Season 4 of “Balthazar” ended this evening with an unexpected revelation: the hero was trapped by his own brother, Alexander, whose existence he had forgotten. Tomer Sisley and the creator of the series return to the genesis of this twist.
Warning, this article contains spoilers on the last episode of season 4 of Balthazar, broadcast this evening on TF1. If you don’t want to know anything, don’t read on!
Nothing will ever be the same for Raphaël Balthazar. The finale of season 4 of Balthazar, broadcast this evening on TF1, did not disappoint by staging the escape of the pathologist played by Tomer Sisley, ready to do anything to prove his innocence, after being accused of a double homicide , and to find out who was pulling the strings in the shadows.
Led with a bang, this run full of suspense, during which Balthazar was able to count in particular on the unexpected support of Olivia Vésinet (Caterina Murino), then ended with a revelation that no one had seen coming: the person responsible for the murder of Sabrina and the events in the hero’s childhood village was none other than Balthazar’s own brother, Alexander, who hates him and wishes to make him suffer.
A brother who had begun to show psychopathic tendencies from childhood, killing a cow in front of his younger brother, and whom Raphaël had ended up obscuring from his memory, when Alexandre had run away and his parents had stayed no news of him for all these years.
“At the end of Season 3, we had discussions about the sequel and we were like, ‘How can we take risks now? How can we put ourselves in danger?”explains Tomer Sisley when asked how this end of season 4 was imagined, devoted to the secrets from Balthazar’s past.
“Quickly, we had the idea to tell his childhood and to be interested in his family. The idea was not to go to the obvious. We wanted to try to be where we were not expected , with some surprises in store for viewers. And I think we succeeded (laughs)”.
While turning their hero’s life upside down once again, by revealing that it was Alexander who led Maya (Leslie Medina) to his brother, the writers of Balthazar also introduce a new major antagonist, in the guise of Olivier Sitruk (The Mysteries of the Gendarmerie School, Jeff and Leo, cops and twins), which we will obviously find in season 5.
THIBAULT GRABHERR / TF1
“Tomer told us ‘But deep down, we don’t know where he comes from. Can’t we explore Balthazar’s past?”explains for her part Clothilde Jamin, the creator and producer of the series. “And that’s how we got the idea for this village, and this return to the village, which allowed us to discover the character in depth. He is very much in the present, in the image he projects , and we found it interesting to explain why he is like that”.
“Once it was confirmed that we were going to try to understand why Balthazar had become Balthazar, we wanted to introduce this character of Alexander who is the opposite of an alter ego, who is the opposite absolute of everything our hero is”continues the one who also serves as collection director. “And for us it could only be his brother. It seemed obvious to us”.
“Alexandre Balthazar’s introduction allowed us to tell how we build ourselves in a relationship of brotherhood, when we are both in a relationship of rivalry and admiration within a family unit. The cult of Balthazar’s perfection necessarily comes from somewhere. This pressure he puts on himself to always be the best, the strongest, that necessarily goes back to childhood.”.
And as the last minutes of the finale imply, Balthazar will do everything to find Alexandre and make him pay for his crimes. And the face to face between the two brothers that everything opposes should not take too long since Tomer Sisley already confides: “There is a very nice confrontation between Balthazar and Alexandre from the first episode of season 5 that I can’t wait to shoot”.