Monsieur Spade episode 5 recap: who are you really?

Cara Bossom as Teresa in Monsieur Spade
(Image credit: Jean-Claude Lother/AMC)

Monsieur Spade episode 5 opens in Algeria in 1956. Philippe (Jonathan Zaccaï) sets up his gun, whistling while he works, and looks through the scope to see a man with a watermelon on his head. After pulling the trigger, he goes to check on him. The man is still alive, with watermelon all over his head. He's tied to the tree and is badly beaten. Philippe wants answers from him about a man in a photo. The prisoner says he doesn't know who the man is or anything about the OAS. Since he didn't offer any answers, Philippe goes to start the whole thing again… until the prisoner tells him to wait. 

Back in Bozouls, a man believes he sees Sister Angelique, but she doesn't respond to his call. He follows her until she steps behind a building and pulls a gun on him. She doesn't kill him, though, and after she walks away he wonders who she was.

Using the name Brigitte Bardot, Philippe lets her into his apartment. Zayd (Ismael Berqouch) is there, too. She changes Philippe's bandage while he waxes poetic about religious zealots and silence. After some flirtatious banter, she reveals in conversation she's Angelique's sister, revealing her sister is dead because she's not like them; she couldn't handle what she was supposed to do. Philippe says all he asked was for her to make sure the convent was safe.

No swim today

Spade (Clive Owen) wants to go for a swim, but Teresa (Cara Bossom) tells him the pool has been drained and is being cleaned after having a dead body in it. 

Henri (Oscar Lesage) walks in, retracing his steps because he's lost his notebook. Teresa asks if it's his little black book with the names of girlfriends in it. He tells her it's brown. They flirt, with her teasing she'll pick out a new one and write his name in it so he won't lost it again. Spade tells them to stop before he vomits his breakfast. Teresa says she's going to change, and Henri follows. 

Helena (Clotilde Mollet) comments Spade is unusually concerned for Teresa. She says Henri will protect her, but that's not enough for Spade. He follows as Teresa and Henri walk through a cemetery so she can place flowers on Gabrielle's grave. 

Back at Philippe's apartment, Zayd watches through the glass door as the woman bathes. Philippe teases him for being scared when a bug crosses the floor. He tells him that this was his mother’s apartment. It’s where they lived when he got back from Algeria. When the woman leaves the bathroom, she reminds him Zayd doesn’t understand what he's saying. After more stories from his childhood and the man his mother married, Philippe flirts with the woman. The phone rings and Philippe arranges a time to meet with the mysterious Mister Kahn.

When Spade gets home, he takes the painting from George down, searching the back for a wire and he doesn’t seem surprised when he finds one. While Helena vacuums he cuts another portrait open as well. Then, he goes to the phone and pretends to make a phone call to Patrice. He shushes Helena, who watches in confusion as he leaves a pretend message and then watches as George (Matthew Beard) and Cynthia (Rebecca Root) leave their house after intercepting the fake message. He takes the opportunity to go search their garage, where he finds a number of photos and a lot of surveillance equipment. 

Suddenly, George appears in the doorway with an ax. Spade thought he saw two people in the car but George says they were pretending. Spade asks if he's MI-5 or MI-6 but never gets an answer. George throws the ax with expert precision, missing Spade intentionally. It turns out George and Cynthia are also hunting for the boy, but they're actually tracking Teresa. They knew Angelique wasn't really a nun and that her parents had very colorful pasts. They also took notice of Spade. George mentions the boy and his numbers, wondering if Spade noticed anything else about it. When Spade moves to leave, George flips him over. Cynthia arrives, gun aimed at Spade. She invites him in for tea.

Tea and revelations

Matthew Beard as George in Monsieur Spade

Matthew Beard in Monsieur Spade (Image credit: Black Bear/AMC)

Jean-Pierre (Stanley Weber) is drinking away his troubles at the club. He's upset that he lost track of the boy after promising to keep him safe. 

Claude (Laurent Borel), the man who spotted Angelique earlier, knocks on Spade's door. Teresa answers and asks what's troubling the man. He admits he saw a ghost; his terror leads her to believe he's telling the truth. 

Cynthia and George tell Spade the boy has been passed around wealthy families since he was born. George shows him a photo of a woman. It's Angelique’s sister, Gazala (Inès Melab), who worked for the Algerian army. Spade wants to know about the numbers thing with the boy. They decide to trust him, revealing the boy can crack any code put in front of him and he can write his own code. That's why every government group wants him, along with every religion around. The churches believe he can prove the existence of God mathematically. At the core of it, they all believe this child could be the chosen one. Philippe is involved because he didn't kill Gazala, and she's the only one who has ever seen the boy and can authenticate his identity, so Philippe needs her. 

When Spade moves to leave, they stop him. Now that their secret has been exposed, they can't just let him walk away. However, Teresa comes driving down the road — or attempting to drive, as she doesn't know how — and Spade manages to slip away with her, much to the chagrin of Cynthia and George.

Je suis desole...

Jonathan ZACCAÏ as Philippe Saint-Andre in Monsieur Spade

Jonathan Zaccaï in Monsieur Spade (Image credit: Black Bear/AMC)

Marguerite wakes Jean-Pierre from another nightmare. She points out he has a gun in his hand, and he's immediately apologetic. He wants to tell her about the nightmares and what happened in Algeria, but he can't talk about it. Before she leaves for the club, he gives her a kiss. 

When she arrives at the club, though, she's greeted by Philippe, who asks if she knows who he is. Philippe tries to get under her skin with comments about Jean-Pierre, offering advice about him: if she loves him, then leave for Paris. Otherwise they'll end up miserable. He hopes her optimism about her marriage doesn't kill her.

Later, Philippe and Gazala are alerted to the sound of someone approaching. It's Spade, who gives himself away when he starts coughing after climbing the stairs. A man comes out of a doorway below him so Spade follows him, allowing Philippe to shut off the light inside. Spade goes down to the car and tells Teresa no one is inside and it's "a dead end." He suggests they go get a drink. 

At the club, Teresa plays with the musical instruments while Marguerite tells Spade that he's having trouble with Teresa because he dropped her off at a convent and left her there. Marguerite suggests Spade is actually Teresa's father. She makes a convincing argument, pointing out her mother probably forged her birth certificate to make the math fuzzier. Spade was already thinking it. 

Jean-Pierre arrives at Philippe's house to check on the boy. Evidently, Philippe brought him there when he was younger. Philippe tells him he was foolish to show up there and pushes Jean-Pierre down the stairs while Gazala and the boy watch. Jean-Pierre has a flashback of when he was in Algeria, of bursting up the stairs and shooting a man inside an apartment. There's a woman there and he tries to stop his fellow soldiers from harming her, but they pull him away. Back in the present, Gazala covers Zayd's eyes. "I'm sorry," Jean-Pierre says as Philippe shoots him.

Monsieur Spade airs Sundays at 9 pm ET/PT on AMC, and is available to stream the same day on AMC Plus.  

CATEGORIES
Sarabeth Pollock
Editorial Content Producer

 

Sarabeth joined the What to Watch team in May 2022. An avid TV and movie fan, her perennial favorites are The Walking Dead, American Horror Story, true crime documentaries on Netflix and anything from Passionflix. You’ve Got Mail, Ocean's Eleven and Signs are movies that she can watch all day long. She's also a huge baseball fan, and hockey is a new favorite.  

When she's not working, Sarabeth hosts the My Nights Are Booked Podcast and a blog dedicated to books and interviews with authors and actors. She also published her first novel, Once Upon an Interview, in 2022.