It had been 3 years since the incidents in the Manschied Village in Luxembourg had taken place, and Luc Capitani had just been released from prison, as the court had decided that there was insufficient evidence to prove that he had killed Vincent Da Costa. In “Capitani” Season 2, it is seen that Luc is no longer part of the police force, has moved to the city, and has started working as a private investigator. Though Luc never really had an amiable personality, when he was in and around people like Carla Pariera, whom he loved, there was a kind of happiness and fulfillment that could be seen on his face. Now the man had become a grim reaper, who was constantly on missions and had little or no time to deal with his own internal issues. His sister was also staying in the same city, and his conversations with her makes us realize that the ex-police officer was laden with guilt. He was embarrassed about himself and traumatized by his past.
There are only a few characters from Season 1 that are recurring in “Capitani” Season 2, as it follows a completely independent case, where there is no substantial link that has been established to the Unicorn deal (where Steve and his team were running a drug syndicate) till now. Through its characters, the series talks about various negative associations that human beings make over a period of time, due to their experiences. It talks about regret, about a desire to be free, about validation, and most of all, about the multifaceted nature of justice.
Luc Capitani does not only have the responsibility to solve the case, but also has to collect the scattered fragments of his life and once again start with a clean slate. But will he be able to do that? For a man knee-deep in a swamp, it becomes very difficult to come out clean. The wounds of the past had still not healed, and new ones were lurking in the shadows, waiting for the right opportunity to hit him with full force. So let’s put together all the facts, figures, and findings that were revealed in “Capitani” Season 2, and see if Luc is able to crack the case and find the mastermind.
Spoilers Ahead
‘Capitani’ Season 2: Plot Summary: What Is The Second Season About?
It all started when Luc Capitani got a call from a girl named Bianca. Her friend, Andreea, had been missing for a couple of days, and she asked him to look for her. A few people had seen Andreea enter the parking lot, where most new recruits abstained from going. Luc found Andreea’s body next to the pond in a forest nearby to the streets, where they usually waited for their clients. Andreea and Bianca both worked for Valentina Draga, the owner of Le Carat, a cabaret. They tried to avoid picking up independent clients from the streets as much as possible, but due to the pandemic, their business had suffered a lot, and they sometimes had to resort to that. Valentina Draga had a son named Dominik Draga, to whom she had given a specific responsibility. She had asked him to convince Luc to work for them. Valentine had realized that her girls were no longer safe on the streets, and she needed somebody who could use his intel to avoid any untoward situation and one who thinks like those police officers.
Luc Capitani was a perfect fit for the job, but he was not somebody who could be easily persuaded to work under someone. He had his own uncompromisable ways and means, which a lot of times didn’t align with the expectations of the employer. But Valentina was a stubborn woman, and unless and until she got what she wanted, she didn’t stop. She convinced Luc to work for her, and his first mission was to sort out the mystery of who was killing the girls. Luc had found some chicken bones, feathers, and other entities near the dead body of Andreea, things that were generally used for doing black magic. It has been known for years that Juju, a kind of black magic ritual, is performed on Nigerian girls, so that a curse falls on them if they try to escape the captivity of their masters. Luc was sure that the Nigerians would have something to do with the killings.
The Nigerians had formed their own community, where the men mostly peddled drugs on the streets, and the girls became victims of sexual exploitation. Some of these girls worked for Valentine and some for Gibbes Koeing, the owner of a cabaret named Mont Blanc. Valentina might be in control of a lot of things in the city, but Gibbes was the actual boss. Valentina used to work under him as a sex worker before she started her own thing. She still had to send a share of her profits to Koenigs, though. She proposed to him that they enter into the drug business and put the Nigerians out of work. But Gibbes didn’t approve of that. He didn’t want any involvement with drugs, as his business was still flourishing, unlike Valentina’s.
