The Night Manager “Episode Three”

The plot thickens…

I mean, it had little choice.  The alternative was awful.

Part Three opens with a birthday party for the daughter of Richard Roper’s attorney.  She seems a little uncertain at best.  And then, halfway through the party, a maid comes running to her boss terrified.  What happened?  The birthday girl hung herself from the looks of things.

So, Pine seems to have mostly recovered from his savage beating, and then Roper calls him in for twenty questions.  You’d think that “saving” Roper’s son Daniel would get anyone a free pass.  But Roper and his man Corki are suspicious.  They have a file on Jonathan Pine that includes the fake stuff in his cover story (Angela’s people are good).  And Jonathan knows his stuff.   But since his criminal alias of “Thomas Quince” has been blown, Roper more or less holds Pine hostage in his Spanish villa.  Plus, Daniel seems to like the man.  With Corki keeping a close, suspicious eye on him, and no possibility to send a message to Angela, what is is Jonathan to do?

Well, he can start by using the kid’s affection for him.  First he can talk Roper into letting him take the boy into town.  Yeah, he’s being followed by Roper’s goons, but standing next to Angela at an ice cream stand while asking Daniel some leading questions passes all the information he needs to along.  He even goes so far as to let her know about that Corki guy, and since Angela maybe recruited the lawyer after the death of his daughter, some suggestions can be planted about Corki to discredit him somewhat in Roper’s eyes.

Plus Jonathan is learning things.  One of Roper’s associates has an angry wife who tells him stuff since he listens but doesn’t say much.  Roper’s cover for arms deals is agricultural machinery.  Daniel tells Jonathan that his father has a secret office with a daily alarm test.  He also swipes the kid’s phone to send information to Angela.  And when he does get into the office, he finds a long, blonde hair that probably came from Roper’s American girlfriend Jed.  She has some secrets of her own, and Pine can push her a bit as needed.

And then the hammer drops.  Sort of.  MI6 is looking to take the operation away from Angela, but her superior knocks it all back even after a bribe offer.  And a leak in MI6 comes down to Roper that there’s a spy in his organization.  Jonathan’s cover is still good, but Roper has reason to be suspicious now.

But not suspicious enough to not reward Jonathan with a new fake passport for one Andrew Birch from New Zealand, and to make him head of Roper’s dummy corporation that is supposedly selling those agricultural machines.  Who used to run that company for Roper?  Why, Corki did.

On a final note, I’ve noticed Jonathan doesn’t shake hands easily.  Both Daniel and his father hold hands out to him at different points, and Jonathan hesitates before extending his own.  Interesting touch there.

Oh, and for the Jenny’s of the world…Tom Hiddleston has some scenes in a bathing suit.