Nero the Assassin, directed by Ludovic Colbeau-Jystin and Alan Mauduit, is the kind of series that, till the very end, couldn’t quite figure out what its central conflict was, where the focus needed to lie, or which aspects deserved deeper exploration. The narrative got cluttered with unnecessary subplots, causing the essence of what it truly wanted to convey to get lost somewhere in between. So, let’s dive in and find out what happened in the series and what the infamous assassin, Nero, was ultimately trying to achieve.
Spoiler Alert
Why did Rochemort team up with the One-Eyed Witch?
In the 16th century, Southern France was struck by the most devastating drought and famine. The vice consul of Lamartine, Nicolas De Rochemort, did little to help the common people, but he was well aware that the situation could soon spiral out of control and therefore sought to build powerful alliances to secure his own position. He wanted his daughter to get married to the Prince of Segur, and he was ready to pay whatever dowry he asked for. Rochemort knew that a matrimonial alliance with the Prince of Segur would give him mining rights over the mineral-rich area, and through it, he could make a huge amount of profit. But Hortense, his daughter, loved a man named Tancrede, who was a great warrior. So, Rochemort had Tancrede killed by his assassin, Nero. Nero was not a part of the army, and he worked directly under the vice consul. The vice consul loved him like his own son, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t capable of throwing him under the bus if it furthered his interests. One fine day, a witch arrived in Lamartine, and she told the vice consul that she was after his hired assassin, Nero. The vice consul wanted to dethrone Consul Corsini and take his position because the consul wasn’t allowing him to get his daughter married to the Prince of Segur. The One-Eyed Witch killed the Consul using her powers, and then she took Nero into custody, but that’s when a revelation was made that Nero had a daughter, and the witch realized that it was his daughter that she needed to carry out her ritual. The One-Eyed witch told the vice consul and Nero that she believed that Nero’s daughter was the messiah of darkness who could help the devil establish its dominion and take control of the entire world. Well, none of what she told Rochemort and Nero was true. Before the One-Eyed Witch could find Nero’s daughter, he escaped with her from Lamartine. Nero had killed the One-Eyed Witch, but she came to life using her powers. It came to be known that apart from the One-Eyed Witch, there was another evil wizard who was after the young girl. It seemed like both of them wanted to kill Nero’s daughter, but their real intentions weren’t known to anybody.
What did the witch tell Nero about the church?
Rochemort had made a pact with the witch, but still, his plan was ruined as Nero took Hortense with him when he escaped. Actually, Nero was supposed to use Hortense’s carriage to escape from Lamartine, and he had no clue that she was going to need it to travel to Segur. Nero and his daughter didn’t share a very amicable relationship. In fact, after Perla was born (she was conceived from the love of Nero and a prostitute called Callista), Nero left her in an orphanage, and he had no plans of keeping her. Perla was brought up by Father Horace, and he, too, left Lamartine together with Nero and others. Horace had had a brief encounter with the wizard, who told him that Perla was the last spawn of the devil who would bring darkness to the world. Horace was a devout Christian, and after his encounter with the wizard, he became resolute in his decision to hand Perla over, believing he was acting in accordance with the divine will. But the father and all the others had been lied to by the church. The church had fabricated an elaborate lie to preserve its control over France. The Archbishop knew that maintaining power over the masses required fear of the devil and of damnation. By convincing people that evil walked among them and that salvation could only be found through the Church, they ensured obedience.
The wizard who had spoken to Horace was, in fact, a pawn of the church. Once a member of the One-Eyed Witch’s community, he had betrayed their trust and pledged his loyalty to the Church, spreading their false narratives, damning their magical powers as a whole. When Nero crossed paths with the One-Eyed Witch again, she revealed the devastating truth that there was no devil, and they were never worshipers of evil. It was all a carefully woven lie. She confessed that she had never intended to harm Perla; she needed her to save the world, not destroy it. The One-Eyed Witch explained that the druids and shamans were the true custodians of the planet, and their magic kept famine and drought at bay. But when the Church branded them dangerous people and started eliminating them, the equilibrium of the world was shattered. Now, with the world on the brink of ruin, Perla was the last remaining key through whom the lost magic could be restored, and harmony could once again return to the earth.
Why did Hortense go against Nero?
There were certain obstacles that Nero and Hortense had to face before they both made their way to Segur. In fact, Nero had a falling out with Hortense as he bartered her for his freedom from an old accomplice of him, an act after which both Perla and Hortense lost faith in him. Nero, Hortense, and Perla, upon discovering that Horace too intended to kill Perla, decided to part ways and find their own path. On their journey, they unexpectedly crossed paths with Artaud—an old acquaintance of Nero’s, and a man whom Nero had once been ordered by Rochemort to kill. Though Artaud suspected Nero’s involvement in the attempt on his life, he wasn’t entirely certain. Choosing to give him the benefit of the doubt, Artaud offered them food and shelter.
