We first meet Catherine (Céline Bonnier) in the opening scenes of this Canadian French-language eight-parter when she’s awoken by a knock at the door. It’s “the police’s police” with whom she had an interview set up. They want to hear the whole story from the beginning, “starting from the night of the accident” back in 2005.
The two interviewers watch Catherine scrambling to clear a space at the kitchen table for them, dishevelled, exhausted. She begins.
Catherine’s son Alex’s friends were in a fatal car accident driving home from their prom night. He, being sober, drove an inebriated classmate home, and on hearing news of the accident, arrived at the hospital to find his girlfriend and good mates dead – all but one, the drunk driver, Jérémie, the mayor’s son. Everyone blamed him for his classmates’ deaths. And Alex, in his distress, screams out “I’ll kill him!”
When Jérémie is found stabbed to death some months later, Alex (Maxime-Olivier Potvin) is arrested on the basis of that scream. It seems so improbable that he was the culprit that when he’s sentenced to 25 years in jail, it’s an utter shock. Catherine knows he did not do it. Were the police incompetent? Was pinning it on Alex the quickest way to close the case, to appease the grief-stricken mayor? Or were they protecting the real killer?
In true Hitchcockian style, we’re let in on a crucial piece of information that is yet to be revealed to Catherine about who may’ve actually killed Jérémie. She is not the only one who knows Alex is innocent.
Catherine (Céline Bonnier) and Bing (Louis-Philippe Dandenault) in Catherine’s home investigation room. Source: SBS
The journey has been demoralising, crushing. But as dismissively as the police have treated her over the years, Catherine has never given up hope. Now, she feels in her gut that a shift is coming: the breakthrough they have been longing for all this time, that will see Alex’s name cleared and allow him to walk free.
Catherine tells the officers interviewing her, “I’ve basically exhausted all my resources. But I’ve always firmly believed that somebody somewhere knows something.”
When one of those somebodies – Ms Dorais, the former police chief’s wife and a well-known drunk around town – approaches her, she knows this is it, the breakthrough. As the 15-year mark approaches of Alex’s being in jail, he’s considering confessing, just to shorten his time behind bars. But Catherine makes him promise not to do that. She implores him to hold on a little longer, reassures him that something is about to happen to free him, at last.
One other protagonist is alluded to in the series’ title: Catherine and the local sergeant at the time, Benoit Inglis, aka Bing (Louis-Philippe Dandenault), were having an affair. It was the summer after the accident and Alex had turned inward, brooding over the loss of his girlfriend and closest friends.
The officers (Victor Andres Turgeon-Trelles and Marie Turgeon) who are reviewing the police investigation. Source: SBS
Bing (second from the left) is back on the case. Source: SBS
Bing was with Catherine when he got called to the scene of Jérémie’s murder. But shortly after he arrived, his mother called, distraught. He left to attend to her, and other investigators at the crime scene took over. Back then, Bing had cause to suspect something wasn’t right, but kept quiet. Now, he acknowledges Catherine’s insistence that Alex is innocent. Now, he has the chance to speak up. But will he take that chance?
Celiné Bonnier as Catherine is Catherine. She makes this drama feel as though it’s a documentary, that she really is fighting to clear her son’s name. Her visceral performance reveals her deep emotional investment in this role. Commanding the series with fierceness and mastery, you’re fighting with Catherine every step of the way. The relatability of her character is an open compliment to the show’s accomplished writer, Joanne Arseneau (Without Her, The Clan).
Catherine (Céline Bonnier) is down, but not out. Source: SBS
The drama unfolds in a small town, so connections between people are entwined and complicated. It’s what’s kept Bing silent, but now, the shift has occurred. There’s simply no going back. Chaos must precede the calm, and while the injustices stick around for a while longer, there is the promise of reckoning and retribution that keeps us in Catherine and Alex’s corner throughout.
More from The Guide
Ireland’s troubled past hides a golden secret in ‘Bloodlands’ season two
