Obsessing over baseball caps...
Jan. 16th, 2026 05:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessThe Night Manager - 2.2
Opened with Sally explaining to her superiors, led by the boss lady, Mayra, why she’d followed her boss’s orders to go run a mission in Spain. The Night Owls were officially disbanded and she was told to take time off, but Pine was still alive and on the Welsh coast, meeting up with one of the security services’ upper brass, who’d been at Sally’s hearing, knew Pine’s real identity and had helped create a fake one because Rex had asked him. This Basil seemed on the up and up all episode, and was willing to support Jonathan, having already made it look like he’d died, as was Sally, who wanted her colleagues’ deaths to mean something, and as we’ve seen, is good at her job. (As is Hailey Squires, who has quite enough screen presence to square up to Indira Varma and Tom Hiddleston, thank you.)
So, Pine became Matthew Ellis, funded by Roper’s ill-gotten millions (satisfying), going to the glamourous parts of Colombia, where Sally had given dos Santos a cash-flow problem. Just as convenient as Pine’s Spanish language skills (and harder to buy because hasn’t he been just jogging when not sleeping and working at weird hours for the last few traumatised years?), he could play tennis well enough to get introduced to Teddy.
At Rex’s funeral, after some chuntering with Mayra about the idea of England that the security services used to cherish (er, the show had quite literally just been to Wales, but fine, remind us that we’re England/the British empire’s first colony, just don’t be surprised by us supporting whoever is playing against England at football), Basil got something about ‘our paymasters’ wanting ‘us’ (her branch of the service? The UK?) to be at the top table (which justifies working with criminal gangs how?). Mayra wanted Rex’s case files from him, presumably Basil redacted Pine’s details when he delayed handing them over, and he bought a flat opposite the house that had been used for a meet with the middle man in the previous episode, so he could set up a couple of cameras to watch it.
Back at the sunnier climes of Colombia, Teddy invited ‘Ellis’ to a fundraising gala, where they kind of flirted and Pine established the drunk risk-taker persona. Oh, and was ‘introduced’ to Roxana, so they had to appear to flirt and get on, while he threatened her to get him an in as Teddy’s money man. Pine then got a glimpse of a picture he’d seen before in ‘the Roper archive’ in Teddy’s wallet, and using the blue denim hat (he’d brought over from Wales!?) disguise, turned to a local detective to try to find the woman in the photo. Out in a very photogenic location, they found her daughter, who identified Teddy as her brother, which led to a monastery where Teddy had been brought up and picked up the ‘dos Santos’ sobriquet. Pine was shaken to find out that he was Roper’s son, which explained why he was trying to emulate the old man.
He told Sally as much, while she’d figured out that the shipment stuck in Cartagena was the last of six. For her, the mission was finding what was in that container. It was suggested that the 10-year anniversary of a peace deal next week was an important date. Am I supposed to make much of the fact that she was wearing a pink version of Pine’s cunning baseball disguise?
Pine/Ellis was invited to lunch with Roxy, who seemed to be scared and basically imprisoned by Teddy. They did a deal, she’d say he was good for the $20 million Teddy needed, he’d give her her life in Florida back with no prosecutions. She brought him to Teddy’s luxury pad, peopled by heavies, and Pine saw the attaché case with the information Pine and Sally wanted.
Ellis was offered a deal where he’d double his money, with dos Santos emphasising how important trust and loyalty were to him. Pine had to drink, lie, drink, take cocaine, drink something that had got spiked. Woozy, he had enough wherewithal to ask Roxy for help, she pushed him into the swimming pool, which helped clear his head enough that when Teddy had him prone and asked him probing questions, he stuck to the Ellis backstory. So, she’s a quick thinker and potentially helpful (although, again, her relationship with Teddy as the decorative front that he kind of treats as property, is reminiscent of Roper/Jed without quite the age disparity.)
Opened with Sally explaining to her superiors, led by the boss lady, Mayra, why she’d followed her boss’s orders to go run a mission in Spain. The Night Owls were officially disbanded and she was told to take time off, but Pine was still alive and on the Welsh coast, meeting up with one of the security services’ upper brass, who’d been at Sally’s hearing, knew Pine’s real identity and had helped create a fake one because Rex had asked him. This Basil seemed on the up and up all episode, and was willing to support Jonathan, having already made it look like he’d died, as was Sally, who wanted her colleagues’ deaths to mean something, and as we’ve seen, is good at her job. (As is Hailey Squires, who has quite enough screen presence to square up to Indira Varma and Tom Hiddleston, thank you.)
So, Pine became Matthew Ellis, funded by Roper’s ill-gotten millions (satisfying), going to the glamourous parts of Colombia, where Sally had given dos Santos a cash-flow problem. Just as convenient as Pine’s Spanish language skills (and harder to buy because hasn’t he been just jogging when not sleeping and working at weird hours for the last few traumatised years?), he could play tennis well enough to get introduced to Teddy.
At Rex’s funeral, after some chuntering with Mayra about the idea of England that the security services used to cherish (er, the show had quite literally just been to Wales, but fine, remind us that we’re England/the British empire’s first colony, just don’t be surprised by us supporting whoever is playing against England at football), Basil got something about ‘our paymasters’ wanting ‘us’ (her branch of the service? The UK?) to be at the top table (which justifies working with criminal gangs how?). Mayra wanted Rex’s case files from him, presumably Basil redacted Pine’s details when he delayed handing them over, and he bought a flat opposite the house that had been used for a meet with the middle man in the previous episode, so he could set up a couple of cameras to watch it.
Back at the sunnier climes of Colombia, Teddy invited ‘Ellis’ to a fundraising gala, where they kind of flirted and Pine established the drunk risk-taker persona. Oh, and was ‘introduced’ to Roxana, so they had to appear to flirt and get on, while he threatened her to get him an in as Teddy’s money man. Pine then got a glimpse of a picture he’d seen before in ‘the Roper archive’ in Teddy’s wallet, and using the blue denim hat (he’d brought over from Wales!?) disguise, turned to a local detective to try to find the woman in the photo. Out in a very photogenic location, they found her daughter, who identified Teddy as her brother, which led to a monastery where Teddy had been brought up and picked up the ‘dos Santos’ sobriquet. Pine was shaken to find out that he was Roper’s son, which explained why he was trying to emulate the old man.
He told Sally as much, while she’d figured out that the shipment stuck in Cartagena was the last of six. For her, the mission was finding what was in that container. It was suggested that the 10-year anniversary of a peace deal next week was an important date. Am I supposed to make much of the fact that she was wearing a pink version of Pine’s cunning baseball disguise?
Pine/Ellis was invited to lunch with Roxy, who seemed to be scared and basically imprisoned by Teddy. They did a deal, she’d say he was good for the $20 million Teddy needed, he’d give her her life in Florida back with no prosecutions. She brought him to Teddy’s luxury pad, peopled by heavies, and Pine saw the attaché case with the information Pine and Sally wanted.
Ellis was offered a deal where he’d double his money, with dos Santos emphasising how important trust and loyalty were to him. Pine had to drink, lie, drink, take cocaine, drink something that had got spiked. Woozy, he had enough wherewithal to ask Roxy for help, she pushed him into the swimming pool, which helped clear his head enough that when Teddy had him prone and asked him probing questions, he stuck to the Ellis backstory. So, she’s a quick thinker and potentially helpful (although, again, her relationship with Teddy as the decorative front that he kind of treats as property, is reminiscent of Roper/Jed without quite the age disparity.)
