The case of Manuel Audet (Frédéric Millaire Zouvi) will not be completely settled during the last episode of the “Alerts” season, on December 12.
• Read also: TVA’s best start to the season in 10 years
The one who sexually assaulted his squad colleague Lily-Rose (Mylène St-Sauveur) will be back in the intrigues in January, but he will certainly leave the series this winter, the young woman having confided for the first time to Pénélope (Catherine Bérubé), which sounds the beginning of the end of Manuel.
“The last episode of the season will revolve a lot around the aggression of Lily-Rose”, confirmed the main author of “Alerts”, Julie Hivon, in an interview with the QMI Agency. On this occasion, the members of the squad will be in Christmas mode in “a more emotional episode” and “the dominoes will fall”, she promised.
By creating this character, which arrived at the beginning of the second season, Mrs. Hivon already knew that he was going to end up going after Lily-Rose. She wanted the former police officer from Chambly, drafted by the squad, to be sympathetic and endearing so that we would not see this dramatic turnaround coming.
Ms. Hivon consulted a worker specializing in sexual assault in a Crime Victims Assistance Center (CAVAC) in order to address the issue delicately. “Often, the assaults come from relatives whom the victims trust,” recalled the author, who wanted Lily-Rose to continue to rub shoulders with her attacker at work, which is often the case in real life.
“Even though some viewers were shocked, we wanted to show the aggression so that they were in Lily-Rose’s point of view. We wanted people to be with her, to experience frustration, fear and distress with her. In the police setting, it’s even harder for Lily-Rose who wants to be seen as a strong woman. She doesn’t want to be a victim.”
For the purposes of this detective fiction, Lily-Rose will recover more quickly than in reality. “After each stage, when she will see that people support her, she will come to feel better,” said Julie Hivon, who worked on episode 71 – which will be broadcast in late fall 2023 –, when we spoke to him last Thursday.
Manuel, who does not recognize having assaulted her during a drunken party, prefers to “tell her that she is crazy and that she imagines things”.
After taking a necessary break from the investigations, the young policewoman was drafted by the anti-gang squad, and the investigations will bring the two services to collaborate in the third season. She has just moved there and met a colorful new partner, Cindy (Évelyne Gélinas), and the boss Robert Larouche (Hugues Frenette), two characters that we will get to know.
Especially since Stéphanie (Sophie Prégent) has reason to believe that the corrupt director Marc-André Bonanfant (Guy Jodoin) “has made children in the anti-gang”. Guy Jodoin also leaves the series by “mutual agreement” after winning a Gemini last September for this character. We will never see him again because he will be taken into the care of a witness protection program.
Frédéric Lamontagne (Benoit McGinnis), with whom Stéphanie “doesn’t have a lot of hooks”, will also become a regular character on “Alerts”. Marjolaine Lacroix (Diane Lavallée), mother of Dominic (Charles-Alexandre Dubé), will also be present in the next season, as well as new characters played by Philomène Bilodeau, Dominik Dagenais, Martin Desgagnés, Julie Ménard, Julie Roussel and Bruno Verdoni. From January, the investigators will have to elucidate an arson.
“Alerts” has now grown to 26 episodes per year, which is a big order for the authors, but also for the director and the technical team. Julien Hurteau was on a break from filming this fall for the episodes that we will see after the Holidays, replaced by Mathieu Handfield, but he will resume service soon for the filming of the fall block.
Produced by Pixcom, the “Alerts” series airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on TVA.