As the finale begins, Charles Sobhraj (Tahar Rahim) talks to two young people about his time in Saigon. Luc (Geoffrey Breton) and Linnea (Saana Koivisto) talk about Charles stopping and helping although he didn’t have to. Linnea admits they’re blessed to have met them. Next, Gilbert Redland (Adam Rothenberg) helps gets the FBI involved, but Herman Knippenberg (Billy Howle) still isn’t happy because they’re not doing anything to capture the suspects. Angela (Ellie Bamber) helps by telling some of the FBI agents about the poisonings. Marie (Jenna Coleman) smokes from a distance while Charles works his magic on his new friends.
Gilbert tells Herman that they can’t find Gore’s documents so Herman explains they’re searching in the wrong section. They discuss the American victims and the non-fatal victims. Meanwhile, Marie asks Charles how many more fools they have to befriend. Charles admits he hates this place, but they no longer have Ajay to help them find new passports and traveler’s checks. If they want to leave India, they’re going to need new victims. Gilbert believes they should listen to the cops since neither of them are cops and they need more to go on than a book of matches. Herman introduces him to Mr. Akash Singh who is the consular attache at the Nepalese Embassy. Akash has brought records including an autopsy report and police report from Nepal. Herman explains that the autopsy report details what Connie-Jo Bronzich suffered at the hands of Charles although the FBI doesn’t believe so.
We watch as Charles robs another victim with help from Marie. Herman tells Gilbert more about the evidence while Marie says Luc is barely breathing. Charles and Marie blame Linnea for drugging him despite her denying it. Herman warns everyone that Charles will keep killing until he is caught and he does. After the intro, we jump forward a day to Delhi. Jean Huygens (Thomas Ryckewaert) grills Marie about Luc’s condition and death. Monique doesn’t want to answer any of his questions. Marie pretends to be a Miss Fernandez and Jean watches her every move. When she gets the check cashed, Jean confronts her and says Daniel never said anything about someone dying, but Marie says nobody was killed. She admits she has done this with Daniel many, many times and he is an expert.
She tells Jean he is a bum who was lucky enough to get a chance. Jean apologizes before she leaves to make a call. He continues watching her as she calls Quebec and talks to her mother about having babies. Her mother knows she is in Delhi and she warns her she is all over the newspapers. Jean watches her as she promises her mother it isn’t true, she is innocent, and everything was Charles. She admits she wants to come home before Jean walks up and swipes her purse. Marie pleads with her mother to help her. She storms off once she finds that her purse is missing and goes after Jean but he is long gone. Later, she returns to Charles who wants to know where Jean and her bag are. She admits he took her bag, but says it isn’t her fault that Charles recruits drug addicts and thieves.
He takes her ring and says they’ll need to give it to a pawnbroker because they need money. She criticizes the ring before Charles grabs her by her hair and tells her the truth about it. He accuses her of messing everything up and says she is his worst mistake. He calls her a cripple and other things. She admits it is true and says she at least knows what she is. She wonders if Charles can say the same. She gets upset and tells the others that everything about Charles is a lie. He says everything is a lie except that he is a mother’s boy and his mother despises him. When the others leave, she tells Charles she has longed to have his baby, but she would smash its brains out in front of him now. He beats her up whiles the others listens from outside.
Then, we jump forward a week. We join Jean in Goa where he gets a call from Deputy Superintendent Tuli. Jean is asked about reporting drugging or robbery crimes. Jean eventually admits that a man died. Next, Charles watches as new tourists get off of the bus. Next, Herman sits with a man and tells him how much he worried about Charles and what he could be doing right now. Charles is told that the criminal is no longer his responsibility. The man explains that his superior officer General Chaikamdee wants Herman to hand over all of his records because Interpol will be taking over. Herman realizes he has no choice since his ambassador would send him home.
He agrees to have everything boxed up and ready to go tomorrow. He rushes back home and begins putting everything together. Angela asks why he is rushing and he explains he has an idea. Paul Siemons (Tim McInnerny) believes he is going to try to get copies of the files. He takes both vehicles as well as Remi (Gregoire Isvarnie) and Nadine (Mathilde Warnier) to help copy the files. We jump back to India and Charles tells Marie about all of the tourists with their valuables, passports, and money. He tells everyone about the professor and his wife holding onto all of their belongings. He believes they’re reaching out and encouraging him to take it. Charles works to fill pills.
