The Night Agent Recap Season 1 Episode 1 'The Call'

For a show that was built around an agent whose primary job was to answer a phone that almost never rang, it was fitting that the best, most tense scene in The Night Agent’s first episode was a phone call between Peter Sutherland (Gabriel Basso) and Rose Larkin (Luciana Buchanan). Rose was facing bankruptcy following the near collapse of her cybersecurity startup, and has been living in the house of her Aunt Emma and Uncle Henry. When armed people came into the house in the middle of the night and cut off their phone lines and electricity, her aunt and uncle sent her to the neighbor’s house to call “Night Action” and give them the code “Pen Clock Door Fire”. Rose did just that, and after verifying Sidewinder and Gazelle’s information, Peter called for help.

One of the men followed Rose, however, and her desperate dash for help  became a matter of surviving until the police came. Peter’s instructions, and her own actions, made sense whilst still maintaining the scene’s suspense. Since she didn’t know if the house had a basement, Peter told her to go upstairs. He told her to lock the door of a bathroom but not to go in; it was a brilliant piece of misdirection, since the locked door would make the assailant think his quarry was inside. He told Rose to head to the furthest bedroom and to hide in a closet; again, it made sense, since every fraction of a second the assailant needed to spend to go to her counted against the speed of the police that was coming. Rose took down a mirror from the bathroom and carefully positioned it on the floor, so that she could see the assailant coming even as she hid in the closet. After Rose murmured, “It’s too late”, Peter asked her to press 0 on her phone if he was in the room with her and she could not talk; again, it made sense that he gave her a way to communicate with him though she could not speak else she gave away her position. Then, he told her to fight like hell till they got there.

Was that final dialogue a bit cheesy? Maybe, but Rose was a civilian. Peter could not have known how she would have reacted when faced with a man with a gun. It would have been completely understandable if her reaction was to freeze. His words were to warn her against that, to remind her that help was coming, to not surrender to death in advance. The whole interaction between Rose and Peter made sense. 

We are not lacking in shows that blend espionage, political intrigue, and action; we have Jack Ryan, Homeland, The Diplomat, The Night Manager, just to name a few. How did The Night Agent stand out in its crowded field when it first aired back in 2023? Based on this first episode alone, I would say it was in large part due to the care it took in the details of its characters’ actions. The tension was already built into a scene with an assassin chasing a female civilian into an empty house in the middle of the night. When she called for help, the guy who answered the phone did not just reassure her, he calmly guided her to safety. As he did, she also showed why she was, prior to her company’s data breach, a successful cybersecurity expert; she could think even when so thoroughly scared. It was a show rather than tell type of character introduction which was very well done. 

Peter was an FBI agent who was at the bottom of the hierarchy at the White House. A year ago, whilst he was in the DC Metro, he saw a suspicious looking man leave a bag before exiting. He opened it and found a bomb. He stopped the train and had everyone exit, saving the lives of all except one as the bomb exploded. Whilst he was being treated on the scene, he caught sight of the bomber among the crowd of onlookers, and chased him. They got into a fight, and when they resumed the chase, a car hit Peter, giving the bomber a chance to get away.

One year later, and Peter was stuck in the basement. His father was an accused traitor who died in a car accident before he could clear his name, at least, this was what Peter believed. A conspiracy website called The Rome Tome, founded by one Elliott Rome, has been spreading the story of Peter’s alleged involvement in the DC Metro bombing. White House Chief of Staff Diane Farr (Hong Chau), one of Peter’s two bosses (the other was FBI Deputy Director Jamie Hawkins, played by Robert Patrick) scolded Peter for not simply saying “No comment” to Elliott, who only recently again managed to get a reaction on video from him. Farr assured Peter that the president knew him, and that his post watching the phone for Night Action, a counterintelligence unit, was just him paying his dues. Farr and Hawkins seemed to be in a tug of war for Peter’s attention and loyalty.

When Peter received Rose’s Night Action call, he notified both Farr and Hawkins. The police got to Rose mere seconds before the assassin found her. Farr sent Peter to the scene to get Rose out of there; she told him not to tell anyone where he was taking her, but that they would debrief in the morning. Hawkins was already on the scene, talking to Rose, when Peter arrived. With the president’s authorization in his inbox, however, he could only grumble as Peter drove Rose out of there. 

Their first stop was Peter’s apartment, where Peter told Rose to get some clothes (they belonged to his ex-fiancee) whilst he placed his phone and hers in a hidden safe and took what looked like a gun, a new phone, and whatever else was in that bag. He also set up a live feed surveillance in his living room. Outside of his apartment, they were jumped by two men, whom Peter easily dealt with; they were not after Rose, they were after him, because they believed The Rome Tome. Peter got their licenses and told them to stay there for questioning by agents who were coming. He called Farr on the road, who promised him she would send agents to question the men and watch his apartment overnight. 

On the road, Peter noticed they were being followed, and he had Rose call the Night Action number from his phone. The vehicle following them shot at them, wounding Rose as glass shards flew by. Peter was able to shake them but neither he nor Rose was able to get a plate number.

Peter took Rose to an AirBNB registered under a friend’s name, and it was here that I noticed a minor false note in the episode. Rose looked like she slept rather soundly for someone who just escaped assassins, found out that her aunt and uncle were killed, and that she was possibly in the middle of a grand conspiracy involving high ranking members of the government. She didn’t just fall asleep out of exhaustion whilst sitting down stressing in the living room, she was well tucked in in the house’s lone bedroom. 

Peter stayed up like the night shift agent that he was, and saw heavily armed men wearing balaclavas enter his apartment; they looked like the same men who shot at Peter and Rose that night. He called Farr, who sent in the two agents she had left outside Peter’s apartment. The balaclava men were out by the time the two agents got in. Peter zeroed in on a ring one of the men wore.

At the debriefing the next morning with Farr and Hawkins, Rose asked Peter to stay, never mind that the poor guy was up all night trying to keep her alive. Peter told Rose to just tell them what she knew, but Rose had absolutely no intention of doing that. She had overheard her aunt say that there was someone in the White House who could not be trusted. The only one Rose has decided to trust was Peter.

Elsewhere, a man and a woman with a baby managed to talk their way into the home of an unnamed woman. The man killed the woman with a garrotte, the same method used in killing Rose’s Uncle Henry. The assault on Henry and Emma’s house happened at night, and it was dark, but this could be the same assassination team who were sent to kill them. They left the baby they used to get in, the baby whom they kidnapped, in the house with the dead woman, as they received a message to finish what they started.

Rating: A-

Strays

Following the explosion at the DC Metro, Peter saw something with the number 2781. Also, the bomber had a snake tattoo on his torso. 

The board at Rose’s company fired her after all their clients bailed following a data breach and ransomware.

Rose woke up to Emma and Henry talking about burning documents, warning Osprey, something about seven days till they tried again, and an engineer. They also said no one in the White House could be trusted.

Rose saw a collection of newspaper clippings about Peter’s father in his apartment.

“I don’t know you.” “You can know me later.” Peters line totally worked on me. 

Peter switched phones but he still used his FBI vehicle to transport Rose.

Episode Title: The Call

Episode Director: Seth Gordon

Teleplay by: Shawn Ryan

Original Release Date: March 23, 2023