Episode 6 begins with a surprise when Eddy finds his mother standing at his door. She knew him from his TV appearance, especially the “lizard mask”, and found him through the school. Her sudden appearance immediately disconcerts him.
Meanwhile, Lucie continues her investigation. She poses as Eddy’s security after he received threats from his TV gig and asks the handler for leads. She has nothing to show for it and loads the handler in her car, heading for Paris.
Clearly Eddy is not comfortable with his mother there. Their relationship has been broken for years, and her criminal history only fuels his resentment. He finds her and she says she just missed him. Eddy is not buying it. She reminds him he never came to visit her in prison and when she admits it was out of shame he throws her out.
Lucie’s examination the next day reveals nothing. She learns too that her requests for wiretap and phone surveillance have been denied. She’s not officially on the Sagirov case, but a colleague has quietly been helping her out.
Eddy’s frustration bleeds into his teaching at school. He rants against students before meeting Tiphaine. He suggests they meet but she shoots him down saying it was a mistake and particularly since he’s engaged to Lucie. Eddy swears that the engagement will never last, but Tiphaine will not even consider getting back together.
Later Eddy sees his mother charming everyone in the teachers’ lounge after she has fixed the photocopier. He pulls her away, annoyed. They argue once more. His mother insists she is the only family he has left. Eddy is reluctant but he lets her stay and even asks her to cook dinner.
That evening the episode contrasts two very different scenes: Lucie eating instant noodles in a sterile office, while Eddy shares a warm meal with his mother. At dinner she gives him tips on how to win back Tiphaine, and says she has turned her life around with a job in nursing and a hobby in hiking. But she soon finds out that Eddy is not a teacher. When he mentions something about the Sagirov case, she suggests a very real possibility that the girl in question may not actually be Sagirov’s biological daughter. In a shocking twist, she also tells Eddy that his own father isn’t his real one.
Eddy later meets Lucie at the station of Lille Flandres, and tells her this theory. She thinks it’s worth a try. Lucie decides to search the houses of the three girls involved back at the apartment. Eddy calls a meeting at the school with the parents and students, so the houses will be vacant.
Before Eddy leaves, his mother tells Lucie she’ll only have about an hour to look – and menacingly suggests what will happen if she double-crosses Eddy.
Eddy pushes forward with the meeting at school, disguising it as a math club launch to encourage girls into engineering. Meanwhile, Lucie is breaking in, one house at a time. Louise finds out that she is not Sagirov’s daughter. At Sandra’s house, she learns that Sandra’s father is in jail for robbing pharmacies.
Back at the meeting things get out of hand. Parents doubt Eddy’s qualifications and things get out of hand when Sandra’s mother makes an offensive comment. Eddy fires back, escalating the situation into chaos, all while buying Lucie time.
The plan almost goes off the rails when Oceane’s mom gets an alert that there’s an intruder in her home. Eddy sees his mother and invents a story about a psychiatric patient who has escaped. He runs to the house, helps his mother escape and makes sure Oceane is Sagirov’s daughter.
But when Eddy comes home, mother is gone. Pablo calls to say that fundraiser money has been stolen. Worse. Eddy figures out his mother did it. She hacked Pablo’s phone and stole the money.
Just when things couldn’t get any more complicated, the doorbell rings. Outside, Oceane drops a bombshell: she reckons Eddy is her father.
Critique
This episode has a big shake-up, mostly due to the surprise arrival of Eddy’s mother. She helps illuminate Eddy’s past and emotional scars, but she seems more like a catalyst than a fully integrated part of the story. If the stealing of the fundraiser money is anything to go by, Eddy’s days at the school are numbered.
But the biggest twist comes with Oceane’s claim. If true, it could completely change the narrative and Eddy’s motivation. And with Tiphaine likely to find out this truth too, the tension is only going to rise sharply. The big question heading into the next episode is whether Oceane is right, or wrong.