Under a Dark Sun Recap ‘Relentless’: And now Valentin

In the fourth episode of Under a Dark Sun, now airing on Netflix, Alba and Beatrice are both betrayed.

Under a Dark Sun Episode 4 Recap and Review

There are middling shows with good, even great, episodes, and there are good, even great, shows with middling episodes. A few minutes into ‘Relentless’ and I started to think that perhaps, Under a Dark Sun may be the former. It certainly has its charms, and for a summer family drama/ mystery/ thriller, I stand by my first episode assessment, it is worth a look. If you just want to relax at the end of the day and enjoy some solid performances, along with a picturesque French estate, then this could be a good choice. But, if a plot like Alba frantically trying to poison Jacques in the middle of the Lasserre party to save her son, and eventually just taking a gun from her car and walking in with the express intention of shooting him right there for everyone to see, would make your head ache, then perhaps this is not the right fit.   

The previous episode ended with Alba’s intention to speak to the police, perhaps honestly this time, derailed by the kidnapping of her son Leo. The kidnapper had one demand, that Alba kill Jacques within the tight time frame they provided. Alba had to go to the party Mathieu threw in a last ditch attempt to save the deal with Maison Oris, and perform the assassination right there. Who else would show up supposedly to help her but Valentin?

The moment that Valentin showed the text message from the kidnapper and told Alba that he, too, was contacted, I knew he was in league with the kidnapper. The predictability would have been fine had the execution of the rest of the plot gone smoothly. But it was hard to accept that Alba just thought to use beta blockers to kill Jacques, and she just happened to find them in an upstairs bedroom, and she and Valentin just mixed the medicine in a champagne glass without worrying about fingerprints, as though the police would not investigate a second mysterious death in the estate, that Jacques would simply accept a drink that Alba handed as though the two of them did not have cause to despise, or at least dislike, each other. Alba had to mix her murder drink three times, the third time, into an Armagnac that Jacques said he wanted. Beatrice walked in on Alba and Valentin, and took the drink from Alba. It was Beatrice, whom Jacques was forcing into marriage, whose estate Jacques was trying to take over, who ended up handing Jacques the poisoned drink. 

Was the kidnapper truly after Jacques’s death? Perhaps. Alba was about to shoot Jacques when she saw the empty glass on his hand. Soon enough, he was down on the floor, and the kidnapper texted her coordinates to find Leo. But the surprise did not end there, for inside the van where Leo was kept, Noor was, too. And when Noor identified Valentin as her kidnapper (at least, this was how I interpreted the scene), Valentin held a gun at the three of them. 

Surprisingly, the heart of the episode was on the chaotic Lasserres. Mathieu, whose drug use seemed to be worsening, or at least getting more noticeable, forgot that the party he arranged coincided with his son Hadrien’s birthday. Hadrien at first refused to attend the party, but Mathieu, after pointing out that even Manon was attending, gave him no choice. Lucie did not show up until after the party had all but ended, and Omar and Celine had left, not only because they spotted Alba at the party, but also because of the most recent surprise of Jacques becoming involved in the family business. Lucie did not come alone. She brought with her a doctor, who gave Beatrice a pill to make her sleep. Lucie had convinced Mathieu that Beatrice needed to be institutionalised. 

Beatrice had been spiraling since she found out about Alba all those months ago. She agreed to marry Jacques in large part because she did not want her children to know how much financial trouble she was in. She could not explain her decision to marry Jacques without being honest about the debt, and so she kept her secret whilst she spiralled even more. Alba’s desperation gave her the solution she had been wanting, but the taking of a life was hard on her. With the pill already starting to affect her, she mumbled some words, that she loved her children, that she was protecting them, that she loved their father. Mathieu tenderly kissed his mother, whilst Lucie seemed to have hardened her heart. 

‘Relentless’ advanced the plot, though there was some clumsiness in the execution. There are only two more episodes left. Let’s hope they are strong ones to close out this tale. 

Rating: B-

You can access Recap Lab’s full coverage of Under a Dark Sun via this link.

Strays

🌷Beatrice approached Manon for legal advise, but Manon would not hear her. Manon said Mathieu abused her mother, and that Beatrice ignored her pain and pushed her to abandon her and Hadrien. 

🌷Manon gave Hadrien his birthday gift, a limited edition Jules Verne, their mother’s favourite book which she read to them every night. Hadrien did not remember that at all and called Manon out on what he called her ‘obsession’ with their mother.

🌷The ghost of Dimitri still haunted Alba. 

🌷Thierry survived the car crash and was in a coma.

🌷I finally found out the older policeman’s name – Nico. The police located Lucas’s vehicle but as they approached it, it exploded. 

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