The average life expectancy of a gang member in Marseille isn't very long, according to the new Netflix crime drama Blood Coast, because we're only two episodes in and we've already seen plenty of murders: stabbings, shootings, and even one person being fed to dogs!
Blood Coast follows a group of loose cannon police officers who find their city of Marseilles becoming the battleground for two warring gangs. Well, "warring" is one word for it, but as this second episode shows us, "massacring" is another.
Here's our Blood Coast episode 2 recap, for the episode called "Welcome to the Squad".
Police corruption
The episode starts with Internal Affairs agent Miranda (Diouc Koma) quizzing the members of the police force who were involved in the gunfight: that's team leader Lyès Benamar (Tewfik Jallab), new rookie Alice Vidal (Jeanne Goursaud), captain Audrey Ilunga (Lani Sogoyou), and also briefly Arno and Tatoo too. During these interviews, we also learn that Benamar's predecessor was in a relationship with Ilunga but was caught for drug trafficking.
Baddie Franck Murillo (Nicolas Duvauchelle) and The Indian are reeling from the gunfight too. They've identified Alice as the daughter of Pierre, the cop Franck killed earlier in the year. They also decide to shoot a wounded henchman rather than take him to hospital.
Benamar and Tatoo go through a car they found at the scene of the fight and find the same type of crack cocaine that the dealer was caught with in episode 1. It's a potent and dangerous kind of dope that can kill people from a single dose, but almost always within six months of use.
Murillo's rival drug lord Ali Saïdi (Samir Boitard) has come to down after the death of his nephew Kamel in the last episode. Along with Kamel's brother Foudil, he tortures the man named Gonzo who led Kamel into the ambush, and then feeds him to his dogs! Then Ali and Foudil go to the morgue to see Kamel's body, but Commissioner Fabiani (Florence Thomassin) makes them leave. Fabiani then tells Benamar that they're back in Marseille.
Vidal goes back to her hotel and Miranda is waiting for her there. He asks her to help him take down Benamar for his rogue actions, but she refuses. She takes his card anyway though, which doesn't look great given that Benamar is spying on her.
That night, Benamar receives a call... from Ali the drug lord. Turns out they're in cahoots. He tells Benamar to sort out The Indian and to ensure he doesn't get in the way of Ali's quest for revenge.
Benemar's light and dark sides
The next day, Ilunga and Benamar pick up Vidal, as they plan to go to a district called Hades to search for leads. On the trip we learn that Vidal has a boyfriend back in Paris who works as a Federal Investigator.
While this happens Tatoo and Arno go on their own hunt to find leads. They hear about a man named Biggie who might know something, so they visit him. After some intimidation, they get the name of a bar he might be at.
Benamar takes Ilunga and Vidal to see a kids' soccer team and their coach, and the man gives them some new jerseys and gear. He also slides the coach some money, and the older man tells him that Ali is back in the city, and also about Gonzo and Nabil, the two dealers who were caught in the middle of Murillo's and Ali's feud.
Benamar shows Vidal around the territory, and she works out that Benamar and Ali made a deal to keep the peace, which she's not impressed by. They see some domestic violence going on, and she steps in to stop it, so he has to help out too. He ends up beating a man halfway to death.
Tatoo and Arno go to the bar and wait for clues. A big one shows up in the form of a van full of gunmen, who attack them and then drive off. The car is wrecked but both men survive unharmed. Later, the entire team and Fabiani meet to discuss the attack, and Benamar decides his team needs a drink to relax.
Murillo ups his body count
Ali drives to an estate to pick up a scared young man, who's one of his dealers. The boy is acting scared, and Ali searches him to find some of the bad crack cocaine that his rival is circulating. Foudil stabs him to death in the back seat of the car.
Later, the police team has identified the attackers as the same gunfighters as from the warehouse combat in episode 1, though they can't work out who it is. Vidal thinks that the attack was just a warning, as the shooters easily could have killed the officers if they wanted. Later that evening, Benamar drops Vidal at her hotel. He apologizes for the dramatic first few days but also warns her off from reporting on them to Miranda.
At Kamel's funeral, Ali is chastised by his sister (Kamel's mother) for not protecting the family. An elder tries to talk the man out of his quest for vengeance but the attempt falls on deaf ears.
Murillo and The Indian go to a nightclub to see the owner and blackmail him into setting up a meeting between them and Foudil, under the false pretense that he's seeing a girl. Foudil shows up, and rest assured The Indian knocks him out and abducts him.
In the van, Murillo hits Foudil and asks the man if he was present when Murillo's son was shot. Foudil was, which prompts Murillo to beat him to death with a spanner. So, that's Murillo's true motivation.
Later that day, when Ali arrives home, he finds the dead corpse of Foudil strung up in his tree. He has a bit of a meltdown, likely caused by his family getting even smaller in front of his eyes!
