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The Returned (Les Revenants)

Werthead

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AncalagonTheBlack Council Member

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[url=http://www.sundance.tv/series/the-returned/blog/2015/09/sundancetvs-emmy-winning-drama-the-returned-season-2-to-premeire-halloween-night]SundanceTV’s “THE RETURNED” Season 2 to Premiere Halloween Night 10/9c[/url]

 

THE RETURNED | 'Fear' Season 2 Official Teaser | SundanceTV - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB7kZ_XNC_4

Two years to the day after its initial US television premiere, SundanceTV will launch the highly anticipated second season of the International Emmy® and Peabody Award-winning series THE RETURNED on Sat., Oct. 31 at 10/9c.

 

 

The second season of THE RETURNED picks up six months after the deceased gathered outside the Helping Hand shelter before disappearing into the mountains with Simon (Pierre Perrier), Camille (Yara Pilartz), her mother, Claire (Anne Consigny), Julie (Céline Sallette) and the mysterious youngster Victor (Swann Nambotin). Since then, nothing has been heard of them or the police who fought to protect the Helping Hand shelter’s residents. In present day, Adèle (Clotide Hesme) is about to give birth to Simon’s child, part of the town is still flooded and the dam remains under surveillance, with the army providing logistical support for those residents who have chosen to stay. Rumors abound that the dead have returned, but the authorities refuse to believe them. The rare witnesses have chosen to remain silent or are not taken seriously, among them Léna (Jenna Thiam) and her father Jérôme (Frédéric Pierrot), who have not given up hope of finding Claire and Camille. But when a mysterious man named Berg (Laurent Lucas) pays a visit to the town, it appears he knows more than he claims.

 

New characters this season – Berg (Laurent Lucas), Milan (Michaël Abitboul), Audrey (Armande Boulange) and Virgil (Ernst Umhauer) – join returning characters Toni (Grégory Gadebois), Serge (Guillaume Gouix) and Lucy (Ana Girardot). THE RETURNED is produced by Haut et Court TV for CANAL+ CREATION ORIGINALE and written by Fabrice Gobert, Audrey Fouché, Coline Abert and Fabien Adda. The series is directed by Gobert and Frédéric Goupil. Mogwai will return to score the Season 2 soundtrack.

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DaveSumm Council Member

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Between the scheduling being all over the place and the forum wipe, this got kinda lost. Anybody watching Season 2? We're up to episode 7 of 8 in the UK. Vague semi spoilery observations:

 

I like how they've not tried to return things to normal and have any kind of town life there, they've met the events of S1 head on and been realistic about what would happen if a town were randomly flooded: everyone moves out, the military come in, geologists trying to figure out what happened. But it all feels a little like stalling, nothing really drastic has changed over the course of the season. There's a lot of retconning going on as well, I'm sure Lucy was never meant to be already dead, and Pierre's motives don't seem to quite make sense. Very confusing trying to keep your head on the timeline with all these dead people looking the same. Still enjoying it, but not up there with season 1.

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Werthead Council Member

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I'm two episodes behind, but yeah, I'm loving the atmosphere and some of the story revelations have been interesting, but the overall plot is kind of spinning its wheels. And I'm not enjoying the idea of a two-year wait for the final season either.

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Werthead Council Member

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I recall them speaking about three seasons during the first, but I think they said they didn't necessarily have any firm plans set in stone. I haven't seen the last two episodes yet, so I don't know if they have finished things off satisfyingly.

It's possible they changed their minds when they realised they were going to be 2-3 years between seasons. They just about got away with it with the younger kids for Season 2, but there's no way they will if they wait another 2-3 years. It's like going from Season 1 Bran to Season 4 Bran in one go, it's quite jarring.

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Werthead Council Member

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Okay, that was an interesting ending. So, to summarise:

We don't know where Victor came from, if he's a Returned at all or somehow is just a kid who is immortal. The same applies to Lucy, who clearly was expecting Victor to show up in the 1970s before he actually did. Unlike Victor, Lucy did die and come back on-screen (twice!) despite not having any loved ones waiting for her, which makes her situation all the weirder.

Despite all of that, Victor was raised by his adopted father. Rather than dying in the flood and coming back 35 years later, he simply came back straight away and spent 35 years living in his adopated father's house, hidden away. When his adopted father had a heart attack, Victor used his powers to bring him back but this breached the walls between the living and the dead and also brought back all the other returnees in the first batch (at the start of Season 1).

Exactly why the second batch, from the suicide pact circle, came back at the start of Season 2 is unclear. It's also unclear why people not in the suicide pact circle also came back at that same time. Presumably something happened offscreen that summoned them back.

