[For The Night Manager “Part Six” or any other recaps on Fetchland, assume the presence of possible spoilers.]
AMC Summary:
Part Six. Roper and his team return to Cairo while Pine mobilizes his plan, and Burr makes a last stand.
We open as Dromgoole shuts down Angela Burr’s whole deal. He’s punishing her for using the mole at MI6 and having troops raid Roper’s trucks at the Syrian border; trucks that carried merely agricultural equipment and supplies. Thus Burr’s office and operation close down. But then just as she says farewell to the office, Angela gets a call from Pine. Now she knows Roper and his crew are in Cairo for the final deal and thus her mission continues. Having never really been well-supported anyway, Burr doesn’t let lack of resources restrain her now that she’s finally in a position to succeed.
Meanwhile Freddy Hamid, the villain from “Part One” shake hands with Pine after Roper’s introduction. At last we’ve reached the final stage of the arms deal. They’re finalizing it when the buyers ask about the recent incident when Roper’s trucks were searched at the Syrian border. Roper assures them it won’t happen to them here. So, the buyer transfers $300m into Roper’s Tradepass account and they all shake hands. Afterward at the hotel bar Jed and Pine pretend to smile, laugh and finger flirt under the bar while whispering, about stealing Roper’s documents out of the hotel room safe. Jed mutters how she can’t take being with Roper anymore and wants to run away but Pine insists they have to nail Roper first.
Next we see Pine reunited with Burr and meeting Steadman for the first time at the Cairo hotel. They tell him they have no resources beyond the two of them, a cowboy and pregnant lady, and this suggest that maybe Pine wants to pull out of the operation now. But of course our hero says no way. He’s come this far, etc. Then Pine approaches his old friend in the hotel kitchen (remember from the Part One?) and finds out he’s head chef now. Thanks to his old buddy, Pine’s got the local hookup again.
In their hotel room Jed asks Roper to put her earrings in the safe, then watches him and memorizes the combination. Along with Hamid and Pine, the “Ropers” gamble a bit at the hotel casino and in the process Jed relays the vault combination to Pine using a bet at the roulette table. He then texts it to Burr, who’s ready and waiting like a pregnant woman on her due date. In fact, it’s a look she’s got down pretty solid at this point. Angela sneaks into Roper’s room with the help of Pine’s kitchen connection, opens the safe, and takes out a certificate of sale. Right then Burr’s almost discovered by one of the security guys but she’s saved by Steadman’s call (allegedly from the front desk) distracting the security guy and enabling her narrow escape. She gives the front desk and envelope with the certificate in it for Pine who brings it to the kitchen guy’s brother – trading for a BIG favor. We like it that Angela was the one doing the hard stuff in this part of the story. Kudos to The Night Manager for evolving hollywood portrayals of pregnant ladies. This one’s fearless, brilliant, and she gets the job done. Bravo.
Meanwhile shit-faced, drunk Hamid has Pine for a driver and caretaker. Uh oh. Pine takes him home and promptly slips a mickey into Hamid’s drink. After Pine hands him the drugged whiskey, he asks Hamid if he remembers having a girlfriend named Sophie and did he kill her? Hamid then recognizes Pine as The Night Manager and thus they tussle by the side of the pool with Pine strangling Hamid before gently placing him in the center of the pool for a round of dead man’s float. Did he really have to drug the guy first? Clearly he doesn’t have the best upper body strength but c’mon, Pine, you’re not that much of a weakling.
Next we see a team of locals affiliated with Pine’s kitchen friend assembling in vans, ready for action. Pine shows them Roper’s certificate of sale and they say all he has to do do implement their big plan is memorize a number for keying into his phone later. The next morning Jed receives a breakfast tray compliments of Mr. Birch and there’s the certificate of sale tucked inside for her to return to the safe. But when Jed tries to put it back, the digital safe just keeps reading ERROR on the keycode. Turns out smug Roper is watching Jed from the doorway. He tells her the jig is up, he knows she “let someone steal from the safe” and this time there’s no Corky left to blame.
