Finale time
Mar. 19th, 2026 07:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessThe Night Manager - 2.6
After the previously, my main thought was how were they planning on diverting a plane. Had Pine learned how to fly one along with the tennis and the shooting?
We had a very female gazey scene of Teddy showering while having flashbacks. It was a way of reminding us of the self-harming, which came up later, but reminded me of us having seen Pine having an angsty shower. I honourably tried to have the same ‘must we?’ reaction I do when it’s female characters. (On reflection, we might well have had an equal opportunity angsty shower from Roxanne, so…)
Team Whitehat conferred about their plans for the day, well, some of them. Sally was meant to get in touch with Basil, who we knew was dead. Team Blackhat conferred, which was mainly about Teddy convincing Roper that everything was fine, while sneaking in a call to Pine. Pine and the PI were meant to meet him, but Pine got a call from Roxi, and so did a detour. Teddy learned about this from Juan and called to give a warning.
Roper was watching the car park where Pine was meant to meat Roxi from his laptop. Heeding the warning, Pine lied about which car they were in to Roxi, and I was relieved that the family had emptied it as Roper’s men shot and shot at it. (Although Roxi got blood on her at this point, so…)
‘Mathew Ellis’ and his PI sidekick escaped, and eventually, the PI went off to look for Tavo, the kid. ‘Ellis’ thanked him and asked why he’d been so kind. Patriotism was the answer, and fair enough, I wouldn’t want anyone coming in and starting a civil war, using child soldiers (something that was shown later), in my country. [Gritting teeth, setting aside modern geopolitics.]
Juan was on to Teddy, so they had to fight, Teddy got the first upper hand, then yielded it, and had to scuffle and ended up shooting Juan dead.
Sally engineered a getaway from her military minders for the Colombian judge, and they went to an abandoned shooting range they were going to divert the plane to. But then Sally found out that Basil was dead, had a very understated response. But guest star Angela Burr was in his place…
Pine and Teddy met up, disposed of Juan’s body together. This location, up in the hills/mountains, was gorgeous. Pine did offer Teddy an out, but he didn’t take it. Instead he took Pine to meet the bandits and the young soldiers, with Pine tied up pretending to be his prisoner. They spun a story, using photos of Roper and Pine’s meet and a doctored recording of Roper that Sally had done up on her laptop. It was pretty quaint, which is very on brand for this show apart from drone filming, no AI fakery. Also, Roper’s insults were ones he’d actually made about Teddy, who’d been convinced by a similar (non-doctored) recording. Good job he’d had other supporting evidence. Their story was that ‘Birch’ had been in cahoots with Roper, and the plane that was about to land wasn’t carrying the weapon, but paramilitaries who were coming for the bandits, so they should give the plane the wrong co-ordinates, as suggested by helpful Teddy. Teddy beat Birch/Ellis/Pine a lot to make this convincing. Hiddlestone had a look of Loki in this scene.
Roxanna was taken to a furious Roper, who was blaming her for tipping Pine off. She swore her innocence with ferocity, and argued that she’d managed not to fall in love with Pine (unlike Roper???) but the way she phrased it made Roper realise Teddy might have. The show then encouraged the slashy interpretation of Teddy’s motivations over the father/son issues, although they were there too. See the scene where Teddy came to wash Pine’s wounds, feeling bad because he’d inflicted them. They compared notes, with Pine instructing him on how to lie (which Teddy parsed as acting like a dog. FORESHADOWING given what Roper did to his dogs.)
Angela got in touch with Mayra, who’d been put in her place by Roper after she’d tried to cancel the op because Pine had escaped their trap. She insisted on meeting at the UCL library, and it was a smasher of a location visually. Burr made the ‘case for the prosecution’ which included intel she’d presumably got off Sandy after neatly trapping him at the start of the episode, attacking his loyalty to Roper. And when Sally and the judge called from Colombia with visual confirmation of the plane at the decoy landing, it looked good.
Roper turned up at the camp. Pine watched from a nearby shack, as Teddy had to lie about Juan’s whereabouts, etc. The bandits brought out Pine, and Roper realised they had swallowed his story. He was appreciative and seemed to be accepting his fate. Lawrie got to quote some Shakespeare, and then they heard a plane approaching, and things flipped.
Turned out there’d been two planes, because he was paranoid enough to have a failsafe, and the fake one (carrying a red rose) landed at the gun range. The bandits took Roper’s side, Roper killed his son, Pine tried to stop this, got shot, the PI and Tavo turned up and tried to get him away, though it was clear that they were outnumbered, so the PI, who was driving, ordered the others out, and played target.
Mayra got to walk away from Burr with a smirk. There was a ridiculous, but potent scene of Pine (badly injured, if not fatally) realising how badly things had gone wrong. We had a flashforward to France, where Burr’s daughter found her mum’s body, shot dead – vindicating Burr’s decisions in Syria? Meanwhile, Roper came to Danny’s school to pick him up, surely no accident that Danny had a ring earring like Teddy. NO, DANNY, DON’T. GO TO YOUR MOTHER WHO CAN’T BE AS BAD AS THIS. Roper switched the radio channel from the news about the deaths in Colombia to some terrible music that was meant to be meaningful.
