S02.E08: Les Revenants

[meep.meep]

I hope they don't do a third season. I was getting tired of watching entire episodes where the dialogue consisted of various people asking each other if they were OK. I even learned to say it in French.

The second season didn't clear up the basic mysteries of the first season, and introduced a bunch more.

[lidarose9]

Just rewatched the final ep. To recap, in the forest, Simon goes on ahead and Adele falls behind. She is wearing a dark jacket and dark leggings or skinny jeans and maybe some boots. She falls down. Maybe she dies.

 

Next time we see her, she wakes up and she's outside the cave with Simon. He says he's going to look further inside and she says she wants to go too. They exchange a significant look, as if he wants to make sure she's up to it. She is still wearing her same clothes. 

 

She follows Simon into the cave and he gives her the cigarette lighter. Soon he disappears in the darkness and she is alone. She calls out to Simon. She sees the Thing and drops the lighter. The Thing picks it up and reaches out to take Adele's hand.

 

The Thing to me looked like it once was female, possibly, had red hair and was wearing what could have once been a red long-sleeved shirt. (This is NOT what Simon had been wearing.) Adele is shocked but seems to overcome her initial reaction and takes the Thing's "hand" and off they go. She's still wearing her clothes. 

 

The next time we see her, she is wandering towards an opening of the cave, wearing a thin white dress. She sees Simon and climbs up the big rocks to go stand with him looking up and out at (something). They both seem happy. 

 

I am wondering if these tunnels and caves under the town are the "middle world" that brings you into the world of the dead, and let's say Adele died out in the forest, so Simon took her into the cave so she could go down into the world of the dead with him. The Thing is kind of like the Underworld Greeter, which took her somewhere to be processed so now she's officially dead. Her new clothes symbolize the change. (I know, it's a reach. Maybe you get to pick an outfit for eternity when you are processed. Notice how Lucy is always wearing that same dress and jacket and shoes?) Maybe during processing, Adele comes to realize that her children are OK and will be taken care of, and that she should not worry and just move ahead. 

 

Anyhow Simon is waiting for her. The very next scene is Lucy and the Returned approaching the sinkhole. I am wondering if Simon and Adele are at the bottom of the sinkhole looking up, waiting for the others to join them so they can all go live in the land of the dead. Which is a nice place where people can be happy. 

Edited December 23, 2015 by lidarose9

[alias1]

lidarose9, I love your posts.  So often they say what I'd like to say but can't put into words.  I was going to post something similar about the "Thing" in the cave, that it looked like the "Greeter to the Underworld."  You put it all so elegantly. 

 

I don't know if I'd like a season three.  I think this series was perfect and I don't know where they could go from here.  A different town?  More Lucy?  They can't do any more flashbacks with Victor.   And I think a lot of the charm of this series was having the mystery and leaving some of it to our own imagination.  I don't think they can improve on anyone else's story.  So there is only Lucy, although we might get more of Morgane.  Maybe even Nathan (he would have to be older, I think, to be interesting), but there is always a risk with child actors.

[lidarose9]

I've been doing a little research and apparently the book and the show are based on the myths and fairy tales about

Nixies which are water spirits (sprites).  Victor may be a water spirit that wanted to live as a real little boy.

 

Where did you find this info?

[lidarose9]

lidarose9, I love your posts.  So often they say what I'd like to say but can't put into words.  I was going to post something similar about the "Thing" in the cave, that it looked like the "Greeter to the Underworld."  You put it all so elegantly. 

 

I don't know if I'd like a season three.  I think this series was perfect and I don't know where they could go from here.  A different town?  More Lucy?  They can't do any more flashbacks with Victor.   And I think a lot of the charm of this series was having the mystery and leaving some of it to our own imagination.  I don't think they can improve on anyone else's story.  So there is only Lucy, although we might get more of Morgane.  Maybe even Nathan (he would have to be older, I think, to be interesting), but there is always a risk with child actors.

 

Thank you, SierraMist! I feel like you guys are my support group, I'm in recovery from The Returned, and need to talk about it! So I'm glad it makes sense to you!

 

I was thinking if they do another season, they could pick up the story of what happens to baby Nathan in the future. He is apparently like Lucy and Victor, meaning when he grows up, he will somehow be a connector between the world of the dead and the world of the living. 

 

I watched Victor bring Mr. L back to life again. Immediately after Victor calls out to him, you hear the sound of the school bus crash and children screaming, and you hear the dog barking and the ice cracking as Mrs. Costa falls through the ice -- you hear a whole cascade of sounds associated with the tragic events that we saw during the show. Victor was looking around, and there is a reflection of a group of The Returned standing looking in the window, but that quickly becomes the flashing ambulance lights -- I think at that moment he realizes he's messed up something, but he's got to stay hidden and so he panics and runs away.

 

After Victor has gone, Mr L's eyes open. So Victor didn't know Mr L had come back to life but was in a coma so naturally he didn't go to the hospital. I had been wondering about this. 

 

So Victor just bolts out into the night and sees Julie at the bus stop, and follows her. She was wearing a blue jacket. Somewhere he'd said his mother told him that if he was ever in trouble he should look for the blue fairy. That was probably supposed to be Lucy. He saw Julie and assumed she was the fairy, and so latched onto her. 

 

Lucy had arrived in town 36 years ago knowing Victor would be looking for her. I am wondering if she (like Victor) sees into the past and future. (She was off by 35 years. But maybe to her that's nothing.) So maybe Nathan will have that ability too.

 

Maybe Victor and Lucy are hybrids of a living parent and a Returned parent, like Nathan is. There might be backstory there to explore. 

Edited December 24, 2015 by lidarose9

[lidarose9]

Just a few weeks before I binged on this show, I happened to see a program about these underground tunnels in the Yucatan. Huge areas there are honeycombed with an extensive underground cave system which is the only source of fresh water in some places, so it was a big deal to the locals. They believed these tunnels were the pathway to the underworld (just like in The Returned!). The entrances to the tunnels and caves are often big sinkholes like the ones we saw in The Returned. Centuries ago, the water level dropped dramatically during one particularly bad drought that lasted years, and the archeologists diving into these underwater caves now found sites in some sinkholes where the locals had climbed down to the then-lower water level to offer sacrifices, hoping for rain. Anyhow I kept thinking about this as I was watching the last few episodes of this show. 

 

http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/cenote-xkeken

[Noneofyourbusiness]

The thing in the cave looked like a woman to me. And Lucy had mentioned needing to stay together to avoid becoming "like the others in the caves".