Our memories hold us back. They remind us of the sins we have committed and the guilt that still weighs us down. We often ask ourselves whether we will get rid of all those memories and get a chance to start again. Again, as a new human being? In Stan’s original series, The Tourist, an Irish man gets a second chance after losing his memory in a tragic car accident. However, instead of enjoying his new life, our protagonist hunts for his old identity because a life without a name troubles him. The question here is, even if he finds his former self, will he be able to make peace with the past? Or will the gaps in his memory haunt him until the end?
Plot Summary: What Is The Series About?
The screen opens with an unnamed Irish tourist (Jamie Dornan) in the dusty, deserted land of Burnt Ridge, Australia. The man leaves a general store and hits the road when suddenly a truck starts following his car. After a chase, the truck hits the man’s car, and the very next moment, the Irish Tourist wakes up in Copper Springs Hospital with no memory of his past life.
Helen Chambers (Danielle Macdonald), a probationary constable, informs the man about his tragic car accident and inquires about his personal details at the hospital, which the man fails to recall. However, he finds a paper note in his old clothes that notifies him about a meeting at Gloria’s Diner the next day. To find out more about his lost identity, the man decides to meet the person at Gloria Diner. Helen helps the wounded man and offers him some money to travel to Burnt Ridge. As the man waits at the restaurant, a waitress named Luci gets intrigued with the man’s story but accidentally drops a glass of water on the table. Luci takes the man out of the restaurant to show him the toilet when suddenly a bomb explodes inside. After the explosion, the mystery surrounding this strange Tourist catches the attention of the higher authorities, who send a skilled detective named Inspector Lachlan Rogers to investigate the case.
In the meantime, Helen informs the Tourist about his camera being secured from the accident site. He finds pictures of Nala Stone Men and decides to visit the location to recollect the events of his day before the accident. The drama further explores the man’s journey to find out his identity while trying to save his life from unknown attacks throughout the series.
Who Was The Tourist?
The Irish Tourist was known to the world by the name of Elliot Stanley. He worked as an accountant for an international drug dealer, Kosta Panigiris. Kosta was a schizophrenic gangster who developed mental trauma due to the early death of his beloved brother, Dimitri. He was abandoned by almost everyone he loved, and thus, Kosta decided to burn himself in the criminal world. He rose from the sewers of Athens and became a self-made man with riches that many might only dream of.
When Elliot met Kosta, he showed him his most prized trophies, one of which was a bag filled with one million dollars. As Elliot started working for Kosta, he fell in love with Kosta’s fiancé, Victoria (Luci, but with a different identity). Victoria decided to steal Kosta’s trophy bag and convinced Elliot to run away with her. Together, the couple escaped to Australia, but their relationship ended soon. Kosta found out that Elliot and Victoria were hiding in Australia. Thus, he sent his distribution guys, Billy Nixon (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson) and Marko, to find them and bring back his trophy.
Why Was An International Drug Dealer, Kosta, Running After A Small Chunk Of Money?
Even during his initial conversation with Elliot, Kosta made it clear that it wasn’t the money that mattered to him. But the story and the struggle behind it, Symbolically, Elliot and Victoria stole Kosta’s past, which he held dearly. Due to his massive wealth, Kosta had reached the pinnacle of his career, and his struggle had come to an end. The richness made his life dull and boring, and he had no thrill left to pursue.
The past and memories were constant themes in the series. If Kosta had got a chance to start everything again, to begin his journey from the sewers and rise to fame again, then he would have literally waved that magic wand. Why? Because, in all his dialogues, Kosta explained to imaginary Dimitri (who actually talked to himself) that even with all the richness at his disposal, he was not able to capture the thrill of the hunt that the brothers used to have when they were young. The doses of LSD helped him revisit the past and experience the thrill momentarily, but when Elliot stole his money and his fiancé, Kosta found a new prey to hunt. Finding and killing Elliot Stanley became Kosta’s new thrill, and thus he decided to pursue it with all his might.
How Did Kosta Find Elliot and Victoria?
Victoria was a thief whose father left her when she was still a teenager. While struggling with her own childhood trauma, Victoria spent some time in an ashram in Jaipur, India. There she met Kosta’s brother, Dimitri. Dimitri wanted to leave behind his criminal life, so he organized a fake death certificate to leave Athens and live a peaceful life in India.
At the ashram, Dimitri shared the story about his brother with Victoria, who decided to con Kosta. Victoria made her way to Kosta’s fortress and also got engaged to him, but it wasn’t her endgame. She wanted to leave with the money, but in the process, fell in love with Kosta’s accountant, Elliot. The two tricked Kosta and ran to Australia, but their relationship didn’t work out. Victoria left Elliot but didn’t take the money with her. One day, Kosta’s distribution guy, Marko, paid a visit to Elliot. He told Elliot that Victoria used her credit card, through which Kosta found out their location. He had sent a contract killer named Billy Nixon to hunt the couple and bring back his money.
What Happened To Billy and Marko?
Marko was a loyal friend to Elliot. Hence, he decided to warn Elliot and Victoria about Billy. When Marko tried searching for Victoria in Australia, she left a note on his car’s windshield, which was later found by Elliot. After his memory loss, Elliot met Victoria at the same restaurant, where she introduced herself as Luci. Marko was buried alive by Billy for betraying Kosta and helping Elliot. Marko was the same guy who called Elliot on a suspicious cellphone that Elliot found in a stuffed soft toy. Though Elliot tried to save Marko, he was already dead by the time Elliot reached Murray Waters. Billy, on the other hand, was killed by Victoria when he attacked her in her house,
Who Was Lena Pascal?
