48 minSeason 1 • Episode 5
LatestJuly 2006, the city of Aix-en-Provence is under particular strain. The trial of Mathias Rousseau, the man who called himself the "Zodiac," is about to begin. Called back to France to testify, Esther Delaître moves in with Quentin, the child she adopted, at her brother Jérôme's house on the shores of Lake Geneva in Switzerland. But the disappearance of little Lucie Daguerre throws everything into question. The family of the missing child runs the Daguerre Institute, a renowned school where Mathias had stayed for a few months when he was younger. Is the "Zodiac" pulling the strings from his prison cell? Is he the victim of an imitator? This new case takes Esther back two years...
Acting
Claire Keim's unraveling detective steals every frame
Direction
Rome's Lake Geneva gloom vs Aix-en-Provence trial tension
Writing
Tight 5-episode structure, no filler French procedural
Creator
Claude-Michel Rome
Kerian Mayan
Quentin Saint-André
Francis Huster
Antoine Keller
Peter Hudson
Richard Carpenter
Natacha Lindinger
Eva Trammel
Claire Keim
Esther Delaître
Agnès Regolo
Commissaire Simonpierri
Jean-Pierre Bouvier
Pierre Saint-André
Anne Jacquemin
Juliette Saint-André
Yannis Baraban
Mathias Rousseau
Stéphan Guérin-Tillié
Jérôme Saint-André
Boris Terral
Loïc Daguerre
Aurore Clément
Grâce Delaître
Patrick Bosso
Spagnolo
Jérôme Anger
Alexis Daguerre
Josy Bernard
Hélène Daguerre
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Released in 2006, this rode the wave of post-Millennium European crime prestige—less action, more institutional rot. The real French Zodiac copycat case from the 70s looms in background cultural memory.
The 93-minute episode format was a deliberate gamble by France 2, treating crime as cinematic event television rather than weekly procedural—explaining why it never got season 2 despite that ending.
FR
