After three episodes of The Night Manager's second season gradually morphing back into its first, Episode 4 makes that cycle of renewal feel complete. Here's Olivia Colman, back for the first time since a cameo in the Season 2 premiere, and here's Hugh Laurie, whose survival was revealed at the end of the previous episode. The gang's back together. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
And of course! It strikes me that our only word on Roper's death was that of a professional spy, and if film and TV have taught us anything, it's that you can't really trust spies. They lie for a living. They lie so much that they need therapy so they don't forget who they are. In hindsight, I can't believe I just blithely accepted the idea. I think I was more concerned about figuring out how this season was going to be justified continuity-wise instead of picking up on the very obvious clues.
Luckily, Pine is more astute than I am. Moments after spotting Roper with Teddy and General Sanchez last week, he sent Angela a fuzzy picture message with the caption, "Why did you lie to me?" He doesn't entertain the notion that this might be a mix-up. Angela knew all along.
Needless to say, this changes everything. Pine is still deep undercover, but now his personal feelings for Roper are going to get in the way of his ability to maintain his cover, since it's hard to maintain a lightly homoerotic relationship with an international gun-runner when you're thinking about your arch nemesis all the time.
Pine's surveillance doesn't reveal much. Teddy and Roper enjoy a picturesque horse ride together, which is largely for the audience's benefit, but Pine has to rush back to the city to get back into position. His only play is strapping a microphone to the collar of one of Roper's guard dogs, which feels a bit too dangerously improvisational.
So, what's really going on here? It's a pertinent question at this juncture, since sometimes the plot points of a TV show are designed to be dramatically effective in the moment, rather than making much sense in the long-term. The London-set subplot involving Basil is meant to establish this context, providing some geopolitical justification for all the exotic overseas escapades. Thanks to certain recent real-world events, this feels a bit too close to the bone. However, the backdrop of "The Night Manager" Season 2, together now, is state-backed regime change to strip Colombia of its natural resources. Roper is enacting a coup, and Mayra is deeply implicated in it, having clandestine meetings with Adam Holywell and Sandy Langbourne, which Basil views on CCTV with increasing panic.
Sandy travels to Colombia to meet with Roper and pitch him on the advantages of getting cozy with Mayra - figuratively speaking - which include a swanky English estate and, perhaps more importantly, a return from tropical exile. As the stakes get higher, suspicions grow, and too much has been said on all sides, Teddy takes Pine to the airport with instructions to return to Paris and forget he ever met him. Pine can't resist the urge to give him a little kiss on the cheek and whisper, "I'll pray for your soul, Eduardo," which is a subtle power move since he knows Teddy can't kill him in the middle of an airport or follow him through security. This does incense Teddy into ordering the assassination of the prosecutor, Alejandro, but luckily Sally has already whisked him away.
This also gives Pine time to have a chat with Angela, who sheepishly greets him at the arrivals gate. She finally reveals how Roper was able to get away from his Syrian captors - he used his old-fashioned English charm and also promised to pay them back the money they were owed - and how he was able to convince her to misidentify his body. He had turned up in her hotel room the night before and threatened to have her daughter killed unless she played ball. She told Rex Mayhew everything, which probably explains why he's dead. Otherwise, she did what she was told.
Pine takes this information to Alejandro, along with additional details from Basil's pictures - taken from Adam's emails - of a device in the stuck shipment that will cause a country-wide blackout and kick-start the civil war that Roper is orchestrating with the backing of the British government and intelligence apparatus. Alejandro immediately tries to call the Supreme Court justice to get the shipment seized, but that's predictably easier said than done.
The episode does a magnificent job of escalating tension across the board, particularly within the bad guy camp. Roper's grandiose plans hinge on Teddy, who's a bit of a wild card, and Pine's intelligence relies on Roxana, who must maintain her cover. This all converges beautifully towards the end of the hour.
Initially, Teddy becomes exceedingly suspicious of Roxana and confines her to the house as he rushes to try and have Alejandro taken out. However, he doesn't want Roper to know that he might have lost control of the situation, so when Roper calls and asks if Alejandro has been killed, Teddy lies and says he has – a deception that Roper swiftly discovers. Sandy's suggestion to "get rid" of Teddy isn't warmly received, but it's clearly something he would consider, especially with his later insistence to Sandy that Danny is his "only son and heir."
By the time Roxana is able to make a coded phone call to Pine, warning him that Alejandro's parliament meeting is a trap, it's too late. Alejandro is already in the building. He's confronted by General Sanchez and his men and then bundled into a car by Teddy's guys. Pine gives chase but doesn't arrive in time to prevent Teddy from executing Alejandro. He's about to turn his gun on the young driver when Pine arrives just in the nick of time to save him, though admittedly blowing his own cover.
Furious, Teddy calls Roper to tell him that everything has gone wrong and that "the investor" isn't who he claimed to be. Roper demands to see a picture and, in a delightful reversal of the end of the previous episode, he's shocked to see Pine's face emerge from his printer.
At the same time, Pine kills the dude holding Roxana and spirits her away with him and the kid. The truth is out, and Pine is no longer undercover, but the battle lines have been drawn, and the stakes are high. With only two episodes left, there’s still everything to play for.
