daddy issues (and HR issues)
Mar. 5th, 2026 07:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessThe Night Manager - 2.5
Roper immediately contacted Mayra and let her know that a man she thought dead was alive, and that he was AKA Jonathan Pine. (And Roper was obsessed with him!) Somehow Basil was awake to this, (even if Pine had sent him a message) sending Sally a red flag – although she decided to ignore it and stay in Colombia, and being able to leave Angela, who was back in the UK for one scene, some intel before getting captured by Mayra’s agents. He’d be tortured, refuse to give the whole story and get tortured again.
Roxi directed Pine and the kid to her old house (conveniently full of clothes that fit, including a blue shirt that brought out Hiddlestone’s eyes). The kid’s name was out in the media as the killer of the prosecutor, and he didn’t seem to have any family. We’d later see him chopping wood, which seems like a fair enough reaction to his situation.
Pine let Roxanna know that he didn’t really have a team (though this was a lie, as he was in contact with the PI soon after, at least, and eventually Sally) and probably couldn’t come through with the promises of no prosecution for her, but he wanted her to trust him and stay put anyway. After venting a bit of rage, she decided to have a steamy moment that they might as well have junked, apart from the whole ‘everyone falls for Pine a little’ narrative, and then went back to being mad at him. He also let out that he was angry with her, a bit, because she’d lied to him too, and it had led to a colleague’s death. We’d cut to her waiting it out until, eventually, by the end of the episode, she reached back out to the bad guys (mistake!)
Roper was somewhat dismissive of Teddy, though he was right to tell him that a man bent on revenge makes mistakes (hypocrite). Teddy was on transportation duty now that they could access The Shipment.
Pine invited Roper to lunch, telling him to come alone. The encounter was a bit the temptation of Jonathan Pine, although only a bit, which made it all the more powerful. (They drank juice the colour of blood, and only Roper had the steak, which was probably pumped with steroids.) Pine was bluffing with most of his cards, Roper made a counter offer, which was mainly a pay-off, but it devolved into a discussion of daddy issues. And that would be the theme of the episode, with Teddy learning that Roper thought of Danny as his true son and heir, and Roxanna being haunted by her father’s killing. Here, Jonathan could assert that he’d known that his father loved him, but seemed to impale Roper with the question of whether his father had loved him.
Anyway, it turned out that Roper hadn’t come alone, he’d brought an old friend who followed Pine in Roxanna’s father’s red, noticeable old truck. But Pine had brought the PI along too, who helped him escape rather niftily (escaping the men’s bathroom with new clothes on, including, of course, a baseball cap, green, so that he could escape in a flashy car, driven by cool young things. Heh.)
The PI went back to his listening post. Pine reached out to Teddy, inviting him to a one-on-one meet where he played the damning recordings of Roper calling Teddy a cowboy, unfit for his posh future hoe, and all that stuff about Danny. Teddy tried to fight Pine, who fought back, until it turned into a hug. Pine’s best move here was to take Teddy to his (half?)sister for an emotional reunion. He’d then ask for details about the plane carrying the device, so that he could stop it (HOW?) before it landed and started a civil war.
Sally reached out to the judge the now dead prosecutor had trusted. She seemed smart. Sally seems to understand Spanish, even if she’s unwilling to speak it.
Roper found the mics on his dogs’ collars and realised whoever was listening in was quite close. The PI barely got away by the skin of his teeth. Roper would then shoot his dogs because of their betrayal/vulnerability, as if we didn’t know he was evil incarnate already.
When Teddy came back to Roper’s, mumbling an excuse for switching his phone off, it was to find the furniture had been replaced in a sign of Roper’s paranoia. Teddy then went for a root around his father’s effects and found proof of what Pine had claimed (which is fair enough) and thus sent Pine the pictures and information about the plane he’d requested.
By this time, Pine had joined back up with the PI (at his sister’s house?) and Sally. He’d chided Sally for not leaving the country, but she was clearly as motivated by grief for her fellow Night Owls as he was (although the PI had framed it as loyalty to Pine.)
Roxanna met up with Roper for the first time. He welcomed her with a nasty threat. She met it with bravado, and then found out Matthew Ellis’s real name. It’s a little amusing that ‘Jonathan Pine’ is such a resonant name for us and Roper, but not for most of the characters this season.
