Apple TV’s <em>The Last Thing He Told Me</em> is returning for Season 2 this week, with Jennifer Garner, Angourie Rice, and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau resuming their roles as the seemingly ordinary Michaels family. Season 1 digs into the past, revealing that Coster-Waldau’s Owen isn’t who his daughter and wife believed. Yet with the mystery solved, Season 2 will have a different story as the separated family attempts to reunite.
‘The Last Thing He Told Me’ Begins With Owen’s Disappearance
At first, the Michaels seem to be an average family. Hannah Hall (Garner) makes a life for herself with her husband, Owen, and her teenage stepdaughter, Bailey (Rice), whom she cannot seem to connect with. But their lives take a dramatic turn when the FBI raids the software startup where Owen works. Owen disappears, making himself appear guilty, but it doesn’t add up for Hannah and Bailey, who each receive confusing messages from him as a goodbye. Owen tells Hannah to “protect her,” and gives Bailey a duffel bag of money and the assurance that she knows everything about him that matters. Hannah wants to believe Owen is innocent, but her suspicions grow when U.S. Marshal Grady Bradford (Augusto Aguilera) shows up at her doorstep, warning her that Owen isn’t who she thought he was.
Hannah and Bailey try to move on with their lives, but the gossip at Bailey’s school is out of hand, and Hannah goes to her ex, Jake (Geoff Stults), for legal advice. Neither one can let go of their suspicions, especially as they feel they are being watched. When the FBI is surprised to learn that a Marshal spoke to Hannah, it triggers her to investigate. Learning that Grady works in Austin, Texas, Hannah remembers Owen acting evasive when she suggested visiting the city, and Bailey confesses to a fuzzy memory of attending a football game there with her father. So, Hannah takes Bailey to Austin to look for answers, and they manage to leave their home without Grady, who has been keeping watch, noticing.
Hannah and Bailey Uncover More Secrets in ‘The Last Thing He Told Me’ Season 1
In Austin, they have little to go on but follow Bailey’s vague childhood memories. While this is going on, Hannah receives a veiled threat about Owen’s past from the head of the fraudulent company, Avett (Todd Stashwick), but she ignores it and asks Jake to help her dodge FBI interviews for a few days, not revealing that she left town. Just when Bailey is ready to give up, Hannah pieces together a hint from Owen’s laptop about Bailey’s piggy bank, asking her friend Jules (Aisha Tyler) to look into it. Jules finds a key to a safe and Jake inside the house looking for Hannah. Jake reveals that the PI he had look into Owen’s past reported that there are no records of the life he described to Hannah. In fact, there shouldn’t be an Owen or Bailey Michaels, suggesting that they have false identities.
With few clues, Hannah and Bailey take a different approach trying to uncover Owen’s identity through the stories he liked to tell starting with his anecdote about his college math professor, Cookman (Victor Garber), who used him as an example of what not to do. Unfortunately, Cookman doesn’t remember his name but he gives them a class list access to the yearbooks and the knowledge that Bailey’s mother was in the same class. When Hannah calls Grady’s office and learns he was supposedly on vacation she asks why he came to her house triggering problems for him. Grady’s superior tells him to drop the case as it isn’t their problem but Grady is insistent. Suspecting they are in Texas and therefore in danger he gets permission to find Bailey but before he does, he receives Owen’s phone in the mail with proof that he was documenting what was happening at his work and trying to convince them to delay the launch.
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Bailey Has an Unexpected Family Reunion in ‘The Last Thing He Told Me’
Following what they learned from the yearbooks, Hannah goes to Katherine Smith’s family bar, The Never Dry, where she meets Charlie Smith. After talking to him for a while and trying to get information, Hannah approaches the topic of Katherine, and Charlie confirms her death but when Bailey comes in he freaks out again calling her Kristen and chasing them through the streets of Austin. Though they lose Charlie, Hannah notices someone watching them and another person rushes into the elevator with them making Hannah desperate to leave Austin. However, Bailey isn’t ready to drop it.
Back at the hotel, Jules calls revealing that she found a safe with Owen’s will. His real name is Ethan Young, but he changed it after his wife’s suspicious death motivated him to turn over evidence against the Campino crime family. When Hannah goes to tell Bailey the danger they’re in the teen is gone having left to chase the address for Andrea Reyes that her boyfriend found online. Grady locates Hannah through her phone records but with Bailey missing his job isn’t done.
‘The Last Thing He Told Me’ Season 1 Reveals Owen’s Full Story
Grady tells Hannah the entire story explaining that Nicholas Bell (David Morse) Owen’s father-in-law was a lawyer for the Campino crime family and though Owen (then Ethan) didn’t work for them he helped Nicholas set up an encryption to allow prisoners to send messages to their families. When Nicholas refused a particular case Katherine had a lethal car accident and Ethan blamed Nicolas and his clients so he took the encrypted messages and turned them over to the feds. Nicholas was sent to prison and still blames Ethan.
New identities allowed Owen and Bailey to live undetected until his business made national news which is why he disappeared. Now Grady hopes to convince Hannah and Bailey to go into witness protection and leave their entire lives behind but Hannah isn’t convinced that it is the best choice. At Andrea’s house Bailey mostly hears the same story but she also learns that Andrea actually helped her father escape for Bailey’s sake. Nicholas is alerted to Bailey’s presence putting her in danger.
Hannah Makes a Risky Deal in ‘The Last Thing He Told Me’
Hannah leaves the Marshal’s office and goes back to the bar where she met Charlie asking him to take her to Nicholas. When she arrives Nicholas tries to intimidate Hannah by revealing how much he has learned about her life but she has a specific purpose in seeing him. While Nicholas focuses on blaming Ethan,Hannah offers a deal asking Nicholas to ensure Bailey’s safety in exchange for a relationship with her. Though he is open to the idea Nicholas insists that the deal couldn’t protect Owen and even if it could he wouldn’t. Hannah chooses to ensure Bailey’s future knowing Owen could never return to them and Nicholas agrees.
When Bailey and Hannah are reunited Bailey explains that she received a call from Owen who only had 22 seconds to speak to her and told her to listen to her stepmother. Despite Grady’s protests Bailey agrees to trust Hannah’s deal and return home.The end of Season 1 skips ahead five years when Hannah runs into a bearded Owen at an exhibit for her woodworking job but they don’t interact long. This proves that they (and Bailey who enters shortly after) are safe leaving a potential reunion open while setting up Season 2.