In the morning, Interpol arrives to take the files but Herman isn’t there. Remi prepares to leave. He says goodbye to his landlord and watches as a new couple move into Charles’s old place. Herman gives Nadine a gift. She is surprised to find that it is his report. He says he thought it might be useful in France. She admits she doesn’t want to say goodbye before Herman learns about the new tenants. Later, Herman and Angela talk about their departure. She offers driving to the coast this weekend to get out of the city but Herman believes he should stay in Bangkok. Although Colonel Sompol said it was no longer his responsibility, Herman is worried he might be needed. She is worried that they’ll never be able to go anywhere nice if Charles is never caught, but Herman believes he’ll be caught.
Angela isn’t happy with the way things are going so she says she might go visit her parents. Herman goes for a drink while Angela cries outside. Then, we jump over to Agra, India. Charles rides on the bus with the professor and tells him how he protects himself from illness by taking an anti-bacterial drug. He agrees to find the professor some. Then, we jump to Goa where Jean tells Tuli about keeping a woman tied up in the Ashoka Hotel. They talk about Daniel and his appendix scar. Jean learns about Charles being apprehended, imprisoned, and faking appendicitis. Their conversation turns to Monique the French-Canadian. Jean is told that the couple is being hunted by people around the world. Jean offers to tell Tuli what he wants to know as long as he’ll look after him and get him home.
Herman finds a note from Angela encouraging him to look after himself. Later that night, he goes out to a club and meets with Paul. Meanwhile, Charles meets with the professor and gives him the supposed anti-bacterial pills. He is calling himself Daniel and he agrees to stay for dinner. The professor’s students take the pills as well. Herman tells Laver (Damon Herriman) and Paul about nearly shooting his wife with Paul’s gun. Paul tells him he would be happier if he thought less. They contemplate whether Angela will come back. The professor’s wife Erica doesn’t get better so he asks Daniel to get a glass of water. Daniel tends to the, while Herman listens to Paul ridicule Charles and call him a conman. Marie watches as the police arrive with Jean. Everyone gets sick while police storm the restaurant.
Charles pleads with Karl to call an ambulance while Marie is surrounded by police. Charles makes off with Karl’s bags while Tuli talks to Marie. He wants Marie to tell him where he can find Charles. Meanwhile, Herman finds himself drunk and Charles is stopped by Tuli and his men. In the morning, a hungover Herman is awoken by a phone call to learn about Charles trying to poison 30 German engineering students. Herman goes to the office and tells the ambassador about it. Herman admits he knows how trying it must be for the ambassador but he hopes he can tell the families that justice has been served. When the Ambassador joins the others, he tells Herman he would like De Jongh to make the briefing notes now instead of him. Herman is left out in the cold. He shuts the door and steps out of the room for a smoke.
We jump forward a year and see archival footage of Charles being accused of poisoning 30 German tourists in one attempt. Charles quickly confesses to robbing the Ashoka Hotel of a million rupees in rare gems and drugging his prison guards. He claims he is loved in India before he is asked about the Israeli citizen Ethan Meir who was found dead of a drugs overdose in his motel in Varanasi. Charles is told about the man’s passport being found in his apartment. Charles blames everything on Herman Knippenberg and says he would like to meet him one day. Then, he is told that he will be moved as soon as his sentence here is over. The Interpol agent goes to Herman and tells him that everyone will be waiting once Charles’s sentence is served in India. He should face charges in Thailand after that.
Herman is given a present instead of a prisoner. He receives Marie’s statement which took her two full days. Herman is told he is receiving a copy to go with all of the other copies he made for his records. When Charles leaves, he goes through Marie’s statement immediately. We watch as Marie gives her statement to Tuli. She explains that the people in Bangkok suffering from dysentery go to the store to buy Kaopectates. She also says Alain or Charles used to mix the sedative Mogadon into water and combine it with the Kaopectate. He would give it to people who stayed with them. When the session ends, Tuli asks Marie if he can bring her anything, but she says she has god and that is all she needs. We jump forward 7 years and Marie experiences stomach pain.
She meets Charles who tells her that she betrayed him. She tells him she has come to say goodbye because they’re never going to see each other again. She says they’ve agreed to send her home to die. She always knew he was pitiless but she persuaded herself otherwise. She tells him that the cancer is in her womb. She asks him if he questions what they did or if he still sees himself as triumphant. He says he can tell her what is going to happen. He suspects that the Indians will release him and he’ll be free again. She tells Charles he will be free and she will be in Quebec under the earth. Then, we jump forward to 1997 and learn that they’re going to hold an interview with Charles. We learn that Charles escaped captivity once again and was free for 22 days before turning himself in. He was then sentenced to another 10 years in a Delhi jail.
