The Night Manager Season 1 Recap: Everything To Know Before Season 2

Adapted from prolific crime author/former British Secret Service agent John le Carré’s novel of the same name, David Farr and Susanne Bier’s small-screen adaptation, the British thriller “The Night Manager,” is a suave, gritty thriller that makes up for its somewhat derivative narrative with deft characterization backed by an ensemble of heavyweight actors. It has been ten years since the first season of “The Night Manager” aired, and now that the second season is premiering already, let us take a look at the key events viewers need to remember from the first chapter to get up to speed with the story so far.

Spoilers Ahead

The Death That Starts It All

Ex-British Army and Iraq War veteran Jonathan Pine has a strong, personal moral code and sense of honor inculcated in him by his late father—who gave his life in service of his country. As the series opens against the backdrop of the Egyptian Revolution in 2011, Pine is seen serving in the role of a street-smart night manager in the luxurious Nefertiti hotel in Cairo and has grown sympathetic towards the revolutionaries’ struggle against the oppressive government. Things take a surprising turn when one of the guests, Sophie Alekan, mistress of one of Cairo’s influential, powerful figures, Freddie Hamid, gets her hands on confidential paperwork regarding an arms deal between English businessman/philanthropist Richard Roper and her boyfriend. Upon learning that Pine is on good terms with the British Embassy’s hotshot, Simon Oglivy, Sophie ends up handing over the paperwork to Pine—requesting that he pass it to his friend in case she gets exposed. Jonathan, who has witnessed the horrors of war, is appalled to see Roper, who is otherwise known as a benevolent entrepreneur working in immigrant welfare, supplying chemical weapons like napalm to Freddie to be used to suppress the masses.

Like Sophie, whose real name is later revealed to be Samira, Pine too is motivated by his sense of righteousness, and sends the documents to the International Enforcement Agency (IEA), London, with Simon’s help. Angela Burr, an IEA officer who left MI6 after troubling work experience with corrupt, chauvinistic higher-ups, had set Roper as a target upon learning of his true sadistic self after seeing him profiteering off of chemical weapons, which wreaked havoc on the innocent people of Kurdistan. Upon receiving the documents revealing Roper’s role in the mass genocide conspiracy orchestrated by Freddie Hamid, Angela and her deputy Rob Singhal try to keep the news from reaching MI6. However, the news gets leaked by Roper’s close contacts in the British Secret Service. Freddie tortures Samira, and Pine, who eventually gets romantically entangled with her while trying to get her to safety, requests Simon to arrange a shelter for her. However, as Simon is unable to provide a safe refuge for Samira, given Roper has more friends in England, Pine realizes he can do nothing to help her. Samira accepts her fate upon recognizing that she is truly helpless in her present situation, and returns to Freddie. Angela and her superior in IEA, Rex Mayhew, are unable to do much using Roper’s Cairo documents, as their investigation is shut down by higher authorities. For what it’s worth, Angela calls Jonathan at Nefertiti to inform him that Sophie’s life is in peril, but before he is able to rescue her, she is murdered, presumably by Freddie/Roper’s henchmen. The guilt of failing Sophie weighs heavily on Pine, who is unable to get help from the corrupt authorities.

Pine’s Vendetta Against Richard Roper

Five years later, Jonathan, who is now working as a night manager in Meisters Hotel in Zermatt, Switzerland, finds his past calling to him after seeing Roper arriving at the hotel. With his mind set on providing justice to Sophie, Jonathan steals a package meant for Roper and obtains SIM cards from it, which he later hands over to Angela after asking her to meet him. Angela, recognizing Jonathan’s honorable, morally upright nature and connection with his late father, motivates him to avenge Sophie and take Roper down before his instruments of terror ruin the world any further. Providing Jonathan a near-perfect cover of a thief turned drug dealer/murderer wanted by Interpol, Angela plans to put him into Roper’s inner circle and finds help in funding Operation Limpet from her former colleague and possible love interest, Joel Steadman, an American ATF agent. 

War on Both Fronts

Staging a kidnapping of Roper’s son Danny in Mallorca, Jonathan makes himself his savior by rescuing him and getting beaten up by the paid abductors. While his cover fools Roper and his girlfriend, Jade, both of whom recognize the night manager from their last interactions, Roper’s front man, Corkoran, remains quite suspicious of his intentions. As Pine gradually earns Roper’s trust, Angela, Rex, and Joel have to fight a different kind of war, as both MI6 and the CIA, who are being funded by Roper to keep his shady dealings a secret, constantly pressurize them. Initially refusing to acknowledge Limpet, MI6 chief Geoffrey Dromgoole tries to take over the operation after Jonathan manages to get his hands on secretive documents that contain details about Roper’s transactions and sends them to Angela. Meanwhile, Roper’s lawyer, Apo, faces a personal crisis when his teenage daughter takes her own life in shame upon realizing what kind of clients her father deals with—and Angela takes this opportunity to gain a distraught Apo’s trust and use him as an informant. 

On the other hand, during Roper’s absence, Jonathan manages to sneak into his private chamber and takes pictures of his documents as evidence and learns that he uses the front of agricultural and aid-related trades to cover up his arms-related dealings. Jonathan also realizes that Jed is suspicious about Roper’s true nature as well, and as he confronts her about this, he eventually learns about Jade’s remorse regarding her past life. Growing up with a disdainful mother, Jade made some poor choices during her formative years and left her son, whom she conceived at a young age, with her sister. Caught up in the dangerous world that Roper has brought her into, Jade tries her best to keep up appearances and turn a blind eye to all the shady affairs. As she becomes honest with Jonathan about her life during Roper’s absence, the duo starts an affair. 

