'Madame Blanc’ Claims a Happy Ending in the Season 4 Finale

The season finale of The Madame Blanc Mysteries Season 4, “Where Eagles Dare,” opens in the town’s barber shop, Boyz, as Jeremy and Dom chat with another customer, Jovan (Danny Hatchard), and joke about not being a couple. Jovan and his young son, Freddie (Anthony Irons), are relatively new to the area; he’s another expat, and shows them a bejeweled eagle pendant he needs to sell. Do they know anyone who could help? Naturally, Jeremy and Dom suggest Jean, as Jovan and Freddie leave to get pizza, but outside, a thief attacks Jovan in front of his son, leaving him badly injured. 

The jewel disappears.

Jean and Gloria are in La Couronne, where Gloria is boasting about her talented dog, Douglas, and mentions she hasn’t seen much of Dom recently. Jean claims she hasn’t either (sadly true since their breakup in the previous episode). Thankfully, the awkward conversation ends when she receives a call from Police Chief Inspector André Caron summoning her to the hospital. Gloria has had too many glasses of peach schnapps and can’t drive her there, so when Dom shows up, Gloria insists he take Jean to the hospital. 

They find Caron outside Jovan’s room. After Jean, donning her historian hat, explains to Dom what a stiletto knife is, Caron explains that he found her business card in Jovan’s possession. Had they met? Dom identifies the injured man and explains about the “bird jewelry thing” Jovan thought Jean could help him sell.

Gendarme Richard (Jacqueline Berces) is looking after Freddie, since there are no other family members, and is waiting for a social worker to arrive. She reports that a massive jewelry theft has occurred in Pamplona, Spain, just across the border. Jean and Dom go to the station to see if they can identify the eagle, while Caron stays with Freddie at the hospital.

Gloria has finally had her fill of Patrick’s peach schnapps. She is preparing to leave when she catches lounge lizard Otto Moncrief (Mat Laroche) about to sexually assault the barmaid, Jane. Patrick tells him to leave immediately, and to stop masquerading as a Frenchman – his mother was from Birmingham! Otto responds that Patrick is an old jailbird and leaves the bar. 

Gendarme Richard, across the street with Dom and Jean, comments that Otto is a menace to women and is glad Patrick is being tough with him. Inside the police station, she shows them the Interpol images of the stolen jewelry. Dom recognizes the bejeweled bird, which Jean identifies as an 18th-century classic, the Saint Esprit dove, worth between €3,500 and €4,000. Dom drives Jean home, and they have an awkward goodbye before she goes inside.

Vinnie (Atilla Akinci), the proprietor of Boyz, tells Caron and Jean that Jovan, an occasional customer, frequently socialized with his other customers and sometimes tried to sell them items that had almost certainly been stolen. Vinnie was very impressed with Jovan’s bird, correctly identifying the stones as diamonds and admiring the workmanship.

Jeremy and Judith are at a table outside La Couronne, he reminiscing sentimentally about England while she practices some origami. Jeremy tries to stop Otto from entering the bar, but Otto tells him that since Patrick is no longer the landlord, he can do as he wishes. He’s carrying papers revoking Patrick’s license. Otto informs Patrick and Dom that, since the Lloyd-Jameses did not disclose Patrick’s prison record on his application, as required by law, he can no longer work there. 

Outraged, Patrick, Dom, and the Lloyd-Jameses go to the police station, where Gendarme Richard finds that although Patrick was quite honest about his prison record, it did not appear on the application, and the law is clear. Equally clearly, Otto is being vindictive and has contacts in high places to deprive Patrick of his job.

Back at the bar, Gloria and the Lloyd-Jameses attempt to comfort Patrick, who is distraught at the prospect of having to start over.

Jean and Caron, still at the hospital, wait for Jovan to regain consciousness. Gloria calls Jean with the news about Patrick, and she is about to leave, when Caron receives a call from Pamplona: the theft was an inside job, and the entire jewelry collection has been found, and arrests have been made. But there’s no explanation as to why Jovan had that one piece until he recovers consciousness, and Freddie confesses that he took the jeweled bird. His father had been teaching him how to pick pockets.

Gloria and Jean return to the bar, and Gloria is concerned about how Dom will take the news, since he and Patrick are so close. Inside the bar, Judith is giving Jane a pep talk (she feels responsible for Otto’s spiteful gesture), and Jeremy has made sandwiches. Judith serves shots to everyone for medicinal purposes.

Jeremy leaves the bar to visit Boyz to pick up the English hair pomade ordered especially for him, and Judith reveals, as they laugh about the irony of a Frenchman ordering a British grooming product, that Vinnie is Polish, not French. Jean asks to accompany Jeremy, who admits he, too, is concerned about Dom losing a friend. Jean realizes now that Boyz is a Polish name, not a trendy barbershop name. She tells Vinnie about Jovan’s attack and that he’s recovering in the hospital, where he’ll be for the next few days. He’s clear of any crime, since the jewelry belonged to him.

Sure enough, later that evening, a sinister figure wearing a black hoodie sneaks into the hospital and into Jovan’s room, where, surprise, Caron and Jean are waiting for him. It’s Vinnie! Jean has it all figured out. Jovan was stabbed, not by a stiletto, but by professional hairdressing scissors. Vinnie, a big fan of the royal Polish family – and possibly a descendant – thought Jovan’s jewel was the Eagle from the Royal Casket, a collection of seventy-three precious relics gathered together in 1800. The Casket was plundered during World War II, and none of the pieces have ever been found.

Jean tells Vinnie and Jovan that although the diamonds are genuine, the piece is a fake from the 1930s, as the settings clearly show, before Vinnie is hauled off to jail. 

Jean receives a call from Dom who’s at  La Couronne, along with Jeremy, Judith, Dom, and Patrick. Otto arrives to gloat, unaware that Gendarme Richard has been busy online, and is there to reinstate Patrick. She hands over the paperwork, made out to Mr. Patrick Bradley. It’s his birth name, changed to Hayes when he was adopted at the age of two, and Patrick Bradley consequently has no prison record. Even better, it’s all legal! Patrick immediately throws Otto out again.

Dom leads Jean outside to beg her for another chance after three long, miserable weeks. But they’re not alone for long––the whole gang has gathered to watch because miraculously, they realized that their two friends had fallen in love, and even more miraculously, somehow managed not to let Dom or Jean know. Dom is cheered on by the whole gang as Jean accepts his proposal, and Season 4 ends with hugs and champagne all round.

The Madame Blanc Mysteries Seasons 1 through 4 are streaming on Acorn TV.  You can also watch Seasons 1 and 2 on select PBS Passports––check your local streaming services.