There's a new Netflix period drama on the block that takes a very historically focused look at France and Germany in World War Two, as All The Light We Cannot See depicts some of the dirty parts of the worldwide conflict.
The Netflix show is about a German soldier and French resistance operator who meet in the town of Saint-Malo and find a connection through their shared differences, and in the second of the four episodes. The show takes place in 1944 but lots of this episode is about events in 1940.
If you've seen the show and need to remember what happened, our All The Light We Cannot See recaps will help you brush up on all the key events, though spoilers ensue for the first and second episodes (and many historic events!).
So here's our All The Light We Cannot See episode 2 recap, about Werner and Marie-Laure's actions in 1940.
Death stalks Saint-Melo
We begin where episode 1 leaves off: Gestapo officer Reinhold von Rumpel (Lars Eidinger) confronts a bewildered Marie-Laure LeBlanc (Aria Mia Loberti) under the city, where the waters are rapidly rising. She briefly escapes but he recaptures her, and as he does so mentions that her father told him about the gem.
Marie tells the man about a flashback we witness: her father Daniel LeBlanc (Mark Ruffalo) and her are escaping Paris in 1940 as the Nazis invade it. They flee to the museum he works at, where people are packaging items up to get them away from the Nazis. He hides many of them in a T-Rex skeleton's head but takes the Sea of Flames with him.
Rumpel starts to drown Marie-Laure to torture her, and tells her that she's blind because the gem is cursed and her father touched it. Marie pretends to die and uses this surprise to attack Rumpel and run away.
Running through the streets of Saint-Melo, Marie-Laure sees a carousel on fire. She witnesses Werner Pfennig (Louis Hoffman) taking the body of the associate he killed and burning it on the fairground attraction, but then she runs away.
Later, Werner is scrubbing the blood off the floor when his commanding officer arrives, demanding to know why he's cleaning when he should be finding the transmission that's sending coordinates to the bombers that are currently flying overhead. Werner spins some terrible yarn that the officer sees through straight away.
The officer hears Marie-Laure giving the Jules Verne broadcast and works out that it's a code; he also unravels almost straight away that Werner killed his associate to keep this secret and is protecting the girl. He accuses Werner of being a spy but can't kill him because he's the only radio operator in town — he keeps him at his task, but tells Werner that when they find the girl on the radio, the boy will be the one to kill her.
A flight across France
When Daniel and Marie-Laure are trying to find a train out of Paris, the Nazis take over the station, so they decide they're going to have to walk out instead. Daniel isn't happy that his daughter is lugging a giant radio around with them, but she insists that she finds comfort in the professor's broadcasts.
That night she listens to the professor's broadcast on the radio as the two shelter in a little barn (Werner listens at the same time). Daniel tells her that he's going to take her to Saint-Malo, as they have family there.
When she goes to sleep, Daniel wanders around and finds a car hidden under some hay. They use this vehicle to drive the rest of the way.
Werner becomes a man
We flashback to 1940, when Werner is at an orphanage with his sister Jutta as the Nazis invade Paris. An SS officer arrives and recruits Werner to fix the radio of his wife, having heard that Werner was a radio expert. At the officer's home, the man tells Werner he knows about the illegal radio listening, and that he'll kill the boy should he fail to repair the radio. Luckily, he doesn't.
That night, Werner listens to the broadcasts again (Marie-Laure listens at the same time), much to the chagrin of his sister, who doesn't want him to get into any more trouble. However, the SS Officer returns and takes Werner away for good — to the National Political Institution of Education, to make him a man.
As Werner doesn't know his father's identity, the director is initially skeptical of this boy, but after some measurements is happy that he is fully Aryan. He accepts the boy into the school.
It's a tough school though, and immediately Werner is chased through the grounds and beaten up as part of a hazing trial.
Back in the "modern day" of 1944, Werner's officer threatens Jutta should the boy fail to locate the transmission. So, as Marie-Laure broadcasts, they follow it, eventually arriving at her house just as the girl finishes the broadcast.
Werner and Marie-Laure lock eyes through the window as the officer breaks down the door.
