Balthazar: the identity of the murderer, the final shocking scene … The creator reacts to the last episode of season 3 on TV

Warning, this article contains spoilers on the final episode of season 3 of Balthazar, broadcast this evening on TF1. If you don’t want to know anything, don’t read on!

After three seasons, the writers of Balthazar have finally decided to close for good the chapter devoted to the mystery of the death of Lise, the wife of the lawyer embodied since 2018 by Tomer Sisley. The last episode of season 3, “Red Wedding”, broadcast this evening at 9:05 pm on TF1, has indeed offered viewers all the answers they expected. By revealing in particular that the serial killer responsible for the murder of Lise and several other victims was none other than … Maya (Leslie Medina), the young woman with whom Balthazar fell in love last season. And that he ended up marrying in this finale rich in twists and turns which ended in a bloodbath.

It is therefore no coincidence that Maya made her entry into the hero’s life at the start of season 2. But for all that, the identity of the murderer that Balthazar had been tracking for all these years was not part of the elements decided from the start. departure by the creators of the series, since Clothilde Jamin recently told us in an interview that the authors “had about 250 potential culprits” before deciding on the character played by Leslie Medina. “The choice to make Maya the murderer came with the actress, with the relationship between Maya and Balthazar, and what emerges from them”, confides the co-creator of the successful crime series of TF1. “It matured over season 2. What is certain is that it was absolute Greek betrayal. Maya is innocence, it is purity, it is this promise of happiness for Balthazar. We quickly found it logical that it was her, but we did not immediately say “She will be the murderer”“.

And not to arouse the suspicions of viewers too quickly, Clothilde Jamin and the writers of Balthazar therefore imagined the character of Janvier (François Feroleto), in order to better confuse the tracks and maintain the suspense until the end of season 3 and its final in apotheosis. “What we wanted, when we created Season 3, was for Maya to arrive in hiding. And that’s why we created the character of Janvier, which acts as a screen between Maya and the spectator. C ‘was important for us that it was not too obvious of course, and at the same time we especially did not want Maya to take the hat off. Janvier, who is superbly played by François Feroleto, is super creepy, he has that disturbing smile, and we know that there is something else behind, we suspect it, we know that he is not a simple pervert. On the other hand all the liabilities of the killer, this story of hands, that for once we had it from the start. Why does the killer kill? Why is he fascinated by hands? This is something we had imagined from the start “.

The resolution of the mystery centered on the death of Lise is not however the only shock of this last episode since the finale of season 3 ends on Balthazar who is drained of his blood in the middle of a lost road in full campaign, after being stabbed in the neck by Maya just before she was arrested by the police. Hélène (Hélène de Fougerolles) then rushes to Balthazar’s side and begs him to hang on and not to abandon her, repeating that she “loves him so much”. And if a season 4 had not already been ordered by TF1, this last sequence rich in emotions could be mistaken for the end of the series, marked by the death of its hero. Fortunately, the jurist embodied by Tomer Sisley should be alive and well next season (by what a miracle, we do not know), but Clothilde Jamin has in any case told us that the idea was to finish on a “real endangerment” for Balthazar. “Basically we really wanted to end with something shocking, with a real endangerment on Balthazar’s life. (…) We always imagined this ending as a tragedy. People who love each other too much, who love each other badly, and who end up killing each other. The last 10 minutes of the season, for me, is really: how love can lead to murder. In Maya’s case as in the case of Balthazar “.

And of course, this final scriptwriting twist, which suggests that Balthazar could succumb to his wounds, was also a way to offer an overwhelming, epic, poetic, and more or less closed end, to the series in the event that Tomer Sisley , which multiplies the projects, had not wanted to re-stack for a season 4. “Yes, too. You never know what the future holds. You always want it to continue, and always make sure to leave yourself the possibility of continuing, but indeed you never know if the actors will be up for a additional season or whether the channel will be satisfied with the audiences “. But season 3 having achieved audience records on TF1 since its launch on November 12, a season 4 was quickly validated by the front page, and filming should normally resume during the first half of 2021. For new episodes announced as “the season of renewal” by Clothilde Jamin.

Balthazar Season 3 Trailer: