The Night Manager Recap Season 2 Episode 2: Welcome to the Family

‘I feel like I’m chasing ghosts’, Jonathan Pine, who was now Matthew Ellis, told Sally, the one remaining member of his now defunct Night Owls unit. He had already started a new life and a new identity after he toppled the notorious arms smuggler and fake humanitarian Richard Roper. Now, because he recognised a former Roper man, his boss was dead, most of his team was dead, and he was in Colombia chasing after another possibly notorious arms smuggler and fake humanitarian. The shadow of the first season was all over these early episodes, and not just because it was well remembered by fans. The callbacks are deliberate and strategically placed. And now, two episodes in, and we have not just a callback but a direct link to Richard Onslow Roper. Jonathan Pine brought down Richard Roper nearly a decade ago, and now it was as though he was dueling him again.

As far as the British Secret Service was concerned, Alex Goodwin died in a Barcelona hotel along with the rest of his team whom he brought with him in an unsanctioned operation. But Jonathan/ Alex trusted Sally, and he ended up in a cottage in Wales that seemed to belong to Basil, a River House man we last saw in Rex Mayhew’s house after his alleged suicide. Basil had Jonathan Pine’s file, he was the one Rex asked to help in creating the Alex Goodwin identity six years ago. It was him who used his influence to make it appear as though there were two bodies in that hotel room in Barcelona when there was only one.

Basil suspected that it was Mayra Cavendish who had Rex killed. He also confirmed that, though it was never proven, Roper did smuggle arms into Colombia in the 1990s. Jonathan showed him the photos from the Roper archive. Jonathan’s theory was that Teddy used Roper’s operation as a blueprint, and that British intelligence was helping him.

Mike, who was at the office with Sally when all hell broke loose last episode, also survived, but he has left the service. Sally seemed to struggle with survivor’s guilt; she had no one in her life, but Waleed had a wife and children. That was the team that Jonathan had this time – Sally, who would be his lone backup in Colombia, and Basil, who would remain in the UK.

Using the code name Max, Sally had tipped off a public prosecutor in Medellin named Alejandro Gualteros about the Alcestis. He has impounded the shipment and frozen Barquero's bank accounts. Teddy would need cash flow, which was where Jonathan would come in. They would use the 300 million dollars that Jonathan had stolen from Roper as their operational funds.

Okay, let’s discuss that 300 million briefly. Back in the first season, Roper created the identity Andrew Birch for Jonathan, and the company Tradepass, to help hide his arms dealing. Via Tradepass and the Birch identity, Jonathan received the partial payment of 300 million from Omar Baghati for arms that he would later blow up. This was the 300 million that he stole. What happened to this rather large sum of money? Well, Basil had access to it; what arrangements were made in relation to this money, it was not yet clear.  

Jonathan would now pose as Matthew Ellis, a wealthy risk taker who worked for a private Swiss bank in Hongkong, until he had to leave following a scandal. At the luxurious hotel where he stayed, he gave every impression that he had given in to vices – pron, drink, and gambling. When he met Teddy’s lawyer Juan Carrascal, and later Teddy himself, by playing tennis, I was reminded of how Jonathan played tennis in season one too, with Roper at his Spanish villa. We are retracing some very familiar steps here. It was notable that Jonathan was beating Juan rather handily, then when he noticed that Teddy had arrived and was watching, he began pretending to lose.

Teddy had sought the help of his friends in the military, notably General Horacio Sanchez, to deal with Alejandro’s interference with his shipment. Sally approached Alejandro in person and gave him a record of a conversation that happened in London a couple of weeks back to help him refuse to release the shipment. He has continued to hold the shipment, but the military had prevented him from opening it.

Meanwhile, Teddy had Juan invite Jonathan/ Matthew to the fundraising gala of his charity Aurora. If the seduction began with a short post-tennis conversation, it amped up in the gala, with Jonathan crossing Teddy’s personal space, saying ‘I’m always open to offers’. As long as the wait between seasons was, by all appearances, this project came at the right time for Tom Hiddleston. He’s older, he’s had a few scars; that he has lived more of this life reflected in his performance. He could turn off the light in his eyes, which gave this current iteration of Jonathan Pine much more pathos.

Juan came late, and walked in with Roxana Bolanos, the woman Jonathan had tried to rescue, and who got his men killed. He lied easily, told her he was not alone, that there was an extraction team. He threatened to get her extradited to London for accessory to murder. There were plenty of I don’t knows in the answers she was giving him, but he could not very well interrogate her right there in the middle of the party. He told her to convince Teddy that Matthew Ellis was the one he needed. 

