The Night Manager Recap Season 2 Episode 4: Civilised Company

Was I worried for a second after seeing the third episode? A bit, yes. Has that worry been eased with this propulsive, sharply-written fourth episode? Absolutely. When Richard Roper started reminiscing about the glories of colonialism and calling Danny his ‘only son’ when it was his other son Teddy who practically saved his life and got him back on his scheming feet, well, there was that magnetic evil posh criminal we fell in love with/ hated in the first season. The villain needed to be him, because we have not yet exhausted the depths of his villainy. Halfway through the season, and The Night Manager felt truly, exhilaratingly back.

Six years ago, Richard Roper made a deal with his Syrian captors. He would return the full 300 million that Jonathan stole from them in exchange for his freedom. I would have thought Barghati would ask for interest given that it would take Roper years to put the money back together, but there was no mention of this, yet. 

And so, the night before his body was supposed to be identified, he walked into Angela Burr’s hotel room and delivered his threat. If she did not agree to his charade, she and Jonathan would be killed right then and there, and he would send someone to London to kill her daughter. Her retirement was part of the deal as well. Angela took it, but afterwards, she immediately went to Rex Mayhew. They were set to go after Roper when he disappeared. 

It was to Colombia that he flew, where the son he refused to acknowledge and had neglected all these years lived. Teddy, who only remembered him as the father who visited him every year at the monastery when no one else did, came to him when he had nothing. Roper mostly remained in his massive hideout, leaving only once a day, heading to the nearby restaurant, going home again, all whilst he orchestrated his return, using Teddy as the temporary face of his operation.

From Teddy’s point of view, this man was his father; of course he was there for him for whatever he needed. Diego Calva infused Teddy with such human vulnerability through this episode, it made his final scene when he realised Jonathan’s deception, ever more shattering, and we are talking about a man who just murdered a well intentioned prosecutor barely a minute ago. The writing, the performance, the way they were shot, even that layer of dust that covered Sandy’s vehicle that would drive him back to the airport following his visit with Roper, a sign of the rough road he needed to take to get there – this was an episode of mesmerising darkness, mostly spent in the interior lives of the ‘bad guys’, with jolts of barely flickering light from those who worked to stop them.

Roper’s annual visits to the son paid off massively; Teddy grew up a devoted child who wanted to please his father. It was in the little things – Teddy sending the housekeeper Fatima away so he could cook for Roper himself, Teddy keeping up with his riding, something he and Roper must have done when he was younger, Teddy immediately dropping his cigarette to the ground and stomping on it when Roper called it a filthy habit. Their years of dirty hard work had paid off; in three days, the arms deal would be complete. Roper would have the money to pay off his Syrian creditors, and he would be free. What Teddy wanted to know was what would happen afterwards. 

They spoke as they gazed upon the rolling hills, with Roper waxing nostalgic of the first Spaniard who set his eyes on them, calling them ‘terra nullius’ – nobody’s land – as though the people who already lived there were not people. The Night Manager leaning into Roper’s colonialist mentality was one of its best decisions.

What Teddy wanted was to finally be acknowledged as Roper’s son. It was notable that Roper did not commit to this, only to making a plan, and Teddy was so intent on his vision of father and son running the continent, that he did not notice Roper’s careful choice of words.

For Roper, Colombia was a prison. He longed for home, for England, to be an Englishman again and finally put to bed his Gilberto Hanson persona. His old friend Sandy Langbourne’s visit gave us several scenes of Roper as his most honest self, and some of the best writing of the spy thriller genre. I would watch an episode of these two just sitting and drinking and talking; the history was there, the evil planning, and such genuine affection between two objectively terrible people. It was a reminder of what we watch TV for, of the buildup over multiple episodes to get scenes like these, where a simple question – ‘Did you grieve?’ – carried with it an entire backstory. 

Once upon a more innocent time, Roper travelled the world with his closest confidants, amongst them, his one-time right hand man Corky, and the aristocrat Lord Langbourne, Sandy, who acted as his financial director. It was a massive criminal enterprise, but they were also, in a twisted way, a true family, which was why Jonathan’s ability to needle his way into their lives was such a big deal. It was quite believable that Sandy truly grieved when he heard that Roper had died, but it was even more interesting that Roper even asked that question. It felt like equal parts a very human desire for reassurance that his time on earth meant enough for someone to mourn him, and also, the narcissism of a crime boss who wanted to know that his men loved him. Would Roper toss Sandy to the crocodiles should he ever be suspected of disloyalty? Yes. Would he feel badly about it afterwards? Also, yes. 

