The Au Pair explores how a determined nanny is bringing trouble to the lives of a seemingly perfect family, but secrets are starting to unravel…
In the four-part Channel 5 thriller, home help Sandrine (Ludmilla Makowski) has been plotting against her employers, seamstress Zoe (Sally Bretton) and doctor Chris (Kenny Doughty), and placing them in danger. But when Zoe’s stepdaughter Amber (Margot Pue) threatened to expose her, Sandrine attacked the teenager, and, after Zoe and Chris found them in the woods, Sandrine claimed to be Zoe’s long-lost daughter.
In the third episode, Zoe embarks on a desperate mission to find out the truth, but her discoveries leave her questioning her whole life, while her retired doctor dad George (Sir David Suchet) starts to panic…
Here is everything that happened in The Au Pair episode 3…
As the episode begins, Sandrine (Ludmilla Makowski) is running through the woods and police sirens can be heard. Back at the house, Chris (Kenny Doughty) and George (Sir David Suchet) are tending to Amber (Margot Pue), and Noah (Ripley Barden) is concerned that Sandrine was responsible for the attack.
Inspector Holt (Barry John Kinsella) arrives and says he has sent a car out looking for Sandrine and he has dogs in the woods. Amber gets up but seems wobbly so George says she should go to the hospital for a scan to be on the safe side and Chris and Noah take her there. Holt reassures Zoe (Sally Bretton) they are doing all they can to keep everyone safe.
When they are alone, Zoe confesses to George that Sandrine said she was her baby, and although it sounds crazy, could it be possible because Sandrine says she came to find her? George is dismissive and says Sandrine was just tormenting Zoe and how did she know Zoe lost a baby years before? Zoe said she told her and they shared something between them. But George says that people like Sandrine can easily gain people’s trust. Zoe wants to talk to her mum, which George seems reluctant about, but he says he will make calls to find out who the medical team were on the day Zoe gave birth so that they can clear things up, and she should also let the police deal with it.
Sandrine goes back to the abandoned house where she was staying and appears to be looking for something. She tears a piece of paper out of a notebook and starts writing to Zoe but can’t go on. Instead, she rings Marie (Virginie Ledoyen) the woman who gave her a folder of information before she came to England. Sandrine wants Marie’s help and says she found her mum Zoe and she wants Marie to tell Zoe that everything Sandrine has said is true, as she is the only one who can verify it. Marie doesn’t think it is a good idea and Sandrine goes back to her writing.
Zoe gets out of bed and heads into Sandrine’s room and roots through her things. She sees a cushion with odd stitching on the seam and when she cuts it open, she finds a passport inside. She wakes Chris up and tells him that the date of birth on the passport is 1st May 2002, the same day that her dead daughter was born, so she thinks Sandrine is her child but she needs to be sure.
Meanwhile, the police have arrived at the house where Sandrine is and Holt goes in and looks upstairs. He realises she has been there and can’t be far away as the sheets are still warm. But Sandrine has fled into the woods again.
Zoe goes to see her mum Lydia (Lesley Molony) and shows her Sandrine’s passport under the name of Stephanie Lacroix and says she didn’t believe she was her daughter but now she has found the passport she isn’t sure. Lydia says the date is just a coincidence. Zoe says she was so young when she lost her baby and she just accepted what everyone told her, but Lydia was her midwife and she needs her to explain what happened.
Lydia doesn’t want to go over it all again. But Zoe insists and says that she gave birth to a baby girl and Lydia took her away and said there were complications and they tried to save the baby but she died of asphyxia. But what if someone took her?
Lydia says that the baby died, they buried her and Zoe has only recently had a miscarriage so she is just grieving both babies and clinging to anything she can. Zoe wants to know if there is any chance she lived. But Lydia says it is all a horrible coincidence and that Zoe just wants it to be true and there’s nothing else she can tell her.
After Zoe leaves, George, who has been listening from another room, says to Lydia he knows that was was hard but it was the right thing to do…
Sandrine, meanwhile, is still in the woods and tears down a wanted poster with her face on it.
At the house, Zoe tells George she went to see Lydia and asks if he thinks Lydia would lie to her? George says he knows they have a difficult relationship and Lydia is complicated but she wouldn’t lie. But what if she was involved? George says everyone felt deep pain for what happened that day and it’s hard for them to see Zoe go through that. But Zoe says she needs to be certain and that medical records must have been kept at the hospital. George is not sure they keep them for that long, but he will keep digging for answers for her.
Zoe heads to the hospital where Chris is at work and says she wants answers and the medical records will give them. But Chris says he is worried about her. Zoe begs him to check the computer or let her do so – what if Sandrine is telling the truth and her parents have lied to her?
Chris understands that the date of birth is odd but he thinks Sandrine is behind it all and is trying to turn them against each other and she wouldn’t do that if she really was her daughter. He has to head into theatre but as they hug, Zoe steals his pass and goes back into his room and goes on the computer. Chris comes back in and catches her and agrees to help and they look up the record and see that Zoe’s baby died of asphyxia on 1st May 2002.
At home once more, Zoe gets a text from Sandrine saying she has a letter for her that will explain everything. Zoe tells Holt, who informs her they are trying to track Sandrine’s phone and that the whole village is on alert and that she mustn't respond to Sandrine.