To protect Hortense, Nero introduced her as his wife, knowing that revealing her true identity would endanger her. However, Artaud eventually uncovered the truth and, feeling betrayed, decided to kill them all. In a desperate move to save their lives, Nero proposed that Artaud could use Hortense to blackmail Rochemort, demanding a ransom in exchange for her safety. Meanwhile, Nero was determined to take Perla to Port Richet, believing she would be safe there. He also hoped to rid himself of the cursed magical necklace that the One-Eyed Witch had fastened around his neck, which was slowly draining the life energy out of him. But his plans fell apart when Artaud discovered the truth—that Nero had indeed once tried to kill him. Just when all seemed lost, the Prince of Segur arrived at the camp and intervened in time to save Hortense and Perla, taking them both with him. Nero, however, was left behind to die. But fate had other plans—the One-Eyed Witch, tracking his location through the enchanted necklace, found him and saved his life.
Before arriving at the camp, Hortense, Nero, Horace, and Perla had gone to Havreval, which was ruled by the Prince of Segur’s cousin. The plan was to stay there till the prince arrived and took them to Segur. But before that could happen, they realized that the Count of Havreval had abandoned his own people and left them to die at the hands of the Penitents, a fanatic group that had spread terror in the region. Once the count got to know that it was a false alarm and the Penitents had never attacked the village, he went back and killed all the commonfolk. He did that to save his own reputation, but Hortense got to know about it and threatened to tell the prince about it. The prince of Segur reached Havreval after Hortense and Nero left from there. He’d followed the trail, and that’s how he reached there. Whatever had happened until then made Perla and Hortense realize that Nero was an extremely untruthful man. Had the One-Eyed Witch not reached there on time, he definitely could have died there. Nero was not a bad man, but at times he acted very selfishly because that was how he felt he could survive.
Did Rochemort betray the Archbishop?
Rochemort, after reaching Segur, realized that the Archbishop was ruling the kingdom on behalf of the prince. The Archbishop told Rochefort that he wouldn’t let him mine tin, even if his daughter married the prince. He told him that he would accept the gold that he brought and let the prince get married to Hortense, but apart from that, he wouldn’t have any sort of agreement with the Consul. Also, the Archbishop had doubts that the Consul had made a deal with the One-Eyed Witch since Hortense had sent a letter to the prince telling him about whatever had happened in Lamartine. Rochemort was a conniving man, and he realized that he would have to find another way of getting access to those mines.
The Penitents were going to attack Segur at that point in time, and Rochemort decided to use it to his advantage. He told the Archbishop that he would go and talk to Brother Penitence, the leader of the penitents, and tell him the prince was ready to surrender. He told them that once Brother Penitence arrived at Segur, they could kill him. But Rochefort did the opposite once he met Brother Penitence. He told him that the Archbishop was planning to kill him and that the man who would pretend to be the prince, who would come to surrender, would be a doppelganger. What Rochemort didn’t know was that the Archbishop was a bigger player than he was, and that Brother Penitence was brought up under his guidance. Brother Penitence was a fanatic who worked for the Archbishop from the shadows and increased the Church’s powers. In a quest to turn the odds in his favor, Rochemort exposed himself, and together with Hortense, Perla, and even the Prince of Segur, he was put behind bars.
Did Perla Sacrifice Her Life?
It was the One-Eyed Witch who breached the Segur fortress together with Nero and freed Hortense, Rochemort, and Perla. The One-Eyed Witch sacrificed her life in order to save Perla, and in her final moments, she told the latter that she was the only one who could save the world. Rochemort, Nero, Hortense, Perla, and the soldiers from Lamartine hid in the slums just outside the Segur fortress. The slum dwellers supported Nero and his gang, and they didn’t give them up. At the end of Nero the Assassin, Hortense took charge of things, and she decided to enter inside the fortress using a secret passage. She wanted to kill the Archbishop and Brother Penitence, but Nero knew that her plan was no less than a suicide. So he leaked the information about the secret attack to the Archbishop just so that Hortense didn’t get herself killed. He asked Hortense to go back to Lamartine, as he felt that that was the only way they could save their lives and then come back later to over-segue with their army. Though Rochemort, Hortense, and others escaped, Nero got caught by the Archbishops’ army. They would have surely killed him, but Perla did something that Nero didn’t want her to do. Perla realized that she would have to sacrifice her life to end the drought and revive magic in the world. She knew that she was the last witch and that the responsibility of saving the world lay on her shoulders. So the little girl used the dagger given to her by the One-Eyed Witch and killed herself. It started to rain the moment her blood seeped into the soil. Brother Penitence killed the Archbishop in an unprecedented move as the former realized that he was not worthy enough to lead the church. I believe that Brother Penitence would become the new Archbishop in the future. Though the man had plans of leading the world, a twist at the end of the series made it pretty clear that he wouldn’t be able to do so.
An unknown person came and lifted Perla’s body in their arms and escaped from there. The moment that happened, Perla opened her eyes, making it clear that she was not dead. Probably the magic had helped her come back to life. Maybe that unknown person was the One-Eyed Witch herself, who had somehow not gotten killed during that attack that happened earlier. Maybe it was some other shaman who had gotten to know about Perla and taken her with them. Whoever it was, it meant that there were still a lot of things at play that neither Nero nor Hortense had any idea about. If there is a Nero the Assassin season 2, we will get to know what happened with Perla, who she came to live with, and if Hortense and Nero will be able to dethrone Brother Penitence and take back the throne of Segur from him.