Luc Capitani came to know that even Elsa Ley was in the city and had been working in the Special Intervention Unit. Together with Tony Scholtes, her colleague who had voluntarily taken a transfer from the customs department, they were tracking down the activities of all the peddlers and trying to collect evidence against them. It was a shock for Elsa to spot Luc in the city, as the two had barely been in touch for the past couple of years. Apart from the special intervention unit, even the prosecutor’s office had a keen interest in the region. Luc was sent by the prosecutor’s office to look into facilities like Blue Diamond, Le Carat, and Mont Blanc, where, apart from the cabaret, a lot of other illegal activities used to take place. They had sent an official named Cojocaru Pascale, a.k.a. Cousin Paulette, who kept a check on Luc. The prosecutor’s office was actually blackmailing Luc and had told him that if he ceased to perform his duties, then the file on Vincent Da Costa would be open again.
Luc was just getting to know the dynamics of the city when another girl named Grace, who also worked as a sex worker, was brutally killed in a similar fashion as Andreea’s. Grace’s brother, Lucky, unaware of any of these developments, had come to the city to look for her sister. Lucky had also started peddling drugs with the Nigerian gang, and started enquiring about the whereabouts of her sister. Luc finds him and saves him from Elsa and Toni, who had been after him, as he had repetitively called on Grace’s number before she had died. Luc was acting as a double agent. He was trying to find out who killed the girls and, at the same time, was providing information to the prosecutor’s office too. Time was of the essence, and it was important to hatch a plan against the Nigerians, but just then, another revelation was made. Luc had gotten to know that near the Belgian border, there was a Brazilian guy who channeled drugs in the city. Together with Dominik, he went to check out the area. Out of nowhere, Dominik acted out, and the situation went out of hand. Luc is shocked to find Carla Periera at the scene. She was involved in the distribution business and managed to mitigate the situation. Carla’s involvement meant that Luc had to reassess his strategies and evaluate his options.
What Was Operation Dark Flower? Is Grace Dead Or Alive?
All the parties involved, agreed on one thing: the Nigerians should be out of business. A deal was made between Valentina Draga, Arthur Koenig, Carla, and the Special Intervention Unit. The prosecutor’s office also had a hidden vendetta in all this. They thought that if, in the process of teaching the Nigerians a lesson, Valentina and the Koenig family got their hands dirty, then they would have sufficient evidence to incriminate them. And Cojocaru had told Luc Capitani that whatever the plan might be, he had to do something to make sure that a substantial case could be made against Dominik or Arthur, the heirs of the empire owned by Valentina and Monsieur Koenig.
On that condition the prosecution office gave Luc permission to work with Carla, as otherwise, they were too skeptical of his cover getting blown, as he and Carla shared a very close bond. Carla told Luc that a van containing fragrant products like flowers and plants comes from Italy a few times every month. Hidden under the normal-looking products is a drug consignment that is eventually distributed to the Nigerians operating on the streets. It was planned that the French police would stop the van at the border and allow the Valentina and Koenig families to take 50 percent of the consignment; in this way, the Nigerians’ reserves would be drained. The trucks had to be identified by Carla, as she handled the logistics, and it was decided that she would be fairly compensated if she came on board.
The perfect plan was made, and it was decided that Arthur would be present on the scene to keep a close check. But masked men arrived out of nowhere, and Arthur couldn’t comprehend what was happening. They killed Arthur and his men, and the news of the operation, Dark Flower, failing reached Valentina. Gibbes Koenig was distraught after losing his son, and Valentina asked him to retire with dignity and took over all his businesses. Gibbes was inconsolable and probably had a heart attack, and vanished completely from the scene. But still, the mystery remains of who killed Arthur: was it the Nigerians or someone else who had orchestrated everything? Even Carla was put under the radar, but after talking to her, Luc knew that she was also unaware of who did it. Moreover, the French customs officers who were supposed to reach the border and meet Arthur never really reached there, but an anonymous caller, pretending to be from the customs department, made the call. The van that had the consignment was never found, and nobody had any clue where it vanished.
Amidst all the chaos, Lucky was taken to the morgue by Luc, who wanted him to get closure and show that his sister was actually dead. Lucky said that the dead body was not his sister’s. At first, Luc thought that the man was in denial, but then he got to know that Grace was still alive in reality. Grace contacted Bianca and told her that by mistake, instead of her, another girl named Stella was killed, as the latter was wearing the pink wig that served as an identification mark for Grace. Bianca tells Lucky and Luc about the same, but what she doesn’t reveal is that Grace was blaming Dominik, Valentina’s son, for the killings. According to her, she had seen him going into the forest, where Andreea was killed. But Bianca was in complete denial, as she knew that her lover, Dominik, was not capable of committing such a horrifying act.
