Anthracite: Secrets of the Sect is a cool new French mystery show you can binge-watch on Netflix. It’s all about hidden crimes and messed-up histories tucked away in a charming Alpine town.

The story centers on a girl named Ida. She rolls into the town of Levionna to find her dad, who’s gone missing. He’s a journalist who came back to Levionna thirty years after writing about a cult’s mass suicide there.

Anthracite tries hard to be super complex and full of surprises, but it’s also pretty fast-paced and fun to watch overall.

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What Is This Series is All About?

The Netflix series Anthracite kicks off in 1994 with a dramatic scene involving a heavily armed police SWAT team storming a house known to be the headquarters of a local cult.

Led by Caleb Johansson, the cult leader, the members are found dead inside, victims of mass suicide by poisoning. Caleb is apprehended but survives, spending the rest of his days in a psychiatric facility for leading his followers to their demise.

Fast forward to 2024, and we meet Ida, a determined young woman on a mission to find her father, Solal, who disappeared in the Alpine town of Levionna, where the cult tragedy unfolded.

Solal, a journalist who extensively covered the cult incident thirty years ago, mysteriously vanished after returning to Levionna.

Concerned for her father’s safety, Ida, armed with her investigative skills and a sizable online following, heads to Levionna to unravel the mystery.

In Levionna, Ida stumbles upon clues left behind by Solal, leading her to Jaro Gatsi, a troubled young man with a criminal past.

Despite initially resisting involvement, Jaro finds himself entangled in the search for Solal when a woman named Emma Marcais disappears while in his company.

As tensions rise in the town, fueled by a string of unexplained disappearances over the years, Ida and Jaro team up to piece together the puzzle.

Meanwhile, tensions escalate between police investigators Giovanna and her husband Erwan, who disagree on the severity of the situation. When Emma’s lifeless body is discovered with a mark resembling those of the cult victims, the town is gripped by fear and suspicion.

Determined to uncover the truth, Ida and Jaro turn to the enigmatic Caleb for answers, setting off a chain of shocking revelations that unravel the dark secrets buried within Levionna.

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The Truth Behind the Mass Suicide

You know that super creepy mass suicide everyone talks about? Well, it wasn’t what it seemed. Ida, this girl, finds some secret tapes her dad made about this cult called Ecrins.

They thought the cult killed this girl Roxanne back in ’94, but it was actually something totally different. Roxanne was tight with Juliette, a cult member who’s also Jaro’s mom.

After the cult’s mass suicide, Juliette’s all about their leader Caleb, saying she’s visited by some spooky entity every night.

Ida and her pals think this kid named Mani, who escaped the suicide, might’ve been behind Roxanne’s death. They try to nab him at a carnival, but things get crazier.

Turns out, this retired cop, Denis, who was on the case in ’94, was secretly part of the cult. He even killed a dude in some messed-up ritual, thinking it’d heal him.

When it didn’t, he went off the deep end and poisoned the cult’s water, wiping them all out, except Caleb. Denis goes nuts again, poisons the carnival crowd, and off’s himself.

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Was Arcacia Corporation Part of the Murders?

In the town of Levionna, there’s a big fuss about the Arcacia Corporation. People think they’re up to no good, doing weird experiments without asking anyone.

There’s this feeling that they’re messing with People, especially kids, without permission. Some even think Arcacia’s experiments caused police officer Giovanna’s miscarriage last year.

But here’s the twist. Arcacia wasn’t just being sneaky. They found something cool in the old mines, a special germ in the anthracite. This germ could be used for amazing medicine. So, Arcacia sent teams to study it. But they weren’t just studying.

They were also trying to make the germ work better by testing it on sheep they stole from the town. Sneaky, right?

And then there’s Emma Marcais. She had an Arcacia chip inside her. She might’ve been part of their experiment, and it could’ve led to her death.

Mani Bachelard, the head of Arcacia, had a rough childhood. His dad was into crazy cults and took Mani all over, even to France, to escape. But Mani hated the cult life. He wanted to do science, not weird rituals.

So, he started Arcacia. But even though he’s not into cults, weird stuff still happens. Workers in the mines get attacked by something spooky, and Arcacia has to shut down.

