Ovila shows up a third time.

6 years later at the wedding of daughter Alice. I loved that scene which is too short for me. That’s the one at the Church. Emilie and Blanche are
sitting next to each other. We can hear the Church bells and the majestic sound of the Organ. Ovila walks in with his daughter and Emilie is troubled
when she sees him. It is through her own eyes that the camera is showing him to us. He walks in through the camera which will slow down purposely so we can have more time to admire him.

He is beautiful.
Perfect and simply beautiful.
It is really moving. Her looks at her, proud and happy. Blanche watches her mother and she then realize how much Emilie was overwhelmed by Ovila’s beauty. It is in a moment that Emilie shows clearly her feeling. That’s what she had admired most with Ovila : his stunning beauty. She had conquered by his charms and she still was even today.

Ovila has a dance with Alice while Blanche and Emilie are watching. "Look, how proud he is...He always loved dancing." (Émilie)
And Blanche has to agree that he looks gorgeous. Her mother also agrees with a sign of her head. Then Emilie remembers the past ; Ovila will look at her again, as he is trying to reach her with his heart. He’s calling her. When the dance is over, he goes to Emilie and invites her for the dance. Emilie falls for it, and will dance with him. Then the camera will alternate between the two old lovers and Blanche who has been watching intensively. Now she understands what has united them; not a quiet love affair, but a burning passion, which was able to devastate everything around them.

It is time to say : Farewell ...

Now, it is the morning after. Emilie and Ovila have spent the night together. Emilie is sitting on the edge of the bed and Ovila is almost finished dressing up. They are happy and they share a laugh. Emilie has still the flame which is always burning ; Ovila’s eyes are brilliantly clear. He bends down to ask her something for which he anticipates an answer, perhaps negative, but he will dare to ask her anyway :

"Emilie...now with all those years gone by...do you believe...that we could live together ? "

Emilie’ eyes along with music will translate what she has on her mind. First, she dreams of a peaceful life with him, it is the music of their love.
Then the music gets louder : it’s the theme of her pains and miseries with him. Her face gets old, her eyes shut off. She gets up and look at herself in the mirror. Ovila comes near her.

"We’re older but we’re not smarter" ( Émilie)

Standing next to each other, they realized what life has done to them.

Emilie is not afraid to recognize what years and years have done to both of them, but Ovila can not stand this picture any longer. His face shows his sorrows and his sadness, he rather eyes at something else.

Emilie, facing him, is fixing up his shirt. Their farewell music comes in, slowly. The theme is from an old Folk song, Beautiful Swallow, recreated
and rearranged by Richard Grégoire into a beautiful nostalgic melody.

That immediately reminded me of a scene from Les Filles de Caleb : same music, same atmosphere. The scene took place in the Fall, they had been married for several years and were very happy during that period, a rare occasion. Ovila must leave for the bush as he will need money to buy new equipment for the farm. So, he will leave her, in a sad but tender scene. After a long hug, they will separate painfully, Ovila walking backward, without quitting her, looking at her straight in her eyes, he will go away. The charm of his youth fills up the screen.

A very bright picture, even if surrounded in half
tones sets and dark clothing. Then the picture fades away and I find an Emilie who seems smaller, facing an old Ovila; then she replies wisely :

"All our life, we have tried, Ovila. But what do you want...our love was not able to get older."

He looks at her again and touches her cheek in a lover gesture and caresses her cheek, his own mark of love which means that he is in love with her.
Emilie will take his hand against her, while Ovila will kiss her on the forehead it was a long, long kiss. In the shadow of their bodies, this picture will remain in my mind like a vision of eternity. Because during the split of a second, they are not in their fifties anymore but in their early twenties.

Emilie is still holding Ovila by his hand and picks up his coat and help him to put it on. Then she squeezes his arm and ask him for a last favor :

" I want you to promise me that this is the last time that we meet. " (Émilie)

Then I returned back in time, a long, long time ago. The first time they’ve separated, it was the end of the Summer 1898. Ovila paid a visit to Emilie in St.Stanislas. He was 17. He is madly in love with her and he tells her.He learns that his love is shared. They have just spent the most beautiful days of their lives but Ovila must leave.

The horse and carriage are ready. They’re saying goodbye, holding hands and Ovila is totally hypnotized by her. Emilie will ask him a final favor before he leaves her :
" Get up and go and promise me that you will not look back." (Émilie)

" Why ? " (Ovila)

" Because if you look back, you’ll never leave..." (Émilie)

" That’s the way you want it ? " (Ovila)

" Yes." (Émilie)

For me, that was the end of the flashback and Ovila is only 17 when he promised her to never see her again.
" I promise you. "(Ovila)

He caresses her face again and she hugs him strongly, the way she always did with him.

Holding him in her arms, she caresses his neck and his hair. The old lovers will remain like glued together until Emilie will break up and Ovila will step
back, sighing : My beautiful mist....

His hands sliding along her, he then will get out without turning back his head.

Blanche, who was in bed in the parlor, pretending that she is asleep, will see him pass before her. Ovila walks away in a strange manner, you must
see the picture to really understand. As if his legs were paralyzed and his mind was forcing them to walk.

Emilie is crying watching him leave.

I must have seen this sequence dozen
of times and I still do not understand how can she let him go. I just can’t believe it. I know that good reasoning had made Emilie opted for the right decision, but I can’t see being away from each other. I know that they both had suffered enough, so why revive an old fire which had been dying for over twenty-five years. I am still questioning myself as to where she got enough strength to break up with him and to lose for ever Ovila’s eternal green light in his eyes.

I will not tell you how the series ends as Ovila’s shadow is not to be compared with the beautiful character he had been. Instead I will keep intact in my heart the memorable picture of Roy in Les filles de Caleb and in Blanche.

A true character made with flesh and blood, his own creation in whom he has invested the very best of himself. Ovila in return has given him the eternal
youth. That’s what Blanche made me understand. Ovila can not get older, deep in my heart, anyway. Ovila will always be a young and impetuous young man, who is unable to abide by life tortures and sometime cruel demands. He is made to live passion and happiness. Ovila is an extremist of love and passion, tender and strong. Ovila is, in my opinion, my most cherished of all characters
created by Roy Dupuis.

I will keep Ovila’s memory intact and will bring to an end Ovila’s story quoting Ovila’s last words to Emilie in Arlette Cousture’s novel. Ovila is hiding in the Station, watching his children taking Emilie’s body on the train. The novel ends on these notes from Ovila :

From Les filles de Caleb. Tome II. Le cri de l’oie blanche. Arlette Cousture. Éditions Québec/Amérique. 784, 785.