* The Tourist season 2 episode 6 recap contains spoilers *
After a thrilling and wildly funny rollercoaster ride, we're finally at the end of The Tourist season 2 and there were plenty of loose ends to tie up.
What does Eugene Cassidy's mother, Niamh, have that Frank McDonnell wants back so badly? Which family will Fergal McDonnell choose? What happened to Eugene's brother? ...And will we get to see Eugene dance?
There were answers to all these questions, but the season also ended on a pretty sizeable cliffhanger, which makes us suspect there could be more of The Tourist on the way in the years to come. Anyway, this is how the season 2 finale went down...
Who REALLY killed Donal McDonnell?
We begin with Elliot languishing in a prison cell after being arrested for the murder of Donal McDonnell. Helen visits him and confesses that she doesn't believe his denial and that while they love each other, it's not enough.
Elsewhere Frank is consoling Fergal about the death of his father (he means Donal) at the hands of Eugene Cassidy. “He’s not my father” says Fergal, but crucially doesn’t elaborate on which man he’s talking about. Nevertheless, Frank tells him now is the time to live up to his McDonnell name and “become the man his dad knew he could be”.
After being released from prison Elliot meets his mother, Niamh Cassidy, and tells her he thinks he ran away to Australia all those years ago because Donal killed his brother, thinking it was him. It's a sad story and certainly one we'd like to hear more about in any potential third series.
It's soon revealed that Fergal has chosen Elliot over the McDonnells after the youngster arranges a meeting with his birth father, asking him if he can stay with Niamh, which would be “..the last place anyone would think to find him.” But what’s in the bag Fergal?
After leaving, they're immediately pursued by a man called Ned Tooley, who chases the pair's car off a cliff in a move they hope will be welcomed by Frank McDonnell. It is not, but luckily for them, Eugene and Fergal jumped out of the car before it went over the edge.
Eugene takes Fergal to the Cassidy's pub, where he gets a very frosty reception from Niamh who’s convinced he’s been sent by Frank to kill her. As she holds a gun to his chest she confesses that it was SHE who killed Donal McDonnell and let Eugene take the blame for it.
Who is Eugene's father?
Meanwhile, as Helen arrives at the airport to travel back to Australia, she bumps into Ruari and Ethan and persuades them to help her track down Elliot Stanley’s widow in a last-minute bid to find out the truth about her ex-boyfriend. Where does she live? Next door to Ruari!
It seems Elliot was a diver whom Frank McDonnell hired to find the crashed plane. He visited the wreck with Niamh Cassidy, whom she believes killed her husband and buried what they found somewhere. “They got into a taxi together, but only she came back,” says Deirdre Stanley.
But when Helen asks about Eugene Cassidy, she says “He put it about a bit my Elliot,” so was Elliot Eugene’s dad? Yet more material to be covered in a potential season three?
They go to visit Diamond Express Cars - the taxi firm Deirdre says her husband used on that fateful day - and after going through 42 years of receipts, learn that Niamh was picked up by a remote coastal payphone. It’s one we’ve seen before, during what we now know was a flashback from 42 years back, in which a young Niamh Cassidy retrieved the case and did away with Elliot Stanley.
What's in the case?
Back at Cassidy HQ, Frank McDonnell arrives armed with the bomb that Fergal was supposed to bring. It looks like he’s going to blow the whole place up - until Helen walks in with the thing Niamh took, which Frank has been looking for for so many years.
They are love letters, from Frank’s father to Niamh’s mother, which were written decades ago. It seems the pair kept their romance a secret due to the conflict between their families, but it’s now clear that Frank and Niamh are actually siblings!
During this climactic moment, Niamh also confesses to murdering Donal, which means Eugene is innocent - as he’d always claimed!
What's in the file?
Six months later, Helen and Eugene (who’s sporting a very memorable new haircut) are in the Netherlands when they receive a file on Eugene, sent by a mysterious person who read about his case in the paper.
Helen says she doesn’t need a file to know who her boyfriend is and so Eugene burns it. She then asks Eugene to dance for her (finally) and as we see him performing a beautiful Swan Lake, the scene cuts to the fire, where we see flames consuming the file.
Yet before the crucial documents are destroyed, we see that Eugene was actually a Special Agent, deployed on a deep cover assignment in July 2005. Was he part of a Garda operation to infiltrate the Cassidy clan? Was he a special agent when he departed Ireland for Australia? So many questions for season three!
All episodes of The Tourist season 1 and 2 are available on BBC iPlayer now.
