing it is none other than Hubert Pellegrini (Hervé Pierre), shrouded in a cloud of smoke from the cigar he’s puffing.

If you’ve forgotten who Pellegrini could possibly be, it was his framing of Assane’s father for the theft of the Queen’s necklace that set the Netflix series in motion. The second season of Lupin ended in dramatic fashion, with Assane on stage as he incriminated Pellegrini and Gabriel Dumont (Vincent Garanger).

Now it looks like the morally bankrupt businessman is back to wreak revenge on Assane for exposing him – and both Pellegrini’s daughter Juliette (Clotilde Hesme) and Assane’s mother Mariama might have something to do with it, as they were flashed to during the final voiceover.

Pellegrini has evidently been biding his time behind bars and, with the possibility of a fourth season of Lupin on the horizon, he could have something planned for Claire and Assane’s son Raoul (Etan Simon), who Mariama is with.

The ending heavily hints that Mariama is either not who she says she is or has been brought on to Pellegrini’s side. Assane even had his doubts early in the third season over whether it was actually his mother who had been taken hostage by Jean-Luc Keller.

What could Pellegrini being back in the picture mean? There’s every possibility he plans on making Assane’s life behind bars pretty miserable. He could also have plans to hurt Assane’s loved ones while he’s powerless to intervene while in prison.

It could also turn out that the deeply connected Pellegrini is part of a larger organisation, who might still have an axe to grind against Assane. After all, when Assane and Benjamin compiled that cork board of their enemies, they certainly weren’t short of names.

Either way, it appears what’s coming next is nothing good, particularly since Assane looked genuinely blindsided by the final revelation.

While Assane might have thought that by turning himself in and letting Claire and Raoul leave Paris to lead a normal life, the reappearance of Pellegrini a hair’s breadth away guarantees that our gentleman thief isn’t out of the woods just yet.

And this time he isn’t one step in front of everyone else. At least, that’s what we think right now, but knowing Assane, he’ll prove us all wrong.

Lupin is available to stream on Netflix.

Deputy TV Editor

Previously a TV Reporter at The Mirror, Rebecca can now be found crafting expert analysis of the TV landscape for Digital Spy, when she’s not talking on the BBC or Times Radio about everything from the latest season of Bridgerton or The White Lotus to whatever chaos is unfolding in the various Love Island villas. 

When she’s not bingeing a box set, in-the-wild sightings of Rebecca have included stints on the National TV Awards  and BAFTAs red carpets, and post-match video explainers of the reality TV we’re all watching.