the missing series 2 explained|the missing series 2 ending|the missing series 2 release date|the missing series 2 plot|the missing series 2 full cast:Despite so much excellent television, there is still a tendency to describe great TV as being like something else, something more established as being serious or worthy like cinema or novels. And while I am a proponent of the television industry (and those who write about it) embracing TV’s unique narrative structure for exactly what it is, I must admit that the first word that came to mind when thinking about how to describe The Missing’s second season was “novelistic.” But to say The Missing is like a novel isn’t to elevate it so much as to make it even more accessible — each hour unfolds as a new chapter to a finite story, and — like a book you can’t put down — is an exceptional binge watch.
Season 2 of The Missing is connected to Season 1 in two ways, but they’re slight enough so as not to deter new viewers. One, it features the same detective, Julian Baptiste (Tchéky Karyo), and in the second instance, it acts as a narrative inversion of that first season’s story. Season 1 covered one British couple in two timelines as their son went missing during a vacation in France. It tore them apart and the husband (played by James Nesbitt) was overtaken in his obsession with finding out the truth — a truth that, even when revealed, did not fully satisfy him. The ending was left open in ways that drew criticism from some, and yet, it played into the idea that for him there will never really be an end.
The Missing Series 2
Contents
The Missing’s first series was the story of a father’s obsessive and ultimately destructive quest to discover the fate of his abducted son. It was a harsh series, the subject of child abduction often making it a very uncomfortable watch. The darkness of the theme was assuaged by a stream of compelling twists supplied by series creators Harry and Jack Williams which kept viewers hooked through eight episodes to a decisive conclusion.
A second series was all but guaranteed by success both in ratings, and Bafta, Golden Globe and Emmy award nominations. Nevertheless, how to continue a series that had effectively taken its story to the end of a dark and lonely road? The answer is to find a new story, with a new cast – only French detective Julien Baptiste (Tchéky Karyo) returns.
The Missing series 2 episode 1 began with a young English woman, clearly in distress, stumbling out of a forest into a German town and collapsing in the market square. The young woman is Alice Webster (Abigail Hardingham) who was last seen sneaking out of a school for the children of British Army personnel stationed in Germany eleven years previously.
The Missing Season 2 Cast
The Missing Series 2 Meet the characters
- Julien Baptiste. Played by Tchéky Karyo. …
- Alice Webster. Played by Abigail Hardingham. …
- Gemma Webster. Played by Keeley Hawes. …
- Sam Webster. Played by David Morrissey. …
- Matthew Webster. Played by Jake Davies. …
- Eve Stone. Played by Laura Fraser. …
- Adrian Stone. Played by Roger Allam. …
- Daniel Reed.
the missing series 2 explained
In Season 2, there is a new British family abroad, this time in Germany, and their missing daughter Alice (Abigail Hardingham) returns to them 11 years after she was abducted and kept in a basement. Again, the show takes place over a handful of different timelines (and countries), as the Websters — Sam and Gemma, played by David Morrissey and Keeley Hawes, as well as their son Matthew (Jake Davis) — deal with the complications of Alice’s return. She’s nearly dead, distant, and radiates an otherness with her family that sets off alarms for Gemma, ones she refuses at first to acknowledge.
Enter our tired, battered, dogged detective Baptiste, who muddies the waters further by wanting to know why Alice spoke a name as she was rescued — Sophie Giroux — the name of a missing girl in a case that has haunted Baptiste for over a decade. (If you’re curious, yes, Baptiste is reminiscent of another broken down old detective: Kurt Wallander). The connections start to form right away, and Baptiste’s questioning and interference is at first welcomed as helpful before he is eventually turned out by the police, the families, and the military garrison where Sam works, which has taken over the case.
The Missing does an excellent job of making its many, many twists feel like natural reveals, and it moves along at a quick pace while leaving enough time to explore the difficult and complicated emotions of its leads. It also moves back and forth between frustrating misunderstands and satisfying coincidences and chances, allowing viewers to see things before Baptiste does — even though he eventually learns the truth. As a mystery story, The Missing lays out enough bread crumbs for amateur sleuths to immediately be engaged and start putting together theories of the crimes, even as new reveals seem to upend expectations of what happened, when, and how. But that is the fun of watching the series, which (after 8 episodes) draws to a close in a way that is more satisfying than Season 1, but not without its own heartbreak.
