As the second series of The Tourist begins, a guard on a train notices smoke coming from one of the cabins. He knocks on the door and tells whoever is inside to open up. Elliot (Jamie Dornan) opens the door before saying Helen (Danielle Macdonald) is his girlfriend. They deny smoking marijuana. The guard finds a lighter with “Vietnamese and gay” engraved on the front. After telling them how offensive that is, the guard instructs them not to smoke before asking Elliot about his beard. Elliot closes the door and goes back to bed with Helen. He promises to shave off his beard when they get to Cambodia. Elliot says nothing can touch them. Helen asks if he is 100% sure about that.

She has been waiting to give him a letter that was mailed to the police station while he was in the hospital. It contains a picture of Elliot and another man named Tommy. Helen thinks it is time to find out who he really is. Before long, they’re at the Sclata Café and Helen is reading about Ireland. They’re waiting for someone. Eventually, a man approaches, says hello, and walks away. Elliot says it could’ve been Tommy. Elliot agrees to get rid of the beard right now. He goes to the bathroom while Helen speaks to a little boy who tries to retrieve his ball. The little boy doesn’t respond to her. Elliot is attacked by two masked men in the bathroom. They eventually get the best of him and throw him in the back of a van.

Helen goes looking for Elliot and finds signs of a struggle. In the van, Elliot picks up a piece of glass that he uses to try to free his hands. He tries to break through the back door. The guys up front don’t hear him because their music is so loud. Elliot escapes through the back before the guys turn around to get him. Elliot manages to get away from the van when it stalls, but he falls over a rock and rolls down a hill. Detective Ruairi Slater (Conor MacNeill) cries in the bathroom under he hears a knock on the door. He learns that an Australian lady just arrived in the country talking about an abduction at Sclata Café. Slater takes off his ring and throws it into the toilet before retrieving it. Elliot tries to get a signal on his phone.

The van approaches him from behind and the pursuit begins again. This time, Elliot is knocked to the ground. When he is grabbed, he asks if they work for Kosta. Elliot asks what he’s done. They eventually knock him out. Detectives Slater meets Helen who tells him that her boyfriend Elliot has gone missing. Slater suspects someone other than Tommy sent them a message and arranged the meeting. Helen insists Elliot is in trouble before asking Slater to look at the scene. They check out the bathroom together. Helen shows the detective where the vehicle was parked and where it went. Elliot wakes up in a room with a boar nearby. It has a message telling him to open it. He bangs on the door and yells for them to let him out.

Elliot finds a key stuffed inside the stomach of the dead animal and uses it to free himself. Then, he finds a baby monitor before a disguised voice asks if he is having fun yet. The man tells him he is the last voice he’ll ever hear. Helen tells Detective Slater about Elliot and blames herself for his abduction. Slater promises that they’ll find him. At the police station, Helen gets messages asking why she is with Elliot and when she is coming home. She receives a call from Ethan Krum (Greg Larsen) who remembers what she said. He admits it was a wake-up call. Ethan is at the Coal Harbour Community Centre delivering his NED talk on toxic masculinity. He confirms others are listening to their conversation because it is part of the process.

Ethan knows how his behavior impacted her and he wants to make amends. Helen hangs up on him. Slater tells Helen that DNA isn’t back on the bottle yet, but there has been a sort of development. He has to speak to her before telling Helen anything. They speak to Niamh Cassidy (Olwen Fouere) who got sent a photo of Elliot out of the blue. She reveals she is his mother. Elliot is told he can leave the room but it’s up to him. He can only get through if he cuts off his legs. When Elliot refuses, a grenade is thrown into the room with him. Then, Fergal, Orla, and Donal come into the room and laugh about it. Donal (Diarmaid Murtagh) asks Elliot if he remembers him. Elliot tells him that he had an accident that messed with his memory.

Fergal (Mark McKenna) secures Elliot’s hands behind his back. Elliot admits the name McDonnell means nothing to him. He insults them and gets hit. Fergal keeps asking questions. Orla (Nessa Matthews) tells him to get on an app so he can find a date. Elliot apologizes for whatever he did. Orla says he’s done plenty whether he remembers it or not. Elliot laughs about Donal’s name before Orla hits him. Helen stops Niamh so she can speak to her before she leaves. They talk about Elliot, but Niamh doesn’t know where he is or who might’ve taken him. He was 27 when she last saw him and his dad was in the hospital. She hadn’t seen him in seven years. He just up and left but she isn’t sure why. Niamh asks if Elliot came there to see her.