So, was Arcacia behind the murders? Maybe not directly, but they were definitely tangled up in some shady stuff.

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Did Ida Find Her Father?

With some help from Solal’s old videos, Ida and her pals track down a pastor who really hated the cult and wanted them out of town. They discover that the pastor’s daughter is still alive, living as an outcast in the woods.

And guess who they find at her place? Solal Heilman, alive and kicking, despite losing a foot. Turns out, the daughter helped him when he was hurt in the forest, even amputating his foot herself. But Solal’s still in bad shape and ends up in the hospital, not responding.

Meanwhile, Ida stumbles upon a video her dad always carried. This video changes everything.

Thirty years ago, when Solal was interviewing Juliette, she was pregnant. During one interview, Juliette suddenly went into labor, and Solal helped her deliver the baby right there.

Turns out, Juliette had a baby girl, not Jaro, but she didn’t want to keep her because she was a result of Caleb Johansson forcing himself on her.

So Solal decided to raise the baby as his own, since he and his wife couldn’t have kids. This video reveals to Ida that Solal isn’t her real dad; she’s actually Juliette’s daughter from Caleb’s assault. This makes Jaro her brother, and Caleb, the crazy cult leader, her biological dad.

To top it off, Caleb breaks out of the mental hospital and promises to tell Ida the whole truth.

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The Hidden Truth Behind the Disappeared People

Remember those folks who mysteriously vanished in Levionna? Turns out, Giovanna, despite being scoffed at by her cop husband Erwan, was onto something fishy. When Jaro’s daughter Malia goes missing, he’s convinced she’s been taken to the mines.

Giovanna tags along on the search, and what they find there is chilling: a bunch of dead bodies. The culprit? Valerie Faure, a woman who got obsessed with a cult leader named Caleb.

Back in ’94, a journalist named Solal left behind some tapes in a storage space, and Valerie, a worker, got her hands on them. She was smitten with Caleb and went all-in, even having his babies.

But she had a twisted plan: her son, Hari, would be a good guy, while her daughter, raised in the mines, would be evil.

The missing people? They were lured to the mines by Valerie’s daughter on her mom’s orders, then sacrificed. When the truth comes out, Hari spills the beans to the cops.

Meanwhile, Caleb figures out Valerie and her daughter are up to no good and tries to stop them with the help of Ida. But Valerie’s daughter kills Caleb, and there’s an explosion in the mine.

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Who’s Enola Really?

Okay, so by the end of Anthracite, a lot of mysteries are cleared up, but there’s still one big question mark: Enola, the creepy figure Juliette kept talking about. Turns out, Anthracite saves the juiciest twist for last.

So, Ida’s in a tough spot. She’s got leukemia and needs surgery ASAP. Her supposed dad, Solal, shows up hoping to convince Caleb to donate since he might be her real dad. But Caleb’s not keen on helping. Then, out of the blue, Jaro steps up and says he’s a match for the surgery. Nice move, Jaro!

But hold up. Turns out, Ida and Caleb don’t share the same DNA. So, Caleb’s probably not her dad after all. And then, Jaro finds this old tape that spills some serious tea. Juliette wasn’t attacked by some supernatural being.

Nope, it was her own brother, Claude, creeping into her room every night. Enola? That was just a twisted nickname her mind came up with, based on a word on Claude’s shirt. Crazy, right?

Back in the day, Juliette’s friend Roxanne found out about Claude’s sick secret, so he did something terrible to keep her quiet. He killed her and made it look like a cult thing with anthracite.

Fast forward to now, and Claude’s still up to no good. He attacked Solal and even his own wife when she found Juliette’s tape.

Jaro finally faces him and gives him a beatdown, but he doesn’t go full-on vengeance. Instead, Ida shows up, and they have a heart-to-heart.

Oh, and there’s this little post-credits scene where they’re making a documentary about all this mess. Ida’s got her doubts if they’ve got the whole story, though. Then, she gets a wild video that sends her running off the set.

We don’t see what’s in the video, but it’s something seriously freaky. Could be a clue that Valerie or her daughter might still be out there, or it might just be some random crazy stuff. Either way, Ida’s hyped for a new mystery to solve with her internet sleuth pals.