The Last Thing He Told Me Season 2 gets an extremely disappointing Rotten Tomatoes score as the Apple TV show strays away from the books

There are downsides to adapting a bestselling novel because once you run out of pages, you are on your own, and that is exactly where The Last Thing He Told Me finds itself in Season 2. The Apple TV thriller, led by Jennifer Garner built its first season on the premise of Laura Dave’s novel. A missing husband, a cryptic note, a wary stepdaughter served as good recipe for the narrative and it worked because it had a clear destination.

Now, the series has stepped beyond its source material, and fans are not convinced the expansion was necessary. With a 33 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the sophomore season is being criticised for going off the books.

The second season of The Last Thing He Told Me sees Garner's Hannah as she continues digging into the fallout of her husband's disappearance, with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau returning as Owen. Angourie Rice reprises her role as Bailey, but even with the familiar stars, the premise lacks the thrill and tension that made the first season a success.

The official synopsis this season reads,

When Owen (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) shows up after five years on the run, Hannah (Jennifer Garner) and her stepdaughter Bailey (Angourie Rice) find themselves in a race to figure out how to reunite their family before the past catches up to them.

Season 2 premiered February 20 on Apple TV+ and will run for eight episodes. Whether the series can recalibrate before its finale remains to be seen or perhaps there is a bigger twist waiting at the end that will lift the narrative.

What happens in the first season of The Last Thing He Told Me?

Season 1 of The Last Thing He Told Me opens with an absolutely normal premise. Hannah Hall, a successful woodturner living in Sausalito, is married to Owen Michaels, a tech executive at a startup called The Shop. Her biggest challenge seems to be bonding with her guarded teenage stepdaughter, Bailey. Then the FBI raids Owen’s company for massive fraud and he vanishes, leaving behind a note with two words: protect her.

What follows is less a corporate scandal and more a slow unraveling of identity. Owen also leaves Bailey a cryptic message and a duffel bag filled with cash. As Hannah begins digging, it becomes clear that her husband was prepared for this collapse. A U.S. Marshal named Grady Bradford warns her that Owen is not who she believes he is.

The deeper Hannah digs, the more dangerous things become and more secrets are revealed as her safety gets threatened.

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Both seasons of The Last Thing He Told Me are streaming on Apple TV.

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