As George comes in, Holt reveals that they have run background checks on Sandrine, AKA Stephanie, she had a chequered history as a youngster with a record involving shoplifting, burglary, theft and common assault and more recently there is a litany of deceptions and fraud and several counts of impersonation. George says she is a fantasist. Holt says it is identity theft. She is a con artist and it’s likely she faked the passport but they are checking it.
Zoe says Sandrine is a psychopath and she fell for it. Holt says it is not her fault, people like Sandrine are skilled at manipulation. Zoe is angry and wonders why she has done this to her. Holt asks if they have met before or targeted her in any way but Zoe has to head out to fetch Noah.
After the cops leave, George tells Zoe he spoke to the doctor who was on call the day she gave birth and he remembers it clearly and put George in touch with the rest of the team who also spoke about the complications and the lengths they all went to in vain to save the baby, so nobody has forgotten what happened. Zoe can’t believe she thought Sandrine was her daughter.
As Noah walks along the road from school with his football, Sandrine grabs him and drags him into the woods. She apologises for scaring him and says that what happened to Amber was an accident and she begs him to give her letter to Zoe, which explains everything.
She says that Noah is her only friend and everything has gone wrong and he can take the letter to the police if he wants. But he agrees to give it to Zoe.
At the house, Raye (Ebimie Anthony) turns up to see Amber as she’s scared her baby is coming. Amber says they need to call someone as both Raye and the baby could die and she will get in touch with her dad Chris, as they can trust him.
As Chris treats Raye, he says it’s just Braxton Hicks practice contractions. He learns that Raye’s family don’t know about the baby and they would kick her out. He won't say anything, but Raye needs to work out what she wants to do, as the baby is due soon. She wants to give the baby away but Chris says it is a long process and could take a year and she must consider options for the baby in the interim. He offers to talk to her parents but she refuses and he reassures her they will work something out.
Zoe has arrived at the school and is horrified to find Noah’s not there but he is found with a policeman, who says he has been in a scrap but he won’t say who with. Later, in the car, Zoe ask Noah if he is OK and he confesses he was with Sandrine, who told him to give Zoe a letter and for her to call the number in it.
Zoe opens the envelope and finds a photo of herself when she was young and a letter from Sandrine. In the letter, Sandrine says she wants to explain. Her name was Stephanie Lacroix and her adoptive parents treated her badly and beat and starved her. But one day she was contacted by a woman who said she knew who her real mother was and gave her a name in a file with the photo and she can tell Zoe everything she need to know.
Zoe calls the number and it’s Marie, who asks if Sandrine is safe. Zoe says the police are looking for her as she came to find Zoe and caused harm and then said she was her daughter. People are saying Sandrine is a fantasist or a con artist but now, due to the letter and photo, Zoe doesn’t know what to believe. Marie says Sandrine is her baby, she has to trust her, but she can’t tell her any more. She begs Zoe not to call again, and as Marie hangs up, we see blood on her face.
As George then comes in asking about Noah’s kidnap, Zoe says Sandrine wrote her a letter, which she shows George. The photo was one George took of Zoe when she was young and he thinks she must have just taken it from an album.
Zoe says she called Marie, who said it was all true but she sounded afraid. Zoe wants answers. An exasperated George says they have been through everything already, and she should look at the evidence and listen to what the police and the medical records say and stop this. But Zoe runs out and is sick in a bush before picking up a spade and saying she needs to know. She makes a call and we then see her driving her mum to a graveyard. She gets out and goes to a grave marked Baby Dalton and prepares to dig...
A frantic Lydia begs her to stop, there is nothing there, the baby didn’t die. It was all done for Zoe’s own good, she was so young and couldn't raise a child, and they thought if they told her it had died, she would get over it in time and the grave just contains a box with stones in it. Lydia confesses that George was in on it, and a contact at the hospital he once worked at in France knew of a couple who wanted to adopt. George promised the baby would go to a good home and he faked the medical records. Zoe says she has grieved all her life for that baby and dashes off in the car.
Later, at Lydia’s house, George angrily confronts her for telling Zoe the truth. Lydia says they kept the secret for years and look what it has done to them and to Zoe and she is glad the lying is over. George says she has no idea what she has done.
Outside, he calls Holt to see if there is any further info on Sandrine to tell Zoe. Holt says there has been an unconfirmed sighting of her near the woods by the school.
We then see Sandrine in the woods and we hear a message she has left saying that she will meet someone there and promises she will explain everything. As a car draws up, she goes to it…
Back home, Zoe continues to read the letter in which Sandrine says her adoptive parents told her she wasn’t their child and they didn’t love her and the only reason they took her in was because her real mother did not want her either. Sandrine was angry at Zoe for abandoning her and she used to fantasise about making her pay for what she did. Then she found Zoe online and saw her perfect life so came to find her.
George, meanwhile, is struggling to come to terms what what has happened and he goes through his papers and digs out a photo of Aurielville hospital...
Chris talks to Zoe and says that Holt has not seen Sandrine again. Zoe shows him the photo of her younger self taken before all this happened and he says he has never seen the shot before and asks where she got it. Zoe then shows him the letter and says Sandrine is her daughter and that her mum told her everything. George said it was all for the best and he controlled the whole thing and even now he is still trying to manipulate facts, her whole life is based on a lie as her baby lived and came to find her.
Zoe is upset that George could do this to his own daughter. Chris reassures her they will get through this. But as he heads out into the garage, he opens his car boot where he has a struggling Sandrine tied up. He asks her what he is going to do with her now and then closes the boot once more…
All episodes of The Au Pair are on streaming service 5, formerly known as My5.
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