Bikes and private jets

[shallowness]

The Night Manager episode 4

Andrew Birch was on! It was fascinating to watch him/Pine around Roper, always being tested, but being allowed to be the front man and yet always reminded that Roper gave the orders and fronted the cash. The sequence where they were essentially wearing a shirt and jacket in the same colours was particularly striking. And of course, this was all what Pine needed Roper to believe was going on on the surface.

I liked that Jed had agency, even if she was making dangerous choices. Her questions to Pine/Quince/Birch were on point, and apart from being attracted to him on his own merits (completely understandable etc, etc) and turning to anyone as she was seeing exactly who Roper is (more thanks to Pine than she knows), she also got a kick out of the fact that ‘everyone is attracted to him’ (by which she has to mean Roper, too, and there is an element of that, somewhere between seeing a younger him and wanting to show the younger him he’s still in charge) but Pine was attracted to her, and she could have him.

Given that they made a big deal of her calling him on the landline, I have to demand HOW DID SHE KNOW HIS NUMBER? I don’t remember her finding out they were going to Istanbul, there was no indication that the entourage were known there, so, again I ask HOW DID SHE KNOW WHICH HOTEL TO CALL?

That seems to me to be a major slip up.

I mean the fact that she told Pine she’d left her son with her sister while she was talking to her mother on the phone (and now I don’t remember which phone it was and whether Jed regularly breaks the no landlines rules – they must apply to her to some degree) isn’t entirely consistent, but it just means that her mother is in her sister’s life. So, I tend to think she is what she seems. She’s angry and she’s scared about what she’s found out. And Pine is there. And Pine is partly seeing the ghost of Sophie and a distraction from getting Roper which he can’t resist, but he’s also right about not being her way out.

Don’t know what a way out could be for her either. Corky didn’t quite seem to get the message through about Jonathan/Jed, while he was busy being a human hand grenade in the seafood restaurant. But if he carries on being a nuisance – well, we saw what was done to the Spanish lawyer and his girlfriend, although we don’t know who in the conspiracy authorised/did the killing. So, Corky’s way out looks to be death, to me. Jed knows less, but Roper is not going to accept finding out about her sleeping with Pine.

We found out Rex’s boss is in on it. (I loved that they’ve cast a woman of an appropriate age; I also loved that Angela had a Grace to open up to in the big scene they’ll play when Olivia Colman is nominated for a BAFTA. Sorry four being cynical, she legitimately was great and we needed to know why Roper was such personal business for her.)

I am sure that I had more thoughts and opinions about what happened, but I’ll just post as is.

Comments

[autumnia]

That phone call from Jed to Pine in Istanbul was also very strange because I'm also wondering how she got his number when he told her he didn't know where he was actually going. When Pine told her to get off the phone, I already suspected the line had been tapped but I was actually surprised to find out it was Angela's group that had bugged the room.

Haven't quite decided if Roper suspects his protege of being a spy just yet but I suppose those scenes of fleeing the hotel might have aided Pine's cover. Will Pine still continue to send Angela information even though she took him off the case?

Corker was really making a fool of himself and I do think he'll either self-destruct or Roper will have him finished off at some point.

[shallowness]

We knew that Angela and co were listening in to Roper's phone, I think. They just never got anything useful because he keeps giving the team mobiles for business calls. I'd forgotten this until Angela's deputy pulled Pine into the room for her to berate him.

Yeah, Roper said he was suspicious of Pine, but not in what way specifically. At present, I think the belief that Apostol was the leak will stick. Pine dobbing the enforcement officers in should have strengthened his position, although at the least, it should increase Roper's paranoia.

I think Pine is still all for bringing Roper down, and his belief he could do so was why he was never going to follow Angela's orders and walk away. He's probably going to try to do what he sketched out, i.e. get enough information to bring Roper down, but presumably it's not going to go to plan. However, I don't think he's going to try to contact Angela with anything less.

As soon as I'd posted, I'd realised I'd failed to comment on the end of the episode!

[autumnia]

I do agree that Pine's still set to bring Roper down with Angela's eventual help. After disobeying orders, he'll have to obtain concrete proof in order to convince her that he's still on her side, though his methods to do so are even murkier than hers.