While an official date has yet to be set, Netflix's mega-popular French crime series Lupin is poised to return to conclude Part 2 in summer 2021. The fifth and final chapter of Part 1 left off with a cliffhanger as gentleman thief Assane Diop (Omar Sy) had his idyllic day at the beach with Claire (Ludivine Sagnier) and Raoul (Etan Simon) interrupted by a visit from the police.
Assane may be facing legal trouble in Part 2, but fans expect he will use his wily maneuvers and mastery of disguise to wiggle his way to safety. But whether he will be able to top these skillful tricks, cons, and scams is another matter altogether.
Posing As Salvatore
Although the plan backfired in the end, Assane's elaborate disguise as the elderly Salvatore still ranks as one of his cleverest ploys. Assane not only proves adept at applying his own hair and makeup, but he also uses the disguise to pose as a journalist named Salvatore to expose Pellegrini's war crimes.
Assane has discovered that Pellegrini is responsible for a terrorist attack that killed 11 people in Kuala Lumpur in 1996. To expose the crime live on TV, Assane poses as Salvatore. However, the video he provides to producers is swapped out for a non-incriminating one.
Deli Eats Delivery
After pulling off one of the most daring jewel heists in history, Assane shows tremendous foresight with his escape route through a country park.
Once he exits The Louvre following the heist, Assane poses in an orange Deli-Eats bicycle delivery boy outfit. He evades a throng of police officers through a bustling park until he merges with a large group of identical-looking Deli-Eats deliverers, allowing him to disappear in a sea of camouflage.
Deliberately Stabbed
Like Beth Harmon, Assane Diop is always three moves ahead. In Chapter 2, he sacrifices his own physical health in order to gain more intel on his father's legacy, whose name he works to clear throughout the series.
After being sent to jail on purpose, Assane deliberately starts a fight with an inmate, knowing that he would get stabbed in the process. When Assane is shivved in the gut, he is sent to the infirmary where he shares a room with a man who possesses a valuable book belonging to Assane's father. Assane then deciphers the book like a pro.
Prison Break
Assane's masterful manipulation of the prison hospital staff comes to a head when he makes a brazen prison escape near the end of Chapter 2. While a narrator discusses the nature of illusions, Assane is seen kissing the doctor's knuckles, pilfering the basketball net, taking some pills, and pretending to hang himself.
Moments later, an empty body bag is seen in the ambulance, inferring Assane's sneaky escape. If he was declared dead by medics, the pills must have momentarily flatlined him until he could escape.
Swindles Old Lady
One of Assane's most devious maneuvers includes him swindling the rich old lady in Chapter 5. First, Assane pretends to be a cop, obtaining a badge from a pair of unwitting street constables.
With the badge in tow, Assane charms his way into the home of a wealthy old lady and claims a thief ransacked the floor below. Terrified, the old lady is more than happy to hand over a trove of her most valuable items to Assane, who promises to keep the loot safe in the evidence room at the police station.
Strangers On A Train
Assane's fast-thinking actions while onboard a train with Claire, Raoul, and a mysterious assassin rank among his most clever to date. Upon taking a family selfie on the train, Assane spots a suspicious man in the background of the zoomed-in photo.
Assane then goes for drinks, secretly steals a storage key from a security guard on the train, and lures the assassin into a cargo bay. After beating the man up, Assane locks the hitman in the storage room with 13 minutes left until his stop arrives.
Clown Body Decoy
As part of Dumont's elaborate kidnapping plot, Assane also leads the police on a wild goose chase. After deliberately showing his face on camera handling a large trunk, the police make a furious effort to track the trunk down in the belief that Dumont is trapped inside.
The deliberate ruse leads the police to locate the trunk and rescue Dumont. However, they are annoyed to learn Assane has replaced Dumont with a cheeky clown doll instead.
Dumont's Kidnapping
Chapter 3 of Lupin is almost entirely dedicated to the masterfully-plotted kidnapping of police commissioner Gabriel Dumont (Vincent Garanger), one of Assane's most brilliant maneuvers of Part 1.
After the kidnapping, Assane forces Dumont to confess his shady, faux-investigation of Assane's father years prior. Using voice encryption, Assane learns Dumont coerced his father to confess to stealing the Queen's necklace, a false confession that led to his father's suicide.
Deep Fake Technology
Part of Assane's kidnapping of Dumont included the Deep Fake technology he uses to blackmail the police commissioner into keeping the police off his scent.
To get Dumont to play by his rules, Assane demonstrates high-tech trickery in which he can facially and vocally manipulate Dumont to make it appear as if he's confessing a series of crimes. As a result of the squeeze, Dumont agrees to help Assane and keep the cops off his back.
Jewel Heist
Without question, the single-most clever maneuver Assane pulled off in Part 1 was the elaborate theft of the Queen's Necklace in the opening chapter. In order to case the place, Assane had to get hired as a janitor in The Louvre without having his background discovered.
Moreover, Assane hires a crew to pose as janitors to help with the con. Assane poses as a wealthy buyer, bidding for the necklace at a public auction, winning the priceless jewelry with the top bid. Afterward, the janitors rush in and steal the necklace, which is found by authorities days later. Of course, the one found was fake and Assane hid the real necklace in a trashcan in the museum.