Edmée

“*Arlo Beauregard, you look at me. Now there's nothing wrong with spreadin' your wings and goin' off to see the world. You cannot leave something behind when it's part of your heart.*”
―"The Uncondemning"
**Edmée** is a supporting character in the Netflix film *Arlo the Alligator Bo*y and its sequel series, *I ♥ Arlo*. She is a local swamp hermit who is hiding from the Feds, and served as Arlo's adoptive mother during his years in the swamp.

## History

### *Arlo the Alligator Boy*

Edmée is first seen feeling a disturbance from outside her shack before bursting out suspiciously. She then spots the infant Arlo Beauregard having showed up on her porch after a while of being lost at sea since being forsaken by his father Ansel Beauregard. She is touched by his appearance and adopts him, rearing Arlo as her own for his entire childhood, serving as a guardian and motherly figure to him. She warns him not to leave however, as well as not to mess with the various riverboats outside, despite his curiosity.

On the day of Arlo's fifteenth birthday, it came time for her to tell the truth of Arlo's life. After giving him a shoddy party to his request he can't accept his gift unless the birthday is that day, Arlo opens the gift to reveal the hospital bracelet from when he was born. It only contains his birth home in New York, as well as Ansel's name, but not the name of Arlo's mother's, which Edmée finds uncomfortable to talk about. She then reveals he showed up on the porch years ago and didn't tell him the truth until then because she wanted him to feel like he belonged, as nothing lasts forever and he's getting older.

The following day, Edmée notices Arlo's uncertainty and decides it's time for him to head for his true home. She then tells him the reason she didn't want him to leave the swamp was not for what would happen to him, but for fear of what it would do to her, and seeing how grown up he's become, he's making the right decision. When Arlo asks Edmée to come with him, she declines, as this is his adventure, as well as not wanting to be seen by the Feds. Edmée finally sees Arlo off as he gives a final farewell, with only Jeromio, Arlo's pet frog, to keep her company.

Edmée is not seen again until the end of the movie, when a mailman delivers something to her shack and she comes out suspiciously, thinking it's one of the Feds. However, it turns out she got a postcard from Arlo, showing his new life at Seaside by the Seashore along with a picture of his new friendship circle, which she feels proud of.

### *I ♥ Arlo*

Edmée is a minor, later supporting character of the series, which continues the adventures of Arlo following his new life. In the first season, she stays behind in her swamp shack and recieves letters and souvineers from Arlo, in addition to sending him care packages containing various mementos of her rebellious life.

At the end of "The Shedding", Edmée recieves the shed skin from Arlo which she puts on the side of the house along with the various other shed skins throughout the years. She soon hears a strange sound coming from nowhere and investigates; later on in "Jeromio, Jeromio", she has booby-trapped her shack and begins sending a distress letter to let Arlo in on her danger. Arlo recieves the letter in "Goin' It Arlone", but the follow-up package does not come, leaving him to believe someone took it. In "Alro", Bertie finds the package, the sender's name having been misspelt as "Alro", and Arlo discovers a ransom note from his former rivals Ruff and Stucky, who are revealed to be holding Edmée hostage and demand ransom within 24 hours, prompting Arlo and his friends to set off on Ansel's yacht to save her.

Once the party arrives at the swamp, they find it not the same as it was, having been turned into a dark vineyard. In addition, they enter the shack to find Edmée missing and only Ruff and Stucky are there; the two reveal the ransom note was an order given by the malicious Bog Lady from the Heart of the Swamp. Arlo is lured to the Heart, where the Bog Lady reveals herself, having known him and secretly protecting him all his life which he didn't know of. She then reveals herself to be the real kidnapper of Edmée, who is being held in a thorn cage as bait, and demands Arlo apologize for leaving the swamp to begin with. When Arlo refused, he is hypnotized by her into never leaving, but thankfully snaps out to the sound of Bertie's and Alia's voices, allowing him to free Edmée while they fight the Bog Lady behind him to keep her busy.

While escaping on Marcellus' fan boat, the Bog Lady grabs hold of them and Arlo apologizes to Edmée for all this being his fault for leaving the swamp in the first place. Edmée reassures him he did nothing wrong and he cannot leave something behind when it's part of him. Arlo realizes the swamp will always be part of him no matter where he goes, and begs the Bog Lady for forgiveness, but she refuses and tries to eat them; as a failsafe, Edmée reveals she rigged her shack with a self-destruct mechanism and activates it, causing the shack to explode, killing the Bog Lady and freeing Arlo and his gang as they land on a train back home.

On the way home, Edmée is introduced to Arlo's friends and tells him she's fine with Arlo not coming sooner and what matters is he came. By using the fan boat, they return to Seaside in time for its Uncondemning party; during the celebration, Edmée dances with Jeromio and introduces herself to Ansel.

## Foreign voices

* Zainab Mubarak (*Arabic*)
* Cidalia Castro (*Brazilian Portuguese*)
* Tina Gylling Mortensen (*Danish*)
* Lucie de Lange (*Dutch*)
* Sari Ann Stolt (*Finnish*)
* Lucienne Troka (*French*)
* Sabina Trooger (*German*)
* Hilda Iliopoulou (*Greek*)
* Mirta Pepe (*Italian*)
* Sarit Sari (*Hebrew*)
* Mai Takano (*Japanese*)
* Ahn Kyung-Jin (*Korean*)
* Magda Giner (*Latin America*)
* Jair Campos (*Latin America, singing voice*)
* Mari Maurstad (*Norwegian*)
* Hanna Chojnacka-Gościniak (*Polish*)
* Ana Cloe (*Portuguese*)
* Tania Popa (*Romanian*)
* Abou (*Simplified/Traditional Chinese*)
* Awang Tao (*Simplified/Traditional Chinese, singing voice*)
* Raquel Cubillo Vásquez (*Spanish*)
* Vicki Benckert (*Swedish*)
* Elif Erdal *(Turkish)*