Roper immediately contacted Mayra and let her know that a man she thought dead was alive, and that he was AKA Jonathan Pine. (And Roper was obsessed with him!) Somehow Basil was awake to this, (even if Pine had sent him a message) sending Sally a red flag – although she decided to ignore it and stay in Colombia, and being able to leave Angela, who was back in the UK for one scene, some intel before getting captured by Mayra’s agents. He’d be tortured, refuse to give the whole story and get tortured again.
Roxi directed Pine and the kid to her old house (conveniently full of clothes that fit, including a blue shirt that brought out Hiddlestone’s eyes). The kid’s name was out in the media as the killer of the prosecutor, and he didn’t seem to have any family. We’d later see him chopping wood, which seems like a fair enough reaction to his situation.
Pine let Roxanna know that he didn’t really have a team (though this was a lie, as he was in contact with the PI soon after, at least, and eventually Sally) and probably couldn’t come through with the promises of no prosecution for her, but he wanted her to trust him and stay put anyway. After venting a bit of rage, she decided to have a steamy moment that they might as well have junked, apart from the whole ‘everyone falls for Pine a little’ narrative, and then went back to being mad at him. He also let out that he was angry with her, a bit, because she’d lied to him too, and it had led to a colleague’s death. We’d cut to her waiting it out until, eventually, by the end of the episode, she reached back out to the bad guys (mistake!)
Roper was somewhat dismissive of Teddy, though he was right to tell him that a man bent on revenge makes mistakes (hypocrite). Teddy was on transportation duty now that they could access The Shipment.
Pine invited Roper to lunch, telling him to come alone. The encounter was a bit the temptation of Jonathan Pine, although only a bit, which made it all the more powerful. (They drank juice the colour of blood, and only Roper had the steak, which was probably pumped with steroids.) Pine was bluffing with most of his cards, Roper made a counter offer, which was mainly a pay-off, but it devolved into a discussion of daddy issues. And that would be the theme of the episode, with Teddy learning that Roper thought of Danny as his true son and heir, and Roxanna being haunted by her father’s killing. Here, Jonathan could assert that he’d known that his father loved him, but seemed to impale Roper with the question of whether his father had loved him.
Anyway, it turned out that Roper hadn’t come alone, he’d brought an old friend who followed Pine in Roxanna’s father’s red, noticeable old truck. But Pine had brought the PI along too, who helped him escape rather niftily (escaping the men’s bathroom with new clothes on, including, of course, a baseball cap, green, so that he could escape in a flashy car, driven by cool young things. Heh.)
The PI went back to his listening post. Pine reached out to Teddy, inviting him to a one-on-one meet where he played the damning recordings of Roper calling Teddy a cowboy, unfit for his posh future hoe, and all that stuff about Danny. Teddy tried to fight Pine, who fought back, until it turned into a hug. Pine’s best move here was to take Teddy to his (half?)sister for an emotional reunion. He’d then ask for details about the plane carrying the device, so that he could stop it (HOW?) before it landed and started a civil war.
Sally reached out to the judge the now dead prosecutor had trusted. She seemed smart. Sally seems to understand Spanish, even if she’s unwilling to speak it.
Roper found the mics on his dogs’ collars and realised whoever was listening in was quite close. The PI barely got away by the skin of his teeth. Roper would then shoot his dogs because of their betrayal/vulnerability, as if we didn’t know he was evil incarnate already.
When Teddy came back to Roper’s, mumbling an excuse for switching his phone off, it was to find the furniture had been replaced in a sign of Roper’s paranoia. Teddy then went for a root around his father’s effects and found proof of what Pine had claimed (which is fair enough) and thus sent Pine the pictures and information about the plane he’d requested.
By this time, Pine had joined back up with the PI (at his sister’s house?) and Sally. He’d chided Sally for not leaving the country, but she was clearly as motivated by grief for her fellow Night Owls as he was (although the PI had framed it as loyalty to Pine.)
Roxanna met up with Roper for the first time. He welcomed her with a nasty threat. She met it with bravado, and then found out Matthew Ellis’s real name. It’s a little amusing that ‘Jonathan Pine’ is such a resonant name for us and Roper, but not for most of the characters this season.
