Jean Farel abandons his attempt to kill his wife and commit suicide

Jean Farel abandons his attempt to kill Françoise and take his own life on the day his son’s trial ends. The crisis brings together the burdens that have shaped his private life: Françoise’s irreversible decline, his unfulfilled promise to help her die, and the pull of a younger family that still depends on him. A message from his daughter interrupts the planned double death; Jean puts away his Beretta and goes to meet his son as he leaves prison.

The verdict and the return home

After the verdict, Jean shows no emotion in court; he has taken an anxiolytic shortly before entering. He approaches the defendant’s box to exchange a few words with his son, then leaves through the photographers’ flashes. Outside, women are protesting, and one tells a journalist that the verdict protects a white man with a promising future. Jean declines to comment. His immediate destination is the apartment he shares with Françoise, where he hopes to tell her how he experienced the five days of anxiety. That hope is already misplaced: Françoise no longer remembers his name.

He walks home through the IIe arrondissement. Inside, he finds Françoise on the floor, unable to use her weakened arms to pull herself upright with the help of a chair. Her caregiver has gone out and left a note saying she will return in less than two hours. Jean helps Françoise stand, struggling with the physical effort, then guides her slowly to the bathroom. The care he gives her is attentive and practical: the room has been adapted to ease her movement and prevent a potentially fatal fall, and he helps her wash and dress before settling her in bed. Françoise mistakes him for her father and asks whether he has brought her sweets, a sign of the irreversible regression caused by her disease.

A promise at the edge of action

Jean stays beside Françoise as she falls asleep, holding her hand. His feelings have shifted from passion to a quieter devotion expressed through presence during her decline. Yet that care is joined by grief and regret: their relationship had been conducted in secrecy, and he thinks he disappointed her throughout their life together. He had promised to help her die if her physical and mental condition deteriorated. Although Françoise gave him the contact details of a Swiss organization after her diagnosis, he never found the strength to contact it.

In the aftermath of the verdict and the sight of Françoise’s dependence, Jean imagines dying with her. He opens a concealed safe in the wardrobe and takes out a Beretta that Léo had bought him after he was attacked in the street. He stands before Françoise’s bed with the intention of shooting her, then himself. The scene turns on the distance between a promise and its enactment: Jean has long imagined himself as the person who might end Françoise’s suffering, but, when faced with the irreversible consequence, he cannot carry out the act.

The interruption and the choice to leave

Claude, the dog, enters the bedroom barking, interrupting Jean as he prepares to shoot. Jean then hears his phone vibrate. Rather than proceed, he puts the gun down and checks his messages. One is from the new director of his television channel, who asks him to respond quickly. The other is from Quitterie, telling him that his daughter wants him. In the background, Jean hears the child babbling and calling him Papa.

That small, direct appeal changes the direction of the scene. Jean recalls that he has a fifteen-month-old daughter and a son who needs him, as well as a young woman who loves him. He puts the Beretta back in the safe, kisses Françoise as she sleeps, and leaves the apartment. He takes a taxi across Paris, intending to be present when his son is released from prison. His immediate choice is not to resolve Françoise’s illness or his grief, but to turn back toward the living relationships that still call for his presence.

Narrative significance and ending

The attempted killing and suicide extend the novel’s concern with violence into Jean’s intimate life. In the same apartment, care and the possibility of violence occupy the same space: Jean has just lifted, washed, and comforted Françoise, but he also considers killing her under the weight of her decline and his old promise. The interruption does not erase that conflict; it prevents the act and leaves Jean to continue living with the obligations he has not fulfilled.

The ending gives no assurance that Jean will contact the Swiss organization or that Françoise’s condition will improve. Instead, the decisive change is his departure. He leaves her asleep and goes to meet the son whose trial has dominated the day. The final movement toward the prison makes his choice legible as a return to responsibility: the message from his daughter and the prospect of seeing his son restore a future that, moments earlier, Jean had imagined ending alongside Françoise.