Sandy showed Roper a brochure of an extensive estate in England that Mayra offered to purchase for him as a thank you gift. This was signed off at Whitehall, so this cooperation with Roper went beyond Mayra, there was much involvement at the heart of the British government. Roper also had a bonus gift, his British passport. Roper’s quote, ‘Earth has not anything to show more fair’ was the opening line to a William Wordsworth sonnet on the beauty of London; this was Roper turning to poetry to express how he has missed his home. As though to underscore their British identity (superiority), Sandy started singing ‘He is an Englishman’ from Gilbert and Sullivan’s opera HMS Pinafore, and Roper joined in. 

Roper told Sandy of how he turned his mind from thoughts of vengeance against Angela Burr and Jonathan Pine, and toward rebuilding his empire, whilst he was still a captive. Hugh Laurie has this whole brilliant monologue here that needs to be watched; the writing and the delivery was chilling. The gist of it was this coloniser perspective that led Roper to his new business model – buy up a local militia, arm them, and start a revolution. The funding would come from whoever stood to gain from the country’s precious resources once the fighting was done. The money would come from both sides – arms sales to the militia and post-war profiteering. Sandy called this the ‘commercialisation of chaos’.

Roper explained that he started in Colombia because he had old friends there from the landowning class whose way of life was threatened by the new order, which could include them having to face justice for their crimes. The arms were for Jose Cabrera’s revolution whilst Mayra and her investors footed the bill. Roper was one shipment away from completing this deal; if he could do it here, he could do it anywhere. The whole time that Roper spoke of how he intended to pillage the country, Martin Alvarez, private detective and former policeman, listened via a bug he attached to one of the dogs’ collar.

Sandy asked about Roper’s local contractors, specifically Teddy, and did he just compare his son to one of his hounds? He did. He had no intention of bringing Teddy with him once he had left Colombia, calling him ‘not fit for civilised company’. Record this, Martin! The one sort of fatherly thing he did (for a thoroughly evil man) was when Sandy alluded to killing Teddy once their business was finished, and Roper was noncommittal. At least for now, he has not yet decided to murder his son. 

He wanted Danny, however, the child he considered his only son and heir. Roper and Danny had not seen each other in a decade. Roper instructed Sandy to do whatever he needed to do to get Danny from his mother, to pull him out of boarding school, and take him to his new house in Oxfordshire. As these old friends said their goodbyes, Sandy mused at how Roper fooled everyone. Roper said that Jonathan Pine was a noble adversary who made one mistake: ‘When you’ve slain the dragon, always check its breath.’

The thing about the arrogant and the evil was that they tended to underestimate their adversaries. Roper did not even ask for details on this mysterious Hongkong investor who just handed Teddy 20 million dollars when he needed it, at least, not until Teddy called him and confessed the leak in their tightly run operation. Teddy had the investor’s photo faxed to Roper’s mountain hideout, and there it was, the face of the man he thought he defeated. Roper haunted Jonathan, and Jonathan haunted him back.

Jonathan wormed his way into the inner circle via Roper’s then very young son Danny. A robbery and an attempted kidnapping was staged, and Jonathan playacted saving Danny’s life. This time, Jonathan again got in via another son, Teddy. 

Jonathan’s airport goodbye to Teddy showed how much he understood his quarry. Jonathan played on Teddy’s attraction to him, but he also read the deep faith that lived within this ambitious criminal. That tender kiss, that mention of praying for his soul — he heard the yearning in Teddy’s voice when he told Jonathan to forget he ever met him, and responded with snakelike quickness to disarm Teddy. Teddy considered killing Jonathan in the car; he didn’t. Teddy walked Jonathan to the airport gate to make sure he boarded his flight. His casual play at emotion broke Teddy’s resolve to keep a close eye on him to make sure he left — Teddy had to turn his mind back to the business at hand — and those few seconds gave Jonathan the chance to slip out. Instead of boarding his flight to Paris, he waited for Angela Burr, his one time handler who lied to him.

They talked right there at the airport, with Angela explaining what happened from her side and Jonathan expressing the sense of betrayal that he felt. For Jonathan, it was not just his life he risked to get Roper; Jed was tortured in the process. Angela pointed out that if he knew Roper was alive, he would have dived head first trying to find him, as he was doing in Colombia. Angela wanted time to sort the operation; she said this was more than Roper, there was a civil war in their intelligence service. The conversation was well written and difficult, and they both have a point. But, Jonathan could not stop now. His people were on the field. Basil was risking his neck in London. There was an active threat on a local asset, the prosecutor Alejandro Gualteros. Releasing the last shipment would lead to civil war. Angela took a hotel night manager and turned him into a principled spy. She could not have been surprised that he walked away from her to do what he thought he needed to do.