While working as an informant to the IEA, Apo plants suspicion in Roper’s mind about Corkoran, who starts acting fishy after learning about Jade’s affair with Jonathan. Roper decides to provide a new identity to Jonathan as Andrew Birch, and makes him his new frontman. Jonathan’s latest evidence reveals two third party organizations, mentioned solely as Halo and Felix, are involved in Roper’s shady arms dealings, and receive substantial commissions as well. Angela, who is quite certain that higher authority pushback on IEA is aimed at covering up the identities of these two organizations, decides to dig up further and seeks help from a certain Harry Palfrey of MI6, the only person she can trust. Using Harry’s guilty conscience, Angela is able to learn the codenames denote MI6 and CIA, both of whom get funding from Roper in exchange for turning a blind eye to his global war crimes. Rex makes the mistake of presenting the evidence to Pamela,  the Permanent Secretary of the Foreign Ministry, who betrays the IEA by exposing the revelations to Geoffrey to maintain the existing status quo. As a result, Rex is depowered, a pregnant Angela finds herself threatened by Geoffrey at her home, and the revelation is conveyed to Roper, who learns of Apo’s identity as an informant and has him murdered. Things escalate to the next level when Angela learns about Pine’s affair with Jade and, in fear of his cover getting blown, calls off the mission then and there. However, Jonathan refuses to obey Angela’s command and insists on staying on the mission, mentioning he can get intel about Roper’s upcoming arms deal, which is going to take place in Istanbul. Jonathan shakes off IEA’s constant watch by alerting Roper about a possible third-party investigation, and his actions draw suspicion from Steadman.

A Failed Operation

Roper brings Jonathan to Istanbul to meet prospective buyers in his secret ‘kingdom’ known as Haven, a coalition of world mercenaries who have built a global network of sorts to push Roper’s arms across bordering areas in the guise of doing charity work for the destitute. Jonathan takes part in Roper’s arms demonstration to a buyer, Omar Barghati, which results in the death of a number of innocent villagers who get caught up in the demonstration. Suspicious about the existence of a mole in his group, Roper brings Jade into his merc encampment. Jonathan shares details about the convoy Roper is sending for Barghati to Angela and co., revealing his secret to Jade and planning to incriminate Corkoran as the mole. As Roper interrogates Jade, she has him convinced about Corkoran being the mole, and Jonathan ends up killing Corkoran after he sees through Jonathan’s cover. Rex and Steadman assist Angela in their personal capacity to have Roper’s convoy seized and checked, which yields nothing, as Roper had anticipated something like this to happen and shifted his operation to Cairo. As a result of this, Angela faces severe criticism from Permanent Secretary Geoffrey, and on one occasion, her husband, Gordon, is assaulted by crooks sent by MI6, which acts as a warning to her to back off. It should be mentioned that Roper’s financier and confidante, Alexander Langbourne, has his wife, Cara, watch over Jed on a regular basis on Roper’s command. Previously, fed up with the licentious activities of her husband, Cara had confided in Jonathan about her predicament. At present, when Jonathan confronts her, she ends up revealing the truth about being coerced to spy on Jed. 

Jonathan Meets Ghosts From His Past

Even though IEA officially wraps up its operations, Angela and Steadman meet Jonathan in Cairo, at Hotel Nefertiti, upon learning that he can still arrange the means to take down Roper. Jade helps Jonathan by providing the code to Roper’s safe, from where Angela steals his arms registration certificate by nearly risking her own life. Jonathan gets a chance to exact revenge for Sophie, as Freddie Hamid appears at Roper’s casino party. Jonathan drugs Hamid, takes him back to his place, and kills him, but not before making him share the truth about Sophie’s death, as Hamid reveals Roper sent his men to have her murdered. It’s a full circle moment for Jonathan, his life took an unexpected turn during his time as a hotelier in Cairo; he failed to save someone who desperately depended on him, and once again he is at the same situation all over again – with Roper acting as a common factor.

Roper’s Final Fate

Roper, already suspicious about Jade’s connection with Jonathan, finds out about her actions and has her tortured. Later, before the final transaction with Barghati takes place, Roper confronts Jonathan and forces him to comply with his demand in exchange for Jade’s safety. However, Angela is able to rescue Jade in time. Unbeknownst to Roper, Jonathan took help from his cook friend, Youssef, and his brother, Akhram’s revolutionary friends to infiltrate Roper’s arms compound and rig his weaponry. Additionally, by now, using his role as Roper’s frontman, Jonathan has also emptied all the money sent by Barghati. During the final transaction, Jonathan makes a show by remotely destroying Roper’s arms archive, while Barghati and his friends get enraged upon learning their money has been wasted. Jonathan forces Roper to return to Nefertiti to have him hand over Jade in exchange for the return of the money, and Angela and Steadman arrest Roper. In a last ditch effort to escape the law, Roper calls Geoffrey to have MI6 strong-arm Angela’s investigation. However, Angela’s deputy, Rob Singhal has managed to blackmail Geoffrey, mentioning about evidence which can expose the corrupt dealings of MI6. With Geoffrey unwilling to help, Roper is in cuffs for good. Still, for an influential man like Roper can easily thwart legal systems to escape custody, and while being dragged away by local authorities, Roper threatens Jonathan and Angela with consequences. In a satisfying twist, Barghati and his friends take control of the police vehicle, and it doesn’t take a genius to guess what fate awaits the crude arms dealer. 

Keeping his promise to Jade, Jonathan arranges safe passage for her to the United States, where she hopes to reunite with her son. Having embraced his new role, Jonathan awaits his next mission. 

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