Pine then transfers the $300m out of the Tradepass account but we don’t know to where exactly. In fact, we never find out this significant information. Meanwhile in Roper’s room, Frisky slowly drowns Jed in bathtub spurts of torture to find out whom it was she allowed into the safe. Roper tells Jed he thinks it’s Pine because he saw how close they were at the casino. Apparently their whispering was detectible after all. Those silly, stupid lovebirds couldn’t resist touching hands. Then Roper and Pine leave the hotel to finalize the deal out in the desert but, of course, Hamid is nowhere to be found. Pine says he left him “sleeping like a baby at his house,” but it’s not even a little believable. Roper takes him to a shed and ties him to a chair for a Frisky beating. He shows Pine a picture of Jed, who’s way ahead of him on that count and already all beaten to a beautiful bloody mess. Roper says he knows Pine killed Corky and Hamid, “…and you would have killed me, I suppose,” then he insists Pine has to fulfill the transaction with the buyer or his beloved Jed will die. Frisky then knocks on Burr and Steadman’s hotel room door with quivering Jed guarding him like a shield. But Burr manages to shoot Frisky down. Applause again for the awesomeness of our pregnant hero.
At the last arms deal transaction out in the desert, Pine finally keys those numbers he memorized earlier into the phone. This sets all the trucks of arms afire with explosions. The munitions are gone so, the buyer immediately says he wants his money back. But Pine has transferred it out of the Tradepass account so Roper can’t return the buyer’s money. The buyer then threatens him and Roper screams back furious, calling him a “little brown rat” and saying he’ll give him the money back when he’s good and ready. Roper then pulls a gun on Pine and says he’ll have to return the money to the Tradepass account or Jed dies. “You’re paying $300m for the girl,” he says. But we never find out if this transaction actually occurs.
In the next scene Pine goes back to Roper’s hotel room with him and Burr is waiting; ready to confront him. Roper calls Dromgoole to retaliate but gets rebuffed. Angela then talks to him about sports day but Roper replies that he’s never killed anyone, stolen, or even fiddled on his taxes. That’s the thing about the kind of evil-doing Roper engages… it’s so easily whitewashed into nothingness because he remains at a safe distance from those he harms. Just then Steadman appears at the door with Cairo police to arrest Roper for contravention of Egyptian import laws and conspiracy to commit murder. They handcuff Roper, who sneers and says he’ll be out by morning anyway. The police then lock him in the back of an armored van with the disgruntled munitions buyers. It seems likely those guys believe in torture and dismemberment given their “shopping” interests. Roper’s probably not going to make it anywhere by morning after all.
In the end Jed and Pine happily walk hand-in-hand then smooch just outside the hotel. She’s headed back to see her son in the States with a promise from Pine to visit soon. So, we’re left with some unanswered questions in the end. Is the $300m in Pine’s bank account? What’s up with Angela’s baby, bludgeoned hubby, relationship with Steadman, and standing at work? Now that we love Burr we know virtually nothing about what’s next for her. Another interesting irony at the end lies with Pine as a character; now a cold-hearted killer and high stakes thief. Angela takes out Roper only to leave behind what appears to be simply a new brand of Roper – Jonathan Pine. In just the last day, Pine stole $300m and strangled a man with his bare hands. We know fetchland said early on that Pine would be more interesting if he was edgier or at least had a dark side but this shift’s a tad ridiculous and abrupt. Pine goes from white knight to Roper twin in a virtual snap of the finger. When Angela tried to convince him to give up on the mission and Pine insisted on continuing his argument was that his life had no meaning before this mission. Roper literally gave his life meaning… So, Pine took Roper’s girlfriend, his freedom, and his three hundred million dollars. Maybe for Pine this mission was really about becoming Roper more than taking him down. Of course, now we know this whole mini series was simply a setup for Tom Hiddleston to segue-way into being the next James Bond – good for him and his dashing blue eyes. But what does it mean for the 007 franchise? Compared to the prospect of Idris Elba’s intriguing hotness and charisma, this Bond scenario feels a bit too wafer thin and pasty for our taste.
–Katherine Recap
