'The Tourist's Second Outing Forges New Paths, Though With Diminishing Returns

When The Tourist Season 1 ended with the jaw-dropping revelation that Elliot Stanley (Jamie Dornan) was not just an accountant caught up in the mishaps of an unhinged gangster but a drug trafficker who smuggled product in the stomach of marginalized women, it wasn’t clear that the show intended to follow up this last minute twist. It seemed just like a continuation of Elliot’s disoriented recollection of his own amnesia’d past – there is no convenient chronology or order to the way one is reminded of their misdeeds. For all dramatic purposes, losing your memory means you’re an entirely new person, but your shaky understanding of who you are is constantly in flux. 

It’s a touch surprising then that The Tourist Season 2 doesn’t commit most of its 6-hour runtime to Elliot’s history with trafficking narcotics inside human beings. But it is definitely interested in the blurred lines between who Elliot was and this newly formed person. Switching up our location from Australia to Ireland, showrunners and brothers Jack and Harry Williams (Baptiste) are less interested in repeating the structure of Season 1, even if The Tourist’s sophomore outing feels like a case of diminished returns on the first. Elliot is still searching for answers, but the closer he gets to an uncomfortable solution, the more he chooses to run away from it as well.

After deciding to forgive Elliot for the evil revelations that, in his defense, he didn’t know he was keeping secret, our loveable Aussie constable Helen Chambers (Danielle Macdonald) has joined Elliot for a whirlwind romantic tour of the world. Their globetrotting affair is soon cut short when Elliot is called back to his home country, Ireland, via a mysterious letter from “Tommy” – a person he allegedly knows from a country he’s allegedly from. 

We spend mere minutes of tranquility with Elliot back in gorgeous Ireland before danger strikes again – Elliot is attacked and abducted by masked assailants. After a pretty exhilarating pursuit, he gets reacquainted with his kidnappers, the fearsome McDonnell clan, headed up by Donal (Diarmaid Murtagh) and crime boss patriarch Frank (Francis Magee). 

As Helen discovers from meeting Elliot’s white-haired and bitter mother, Niamh Cassidy (Olwen Fouéré), the McDonnells and the Cassidys have a bitter rivalry and are willing to go to any end to hurt each other. Elliot is just a new chess piece that’s been thrown back onto the board late in the game. As he finds himself and his loved ones in disorienting danger, he finds that survival depends on questioning the scant knowledge he has of his heritage – and even his name.

Even though the mystery is very Elliot-focused, this season takes a cue from its first one and centers Helen as much as possible. She leads the charge to locate Elliot after he’s kidnapped, finding herself at the mercy of a clingy and unstable Ruairi Slater (Industry’s Conor MacNeill), the Garda (Irish police) detective in charge of Elliot’s mess. As the thrust of the plotline about Elliot’s trafficking crimes peters out just over halfway through the series, the emotional aftermath is nearly entirely passed over to Helen.

Through a stretch of cleverly handled delusions, Helen is confronted with how powerless she is to meaningfully absolve Elliot of his past actions. It’s one thing to love a brand new, open, and honest person you found on the road in Australia; it’s another when everybody who once knew them is challenging your simplified relationship. When her ex-fiance Ethan (Greg Larsen) makes a surprise reappearance, it feels like all the men, past and present, who’ve tried to define and influence Helen’s life are targeted by her growing sense of agency.

Like the first season, the darker and thornier (i.e., more interesting) elements of The Tourist are left unexplored; to the Williams brothers, the increased reliance on psychological thriller beats feels like an attempt to keep the series as lively as possible rather than probe and unearth new character depths. Aside from some welcome softness from young McDonnell heir Fergal (Mark McKenna), the Irish crime family saga feels inauthentic, and the action scenes lack the bare-toothed Outback grit of Season 1.

Ultimately, Season 2 distills the strengths and weaknesses of the first season into an often inventive but limited follow-up. The Tourist narrative offers room for a wide variety of tones and tension in the blackly comic thriller mold; however, it’s difficult to take its themes too seriously when we’re constantly being told to prioritize having fun. Dornan is great, especially now that he and MacDonald’s characters have a chance to grow together, but too often, the performances hit against writing that too neatly articulates their unique and challenging relationship. The final twist acting as a surprise button to the season reminds us of The Tourist’s primary purpose — to promise new exciting waters, regardless of not having much to say when we’re there.

All episodes of The Tourist Seasons 1 and 2 are streaming on Netflix.