After an agonizing eight-year wait, Taboo Season 2 finally arrived in 2025—and it was well worth the delay. Picking up after the explosive finale of Season 1, the second chapter of James Delaney’s grim odyssey dives deeper into the shadowy recesses of empire, identity, and vengeance. Once again co-created by Steven Knight and Tom Hardy, Taboo remains one of television’s most singular visions: a murky, blood-soaked fever dream that refuses to conform.

If Season 1 was about secrets, Season 2 is about power—how it’s won, wielded, and ultimately corrupted.

Plot: Westward Expansion and Internal Collapse

Season 2 begins with James Keziah Delaney (Tom Hardy) and his ragtag crew having set sail for America, escaping the clutches of the East India Company and the Crown. But peace, of course, is not in the cards.

The series opens in Boston, 1816. Delaney, now physically scarred and increasingly unhinged, seeks to establish his own trading empire using Nootka Sound as leverage between the Americans and British. But his arrival in the New World is anything but welcome. Old enemies await him, along with new threats in the form of corrupt American politicians, French spies, and Indigenous nations fighting to preserve their land from encroachment.

Much of Season 2’s action takes place along the East Coast, from the opium dens of New York to the political salons of Washington. Meanwhile, back in London, the East India Company—now under new leadership—is quietly rebuilding its power, with Sir Stuart Strange’s protégé, Lady Honoria Pelling (an icy and intelligent Rebecca Hall), seeking revenge for the humiliation of Season 1.

Delaney’s sister Zilpha (Oona Chaplin), whose fate was left uncertain, returns in ghostly visions—or perhaps more. Are they hallucinations, trauma, or something supernatural?

Season 2’s narrative is sprawling and often elliptical, layering historical fiction with dream logic. The central question remains: what is Delaney’s endgame? Freedom? Justice? Or simply destruction?

Tom Hardy: Animalistic, Magnetic, Unpredictable

Tom Hardy’s performance in Season 1 was already iconic—grunting, whispering, exploding in bursts of primal rage. In Season 2, he somehow goes further. Delaney is now more myth than man, part shaman, part warlord. Hardy plays him with eerie stillness one moment and volcanic fury the next.

Crucially, the season allows Hardy to explore Delaney’s internal torment with greater nuance. He’s no longer merely a vengeance-driven ghost, but a man grappling with guilt, legacy, and the costs of power. His chemistry with returning and new cast members (especially a new foil played by Giancarlo Esposito, portraying a Haitian intelligence broker named Toussaint) is electric.

Hardy’s performance reminds us: Delaney is terrifying, but he’s also tragic.

Supporting Cast: Powerfully Expanded Ensemble

Season 2 expands Taboo’s world with a slate of compelling new characters:

• Giancarlo Esposito as Toussaint, a former slave turned intelligence mastermind, whose past mirrors and challenges Delaney’s moral compass.

• Rebecca Hall as Lady Pelling, a ruthless East India executive with her own secrets, who manipulates both Parliament and her enemies with deadly precision.

• Rami Malek as Elijah Crane, a visionary preacher in Boston who sees Delaney as both devil and deliverer.

• Amber Midthunder as Ayasha, a warrior and guide from a Cree tribe with spiritual ties to Delaney’s past.

The returning ensemble—including Stephen Graham as Atticus and Jessie Buckley as Lorna Bow—also get deeper arcs. Lorna, in particular, takes on a greater leadership role, challenging Delaney’s decisions and asserting her own agency in the power struggles of the New World.

Themes: Colonialism, Identity, and Haunting Legacy

Where Season 1 was steeped in the rot of imperial London, Season 2 takes a broader geopolitical view. The series explores the violent expansion of empire in North America, the manipulation of Indigenous lands and peoples, and the economic exploitation that binds the British and American elites alike.

Yet for all its historical trappings, Taboo remains intensely personal. Delaney’s inner conflict—between his European heritage and his mother’s Indigenous legacy—takes center stage. The show delves into rituals, visions, and ancestral memory, blurring lines between reality and mysticism.

As with Season 1, themes of trauma and abuse linger beneath every scene. The ghosts Delaney sees may be literal—or simply the weight of crimes that never truly disappear.

Direction and Style: A Cinematic Nightmare

Visually, Taboo Season 2 is stunning. The cinematography, led by Fabian Wagner (Game of Thrones, Justice League), uses muted palettes, chiaroscuro lighting, and wide landscapes to contrast the claustrophobia of London with the cold vastness of America. The visual design leans into gothic surrealism—wolves in the woods, blood in the snow, masks, firelight, shadows flickering across Delaney’s scarred face.

Steven Knight’s writing is cryptic and poetic, filled with terse dialogue and loaded stares. The pacing is deliberately slow, like a creeping fog, but each episode builds tension until something inevitably explodes—often literally.

The score, once again composed by Max Richter, is a moody blend of strings, industrial noises, and whispers. It’s the sound of a ghost ship coming to port.

Criticism: Ambition Can Blur Coherence

If Season 1 was occasionally opaque, Season 2 doubles down. The plot sometimes becomes labyrinthine, with secret alliances, coded messages, and ambiguous visions. Casual viewers may find it difficult to track motivations or even basic chronology.

Some subplots—especially those set in Washington—feel underdeveloped or rushed, possibly due to production constraints. And while the show continues to imply supernatural elements, it never fully commits, which might frustrate fans hoping for concrete answers.

But for those who appreciate atmosphere, ambiguity, and character over exposition, these flaws are part of the show’s dark charm.

Final Verdict: 9/10

Taboo Season 2 is a triumph of mood, performance, and ambition. It doesn’t just return to form—it expands the series’ scope, deepens its mythology, and refuses to make compromises. It’s not easy viewing, but that’s the point. Like Delaney himself, the show demands patience and attention—and rewards both richly.

Haunting, brutal, and strangely beautiful, Taboo remains unlike anything else on television.