For the ending, I think it was clear that Victor was needed to banish the Returnees, as he summoned them. This was helped by Nathan, whom Victor says is "like him." That may mean that Victor is also half-human, half-Revenant with special powers. They were able to banish the Returnees and possibly use that energy to save Julie. This could be a quantum shift thing (the dream sequences could be visions of alternate timelines) or it could be more literal: the Revenants transformed into water to fill the sinkhole before Julie could hit the bottom and die, and they pushed her back out (hence why she is soaking wet). That may track with Camille's coffin being full of water in Season 1.

Several things didn't quite track. Simon and Adele going into the caves but then somehow dying, Adele returning to her wedding dress (the biggest WTF in the episode), and then Lucy taking baby Nathan to be raised by a new family. Some have suggested that there is actually a time loop going on and the baby is Victor. However, I don't think that is the case because Victor also seems to hear Nathan's cries (if only mentally/telepathically) on the beach.

Some people had a really rough deal in this finale, like Chloe (left behind by her parents who disappeared under the ground) and Audrey (who finally gave us the only Walking Dead moment the show ever got), but I think most of the characters had a reasonably good send-off. I could see how a third season would work, following up maybe on an older Nathan and Victor (who, now his work has been done, they can explain as aging normally again), but it would be very different, I think.

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DaveSumm Council Member

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Okay, that was an interesting ending. So, to summarise:

We don't know where Victor came from, if he's a Returned at all or somehow is just a kid who is immortal. The same applies to Lucy, who clearly was expecting Victor to show up in the 1970s before he actually did. Unlike Victor, Lucy did die and come back on-screen (twice!) despite not having any loved ones waiting for her, which makes her situation all the weirder.

 

The ret-conning bothered me quite a bit this season; there's no way Lucy was meant to be dead in Season 1. As you say, Lucy had no loved ones waiting, she was working as a bar maid / prostitute, and also showed no skin deterioration like the others do when not with 'the hoard'. I'd have to rewatch, but I'm also sure that Pierre's motives changed a lot. He seemed to believe the returning was a good thing in S1 on vague religious grounds, but now all of a sudden simply because they came to the Helping Hand and took the dead with them, he's convinced they're evil and people need to be tortured to find them? Why? And I don't really follow how this tracks with the fact he was a member of the circle pact. Serge's father's assertion that they would be saved doesn't seem to match this change in Pierre's actions between season 1 and season 2.

 

Despite all of that, Victor was raised by his adopted father. Rather than dying in the flood and coming back 35 years later, he simply came back straight away and spent 35 years living in his adopated father's house, hidden away. When his adopted father had a heart attack, Victor used his powers to bring him back but this breached the walls between the living and the dead and also brought back all the other returnees in the first batch (at the start of Season 1).

Exactly why the second batch, from the suicide pact circle, came back at the start of Season 2 is unclear. It's also unclear why people not in the suicide pact circle also came back at that same time. Presumably something happened offscreen that summoned them back.

 

I did like this reveal, and there's a healthy six month gap in which Victor could easily have done the same thing again to bring back the second batch. Though you'd think he knew what he did last time and would try to avoid it...

 

For the ending, I think it was clear that Victor was needed to banish the Returnees, as he summoned them. This was helped by Nathan, whom Victor says is "like him." That may mean that Victor is also half-human, half-Revenant with special powers. They were able to banish the Returnees and possibly use that energy to save Julie. This could be a quantum shift thing (the dream sequences could be visions of alternate timelines) or it could be more literal: the Revenants transformed into water to fill the sinkhole before Julie could hit the bottom and die, and they pushed her back out (hence why she is soaking wet). That may track with Camille's coffin being full of water in Season 1.

 

I assumed the same, that Victor was a half human half Returned. Which leads to the question, who had powers to return whoever was Victor's mother or father? How long ago? It doesn't seem to me that Victor saving Julie needs such an explanation, if he can save his father through vague powers I guess he can save Julie. I took the water to simply to notify the audience that he'd fixed everything somehow for the Returned, seeing as the water level dropped when they appeared in Season 1.

 

Several things didn't quite track. Simon and Adele going into the caves but then somehow dying, Adele returning to her wedding dress (the biggest WTF in the episode),

 

Massive WTF. What was that thing that led her in? Why did she follow it? Why the dress? I think we saw some of these creatures on the video footage that the military had from the cave, and I seem to remember Lucy mentioning 'the others in the cave'. But it never really amounted to much.

 

Overall, the things that made the show great are all still there, the music and the atmosphere and the cast, writing, etc, but I can't shake the feeling that it very slightly pulled a Lost, and revealed that the vague magical mysteries of the series didn't really have an endgame in mind. It slightly overplayed its hand by adding more mysteries to the mix (their telepathy never went anywhere useful), and it feels like it split the difference between wanting another season. I'd rather they left it all hanging and went into a third season confidently, as opposed to half finishing it but leaving a thread to pull on if they get a third season. Even if it was great, it doesn't seem particularly elegant to have a great build up season, a season that probably didn't need 8 episodes and was stalling a lot of the time, then a largely unrelated third season.

 

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