Lupin season 3 recap and ending explained

Lupin season 3 is now on Netflix! The new season features seven thrilling episodes of Assane Diop (Omar Sy) donning new disguises, pulling off even bigger heists, and trying to stay one step ahead of his adversaries, the police, and the French government.

The new season cements Lupin as the best Netflix show of 2023 so far. There’s so much to love about this story and these characters. It’s the perfect heist show.

Let’s get into everything that happens in Lupin season 3 and how the ending sets up a potential season 4.

Spoiler warning for all seven episodes of Lupin season 3!

Lupin season 3 recap

Assane Diop finds himself in a precarious situation after the events of Lupin season 2. He tries to get Claire (Ludivine Sagnier) and Raoul (Etan Simon) to run away with him and flee the country so they can be together. She turns him down. A man who needs anonymity to thrive is now known by nearly every person in France. That can’t stand. Lupin knows what he has to do.

After very publicly stealing a Black Pearl, which is a nod to Maurice Leblanc’s Lupin, and creating quite the spectacle, Assane “falls off a roof” during his escape and “dies.” Obviously, we know this is just a plot to get the heat off his back, but he has to remain anonymous. Everyone around him has to believe he is dead, save from his trusty sidekick Benjamin (Antoine Guoy). Unfortunately, a few others know that Assane is, in fact, not dead, including Youssef Guedira (Soufiane Guerrab), also known as Ganimard, Assane’s son, Raoul, and eventually, his ex-wife, Claire.

As expected, Lupin season 3 is an intricate web of lies, deceptions, disguises, and heists. It’s convoluted and confusing, sometimes, but it’s awesome all of the time. We shared four crucial stories that happened in Lupin season 3.

Who kidnapped Assane’s mom and who is blackmailing Assane?

Just when things are looking like a fresh start for Assane, he’s contacted by an unknown person who claims to be holding Assane’s mother, Mariama (Naky Sy Savané). They will kill her if Assane doesn’t steal various valuable items, among other twisted requests with his mother’s life on the line. Assane has no choice but to cooperate. For most of the season, we don’t understand why this is happening. All will be revealed eventually in Lupin, and it is.

As we learn in flashbacks throughout the season, Assane and Bruno (Noe Wodecki), a friend, got involved with a young adult, Jean-Luc Keller (Salif Cisse), as kids. Keller protected them at times and tried to be there for them, or so it seemed. During the World Cup Final in 1996 when France is playing, Keller makes Assane and Bruno rob a jewelry store for him. He’s the getaway driver, and it all goes wrong. When they’re being pursued, Keller makes Bruno shoot a police officer in pursuit. Keller crashes the car. Crawling from the wreckage, Assane pulls out Bruno, and then, he puts the gun used to shoot the officer into Keller’s hands. Keller, then, goes to prison while Assane and Bruno get away. All this time, Keller has been planning his revenge with the help of Manon, an old friend of Assane’s.

They use Assane’s skills as a master thief to collect the Black Pearl, a famous painting, and a bracelet, but Keller doesn’t stop there. He makes Assane betray his best friend. While posing as a coat taker for an elaborate party and stealing a bracelet, Assane drops the bracelet, and Benjamin picks it up, but the authorities are on to him. Benjamin tries to flee through a literal maze, but Assane planted a hedge where he tells Benjamin to escape, and Benjamin is caught and arrested. It’s clear that Keller is trying to break Assane emotionally.

Over the course of the season, the threats against Assane’s family increase. Keller (Steve Tientcheu) instructs his men to kill Claire and Raoul, but they’re unable to do so. As more time goes on, Assane gets the upper hand.

Luckily, before he suffers too much, Assane’s mother escapes from Keller and his team. She reunites with Assane, Claire, and Raoul, which we’ll get into shortly.

Lupin season 3 ending

The ending of Lupin season 3 is insane! It all goes down in the finale, and I’m honestly happy with how this season ended because it resolved a ton of key storylines and tied a nice bow on this mystery.

Assane goes to prison in Lupin season 3

Assane confronts Manon (Sandra Parfait), his old friend, and basically gets her to betray Keller. Manon arranges to meet Keller at the Arc de Triomphe, but Assane shows up in her place. He makes Keller give him the Black Pearl, which he puts in a rose and hands it off to a woman nearby. Again, Assane flips the script. Using Guedira and Lieutenant Sofia Belkacem (Shirine Boutella), Assane brings the police to the tourist trap. They arrest Keller for his involvement, which Assane has revealed to Guedira and Belkacem.

Instead of running this time, Assane takes Claire’s advice from earlier in the season: give yourself up, take the punishment, and allow everyone else to live a seemingly normal life. I don’t know if she still feels that way, but Assane allows Guedira to arrest him. It’s all over for Assane, but not quite yet. Before Assane turns himself in, he guarantees the release of Benjamin from prison, and he asks for the complete Lupin series by Maurice Leblanc in his cell. Of course, Guedira and Belkacem take those terms.

Oh, and Assane also secures the Black Pearl, too. Bruno, his friend who shot the officer during the robbery orchestrated by Keller in Assane’s past, finds the woman Assane gave the rose. He gets the rose back, and inside, there’s the pearl. It’s ingenious!

Assane and Claire don’t end up together (not yet anyway)

Over the course of the season, Claire finally puts all the pieces together that Assane is still alive, but she needs proof. She visits Benjamin in prison, and she claims Assane told her everything. He eventually spills that Assane is alive, and later, Claire realizes that the man who was Raoul’s basketball coach, who she was getting close with, is actually Assane in disguise!

Assane leads Claire to believe he is tying up some loose ends, and then, he will join them on their journey out of Paris. Instead, he turns himself in to Guedira, as he promised earlier in the season if they worked together. The four tickets Claire purchased are for herself, Raoul, Assane’s mother, and Benjamin, who joins them at the train station instead of Assane.

It’s bittersweet, but I like this ending for a few reasons. It keeps the story open. Claire and Assane can be together in the future, but Assane needed to make this choice for his friends and family. And, he needed to make this choice for himself, too. Sometimes it’s okay not to run. Sometimes, you have to face the music.

Unfortunately, no, Assane and Claire are not back together romantically. Their family is not back together yet, but I’m still holding out hope. We can all see that’s where this story is leading.

Pellegrini returns for revenge

Ah, the cliffhanger! In one of the season’s last scenes, Hubert Pellegrini (Hervé Pierre), the billionaire who framed Assane’s father, Babakar, and the man Assane sent to prison in season 2, returns. He happens to be held in the same prison as Assane, and he has not forgotten who is responsible for getting caught.

Pellegrini sends Assane a picture of Assane as a boy holding Maurice Leblanc’s Arsene Lupin book, The Cagliostro’s Revenge. I had a feeling the show was going to go here at some point. I thought Pellegrini might be behind the kidnapping of Assane’s mother, but that was not correct.

It’s clear that the show is setting up Lupin season 4 to be a rematch of Assane vs. Pellegrini, and this time, Pellegrini seems to be ready for Assane’s tricks.

Watch Lupin season 3 on Netflix now.