Helen tells her about the car crash about a year ago. Niamh remembers Elliot dancing to this song since he used to do ballet. Helen gets a call confirming the DNA on the whiskey bottle matched the clothing they found in Elliot’s bag so it was his DNA. Niamh seems to remember something when she looks at a picture of the bottles, but she won’t say anything about it. She leaves in a hurry. Ruairi goes home where he talks to his mom, Fiona (Emer Casey), about his day. He talks to her about apples. Slater goes into a hidden door and conceals it. He takes a knife with him. He talks to someone about pork and beans. Ethan speaks to a man about his relationship with Helen. He believes she has left the door open. Ethan has booked a flight to Ireland.

Helen keeps an eye on Niamh Cassidy before going to her motel. She checks in and goes to her room. Next, Elliot talks to Donal about not being able to remember anything. Donal says that means he can’t remember Tamar. He gets mad at Elliot and hits him in the head. He wants to shoot Elliot, but Orla reminds him that wasn’t the deal. He doesn’t care about the deal. Orla thinks he cares about Frank though. When they’re alone, Elliot asks Fergal for a drink. Fergal removes the restraints from his arms and ties them in front of him. Elliot drinks the alcohol and learns it is a family recipe. Elliot says Fergal doesn’t seem to hate him as much as the others or he may not like seeing people killed.

Elliot believes that makes him normal. When Fergal isn’t looking, it appears that Elliot makes a Molotov cocktail. Helen looks at the picture of the whiskey bottle. She goes out and follows Niamh who meets Briain McDonnell (David Greene). Niamh tells Briain she wants to know where he is. He questions why he should tell her. She wants him to send a message to his cousins. She stabs him in the eye. Detective Slater goes back into the basement and panics when he sees his doll on the ground. Donal returns to the others as Elliot prepares to make his move. Elliot manages to catch Donal on fire before fleeing. Donal tells the others to go find him. Orla gets a call and tells someone that Elliot got away briefly.

Ethan boards a plane for Ireland. Lena Pascal (Victoria Haralabidou) sits next to him while she is on the phone with Orla. She tells Orla to just find him. Ethan tries to talk to her, but Lena isn’t in the mood for it. Elliot reaches an edge and realizes he is stuck on an island. Two divers find a plane beneath the water. One cuffs the other to a post inside the plane and stabs them before fleeing with a box. Once she gets out of the water, she stops to use a phone. The woman (Maeve Smyth) tells someone that she did it and Elliot Stanley is dead.

 

The Tourist Review

The first season of The Tourist started strong and quickly went downhill until it completely fell off in the last episode. Regardless, the series was successful in terms of drawing ratings so it was a no-brainer to renew it for a second series. Although this was only the first episode, the second series already feels like a steep downgrade compared to the first which was just okay to begin with.

This episode didn’t really get me excited to watch the rest of the series even though I probably will. For starters, the dialogue is pretty bad with a lot of stupid lines that people wouldn’t say in those situations. It is trying to be quirky when it is really just annoying. Some of the characters are borderline obnoxious as well. Ethan is a great example of this so it is strange that the character was written into the second season.

The camera movements are odd sometimes because they’re jittery instead of being smooth. This was very obvious at several points, especially when Elliot was going into the bathroom at the café. While this isn’t a major issue, it did make the production have a low-budget feel. In a way, it seems The Tourist is trying to be humorous but it doesn’t really work well in that area. The series would’ve worked better in this season and the last if it had taken the story seriously.

Truthfully, it is just dumb. The characters are dumb and the story is dumb. The story is too drawn out and slow to reach the episode count. A lot of nothing happens in many scenes or it rambles about some insignificant for too long such as Elliot’s beard. After the first episode, I am still struggling to find a reason to care.

Maybe that’ll come soon enough, but I have very little hope. The episode scores a 5.5 out of 10. Recaps of The Tourist can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent work at this link. Learn more about advertising with us here. Discuss this series and others at the Reel Mockery Forum.