In Anthracite, in search of her father, Ida comes to the small town of Lévionna and gets embroiled in a mystery that connects to a case from 30 years ago. The series is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
In 1994, in the small Alpine village of Lévionna, 12 bodies were discovered at the home of Caleb Johansson, the charismatic leader of the Écrins cult.
The police refer to the event as a mass suicide, with Caleb being the only survivor to be arrested.
These events transpired after the death of 17-year-old student Roxane Vial, who was stoned to death with one-half of her face smeared with anthracite.
In the present, Ida Heilman’s father, Solal Heilman, a journalist, is looking into the case again when he is attacked and kidnapped by someone.
In search of her father, Ida comes to the village of Lévionna and tracks down Jaro Gatsi, whose picture Solal had in his possession before his disappearance.
Jaro, who is on parole for getting himself involved with the wrong people, is living with his uncle and aunt, Claude and Marie. He finds himself in a conspiracy again when a woman named Emma Marçais, whom he assisted, goes missing.
Ida, who has been keeping an eye on Jaro, becomes a witness and gives Jaro an alibi. However, in exchange for that, Ida forces him to tag along with her.
Caleb, who is in a psych ward, contacts Solal’s hotel room. Ida thinks talking to him will help her find her father. Hence, Jaro and Ida visit Caleb, who predicts that Jaro and his descendants will die if he doesn’t fight back.
The girl Jaro assisted is found dead. She is killed the way Roxane was years ago, with one-half of her face smeared with anthracite.
At a time like this, Jaro seeks Ida’s help. Ida has discovered her father’s investigation into Caleb’s cult. They learn that Juliette, Jaro’s mother, was Roxane’s friend, and she often visited Caleb’s home.
Solal and Juliette both believed that Caleb was innocent. He didn’t have anything to do with Roxane’s murder, which means the killer is still out there and has returned.
Jaro knows her mother had depression, and she killed herself by lighting the house on fire, but Ida questions if he is sure that she killed herself.
While investigating this case, Jaro and Ida constantly deal with Lieutenant Giovanna Deluca, also known as Gio, and her husband, Officer Erwan.
They are handling the investigation of the strange deaths taking place in town. Eventually, the killer is caught during the winter festival.
The killer is revealed to Denis Monnier, a police officer, who admits to killing the 12 disciples of Caleb by poisoning the water after killing someone for Caleb, who promised to cure him. However, he didn’t kill Roxane or Emma.
Denis, who is struggling with his neural deterioration, poisoned everyone at the winter festival after learning about Emma’s death. It took him back to 1994.
Failing to stop Denis in time results in the suspension of Gio, who is convinced they need to find Solal to get to the bottom of this. His disappearance matches the theories she has.
Jaro and his friend Roméo find Solal, who has been rescued by Détraz, a fellow resident of the town.
Ending explained:
The mystery around Ida’s birth
Ida comes across old tests that belong to her and her father, which her father has been carrying around. Ida is suffering from leukemia. Ida knows they are incompatible for a transplant forever, yet her father is carrying those tests.
Ida learns that her father is carrying someone else’s test under his name. A VHS tape that her father has includes footage of Juliette delivering a baby girl.
Ida realizes that she is possibly Juliette’s daughter and Jaro’s half-sister. Solal helped Juliette give birth to her and adopted her when a teenage Juliette rejected having Ida.
Solal was visiting Lévionna for Ida, who is extremely ill and has refused to continue her chemotherapy.
Caleb was Solal’s last hope as Ida’s father, but his compatibility with Ida is negative too.
A killer inside the mines
Caleb escapes his psych ward, and the employees of Arcacia, a company working in the mines of the town, realize that something is inside the mines.
Gio’s investigation shows that the disappearances, such as Emma’s, have taken place near the mine entrances.
A nurse who was obsessed with Caleb is behind these deaths. The nurse is revealed to be none other than Mrs. Faure, the mother of Hari, a doctor Roméo is dating.
Faure forcefully had intercourse with Caleb to carry his heir. She gave birth to twins. Hari is one of the two, and his sister is the killer inside the cave.
Jaro rushes to the cave after learning that his daughter, Malia, is possibly inside. Recently, Jaro’s aunt, Marie, was killed. Jaro doesn’t know why his family is being targeted.
Caleb and Ida come to stop Faure and her daughter, but they ultimately fail to calm them down. Explosives planted by Arcacia explode in the mine, resulting in a blast. Jaro, Malia, and Ida are able to escape before the cave closes in.
The truth about Roxane’s death and Ida’s father
Following the end of the case, Jaro ends up being compatible with Ida and is able to help her with the transplant at the end of season 1.
Jaro and Ida go their separate ways. Ida soon discovers from her followers that gene maps of Caleb and Ida suggest that it’s impossible that Caleb is her father.
Meanwhile, Jaro, from an audio tape of Juliette, learns that his uncle, Claude, used to hurt his mother. He raped Juliette, and Ida is Claude’s daughter.
Roxane knew about Claude’s behavior towards Juliette, and hence, Claude had killed her. He killed his own wife, Marie, too, when she found out the truth.
Claude regrets all of this, and he intended to keep all of it buried, but the past kept catching on to him.
When Jaro asks whether his mother killed herself, Claude admits that he set the house on fire to kill her. Juliette was going to therapy, and Claude was afraid that she is going to remember everything.
An angry Jaro fights his uncle and almost kills him. Ida arrives. What they do with Claude is not disclosed.
Following all of this, Ida announces that a film crew is working to complete her father’s documentary on the Écrins cult. She shows a preview of it.
Ida’s adventures continue as she receives a mysterious video in which a woman opens a parcel to find something terrifying in it.