When Elliot started working for Kosta, he supplied drugs throughout the world. In his faded memory, Elliot often saw the face of a Russian woman named Lena Pascal. Elliot had hidden drugs inside Lena’s guts along with two other women named Angelika and Mila. The drug packet inside Angelika and Mila’s guts burst during an airplane journey, and they died on the spot. Though Lena survived, the person who pulled the drugs from her stomach left horrible marks. At the end of The Tourist, Lena confronted Elliot and told him about all the terrible sins he had committed in his life. Maybe, in a previous life, Elliot had his reasons for believing that he hadn’t committed a sin. But in this life, he only remembered chunks of memories. He looked at his past actions from a third perspective and found himself guilty of hideous crimes. He tried to get himself arrested in remorse, but when police interrogated Lena, she dismissed remembering any of it. Lena probably wanted Elliot to live his life buried under the weight of the inhumane crimes he had committed. Maybe Elliot’s second chance to live a peaceful life didn’t turn out to be peaceful at all.
What Happened To Victoria and Kosta?
After Billy Nixon was killed, Kosta arrived in Burnt Ridge to take vengeance on Elliot. He kidnapped Lachlan Rogers’ wife and blackmailed the detective into bringing Elliot to him. Rogers was diagnosed with incurable cancer and was left with only six months to live. He wanted to spend his remaining life with his wife and thus decided to break the law. Rogers shot a young officer named Lammon and brought Elliot to Kosta. In his blurred memory, Elliot remembered hiding Kosta’s money near Nala Stone Men.
Finally, Kosta found his money and decided to kill Elliot, when suddenly Victoria arrived at the spot to save her love. Victoria arranged a video call between Kosta and his brother Dimitri, but Kosta refused to believe that Dimitri could betray him and run away from his own brother. Kosta had been living a lie for a long time, and his mental delusions were beyond repair. Thus, Victoria and Elliot decided to kill the demented drug lord. In a blacked-out gunfight, Kosta and Victoria got shot. While Kosta died on the spot, Elliot tried to save Victoria’s life, and Victoria died on her way to the hospital.
How Did Chambers and Elliot Prove Their Innocence?
Lachlan Rogers rescued his wife, taken hostage by Kosta’s men. However, during the official investigation of Lammon’s murder, Rogers lied to his superiors and told them that Helen Chambers had shot Lammon. In his official statement, Rogers accused Chambers of helping a felon, and thus the police began their hunt for the two suspected criminals.
At the exact moment, Elliot called Chambers, who was his only friend in the whole wide world. Elliot wanted Chambers’ help after Victoria’s death, but Chambers’ fiancé, Ethan Krum, gave her an ultimatum to not help Elliot anymore. Chambers, who had feelings for Elliot, decided to break her marriage with Ethan and left to rescue Elliot. By the time Chambers reached Elliot, both of them were wanted for many crimes that happened in Copper Springs recently.
The duo decided to prove that Rogers was lying, but Chambers needed time to dig up evidence. Hence, they drove to Devil’s Rock, where Elliot took hostages at the Ronny’s Spicy Wings café to buy Chambers some time. Before becoming a probationary constable, Chambers used to work as a traffic cop and knew the rules of the road by heart.
In Episode 4, when Elliot and Chambers drove to Kalura Creek, Chambers spotted a speeding camera on their way to Dusty Moon Motel. Because Chambers knew the location of the camera, she avoided a click, but when Rogers took Elliot hostage and drove him out of Kalura Creek, he didn’t see the camera. Through her senior, Constable Freddie Lanagan, Chambers received the photo in which Rogers had evidently cuffed Elliot. In his version, Rogers told the police that it was Elliot who took him hostage, but the picture proved otherwise. It was enough to prove that Rogers was lying all along.
What Will Happen To Elliot and Chambers?
Though most of the charges against Elliot and Chambers were dropped, a new tragedy awaited the couple. Lena Pascal brought new revelations in Elliot’s life, which he couldn’t forget. He tried to get himself arrested, but Lena denied the story. In remorse, Elliot gave the Kosta’s one million dollars to Sue, the lodge lady whose husband was killed by Billy.
Later, Elliot speeded on the highway to kill himself or erase his memory again. His car rolled down a hill, and Elliot received several injuries, but he didn’t lose his memory this time. As he opened his eyes again, Elliot saw Chambers standing in front of him in the hospital. She wanted to know whether Lena’s story was true or not. Though Chambers wanted to believe that Elliot hadn’t committed those inhumane crimes, Elliot had no proof of his innocence. Even though he tried to think that Lena was lying, mistaken, or anything else, he had lost his memory and couldn’t remember the truth. Chambers despised Elliot after she learned of Lena’s story and left.
After leaving the hospital, Elliot rented an apartment where he overdosed on his medicines to kill himself or make him forget the horrors. While Chambers discussed the confusions of her heart with Freddie, she explained that even though people perceive that love should be perfect, in reality, real people make mistakes. Hence, Freddie suggested to Chambers that she give Elliot a second chance in the same way destiny handed him a second chance by erasing his memory so that he can look at his mistakes through a different lens.
At the end of The Tourist, Chambers texted Elliot a burrito emoji. In Episode 4, while dining in Casa del Nacho, Chambers and Elliot discussed that happiness for Elliot was a burrito. Hence, Chambers sent a burrito emoji to him to make Elliot happy. Elliot was on the verge of his end, but in Chambers’ text, he found a silver lining, a ray of hope to survive another day. He got back his only friend in the whole wide world, and nothing would have made him happier than to realize that, at the end of the day, he does belong to the world. Hopefully, the two will meet again. If not, even the hint that Chambers forgave him was enough for Elliot to keep on living in this brutal world. The Tourist was looking for a destination, and in the end, he found it in a person.
The Tourist is a 2022 crime drama series written by Harry Williams and Jack Williams.
