Class Act Ending Explained: Netflix recently released its latest limited series centred around the life of one of the most controversial French public figures, Bernard Tapie, the late businessman, singer, actor and TV host. His role is played by Laurent Lafitte in the 7-part series created by Tristan Seguela and Olivier Demangel, and it also stars Josephine Japy, Patrick d’Assumcao, Camille Chamoux, Antoine Reinartz, Hakim Jemili and others star in important roles.
The onscreen fictional translation of Tapie’s real life events was still able to capture the many scandals the man’s name was caught at the centre of. One of the most significantly fleshed cases among those is that of him being accused of organising the football match-fixing exchange during a 1992-93 French Division 1 match between Valenciennes and his own football club Olympique de Marseille, aka OM.
The last episode captures his verbal altercation with the prosecutor leading the case at hand following the confession of the Valenciennes player Jacques Glassmann, who was one among the three players to have been contacted through the Marseille player Jean-Jacques Eydelie. Here’s how the final episode tackled the issue and portrayed Tapie’s eventual downfall.
Tapie Ending Explained Contains Spoilers
Class Act Ending Explained
One of the major strikes against Tapie’s name was raised when the workers at Wonder started holding strikes to assert their rights. Bernard Tapie acquired the company at a time when it was already going under, but he only got to hear the full extent of the sinking ship’s problem on the day he was make a public appearance announcing the company’s new start.
His contract’s credibility had been built up on the account of his promises to the workers that he would never cut their jobs off, but after finally taking over the brand, he got more fixated over building his public image on TV than hearing their problems. He was ultimately left with no choice but to sell off the company he’d acquired before coming over to Wonder, Diguet-Deny.
Once he started his TV show and started getting even more traction for the French public, politics wasn’t out of the picture for him. The President at the time himself contacted him and was pleased by his straightforward attitude. Once again, Tapie started harbouring dreams of wanting to save people and bettering their lives, much like he did with his rookie ambulance program back in the day.
Once he joined politics, Charles Coupant came back into his life and started accusing Tapie of wrongfully keeping the trade numbers associated with the Diguet-Deny business under wraps. While he was keeping with his nose deep into the Socialist Party, Dominique helped sort out the affair.
However, all didn’t end well for him. He was forced to resign from the party and also sell off the brand he dearly adored – Adidas. With his focus now fully back on his football club, he gave it his all to make things soar as the President. His ultimate goal for the team was for them clinch the Champions League in Europe, especially since if his team would then bag the title for being the first French FC to have achieved this feat.
It’s this very ambition for the team that finally dragged him down to the edge. Marseille was set to face off against AC Milan in the European final, but before that they had to play against Valenciennes. They wanted their players to be well rested for the match against AC Milan, but that didn’t give them the liberty to take it easy either as if they’d lost that match, Paris Saint-Germain F.C. would’ve taken the leading spot for the title.
And so Bernard found the solution through an illegal means. Joining forces with the team’s sporting director Jean-Pierre Bernes, he used one of his own team players to get in contact with Valenciennes players. Among them, Glassmann slipped out of the deal last minute and filed a complaint against Bernes as he claimed to have spoken with him on the phone too for the deal.
Although Tapie’s name is not yet brought into the mess, when the case eventually reaches the ears of the public prosecutor Eric de Montgolfier, a full-fledged investigation is carried out, which leads him to the evidence of some money surreptitiously being left out for one of those three players, and ultimately the second player in the lot also comes forward with his confession, fully backing the allegations.
Next Bernes is also called to the prosecutor’s office, but in the midst of it all, Tapie takes the wrong step forward of attempting to bribe Montgolfier, who was interested in nothing but eagerly bringing the perpetrators’ names to light. It only ended up making things worse for Tapie, who was eventually found guilty and he was left with no resort but to resign from his position as the football club’s owner.
Around the same time, Tapie also grasped at founding a happy life with his family and finally resolved his issues with Dominique and asked her to marry him. He even almost had another chance at politics and dreamt big of becoming the Mayor of Marseille before everything went South. On being found guilty of match-fixing, he was sent to prison, and the final episode ends with the image of the jail’s inmates cheering on his name as he makes his way in, which is the same vision that the show began with in Episode 1, but then took us back in time to reveal his life story first instead.
Dominique comes out to visit her Tapie, and as she forgives him for his zestful ambitious drive, he firmly affirms of wanting to step away from his many interests, be it business, football or politics. He also speaks of an American tribe searching for their identity, much like his own chaotic journey, but it all ends with him finally pushing the end button on all his endeavours and just wishing to be around his family.
The Tapie Netflix series is now streaming on the OTT platform.