In Part 3 of Lupin, gentleman thief Assane Diop (Omar Sy) pulls off his most outrageous feat yet: making himself disappear. Oh, and he manages to snatch the incredibly famous (and extremely valuable) Black Pearl out from right underneath the police’s noses — like, literally. But you know what they say about the best-laid plans… Unfortunately, Assane didn’t count on a new villain, who foils his scheme when he brings an important figure from Assane’s past back into his life. 

In Parts 1 and 2, Assane had managed to avenge his father’s death and put wealthy businessman Hubert Pellegrini (Hervé Pierre) behind bars, but not before making himself France’s most notorious (and most popular) criminal thanks to his many heists inspired by literary hero (and original gentleman thief) Arsène Lupin.

Despite Assane’s many elaborate disguises, it’s way harder to fly under the radar once the entire country knows what you look like. Nevertheless, thanks to help from childhood friend Bruno (Pierre Lottin) and trusty sidekick Benjamin (Antoine Gouy), Part 3 sees Assane steal the Black Pearl, earn the support of the French public, fake his own death, and save his estranged mother’s life. But can he continue to stay one step ahead of the police?

Unfortunately, Assane knows the only way he can ensure a safe and quiet life for his family is to sacrifice himself. Read on to find out how Assane pulls off his most impressive heist yet, and how he finds himself in prison at the end of the season.

Who is the man at the end of Lupin Part 3?

You’re not imagining things — we definitely know the silhouette of the cigar-smoking inmate at the end of the season. Assane is sitting in jail when he receives an envelope from the cell next door. Of all the prisons in all of France, Assane’s serving his time next to none other than Hubert Pellegrini! 

Who is Mariama? 

Mariama (Naky Sy Savané) is Assane’s mother. While we knew the fate of Assane’s father — he was framed by Pellegrini and died in prison in the 1990s — we know almost nothing about his mother, other than the fact that she stayed behind in Senegal when Assane and his father emigrated. It turns out that she was saving up to join her husband and son in France when her boss cut her pay with no notice. She was caught and imprisoned for trying to steal back what she was owed, so she shut her family out and turned to a life of crime herself. She finally makes it to Paris after 25 years — just in time to be kidnapped.

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Why (and how) does Assane steal the Black Pearl?

There was one heist even Assane couldn’t pull off: Back in 2017, he attempted to steal the Black Pearl, a priceless jewel from the Franco-Tahitian war, but was caught in the process. In Part 3 of Lupin, he tries again. This time, he sends its owners a note announcing exactly when he plans to steal the jewel — and even circulates his plan to the press, inspiring throngs of citizens to gather outside the location of the pearl and cheer him on. Assane poses as one of the cops guarding the Black Pearl in order to steal it — and plans a wild escape that sees him fall from a Parisian rooftop in front of plenty of witnesses.

How does Assane fake his own death? 

Assane knows there’s only one way journalists like Fleur (Martha Canga Antonio) will stop hounding his ex, Claire (Ludivine Sagnier), and son, Raoul (Etan Simon), for information about his whereabouts: if everyone believes he’s dead. So he plants Benjamin as a doctor performing his autopsy, leaks a photo of his supposedly dead body, and even has himself buried alive (in a coffin with a trap door, duh). He needs as many public witnesses to his death and burial as possible. Still, those closest to him have a hunch that he’s not actually dead.

Who kidnaps Assane’s mother? 

Assane’s former mentor, Jean-Luc Keller (Salif Cissé), ran a boxing gym that young Assane (Mamadou Haïdara) and young Bruno (Noé Wodecki) frequented as kids in the ’90s. But the Fagin-like figure pressured his troubled young charges to commit crimes, an enterprise that eventually landed him in prison for 25 years after a heist with Bruno and Assane went wrong. Upon his release, Keller (Steve Tientcheu) wants revenge — and kidnaps Assane’s mother in order to inflict the most pain possible on his old ward.

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How does Assane save his mother?

Keller uses Mariama as leverage to blackmail Assane into performing a series of increasingly difficult heists — Manet’s Chez Tortoni, a valuable gem-studded bracelet, selling the Black Pearl now that everyone knows who stole it (and when) — before Assane realizes who’s blackmailing him (and figures out how to stop it).

How does the music shape Part 3’s tone?

Composer Mathieu Lamboley tells Tudum that compared to Parts 1 and 2, the music in Part 3 is more fun. “You have all these reveals, what we call Lupinade, when you learn how Lupin did [this] and did that, the whole thing. We have a lot of that in Part 3, so I had to compose more enjoyable and funny music with the main theme. We have a new character in the show — Keller, the bad guy — so I had to find the right color for him. I tried to do more electro and synth music, more dark, darker, to make a contrast. You have Lupin, quite fun, and Keller, quite bad.”

How do Raoul and Claire discover Assane is still alive? 

While Assane intends to fill his family in on the fact that he’s not dead (his plan is to move them all to a quiet new life in the countryside), he’s too preoccupied with his mother’s kidnapping and the subsequent blackmail to tell them in a timely manner. Raoul has faith that his dad is still alive, but his mother is skeptical. She manages to get the truth out of Benjamin after he’s captured in the bracelet heist, but it takes a little longer for her to put together that Assane has been checking in on both of them, Mrs. Doubtfire style, by disguising himself with prosthetics as Raoul’s new basketball coach, Alex.

What does Lupin have to do with Boston? 

When his blackmailer demands he steal Chez Tortoni from a French mobster’s mother’s maison, Assane remembers that the Manet painting was stolen from Boston in 1990. He’s referring to the still-unsolved robbery of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, which is chronicled in the series This Is a Robbery: The World's Biggest Art Heist. Could the painting really have been in France all these years? Your guess, alas, is as good as ours.

Emmanuel Guimier/Netflix

How does Assane recruit Detective Guedira as an accomplice?

In Lupin Part 1, Paris detective Youssef Guedira (Soufiane Guerrab) is the one who figures out that Assane is inspired by Arsène Lupin, the character from Maurice Leblanc’s novels. Eventually, he becomes so obsessed with catching Assane that he gets himself kicked off the case. Lieutenant Sofia Belkacem (Shirine Boutella) is now technically in charge, but Guedira can’t help himself from tracking down Assane anyway. He’s the one who insists on opening Assane’s coffin at his funeral. Guedira’s so obsessed with Assane’s case, in fact, that Assane decides to track him down to get his help in catching Keller, and promising to Guedira that he’ll turn himself in once his mother is safe and sound.

How does Assane get caught? 

He doesn’t get caught so much as realize the only way his mother, wife, son, and best friend can live freely is to sacrifice himself. After leading Belkacem and Guedira to Keller, Assane steps out of the shadows and turns himself in — on the condition that Benjamin is freed, that he is able to explain his decision to Claire, and that he’s equipped with a full set of Arsène Lupin books in his prison cell. They agree to his terms, and Part 3 ends with Assane behind bars at last — pour le moment.