‘Capitani’ Season 2: Who Killed Arthur Koenig And Andreea? Who Was The Mastermind Behind The Murders?
Things started to become clear for Luc Capitani when he saw that Dominik was earning a lot of revenue from somewhere all of a sudden. He had started peddling drugs on the streets through the girls who worked in his cabaret. Luc found that the whole missing consignment of drugs was hidden in the basement. He knew that he was the one who had murdered Stella, Andreea, and also Arthur. Valentina came to the scene and affirmed the theory put forth by Luc. She said that she always considered her son to be a weak link, but he proved her otherwise. But Luc, due to his immense experience, knew that something was still missing, and he didn’t think that Dominik was capable of doing everything all by himself.
Meanwhile, Bianca was taking Lucky to meet his sister, and in spite of Dominik asking her constantly where Grace was hiding, she didn’t reveal anything. Actually, everything was planned by Luc, as he wanted to know the real motives of those involved. He knew that once Bianca left with Lucky, she would be followed by Dominik, who would then be caught red-handed. At the same time, he knew that he couldn’t use Lucky as bait, so midway, he made a safe passage for him to escape and took his position in the front seat of the car. Tony Scholtes, the officer from the Special Intervention Unit, also arrived at the scene with Elsa Ley. Tony fired at the car, thinking that it was Lucky inside, but to his horror, out came the infamous ex-cop, Luc Capitani.
Dominik, though he was pretty much part of the plan from the beginning, didn’t kill anybody. It was Tony who had killed Stella, Andreea, and Arthur. He was doing so on the orders of Valentina, whose sole motive was to have a monopoly in the market and push the Nigerians and the Koenig daily out of business. But Tony wasn’t acting purely out of monetary incentives, as he had a personal vendetta stemming from his past. Tony was the son of Valentina’s colleague, who also used to work for Gibbes Koenig. Valentina adopted Tony, after his mother died at the age of 21, and Dominik and him became best friends. Koenig didn’t treat him well, and eventually, he transformed into this insane and violent person who did things for his sadistic pleasure. He liked killing the girls, he said, and didn’t do it out of compulsion. Luc Capitani shot him just as he was going to stab Elsa. Dominik was severely injured but survived the shots fired by Tony. Valentina entered into an agreement with the authorities and agreed to be their informant, and henceforth was able to evade a trial. But she was not able to evade her fate, and was shot dead on the road, by the shooters sent by Koenig, who apparently was still alive.
Carla had been killed by a guy named Albuquerque, who worked for the Italians, to whom the drug consignment belonged. The Italians felt betrayed and took Carla’s life. Bianca decided to stop working for Valentina and go somewhere far away to start a life away from this chaos. She asked Dominik to come with her, but she knew that he couldn’t act against the wishes of his mother.
Conclusion
Luc Capitani and Elsa decided to quit their jobs and go back to Manschied. They had seen enough and decided that it was probably time to mend the old wounds. Luc was not able to save Carla, and he knew that the regret would stay with him for life. In reality, he was the one who had killed Vincent Da Costa in self-defense, and he knew that he would never be able to prove that in a court of law. That one incident has overturned their lives. Elsa, too, had lost her baby. Maybe she would have been able to make peace with it eventually, but what she couldn’t bear was the fact that her lover, the father of her baby, Steve, was responsible for it. Luc and Elsa might have lost everything, but they still had a life to live. A person standing at such a juncture has to make a choice: whether to waste what’s left of life by drowning themselves in regret, or choose happiness and make the most of what they still have. They choose happiness and let go of feelings of contrition. For the first time, you see Luc laughing as if somebody had removed a heavy burden from his shoulders.
“Capitani” Season 2, though tries to create an intricate world, loses its flair due to a convenient climax that undeniably had moments that startled you, but in its entirety lacked that authenticity that was much needed. Still, the effective performances, especially from its lead man, Luc Shiltz, and a fierce Elsa Ley, played by Sophie Mousel, together with others, make sure that “Capitani” is worth the watch, even if it unnecessarily tries to achieve a poetic justice that looks a tad bit forced and inapt.
