Mikes Film Talk

(review/recap)

Careful watch out for spoilers

In this penultimate episode of Monsieur Spade, it is about spies, more death, Philippe, and Zayd. Someone is leaving the town of Bozouls, but this is not au revoir. For this person, it is fini.

Before more death and heartache though, we have Gazala.This twin to Sister Angelique joins Philippe. He is hiding with the new Mahid. Gazala has a sense of humour. After beating a parishioner who mistakes her for the dead sister, she answers Philippe’s query of “Who’s there?” with “Brigitte Bardot.”

She and Philippe talk philosophy and she patches up his wound. All the while, Zayd continues his scribbling in the corner. Philippe talks of feeling nothing before taking another person’s life. Zayd listens to the two in silence.

Sam goes for his morning swim only for Teresa to tell him he cannot. Basam has drained the pool and is scrubbing it down. Death in pools, apparently, equates to bad juju. Sam is not best pleased. Henri comes into the kitchen. He is retracing his movements; looking for the brown notebook that Teresa lifted in the previous episode.

HINTS AND CLUES

Teresa hints that she has the book in question. Talking about Henri’s “slipshod” handwriting and offering to write his name in the replacement notebook. Teresa and Henri go to the village where the young woman places a flower on Gabrielle’s grave.

Sam watches from a distance.

Zayd watches Gazala’s shadow while she showers. Philippe talks of his past and his mother. He talks of his mother’s customers and a childhood fixation on a set of keys. This story hints that, perhaps, Philippe was always going to be on the “wrong” side of the law.

At the end of Gazala’s shower, the phone rings. It is Mister Kahn and Philippe threatens to let his lover/partner in crime kill the boy. Death, it seems, is never too far away in Philippe’s world.

Spade returns home. He hears the mantle clock striking 11 and looking at the clock, he notices another of his neighbour’s paintings. Spade rips open the back of the thing and finds a “bug.” He then destroys the another picture to find at least one more listening device. He “calls” (Cutting the phone off before it rings.) Patrice, the police chief, and sets up a meeting.

all masks off

Sam watches the Fitzsimmons family drive off to the Patrice meeting. He uses an axe to break into their garage. He finds surveillance equipment. George Fitzsimmons surprises Spade with the disused axe in hand. The affable painter persona is gone.

A discussion, started by Sam, talks about MI5 and/or MI6. George responds with “To-may-to, to-mah-to.” So the new neighbours are spies after all.

George expertly throws the axe at Sam. After some discussion about facts, the two men warily circle one another as the “son” relays their interest in Teresa. Look-a-like nun Angelique apparently brought the Fitzsimmons’ to Spade’s door. Angelique caused the two to look closely at Teresa.

The two spies became interested in Sam after observing him deliver envelopes full of cash to the convent. George relays more about the Teresa connection. George and Sam mix it up with the end result of Spade hitting the floor. Mrs. Fitzsimmons arrives with a pistol and invites Sam to tea.

Memories and Mort

Jean Pierre is questioned about Zayd as he drinks in the bar.The pistol whipped parishioner; Claude, tells Teresa about seeing a ghost. Meanwhile, the Fitzsimmons duo relay Zayd’s backstory to Sam. They explain the Angelique/Gazala connection and their place in the whole kidnapping escapade.

There is a little talk of death and Fitzsimmons drops the mic with the revelation that Zayd can decipher any code in the world.

Instantly.

George also relays that Zayd writes his own code. Mrs. Fitzsimmons talks of the Mahid and the end of times. Sam is sceptical. The conversation becomes terse with another gun being pulled. Teresa arrives in the car and mows down the mailbox. Sam uses this distraction to leave.

Jean Pierre is still having those flashbacks. He wakes up, gun in hand and tells Marguerite to burn his letters. We see Philippe and Gazala listening to a saxophone and he has a flashback of his own. In this memory he tells Marguerite to return to Paris.

The end

Sam goes to Philippe and Gazala’s hideout. He climbs the stairs but when he reached the door, his emphysema makes him cough. A stranger interrupts his attempt to open the door. The two kidnappers inside the flat aim their guns at the door. He leaves.

Back in the car, Sam tells Teresa that it was a dead end. He then tells the her it is time to get a drink. Jean Pierre steps out of a doorway and checks his revolver. At the bar, Marguerite tells Sam that Teresa is actually his daughter. She also points out that birth certificates can be altered.

Jean Pierre goes to Philippe and demands to speak to Zayd. Philippe throws him down the narrow stairwell. As he lies helpless, another flashback is shown. This is the last visit Jean Pierre will have with his guilty memories. Philippe shoots the dying man with his own pistol.

Monsieur Spade has been, from the very start, a journey that gets darker with each episode. The revelations have come at a rapid pace. Spade’s neighbours are spies, who would not hesitate to kill him. Death, in this series has more or less ruled over all the proceedings. The next episode should tie everything up.

This is streaming on AMC+ and Acorn TV. Head on over and check this one out. Monsieur Spade is what television should be; entertaining.