HBO Max’s thriller series “The Tourist” centers on a car rollover victim named Elliot Stanley, who completely loses his memory due to the incident. With the help of some acquaintances from the town of Burnt Ridge, Elliot tries to learn more about his identity and his involvement in a series of difficult situations. Written by Harry and Jack Williams, the series progresses through Elliot’s attempts to unravel the mystery behind his enemies, who relentlessly pursue him. The gripping series’ first season ends with a cliffhanger, leaving viewers stunned. If you’re trying to make sense of its ending, we’ve got you covered! FRONT SPOILERS.
The tourist summary
A man is being chased by a giant lorry as he drives through outback Australia in his car. After considerable effort, he loses the truck but ends up being hit by the same. He wakes up in a hospital in the city of Cooper Springs, with no memory of his past or who he is. Trainee agent Helen Chambers visits the man and tries to retrieve information about him, but is unsuccessful. From his clothes, the man gets a scrap paper with the address of a restaurant and the date of a meeting.
The man is discharged from the hospital and goes to a restaurant in Burnt Ridge, a nearby town, and sits at the table mentioned in the newspaper. When he leaves to go to the bathroom, a bomb explodes in the restaurant. He realizes he is being stalked by an unknown enemy. With the help of Sue, the owner of his townhouse, the man tries to find out what he was doing in the area before his memory loss. Just then, he receives a call from a man buried in a barrel of oil, asking for his help.
Together with Luci, a waiter at the restaurant, the man locates the buried man but discovers that he is dead. Coming back, he notices that Luci’s handwriting and the handwriting on the scrap paper are the same. When confronted, Luci reveals that he is Elliot Stanley, her ex-boyfriend. As they return to Burnt Ridge, a man named Billy arrives at Sue’s house and attempts to kill Elliot, Luci, and Helen. Elliot saves Helen from Billy and they both escape. Billy goes to Luci’s house and gets killed after a fight. Meanwhile, Detective Rogers arrives at Burnt Ridge to investigate the explosion. He alerts nearby police stations to find Elliot.
When Helen realizes the police are looking for Elliot, she begs him to turn himself in. However, he holds her at gunpoint to flee the area and find Luci, who is trying to leave town. During their expedition, Helen and Elliot begin to bond. Just then, Kosta Panigiris, an infamous drug lord, arrives in Burnt Ridge for Elliot. He kidnaps Rogers’ wife and asks the detective to find and bring Elliot to him. The detective agrees and locates Elliot at a nearby motel. When a local policeman named Lammon gets in the way of Rogers’ plan, he kills him and takes Elliot to Kosta.
Kosta threatens to kill Elliot unless he finds a bag containing $1 million that Elliot stole from the notorious criminal. As they try to locate the bag, Elliot begins to remember his past and realizes he was Kosta’s accountant. Meanwhile, Luci arrives to save Elliot. A gunfight ensues when Elliot and Luci attempt to escape, resulting in Kosta’s instant death and Luci’s eventual death. While escaping, Elliot encounters Helen. They discover that Detective Rogers has framed them for the murder of Officer Lammon.
The Tourist Ending: Is Elliot dead or alive? Why is he trying to kill himself?
When Helen realizes that her life and Elliot’s life are being targeted, the probation officer calls on his co-worker Freddie for help. Freddie discovers a radar photo which clearly shows that it was Detective Rogers who kept Elliot in custody and not the other way around as the policeman told his superiors. Yet Elliot is imprisoned for holding a group of people hostage. While waiting for bail, Lena Pascal comes to see him. To a puzzled Elliot, Lena reveals that he used her and a group of women to traffic heroin.
Lena shows Elliot the scar from the cut made to retrieve the heroin bags from her stomach and tells him how her comrades died during the mission. A stunned Elliot tries to dismiss her accusations but his persistence in telling her of his cruelties improves. His conscience fills with guilt when he realizes he pushed two innocent women to death for his selfishness that he doesn’t even remember. Lena’s terrifying and upsetting presence, revelation, and scar compound the growing guilt in Elliot. His watery eyes see Lena as the embodiment of his cruelty.
Upon his release from prison, Elliot contemplates life and the guilt drives him to commit suicide. After making sure Kosta’s million dollars reaches Sue’s hands, he crashes his own car and dies. Elliot survives the crash and stays away from death, but not for long. When Helen learns of Lena’s revelation, she confronts Elliot for being such an awful man. The bond they have gradually breaks when Helen realizes that she cannot accept what Elliot did to Lena and the other women in his group. Seeing his “only friend in the whole world” moving away from him, Elliot decides to end his life.
The guilt of hurting Lena and killing her friends and the grief of being separated from Helen leave Elliot vulnerable. Also, the helplessness of not understanding if something in his past is actually true again drives Elliot to death. He swallows a handful of pills to die, expecting death to conquer him any second. The first season of the show ends before we can see if Elliot dies or not. Right after swallowing the pills, Elliot receives a text from Helen. He picks up the phone and sees a burrito emoji, a symbol of his happiness.
Helen’s message may give Elliot the satisfaction of dying peacefully, knowing that the only person he cares about in this world has forgiven him. He can still accept death and cherish a moment of happiness seeing the emoji before he dies. Otherwise, Helen’s message could pull Elliot out of the clutches of death. He may realize that Helen has forgiven him and that there is a glimmer of hope to be a better person. He can seek emergency medical assistance and stay alive to give himself a second chance to live as a new person. Either way, we might have to wait for the show’s potential second season to find out for sure.
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