Barkskins series premiere recap: An epic story begins

Introducing Charles Duquet and René Sel

The two leading characters of the series are immigrants arriving in New France to work for three years in indentured servitude as punishment for crimes committed elsewhere. René (Christian Cooke) is a woodcutter — a barkskin, and Charles (James Bloor) is a thief who has no intention of serving his time.

For his skills with an ax, René is purchased straightaway by an eccentric man named Monsieur Claude Trepagny (David Thewlis). Trepagny has ambitious aspirations of creating a prospering city as part of his Doma — which I believe is short for a domain in this context.

He doesn’t care much for Charles, who does nothing but gripe about a cankered tooth and repeatedly disrespect Trepagny, but René convinces him to take him on anyway. The Frenchman puts them to work at once. However, by the end of the first episode, Charles has abandoned Trepagny’s “Doma” in an attempted escape plan.

Hamish Goames and Yvon search for Randall Cross

Hamish Goames (Aneurin Barnard) and a man named Yvon (Zahn McClarnon) arrive at Wobik in search of the HBC leader, a man named Sir Randall Cross, who has gone missing. He previously stayed at a small tavern run by the Geffards, Francis (Adrian Hough), and Mathilde (Marcia Gay Harden).

Francis is reluctant to give Hamish, who is an Englishman, or Yvon, who is an Indian, any information about Cross’s visit. Mathilde interrupts Francis’s manipulation tactics to admit that Cross previously stayed in their Rose Room.

They take the men to see the last place he visited. We learn that the Rose Room got its name from a rose painted on the windowpane by the Geffards’ late daughter, Veronique.