Charles was granted a new French passport and returned to live there as a free man since he outlived the statute of limitations. We jump over to Athens, Greece and see that Herman has received a package from Angela Kane. It is a videotape and a letter. He puts it into his VCR and watches the interview with Charles. Herman is not happy with the interview and the fact that Charles can no longer face trial anywhere in the world. After the interview, we see that Charles is back with Juliette. Herman still has all of his copies. Then, we jump six years later and travel to Kathmandu, Nepal. Charles is approached by a man who wishes to take a picture. Charles asks the man to take another so they’ll know where he is. Thapa learns about Charles returning to Kathmandu. He is arrested a short time later.
He tells the press it is a misunderstanding but he is going quietly. Thapa asks him about the murders but Charles claims he has never been to his country in his life. Thapa doesn’t believe that since he remembers talking to Charles and his companion. When asked, Thapa tells him that Bloem and Dekker were the names he used on the passports. Then, we’re transported to New Zealand and Herman gets a call from Angela. She checks on Vanessa who is fine before telling Herman to open his email. Herman learns about the arrest in Kathmandu. Herman says nobody has said or written about him in years and someone so vain must hate that. Angela believes he got himself caught on purpose. Herman admits he enjoys notoriety and escaping. Herman calls Thapa and pleads with him to hold Charles.
Herman goes through his old evidence files and gets Marie’s statements about going to Kathmandu. Thapa talks to Charles who asks if he can leave. Herman tries to fax over the information as swiftly as possible while Thapa unlocks Charles’s cuffs. Thapa gets the statement and yells for the constable to stop Charles from leaving. Charles is brought back and told about his accomplice’s statement. Thapa admits he isn’t the only one who hasn’t forgotten Charles. He knows it is Knippenberg. Herman learns that they’re taking him into custody right now. Then, we learn that the reasons for Charles’s decision to return to Nepal in 2003 are only known to him. In November 2004, he was sentenced by a Nepalese court to life imprisonment for the murder of Connie Jo Bronzich in December of 1975. He lost two appeals against the conviction. In 2010, the United Nations Human Rights Committee expressed the view that he did not receive a fair trial.
In 2014, he was found guilty again for the murder of Laurent Carriere and sentenced to 20 more years. He did not challenge this conviction. Charles is still imprisoned in Kathmandu. Despite Thai police issuing a warrant for his arrest in 1976, Charles never returned to Thailand and was never tried for any crimes there. Without a guilty verdict, Charles is presumed innocent. Marie died of cancer in Canada in 1984. Besides on sighting in Germany in late 1976, Ajay Chowdhury has never been seen again. Nadine and Remi returned to Thailand but divorced. Nadine now runs a beach resort and Remi retired to the north where he grows tropical fruits to sell at market. Paul retired from the Belgian Foreign Service in 1979 and died in 2004.
Dominique still lives in France. Sompol retired from Interpol in 1991 with the rank Police Major General. Herman and Angela left Thailand in 1997 and separated in 1989. Both have remarried. Angela worked for the United States for many years until she retired in 2015. Herman continued his diplomatic career and served at posts around the world. He has retired but keeps his files on Charles cataloged, updated, and open.
The Serpent Review
The ending of The Serpent was bitter sweet. Although I am glad to see that the culprit was finally brought to justice, it doesn’t feel like those responsible received enough credit. It is hard to deny that so many people helped bring Charles to justice. Some spent years trying to achieve this goal while others did it while stealing a purse. I would’ve liked to have learned more about everyone involved and their future lives after their time with Charles.
Ultimately, this show should be an eye-opener for pretty much everyone who wishes to travel abroad. People like Charles Sobhraj are out there, so you really can’t throw caution to the wind. It is even scarier considering that the world is likely an even more dangerous place today than it was many years ago. Charles might be locked behind bars, but we have to wonder how many people worse than him are out there. It doesn’t help that these things are still swept under the rug by the organizations and people set to uncover them.
Nevertheless, those involved with this capture should be credited. The Serpent was pretty good although a bit dull at times during the first few episodes. If it can convince people to look over their shoulders a little more often, it has done some good. It has been one of my favorite shows in recent months. I think more true crime fans will enjoy this one. The series was very entertaining and I am sad to see it end. I’d give the finale an 8 out of 10. It was sad to see how so much had changed after these people encountered the Serpent.
Please forgive any mistakes above. It is 1:30 AM and I don’t have the time to go back and check for errors. Previous recaps of The Serpent are available on Reel Mockery here.
Jay Skelton is a fan of all television shows and movies. He tries his best to keep up with the latest foreign television shows and movies. Jay loves skinny dipping in the dark too.
