I like Before the crash on Radio-Canada. I like his characters of friend-enemy bankers – rivalamis – who atomize, hit rock bottom, get up, pulverize again and fall very, very low.
One crash often hides another, more impactful one, as evidenced by the promising start of the second season of this captivating socio-financial thriller, still scheduled on Mondays at 9 p.m.
The action ofBefore the crash 2 rebooted about four months after last fall’s explosive finale, where the lives of our four high-finance friends exploded in a big bang of divorce, insider trading, betrayal and deceit.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Kim Lévesque-Lizotte co-signs Before the crash with her partner, Éric Bruneau.
“We find the characters facing their choices and the paths they will take while they wonder if they can reinvent themselves,” explains the co-author ofBefore the crashKim Lévesque-Lizotte, who wrote the texts for the series with her partner, Éric Bruneau.
The only one who doesn’t scour the shallows in Before the crash 2, it’s Marc-André (Éric Bruneau). For the moment, slips Kim Lévesque-Lizotte, specifying that a wall will soon arise in front of him.
Marc-André paid his debts, bought a new condo and formalized his relationship with bartender Camille (Chanel Mings). He even takes care of his recovering mother, Sylvie (Annick Bergeron), whose health will decline and eat up a lot of Marc-André’s time, not the type to sacrifice his career to rest at his mother’s bedside, let’s be honest.
Burning question from the public here: where is our favorite, the troubled associate Dominique (Marie-France Marcotte), with whom Marc-André slept in exchange for clothes and money? Officially, lawyer Dominique resigned from the Olstrom firm, headed by Michel Taschereau (Pier Paquette). Unofficially, Dominique will come back into the plot in a way that I won’t divulge.
Fans ofBefore the crash will also have noticed that it is still the character of Marc-André who provides narration for the episodes. But who does he confide in? Mystery. In the first part, Marc-André spoke to an investigator from the Financial Markets Authority. We will discover in the tenth and final episode ofBefore the crash 2 the punch of the identity of his secret interlocutor.
Update on Évelyne (Karine Vanasse) and François (Émile Proulx-Cloutier), now. In the midst of an acrimonious divorce, Évelyne has resigned from Olstrom and is questioning the combination of her roles as mother and career banker on the Concerta. “Several women who do everything at the same time often experience feelings of failure,” notes screenwriter Kim Lévesque-Lizotte.
PHOTO BERTRAND CALMEAU, PROVIDED BY RADIO-CANADA
The couple Évelyne (Karine Vanasse) and François (Émile Proulx-Cloutier).
His ex and father of little Denis, the volcanic François, was cleared of accusations of trafficking and his boss reinstated him to his duties at Olstrom. “The power relationship within a couple remains even if the couple breaks down. François’ influence over Évelyne remains, as does the control he exercises over Évelyne,” recalls Kim Lévesque-Lizotte.
In the second episode, Before the crash 2 invites himself, in the countryside, to François’s parents, played by Normand Chouinard and Dorothée Berryman, bourgeois, traditional and conservative retirees. The rigid family environment in which François grew up sheds new light on his behavior at the office and with the mother of his baby.
“In his family, François is the least accomplished, he is the black sheep and he is not his father’s favorite. His mother looked after him and still looks after him,” notes Kim Lévesque-Lizotte.
If Patrick (Mani Soleymanlou) seems soft and resigned to you, don’t despair. He is recovering from depression and taming the guilt that has been gnawing at him since he refused to follow his teacher wife Marie-Michèle (Myriam Fournier) to Nunavut.
PHOTO BERTRAND CALMEAU, PROVIDED BY RADIO-CANADA
Mani Soleymanlou and Myriam Fournier
Patrick accepts too many compromises, including the presence of his wife’s friend, Victoria (Naadei Lyonnais), while he is not allowed to jump the fence. The recruit at Olstrom, Clara Kosinski (Valérie Tellos), a polyamorous millennial, will (finally) open his eyes to this marital arrangement that no longer suits him.
He is a beautiful character, this Patrick, a sensitive, devoted, confused man and more present for his three daughters.
“Patrick still has love for Marie-Michèle. He’s willing to do anything to make it work. We also wanted to show the other side of the family that is breaking up, that is, the one that holds on to its clan, that defends its nest,” explains Kim Lévesque-Lizotte.
Traced to the last episode in a “douchebag” McChâteau in Mont-Tremblant, the new millionaire Vincent (Benoit Drouin-Germain) has difficulty digesting the betrayal of Marc-André, who bet, in a way, on the death of his father Luc (Marc Messier). Vincent will come down from his drunken bubble and will swear to no longer be seen as a loser to his old university friends.
Among the new faces, philanthropist Isabelle Grégoire (Karine Gonthier-Hyndman), heiress to a rich Montreal family, will slowly reveal her game. It is his help that Marc-André will seek when his destitute mother is stuck in the corridor of a crowded hospital.
Finally, poor Florence (Ireland Côté), 13 years old, whom her mother Stéphanie (Mylène Mackay) locks in her bedroom. Get her out of there, you miserable woman! His father Mike, played by Francisco Randez, did not put “the springs on the grasshoppers”. Same thing for his father-in-law Chad (Sacha Charles), far from being the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree.
Florence must be saved before the crash and the big cash she won take her too.