Did not expect THAT ending. What a downer!
After the previously, my main thought was how were they planning on diverting a plane. Had Pine learned how to fly one along with the tennis and the shooting?
We had a very female gazey scene of Teddy showering while having flashbacks. It was a way of reminding us of the self-harming, which came up later, but reminded me of us having seen Pine having an angsty shower. I honourably tried to have the same ‘must we?’ reaction I do when it’s female characters. (On reflection, we might well have had an equal opportunity angsty shower from Roxanne, so…)
Team Whitehat conferred about their plans for the day, well, some of them. Sally was meant to get in touch with Basil, who we knew was dead. Team Blackhat conferred, which was mainly about Teddy convincing Roper that everything was fine, while sneaking in a call to Pine. Pine and the PI were meant to meet him, but Pine got a call from Roxi, and so did a detour. Teddy learned about this from Juan and called to give a warning.
Roper was watching the car park where Pine was meant to meat Roxi from his laptop. Heeding the warning, Pine lied about which car they were in to Roxi, and I was relieved that the family had emptied it as Roper’s men shot and shot at it. (Although Roxi got blood on her at this point, so…)
‘Mathew Ellis’ and his PI sidekick escaped, and eventually, the PI went off to look for Tavo, the kid. ‘Ellis’ thanked him and asked why he’d been so kind. Patriotism was the answer, and fair enough, I wouldn’t want anyone coming in and starting a civil war, using child soldiers (something that was shown later), in my country. [Gritting teeth, setting aside modern geopolitics.]
Juan was on to Teddy, so they had to fight, Teddy got the first upper hand, then yielded it, and had to scuffle and ended up shooting Juan dead.
Sally engineered a getaway from her military minders for the Colombian judge, and they went to an abandoned shooting range they were going to divert the plane to. But then Sally found out that Basil was dead, had a very understated response. But guest star Angela Burr was in his place…
Pine and Teddy met up, disposed of Juan’s body together. This location, up in the hills/mountains, was gorgeous. Pine did offer Teddy an out, but he didn’t take it. Instead he took Pine to meet the bandits and the young soldiers, with Pine tied up pretending to be his prisoner. They spun a story, using photos of Roper and Pine’s meet and a doctored recording of Roper that Sally had done up on her laptop. It was pretty quaint, which is very on brand for this show apart from drone filming, no AI fakery. Also, Roper’s insults were ones he’d actually made about Teddy, who’d been convinced by a similar (non-doctored) recording. Good job he’d had other supporting evidence. Their story was that ‘Birch’ had been in cahoots with Roper, and the plane that was about to land wasn’t carrying the weapon, but paramilitaries who were coming for the bandits, so they should give the plane the wrong co-ordinates, as suggested by helpful Teddy. Teddy beat Birch/Ellis/Pine a lot to make this convincing. Hiddlestone had a look of Loki in this scene.
Roxanna was taken to a furious Roper, who was blaming her for tipping Pine off. She swore her innocence with ferocity, and argued that she’d managed not to fall in love with Pine (unlike Roper???) but the way she phrased it made Roper realise Teddy might have. The show then encouraged the slashy interpretation of Teddy’s motivations over the father/son issues, although they were there too. See the scene where Teddy came to wash Pine’s wounds, feeling bad because he’d inflicted them. They compared notes, with Pine instructing him on how to lie (which Teddy parsed as acting like a dog. FORESHADOWING given what Roper did to his dogs.)
Angela got in touch with Mayra, who’d been put in her place by Roper after she’d tried to cancel the op because Pine had escaped their trap. She insisted on meeting at the UCL library, and it was a smasher of a location visually. Burr made the ‘case for the prosecution’ which included intel she’d presumably got off Sandy after neatly trapping him at the start of the episode, attacking his loyalty to Roper. And when Sally and the judge called from Colombia with visual confirmation of the plane at the decoy landing, it looked good.
Roper turned up at the camp. Pine watched from a nearby shack, as Teddy had to lie about Juan’s whereabouts, etc. The bandits brought out Pine, and Roper realised they had swallowed his story. He was appreciative and seemed to be accepting his fate. Lawrie got to quote some Shakespeare, and then they heard a plane approaching, and things flipped.
Turned out there’d been two planes, because he was paranoid enough to have a failsafe, and the fake one (carrying a red rose) landed at the gun range. The bandits took Roper’s side, Roper killed his son, Pine tried to stop this, got shot, the PI and Tavo turned up and tried to get him away, though it was clear that they were outnumbered, so the PI, who was driving, ordered the others out, and played target.
Mayra got to walk away from Burr with a smirk. There was a ridiculous, but potent scene of Pine (badly injured, if not fatally) realising how badly things had gone wrong. We had a flashforward to France, where Burr’s daughter found her mum’s body, shot dead – vindicating Burr’s decisions in Syria? Meanwhile, Roper came to Danny’s school to pick him up, surely no accident that Danny had a ring earring like Teddy. NO, DANNY, DON’T. GO TO YOUR MOTHER WHO CAN’T BE AS BAD AS THIS. Roper switched the radio channel from the news about the deaths in Colombia to some terrible music that was meant to be meaningful.
Did not expect THAT ending. What a downer!
