Critic’s Rating: 4 / 5.0
4
With the big reveal at the end of The Night Manager Season 2 Episode 3 that Roper is alive, the question must be asked: how could Angela Burr have identified Roper’s body, assuring Jonathan that the monster was well and truly dead?
Short answer: SHE LIED.
After being conspicuously absent from the first half of the season, having The Night Manager Season 2 Episode 4 open with a vignette of Angela’s life in France is telling. She’s been in hiding just as much as Roper has.
The Night Manager Unleashed
The Night Manager Season 2 Episode 4 once again proves how satisfying a good bookended narrative can be. It’s no fun hunting Roper if he doesn’t know who is hunting him.
The look on his face in the final scene when Pine’s image appears… chef’s kiss.
In the meantime, we quickly get caught up on the hows and whys of his ten years as a dead man. Furthermore, we learn how this Roper is different from the one who dominated Angela and Jonathan’s world a decade ago.
To be clear, he’s been dominating their lives ever since, just with less physicality. A man like that gets in your head.
Gilberto Hanson
Roper is even more vigilant and paranoid than he ever was. His years in captivity left him with a distrust of the dark, and the subsequent years as a fugitive have soured any tropical proclivities he might have harbored at one time.
Despite the ten years of real time between seasons, the production team clearly wanted to get the band back together. By bringing Sandy Langbourne back as Head Lackey allows Roper to slide back into his old persona.
Thinking he’s only speaking to Langbourne and his dogs, Roper reveals his true priorities — getting back to the UK to live a life of luxury and Danny, his legitimate son and heir.
He describes Teddy as “not fit for civilized company,” even if he’s as loyal as a hound. Langbourne, not knowing the genetic connection, writes him off as disposable. Interestingly, Roper defers that decision.
As always, Roper’s playing a calculated, controlled game. It’s his wheelhouse, and he doesn’t share space easily. His begrudging appreciation for Mayra Cavendish’s abilities and political acumen underscores how dangerous she is.
While he holds some affection for Langbourne for old times’ sake, the money’s on Mayra being the true partner he’s looking to for effective action.
Hero Material
No le Carré protagonist operates in isolation effectively… or for long. The mission’s success depends on the team behind the operative and trustworthy allies.
The Night Manager Season 2 Episode 4, in particular, shines a light on some key individuals.
There will never be a braver public servant in the history of government bureaucracy than prosecutor Alejandro Gualteros. How Sally convinced him to stick to his guns despite the blatant threats on his life is a wonder.
Even in the face of kidnapping and brutal intimidation, he spoke of justice and belief. R.I.P. He deserved better. Knowing Jonathan and Sally, they’ll carry the memory of Alejandro’s murder as a weight on their souls.
Private investigators like Martín Álvarez are the stuff of detective pulp fiction — hyper observant, highly resourceful, intelligent, and principled. Also, super easy to find.
He may have been a cop for ten years, but the skills he demonstrated in bugging Roper’s dog’s collar weren’t taught at any academy.
And then there’s Basil Karapetian, MI6 identity wizard and self-declared Jonathan Pine fan. Seated squarely in the spider’s web, he’s running a potentially deadly internal investigation single-handedly and low-key kicking arse.
His superpower remains how unthreatening he appears while wielding unlimited tech skills and a genius level of executive function. It seems like plans burst, fully formed, from his brain.
I shudder to imagine what Mayra will do to him if (when?) she cottons on to how much he knows and what he’s done to impede her. Mind you, he probably has a plan for that.
Betrayal
There’s beautiful symmetry in Jonathan confronting Angela about her lying about Roper’s death after Teddy drops him off at the airport, only to reveal his own betrayal to Teddy when he rescues the kid driver.
The look of betrayal on Teddy’s face upon learning who Matthew Ellis really is mirrors Jonathan’s upon learning his mentor had feet of clay.
I can’t help but feel for the burdened, unstable, damaged Teddy. Yes, he’s paranoid and violent, but he’s not wrong in believing that everyone abandons and betrays him.
Roxana, Roper, “Matthew Ellis,” his mother, and probably the priests who raised him. The list is tragic.
The Commercialization of Chaos
Yes-man, he may be, but Langbourne has a way of turning a phrase. When Roper describes the new world order he envisions and the path he plans to take, Langbourne’s absolute faith in him is apparent with his easy branding of the strategy.
He recognizes that Roper has the connections and amoral approach to asset management needed to activate the brutal, multi-pronged economic juggernaut he’s dreamed up.
Only Jonathan Pine, his plucky band of disrupters, and his guns a-blazing stand in Roper’s way now. Who remains standing when the dust clears is anyone’s guess.
Who are you rooting for, Fanatics? I’d like to see Angela take down Mayra for killing Rex. And maybe Basil can step in as Head of River House.
Jonathan deserves some peace after everything’s done and dusted, but not with Roxana. Even odds that she even survives this escapade.
Hit our comments with what you feel would be a satisfying conclusion to the Roper saga. Only two episodes to go. Things are bound to get even messier!
The Night Manager drops new episodes on Prime Video every Sunday.
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