Directed by Antoine Blossier, K.O. follows the life of an MMA fighter, Bastien, who lost his sense of purpose after he decided to take voluntary retirement. Bastian hadn’t taken that decision out of his own will, something had happened in the ring because of which he was unable to continue fighting professionally. And then one day he got a chance to attain salvation, and he didn’t want to miss out on the opportunity. Let’s find out what happened with Bastien, and if he was able to accomplish what he set out to do.
Spoiler Alert
Why didn’t Leo and Emma talk to Bastien?
MMA was Bastien’s life. He wanted to be an accomplished MMA fighter. Maybe he felt that that was the only way he could channel his rage and use it for his own benefit. He probably knew that if he didn’t deal with that angst, that frustration that existed inside him, it would eat him up. We were not told much about Bastien’s past, but one thing was quite clear: he didn’t have a very happy childhood. His father passed away when he was very young, and very early in his life he had realized that in order to survive in the world, he needed to take a stand for himself every single day. But the silver lining amidst everything was that Bastien was content with what he had. He had created a life for himself, and he was grateful for that. But it seemed like God didn’t want to let him have even that. During an MMA match, Bastien’s opponent, Enzo, got critically injured. Bastien knocked him out, and his condition got so bad that the medics came inside the ring immediately to check upon him. Unfortunately, Enzo didn’t survive, and Bastien couldn’t help but feel guilty about it. Enzo’s wife, Emma, and his kid, Leo, were distraught, and they asked Bastien to never show his face to them again. When a fighter steps into an MMA ring, they know what they are signing up for. It is a violent sport, and ideally Bastien shouldn’t have been blamed at the end of the day. But then emotions overpowered everything else, and Bastien didn’t know what he should do in order to make things better for the grieving family.
What happened to Leo?
For the next 2 years, Bastien didn’t meet Emma or Leo. He started living like a recluse. He went to work, toiled hard the entire day, and in the night, thought about what he could have done differently on that day when Enzo died in the ring. Then one day, Emma arrived at his doorstep and asked him to look for her son, who had been missing for the last 5 days. Leo had moved to Marseille, and he got involved in some shady business. Emma didn’t know what her son was up to, and she told Bastien that he needed to go and look for him. So Bastien went to Marseille, and he started trying to figure out what kind of mess Leo had gotten into. He bumped into Captain Kenza, who was also looking for Leo at that point in time. Leo worked as an informant for Kenza, and he had joined L’Andalou’s group in order to find out what they were up to. The power dynamics changed when another dangerous gang called the Manchours resurfaced after a hiatus of almost 2 decades. Back in the day, the Manchours used to run the city, but all the members went underground suddenly, and nobody had heard from them for the longest time. When Leo saw that the Manchours stormed inside L’Andalou’s base, he decided to sneak in and find out more about what was going to happen. That was probably the biggest mistake he could have committed. The Manchours had actually planned to eliminate L’Andalou’s entire gang and take over the city. The leader of the gang, Abdel Manchour, saw that Leo was spying on them. He asked his men to find Leo and eliminate him before he leaked out any information to the law enforcement authorities. The boy and his girlfriend, Inaya, had been at the latter’s mother’s home for days, not knowing who they should ask for help. Leo had approached Kenza, but a police car arrived at the scene right then, and the former got spooked by it. He felt that Kenza was going to put him behind bars, and so he cut all ties with her too.
How did Kenza and Bastien grow close?
Ideally Kenza wouldn’t have allowed Bastien to tag along with her and be a part of the investigation. But she’d been suspended as she had not followed the orders of her superiors. So she needed all the help she could get to find the Manchours and save Leo. Kenza and Bastien found out that Leo had been hiding at his cousin Hugo’s house when Manchours arrived there and thrashed Hugo so badly that he had to be hospitalized. Through him, Bastien got to know that Inaya, Leo’s girlfriend, had a sister named Fatou who worked at a local bar. Bastien and Kenza decided to go there to get information from her about Leo’s whereabouts. Fatou got scared as she felt that they had come there to hurt her, and before Kenza could tell her everything, the bouncers arrived and threw Bastien and Kenza out of the bar. Things got heated, and Bastien unleashed his fury, making Kenza realize what he was actually capable of. I believe that that incident changed Kenza’s perspective. Later that night, Kenza shared with Bastien that he was right in thinking that a personal motive was fueling her actions, apart from the fact that she really wanted to save Leo. She told Bastien that, back in the day, the Manchours burned her brother to death, an incident that had left an indelible mark on her subconscious. She said that she wanted to pin the entire gang down and take revenge for her brother’s death. That night, Bastien and Kenza ended up sharing an intimate moment and opening up to each other. Often, two lonely people, who have been through a lot, understand each other better than anybody else can. Life hadn’t been easy for Bastien and Kenza, and they could relate to each other in ways that they hadn’t imagined.
Was Bastien able to save Leo?
Bastien and Kenza found Leo and Inaya, and they took them back to the police station. Daniel Canistra, Kenza’s boss, realized that though Kenza had acted of her own accord and not obeyed his orders, had she not been there, Leo wouldn’t be alive right now. There was a mole in the police force, and before Kenza could realize that, the damage was done and Abdel arrived at the police station, all guns blazing. It was Captain Vasseur who was leaking information to Abdel and his gang. Abdel Manchour’s gang made fake emergency calls to the police officers so that when they arrived at the police station, nobody was there apart from Kenza and Bastien and a few other police officers. Kenza and Bastien fought side by side and made sure that nothing happened to Leo. They killed Abdel and other members of the Manchour gang and fought with all their might. The boy saw how Bastien risked his own life, even when the former insulted him and questioned his morals.
At the end of K.O., Bastien felt relieved when he saw Emma and Leo reunited. It was never about forgiveness for Bastien. He didn’t go to Marseille because he wanted Emma and Leo to forgive him for what he had done and absolve him of his sins. But he knew exactly how Leo must have felt. He had known that rage, and he told Leo that eventually it becomes a part of you, no matter how hard you want to leave it behind. Bastien knew that it was not purpose or destination that made one’s life worthwhile. It was the company that mattered the most, which was why I felt that he was going to stick with Kenza for life and not commit the mistake of letting her go.
