Notre-Dame retells the impact of the fire that started at Paris’ medieval Catholic cathedral, Notre-Dame, back in 2019, and how the firefighters worked their way to stop it. The mini-series is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Alice, a firefighter, is still haunted by her first mission, where she lost her lover, Ben, and her colleagues. After spending months clearing up her mind, she decides to get back on the field.
The very first day back sees her joining a mission that will determine if she is ready to return or not. The mission is to diffuse the fire at the cathedral, Notre-Dame, which has left the whole country in shock.
With her team members asking her to stay close, Alice plans to prove herself as she will be under the command of her dead lover’s father, Zacharie, who was planning to quit the fire brigade the next day but had to report to save the Notre-Dame.
Elena, a journalist, is contacted by her boss, Steph, to abandon the story she is covering. He asks her to go to Notre-Dame and report the fire spreading there.
Steph constantly pushes Elena to surpass the other news channels and to cover what they are not. She spots Antony, a fellow firefighter and an old friend of hers from her hometown.
She convinces him to let her report on the insides of the cathedral. Antony offers her walkie-talkies to keep in touch. As closer Elena gets to the cathedral, she finds out that the fire has spread to the nave.
Claiming that she has authorized access, she urges a firefighter to let her enter for a few seconds. The attempt to cover the nave results in Elena getting trapped amidst the fire and falling cathedral.
Meanwhile, Max, a restaurant owner who owes money to a drug dealer, struggles to pay it back as his wife is in the hospital.
With the doctors suggesting that her days are numbered, he dials back his estranged daughter, Victoire, so that the family can come together in one place, one last time.
Victoire, on the other hand, lives a life addicted to drugs and sleeping with men, until one of her friends comes close to death due to an overdose.
After abandoning her friend, she crosses paths with a kid named Billy, who ran away from home believing that his long-lost father is a firefighter and is somewhere working with the team that is saving Notre-Dame.
Victoire and Billy form an unlikely friendship as she tries to take care of the kid and herself in order to avoid her father, who is looking for her everywhere.
Amidst all of this, Bassem, a fellow worker at the cathedral, hopes to connect with a woman who looks just like his dead wife.
Inside Notre-Dame, the fire continues to grow, and Alice eventually starts hallucinating about Ben, only to pass out on the staircase, all alone, as the cathedral from above starts collapsing.
Notre-Dame ending explained in detail:
Do Elena and Antony end up together?
When Antony allowed Elena to cover the footage near the cathedral, the latter knew that somewhere he felt for her. The collapse of the cathedral’s roof saw a team of firefighters getting trapped inside along with Elena.
The footage of the inside became big news on television, and Zacharie makes saving the people inside his first priority. The firefighters managed to rescue the team and Elena as well.
Elena came out to hug Antony, but somewhere the latter knew they had their run.
Elena’s boss, Steph, comes fighting in to take her back to the studio so she can share her experience inside the burning Notre-Dame with the world.
The main goal here was to retain the most viewership.
On air, during the interview, Elena realized how selfish she has been. Furthermore, how foolish it was to go inside the burning cathedral. She disclosed that her channel wanted her to take that risk for the sake of viewership.
She also blamed herself for choosing to go in, though she had every opportunity to say no, but she wanted to succeed. After admitting her mistakes, she left the studio to find Antony near the cathedral.
The couple made out as the firefighters came close to accomplishing their mission.
Does Max find Victoire?
Max goes above and beyond to find Victoire, who was out there struggling to take Billy back home. Max’s urge to find her takes him back to Rico, the man he owes money to. He is also the one who took Victoire on the path of drugs.
Victoire had found her way to Rico when she needed drugs, and Rico agreed to tell Max where she is if he pays all of his money back the same night.
Max geared up and fought in Rico’s underground fight pit, and made some money for a single call that will help him talk to Victoire. While he was on the call, Rico heard about Max’s wife and therefore told him about Victoire’s location.
By the time Max reached out to that hideout, Victoire had left, but she gave a second thought to her mother’s condition and went to the hospital where she was admitted.
Max arrived at the hospital at the same time and crossed paths with his daughter. The father-daughter duo reunited to say their final goodbyes to Victoire’s mother.
How did the firefighters stop the fire?
The firefighters had managed to save one-half of their team and Alice, who revealed to Zacharie that she is pregnant with his son’s baby.
Zacharie and fellow firefighter, Varese, got into an argument revolving around saving their own people and saving the historical artifacts they have inside.
Zacharie suggested that buildings can be built again, but people can’t be brought to life. Furthermore, Alice risked her life although she was pregnant.
Varese still believed that their history is worth saving as everyone here believes in it. Therefore, she wanted to save the belfry. She convinced Zacharie, who with no further questions sent his firefighters in.
In order to prove herself, a pregnant Alice snuck out and quietly joined Varese’s team heading inside the cathedral. She wanted Ben to be proud of her.
For Ben, she went in and reached the belfry and asked for help to keep the fire away. A reluctant Zacharie eventually agreed to have her and brought some backup. The firefighters worked together, and eventually, the fire died out.
What happens with Billy and Bassem?
Though Billy tries his best to look for his father during the Notre-Dame fire, he never comes across someone going by his father’s name. In the end, Victoire had no option but to tell him the truth.
She explained that the photo he brought with him features his father wearing a costume of a firefighter. Billy later accepted the fact that his father might be dead when Max dropped him back home.
Bassem, on the other hand, chased the woman who looked like his wife only to discover that he is suffering from post-traumatic hallucinations.
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