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Kelcie Mattson is a Senior Features author at Collider. Based in the Midwest, she also contributes Lists, reviews, and television recaps. A lifelong fan of niche sci-fi, epic fantasy, Final Girl horror, elaborate action, and witty detective fiction, becoming a pop culture devotee was inevitable once the Disney Renaissance, Turner Classic Movies, BBC period dramas, and her local library piqued her imagination.
Rarely seen without a book in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other, Kelcie explores media history (especially older, foreign, and independent films) as much as possible. In her spare time, she enjoys RPG video games, amateur photography, nerding out over music, and attending fan conventions with her Trekkie family.
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It might not feel like that long ago, but it's been just shy of 10 years since The Night Manager hit our television screens and secured a slew of accolades from audiences, critics, and award bodies. Adapted by screenwriter David Farr and director Susanne Bier from the novel of the same name by fictional spy master John le Carré, and led by the all-star trio of a riveting Tom Hiddleston, a menacingly charismatic Hugh Laurie, and a fearless Olivia Colman, the six-episode drama's half-throwback, half-modernized take on the espionage genre proved its merit as a sleek, nail-biting, and compulsively irresistible thriller.
Initially conceived as a miniseries, the BBC and Prime Video commissioned two more installments in early 2024. Both follow-ups will consist of original material plunging Hiddleston, Colman, other familiar faces, and plenty of new ones into another lion's den. With Season 2's premiere right around the corner, here's a reminder about the key players and events from The Night Manager's first season.
How Does 'The Night Manager' Season 1 Start?
In 2011, Jonathan Pine (Hiddleston), a former army soldier, is working as the night manager of a Cairo hotel. What few glimpses we catch of the well-dressed professional imply compassion and care, but he keeps to himself. Pine's emotional walls topple the moment he locks eyes with Sophie Alekan (Aure Atika). Sophie is walking a perilous knife-edge, having discovered that her lover, the powerful local criminal Freddie Hamid (David Avery), works with Richard Roper (Laurie) — a notorious international arms dealer who Sophie describes as "the worst man in the world." Sophie and Pine fall for each other during the brief moments they steal, and she entrusts Pine with stolen information linking Hamid and Roper to an upcoming weapons deal.
Torn between wanting to protect Sophie and honoring her wishes, Pine chooses the latter and sends the documents to the United Kingdom's Foreign Office. Angela Burr (Colman), the lead agent at the Foreign Office's International Enforcement Agency, has already been pursuing Roper’s elusive trail and immediately tries to verify, contact, and extract her new sources. Tragically, Burr, Pine, and Sophie's hopes implode the moment Roper and Hamid learn about the leaked files. Hamid retaliates by brutally murdering Sophie, leaving Pine grief-stricken and terrified.
Jonathan Pine Infiltrates Richard Roper's Inner Circle in 'The Night Manager' Season 1
Flash forward four years and across the globe to Switzerland, where Pine has relocated to a remote hotel. In a stroke of cosmic coincidence, Roper checks in for the night, accompanied by his mistress, Jed Marshall (Elizabeth Debicki), and his right-hand man, Corky Corkoran (Tom Hollander). Meeting one of Sophie's executioners face-to-face reignites Pine's thirst for vengeance. Burr, who's kept her eye on Pine since the Cairo incident, believes his military background and his personal vendetta make him the perfect candidate to infiltrate Roper's organization as an undercover agent. Pine reluctantly accepts Burr's covert offer. Once the IEA positions him close to Roper, Burr's field agents pretend to seize Roper’s son, Danny (Noah Jupe), as a hostage. The emotional setup lets Pine step in to "rescue" Danny, and the boy's so-called kidnappers viciously assault him — all in the name of making Pine's deception convincing.
Suspicious of the former hotelier but thankful for his timely intervention, Roper brings the barely-alive Pine to his Majorca home — an idyllic site that instantly becomes a prison. Once Pine recovers enough to speak, Roper and Corky show their hospitality by taking turns quizzing their new guest about his flimsy fake identity. Pine's nimble answers keep him alive, and his combination of renegade tenacity and cautious insight impresses Roper; he gradually ingratiates the younger man into his inner circle as a potential protégé, whereas Corky remains a skeptical, ever-watchful thorn in Pine's side. As for Pine and Jed, they share a guarded, fragile attraction, each inherently aware that the other is a secret-keeping outlier — in Jed’s case, it’s the son she’s concealed from Roper and the family to whom she sends the financial compensation she receives for being yet another beautiful item in Roper's collection.
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Once Pine can freely move around, he stages a distraction and slips inside Roper's private office. He sends Burr pictures proving the scale of Roper's illegal enterprise, and the electronic paper trail helps her in more ways than one; Burr realizes that Roper's connections include Geoffrey Dromgoole (Tobias Menzies), the MI6 agent trying to halt her investigation. Meanwhile, Pine and Jed grow closer once he catches her snooping near Roper's office. Driven together by circumstance, similarity, and danger, they share several intimate conversations, during which Jed admits she can't keep living in miserable ignorance about Roper's dark side any longer. The two finally give in to their mutual attraction and sleep together, risking their lives as well as Pine's mission.
Pine Gets His Revenge on Roper in 'The Night Manager' Season 1
Image via BBCSuspecting a mole within his tight-knit group, Roper drags everyone to Syria for a weapons demonstration and places Pine, Jed, Corky, and Alexander Langborne (Alistair Petrie), the man overseeing Roper's bank accounts, underneath his interrogative microscope. Knowing time isn't on their side, Pine and Jed collaborate to frame Corky as the traitor. Between Jed's carefully vulnerable words, Pine killing Corky in self-defense, and Roper's existing irritation with Corky's outbursts, their desperate gamble seems to work. As for Burr, Dromgoole's henchmen invade her home and attack her husband — the warning sign as clear as day.
Despite surviving by the skin of their teeth, Roper has fooled them all. Syria was a diversion he concocted to flush out the mole; the real sale will take place in Cairo. Burr's team arrives at the Syrian border, prepared to seize Roper's arms stash, and finds nothing. Dromgoole seizes the chance to dismantle her years-long manhunt, but Burr and her closest external ally, ATF agent Joel Steadman (David Harewood), go rogue and fly to Egypt. Pine, back in the city where his revenge quest began, detours from his main objective long enough to avenge Sophie by murdering Hamid. Jed hacks Roper's safe and provides Burr with the final piece of evidence they need: the weapons' registration numbers.
Roper discovers Jed’s betrayal and ruthlessly tortures her, any hint of affection eradicated. Deducing Pine's true intentions, Roper uses Jed as leverage against Pine, ordering him to ensure the Cairo deal proceeds without a hitch. For the first time, however, Pine, Burr, and Steadman are one step ahead of their target. They take the weapons, abscond with Roper's money, blackmail his MI6 safety net, and spirit Jed from his grasp. Outmaneuvered and arrested, his enemies closing in like vultures flocking to a corpse, Roper's empire topples in the blink of an eye, and his irate buyers seize custody of him from the local police, with his ultimate fate left unknown. Burr returns to England, Jed intends to reunite with her beloved son, and Pine, his vengeance achieved and his hands bloodied by the act, isn’t sure what his future holds. Like two ships passing in the night, Pine and Jed share a tender goodbye.
English (US) ·