The Alienist Season 2 Finale Explained (& Will The Show Return?)

Here’s the finale of The Alienist season 2 explained and whether or not a third season is on the cards. TNT period murder mystery The Alienist is based on writer and historian Caleb Carr’s 1994 novel of the same name and aired its first season in 2018. The series is set in late 19th century New York and follows psychologist Laszlo Kreizler (Daniel Brühl), cartoonist and society man John Moore (Luke Evans) and aspiring female police detective Sara Howard (Dakota Fanning) who came together in season 1 to catch a killer targeting young male prostitutes.

In The Alienist season 2 – subtitled Angel Of Darkness and based on Carr’s 1997 novel – the focus shifted to Fanning’s Sara Howard who had set up her own private detective agency. She teamed with Laszlo and John once again to solve a series of baby kidnappings sweeping the city, one of which involved the abduction of the Spanish consul’s infant daughter. Their investigations led them to the Lying-In Hospital (a shady facility for unwed mothers) where they discovered that nurse and gangster’s moll Libby Hatch (Rosy McEwen) was behind the kidnappings.

Although the intrepid trio were able to get the Spanish ambassador’s daughter back, Libby ended up kidnapping another high-profile baby – the grandchild of railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt (James Faulkner), in a nod to a real-life kidnapping conspiracy the wealthy family nearly found themselves caught up in. The Alienist trio delved deep into Libby’s past in an effort to learn the motivation behind her crimes and discovered she’d had a child out of wedlock and was forced to give up her daughter by her mother, who then had her falsely committed to an asylum. Sara, Laszlo and John’s nemesis Thomas Byrnes (Ted Levine) unscrupulously used Libby’s daughter Clara (Brooke Carter) to draw her out of hiding leading to a dramatic finale.

In The Alienist season 2 finale, Sarah and company successfully located the Vanderbilt baby safe and sound but had to deal with Libby abducting her own daughter. This act sadly results in the death of Marcus Isaacson (Douglas Smith), one half of the twin detective duo alongside Lucius Isaacson (Matthew Shear) that helped The Alienist trio with their investigations. Luckily, Sara and Laszlo were able to locate Libby and convinced her to hand over Clara after which she was arrested for her crimes.

On a more personal level, The Alienist season 2 finale saw several big things happen to its main characters. John discovered he and his fiancée Violet (Emily Barber) were expecting a child, and although that put the kibosh on he and Sara’s will-they-won’t-they relationship, both John and Sara seemed satisfied with the outcome. Laszlo, meanwhile, decided to depart New York for Vienna where Karen Stratton (Lara Pulver) – a fellow psychologist with who he’d been enjoying a burgeoning courtship – had been invited to work with Sigmund Freud.

The end of The Alienist season 2 offered a satisfying conclusion both for its central murder mystery and its main characters, but will a third season of the murder mystery happen? Unfortunately, TNT has yet to renew The Alienist for another season, but the good news is there’s certainly scope for it to continue in some form. Not only does Caleb Carr have plans to pen more entries in his book series, fans and critics have also expressed interest in a Sara Howard-focused spin-off. However, whether or not TNT will move forward with The Alienist remains to be seen for now.