How Did He Do It?

[lynbrown]

I am watching Les Mis every Sunday but foxed about last weeks episode. Jean was captured for the theft years ago of coins from Petit Gervase. We saw him in the prison ship and he extracted something from his mouth. Was it a key to his money chest hidden in the woods? How did he escape from the ship and able to go and search for Cosette?

[bookbinder]

It was hinted by another character (a police officer, I believe) that a prisoner had escaped from one of the hulks, but a search of the water did not reveal a body. The missing prisoner was assumed to have been trapped among the wooden frame of a pier. Javert realised that the missing man must be Valjean. It was obviously not difficult for an ingenuous person to escape from a prison hulk.

[bookbinder]

^^^ingenious (!)

[bookbinder]

What Valjean extracted from his mouth was (I think) a lock pick, with which he opened the lock on his chains.

[gingejbee]

I assumed it was a small blade with a serrated edge (or small file) to enable him to cut through the bars....since he had just examined the bars with hand and eye.

[bookbinder]

I think, gingejbee, that picking a padlock (on his chains) would be quicker than filing/cutting through the bars. An examination of the bars would quickly show that cutting through them would probably take up the remainder of his sentence!

[goodgoalie]

Not only that, but how did he go from being let out the first time to four years later being the wealthy owner of a factory in Montreuil and elected as mayor. Does the book explain this?
I think he escaped the second time with the hidden lock pick, and had enough money to 'release' Cosette because we saw him bury some valuables, along with his precious candlesticks.

[Mamyalynne]

There's a resumé of his role in the book here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Valjean

[goodgoalie]

According to the Wiki precis:
"In late 1815, Jean Valjean, now using the name Madeleine, arrives in Montreuil-sur-Mer. He revolutionizes the town's manufacturing and earns a fortune, which he spends mostly for the town's good, paying for the maintenance (including required staff) of hospital beds, orphanages and schools."

Hmmm - just like that!

[gingejbee]

Things haven't changed much, have they? Today there is a thread on AB about the "unbelievability" of soap storylines.

[goodgoalie]

I think this is very well done: good direction, well cast and high production values, but oh my, what a fair old pile up of coincidences in the actual story - Pontmercy living in the same lodging-house as Thenardier! And when he went to Javert to say someone was going to be robbed at the lodging-house, how did Javert know it was Valjean that he was talking about?

And what was Valjean doing with himself for the 10 years since we last saw him with Cosette as a little girl - twiddling his thumbs in the nunnery? He could have set up at least two successful factories in that time!
I could go on....

[lynbrown]

He worked as a gardener in the convent.

[aelmpvw]

not many laughs in it are there?

[goodgoalie]

Valjean wants to protect Cosette and avoid Javert, so why doesn't he LEAVE PARIS?! He's got plenty of money, so could go to the south of France, Spain, Italy, England - anywhere - and begin a new life for both of them.
I haven't read the book or seen the musical, so am watching because I want to know how it plays out (please don't tell me here), but the plot holes just nag away.

[gingejbee]

^^^the problem with condensing a 1200-page novel into six hours of TV, perhaps.
Still, it's very watchable - the hour just flies by....a good indication that you're enjoying it!

[Eleena]

Lyn, how good does Dominic West look in period costume!!

[goodgoalie]

Still enjoying this, but the plot has so many coincidences as to render the story unbelievable, and weaken any empathy we might have for the central characters.
How did Thenardier and his robbing two pals find Valjean's house - his daughter, who knew the address had not told him.
Javert gets captured at the very barricade that Pontmercy is fighting at, and whose note will now lure Valjean there.
And only now is Valjean thinking, er he should maybe get out of Paris....

[Eleena]

I watched episode 6 tonight, wow! How many episodes are there?