Maigret Season 2 Episode 4 Review: A Race to Prevent Tragedy as the Stakes Get Higher

Jules is desperate to stop a boy from killing someone or being on Maigret Season 2 Episode 4, “Maigret’s Revolver, Part 2”. But his father and their best lead now seems completely out of his mind.

After suffering an apparent psychotic break while being arrested for the politician’s murder, Francois is sent to the hospital where Louise works. Jules pleads with her to interrogate him where he can’t, but she rebukes the attempt to ignore her oath.

The team continues to follow a woman who was cut from a nightclub’s security footage. They’re able to determine she was the likely mastermind, using Francois’s mental state to have him kill a man on her behalf before going off the grid.

Olga’s case also continues, leading to a young woman working at a pastry shop. Obsessed with the doctor, she attempts to get his children “out of the way” through poisoned sweets. Olga eats them instead, and the onset of her symptoms drowns her.

As the situation does get more desperate, Louise finds a loophole to question Francois. Now desperate to save his son, he helps the team track down the woman before Alain kills her. She’s even arrested—until the higher-ups insist she be set free.

The detectives also deal with a frustrating new member and a standoff that forces Janvier to (non-fatally) shoot Olga’s killer, leaving her haunted. At least in the end we get to see the Maigrets look after Alain until a distant aunt arrives.

Following the convoluted start to these plotlines, we’re given at least some order in getting the cases wrapped up. There’s still a lot of overlap to keep track of, but a more straightforward narrative make that a lot easier.

After all the questions into Francois’s motives and actions, as well as whether or not he’s actually insane, his story just winds up being sad. Though he seems at least aware of what he was doing, I doubt he’d have killed without manipulation.

That brings us to the woman doing the manipulation and the corruption involved in getting her released. Had the team not caught Alain in time, the figures circling them would have done far worse. As it stands, things are looking dire for the finale.

Though the balance is much better in this half of the overall story, I do feel like Olga’s part of it is slightly shortchanged. The doctor does wind up as a red herring, and it feels like he could have saved himself a lot of grief by communicating from the start.

The culmination of this case is chilling—and also a bit of a stretch. While it works for a horrifying plot twist, it makes little sense that an educated man would have seen no signs from an obsessed woman who killed his ex-wife and almost kills his children.

Still, it means both we and the detectives are caught of guard, which plays into the action Janvier is forced to talk. I appreciate getting to spend more time with other members of the team (minus new guy) and hope we see more of her healing.

What does await when the actions taken against Maigret and his team culminate in something concrete? He’s already on the verge of throwing in the towel. While I’m sure he ultimately won’t, we’ll likely see him driven to the breaking point first.

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Maigret airs Sundays at 9/8c on PBS.

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