Jonathan headed to the hotel where Sally and Alejandro were holed up, waiting to get a meeting with Consuelo Arbenz, the one person who could authorise the opening of the shipment. The matter became ever more urgent for Sally and Jonathan when they later received more intel from Basil; the final shipment was an EMP, a weapon that could take out the power of the whole city.

Unknown to Jonathan’s small crew, however, Arturo, Consuelo's assistant, worked for Juan. Arturo warned Juan and Teddy about the shipment list, and their suspicion immediately fell on Roxana, whom Juan said was left alone at the Cartagena office with the list. Roxana was trapped in Teddy’s house whilst Teddy and Juan left to deal with this latest crisis.

Arturo got Alejandro to come to the parliament building for a purported meeting with Consuelo; Jonathan joined him on the way but of course he could not very well walk in with him. Roxana pretended to call her mother about missing her flight, but she instead called Jonathan and warned him. Jonathan tried calling Alejandro, but it was too late. Alejandro was taken to a room with Arturo and some military men, and was later forced into a vehicle with Teddy’s man Chico. The kid they forced to drive looked like the kid who did not know how to open a bottle of champagne at Teddy’s party. 

Jonathan stole a motorbike and followed the car to an isolated area with old abandoned buildings. It was there that Teddy waited, and when he asked Alejandro why he did not simply accept his offer, there was almost a tinge of regret there, like he did not really want to kill him but now he had to. It was rather Roper-esque. I was concerned about this the moment we met Alejandro, that he would become a casualty of this British-backed war. That was exactly what happened; Teddy shot him in the head.

Jonathan had caught up with them by then; he shot Chico, then yelled for the kid to take cover, to come to him. Teddy recognised him immediately, and a gunfight between these two men who took communion together merely a day ago ensued. Jonathan and the kid escaped on the motorbike as a devastated, furious Teddy, already out of bullets, could only look on.

Jonathan had told Sally about Roxana’s warning, and told her to track Roxana’s phone. Roxana was in the car with Beni, likely on the way to her death, when Beni was shot in the head. Is it possible to hit a moving target this accurately with a handgun? Let’s assume it is. Jonathan pulled Beni’s body from the car and told the kid to get in. He was able to save Roxana and the still unnamed kid, but now Roper knew he was there. Who was the hunter? Who was the hunted? The next episode could not come soon enough.

Rating: A+

Strays

🌳Mayra had seen the Andrew Birch file and must have recognised him as Alex Goodwin

🌳In a surveillance video, Basil saw Mayra, Sandy, and Adam Holywell enter the Holland Park safe house. Basil met Adam at the posh The Mayfair Club and pretended he was in on the operation. He said Adam had his phone on when he went to the house and Mayra was extremely sensitive about a security breach like that. They ended up having a friendly chat; Basil was not a field agent but he was very good at this. Adam told him how his investors would spend a few hundred million and they would get a whole country – copper, oil, lithium –  in return. Adam’s casual disregard for the chaos and death this regime change plan would bring about was as chilling as Roper’s carefully thought out plans. Lives meant nothing to them when placed alongside resources worth billions. Basil got Adam to hand his phone in purportedly so he could make sure it was clean; it was how he got six months worth of emails, and the intel on the EMP. 

🌳Jonathan to Angela: ‘Do you have any idea how hard this has been without you?’ Okay, sure, I get that, but I also wanted to bring out a Justice for Sally card. Sally has been a phenomenal partner to Jonathan.

🌳Whilst we are on that, how would Sally reach to Roxana, the woman who caused the death of most of the Night Owls team, including Waleed?

🌳Martin Alvarez (Diego Santos) has had few lines, but he is one of this season’s best new characters. Jonathan left him on the hill to watch Roper, and he did just that. He brought meat to draw out Roper’s dogs and attached a listening device to the collar of one of them. Just from one afternoon of surveillance work, and he already got so much intel. Martin is worth a hundred times the five thousand dollars Sally promised him. 

🌳Teddy initially lied to Roper about the prosecutor already being dead (Sally in fact was able to help him escape his watched apartment). Roper called Juan, who was forced to tell him the truth. 

🌳Why did Roper receive Jonathan’s photo via fax when we saw him use a smartphone multiple times, which meant there was adequate signal in his mountain hideout? 

Episode Writer: David Farr

Episode Director: Georgi Banks-Davies

Original Release Date: January 18, 2026

You can access Recap Lab's ongoing coverage of The Night Manager via this link.

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