Les Miserables

This episode begins with police inspector Javert (Gabel) recalling his lifelong pursuit of Jean Valjean. The program returns to the present -- 1832 in Paris -- when Javert, posing as a fellow rebel, spies on the students who erected a street barricade. Valjean goes to the barricade to help Marius, the fiance of his adopted daughter Cosette and one of the rebel leaders. There he discovers that Javert is about to be killed as a spy and astonishes Javert by setting him free. When the barricade falls to the army, Valjean, carrying the wounded and unconscious Marius, escapes through the sewers. Javert catches Valjean, but in a sudden change of heart, frees him. Unable to reconcile his generous action with his strict code of justice, Javert commits suicide by throwing himself into the river Seine.