Alejandro Gualteros went to the party – perhaps he was summoned by Teddy, it was not clear – but he held his ground and still refused to release the shipment. As Teddy tried to leave with Roxana, Jonathan handed her his card. Teddy took it himself and when he opened his wallet, Jonathan spotted the same photo of a woman from the Roper archive. 

Jonathan slipped into his next identity – Max Robinson – and consulted a private detective, Martin Alvarez, in an effort to identify the woman in the photo. They found her identity quickly enough – Maria Louisa Vidal. Her daughter Clara met them at her grave as she demanded to know why they were asking around for her mother. Jonathan showed a photo of Teddy, whom she identified as her brother Eduardo. Jonathan claimed he was looking for him and that he could be in trouble.

Clara pointed them to a monastery where Eduardo was sent due to a yet to be revealed scandal, and which he left when he was 16. His English father used to visit him once a year. When Jonathan and Sally later met at his hotel – Sally was being followed by one of Teddy’s men – Jonathan told her what he found out, that Teddy Dos Santos was Richard Roper’s son. 

Sally, too, has been active in intelligence gathering. She found that there were five shipments from the UK to Colombia in the last two years. These shipments were large, with 20 containers. The Alcestis only had one container and it was to be the final shipment. They needed the shipment list that was in the briefcase from the first episode, the one Jaco carried to Barcelona and gave to Teddy.

Sally met with Alejandro inside a cramped train. He showed her a photo that was delivered to his house, of himself with a red X mark over his face. Sally tried to brush it off – What else could she do? She, too, had no in-country support; her own government did not know what she was doing, but she could not very well tell her asset that.

Sally told Alejandro that the Alcestis contained illegally imported British weapons. It was the last of six shipments; they needed to know who these weapons were for. The deadline for the final shipment was code named Anniversary.

Alejandro mentioned that ‘Anniversary’ may not be a code name. The 10-year anniversary of the peace process was in a week’s time. But with the letter from the military, his hands were tied; he could not open the shipment. Sally asked him if a list of the items inside would help untie his hands. He hesitantly nodded. It was a bit uncomfortable to watch a man who, at least by appearance, was a decent public servant being worked by a foreign agent who did not have the resources that her nationality implied. It also hurt to watch a female agent who thought it was fine to risk her life like this because she did not have anyone else in her life. Yet, what else could they do but to exert what effort they could to right the wrong they witnessed?

Roxana lunched with Jonathan – whilst watched by one of Teddy’s men – and told him that Teddy needed cash because his account was frozen. He was looking into a potential short term loan of 20 million. Roxana wanted the guarantee that if she could make this happen – if she could get Jonathan inside – then it would be like she was never here. She would not be charged and she would not be a witness.

Roxana drove Jonathan to Teddy’s house, where he spotted the briefcase that had been in Spain. Teddy had clearly studied Jonathan’s fake background. His proposal was simple: ‘You ask no questions of me, I ask no questions of you. Everything is trust.’ In return, he promised to double Jonathan’s money in three months. When Jonathan said he would think about it, Teddy called his other men (Beni and Viktor), brought out champagne and drugs, and partied, hard. He drugged Jonathan’s champagne and murmured ‘Welcome to the family’, as Roper’s own welcome in a not so different life echoed within Jonathan.

A drunk and drugged Jonathan fell facedown into the pool. Teddy cradled Jonathan after he helped pull him out, and asked him who he was, why he was there. Jonathan said he was there to clean the money. He lost the bank 600 million and the Swiss bankers were not happy. However, he managed to hide 25 million in Belize. Teddy promised him he could help clean the money.

‘I can make you clean.’

‘Make me clean. Make me clean.’

Teddy did not know it, but Jonathan was probably referring to a different kind of stain.

Rating: B+

Strays

🌳Mayra shut down the Night Owls unit. She also asked Basil for all of Rex’s operational files. 

🌳On the news: Attorney General Consuelo Arbenz issued an arrest warrant against politician Jose Cabrera.

🌳Roxana's latest story was that Rex found her in Miami and that he noticed traffic between River House and Colombia where her name was mentioned. Roxana fed this information to Teddy.

🌳Basil rented the flat in front of the safe house Jonathan saw Mayra emerge from in the first episode. 

🌳In the 1990s, Richard Roper was gun running in Colombia. He met a married woman and had a child with her. They sent the child away, changed his name, and hid his past. This child was Teddy Dos Santos.

🌳Teddy was shown looking through headshots of a lot of people, and one of them looked like the boy at his fundraiser who did not know how to open a champagne bottle (Jonathan showed him how). 

Episode Writer: David Farr

Episode Director: Georgi Banks-Davies

Original Release Date: January 4, 2026

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