‘The Night Manager’ Season 2 Episode 5 Review

The Night Manager Season 2 Episode 5 opens in the immediate aftermath of Episode 4’s devastating shootout. This event shattered Teddy dos Santos’ (Diego Calva) illusions and exposed, at last, the truth behind Matthew Ellis’ — no, Jonathan Pine’s (Tom Hiddleston) — presence in Colombia. Pine may have rescued Roxana (Camila Morrone). Still, the cost was immense: Teddy learned that Matthew Ellis was never who he claimed to be, and Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie) learned that the ghost who once dismantled his weapon empire has returned to finish the job. 

The episode begins quietly, with a phone call. In London, Mayra Cavendish (Indira Varma) and Richard Roper speak candidly about Pine and the coordinated effort to dismantle his remaining support structures in both England and Colombia. Pine himself, Roper insists, is his responsibility, a promise that carries a blade of menace given their shared history. When Teddy returns to the compound shortly after, the weight of the previous hours hangs visibly on him. He arrives subdued, stripped of any of his earliest confidence, carrying the disappointment of a father who has already decided he’s failed.

Meanwhile, Pine, Roxana, and a young boy from the Aurora flee in the bloodied car Pine commandeered during the escape. Their drive is mostly silent, eerie, and shock-laden — and a perfect opening for what happens next. They eventually reach an abandoned house once owned by Roxana’s family, a place untouched since her father was murdered and dumped at its gates. The house is safe, but emotionally radioactive. Roxana’s grief is immediate and palpable, her hope of returning to her mother quietly extinguished, and the reminder of her father and his fate is impossible to ignore.

Roper’s cruelty is on display in his scene with Teddy.

Back in Medellín, the fallout spreads. Sally (Hayley Squires) is alerted to the prosecutor’s murder and ordered to evacuate immediately. Basil Karapetian (Paul Chahidi), operating on his own quiet investigation, spots an agent tailing him and quickly cancels a meeting with Angela Burr (Olivia Colman), passing along the location of his discoveries in code before being forcibly escorted away. The walls, everywhere, are closing in.

Inside Roper’s household, Martín listens as Roper finally explains Pine’s true identity to Teddy and Juan. “He is a British intelligence agent,” Roper says, “with an indecent habit of extracting information people barely knew they had. Many have been susceptible to this gift. And I’d lay money that Roxana Bolaños could be added to that list.” Then the blade is twisted: “What about you, Teddy? Were you susceptible?”

The pauses, the silences, speak volumes. Juan looks away. Teddy stares at the floor. The show has been teasing Teddy’s sexuality all season, and here it becomes weaponized, folded neatly into Roper’s cruelty, and used as both accusation and humiliation. Teddy insists, however, that he told Pine nothing. It’s a lie — or at least a partial one.

Pine and Roxana, settling in the safehouse, receive audio from Martín confirming Roper’s awareness of Pine’s work in Colombia. The boy traveling with them warns Pine not to trust Roxana, but Pine doesn’t pay him much mind. Instead, he explains to her what he knows of Roper and how their histories are once again on a collision course. When Roxana presses him about his team, Pine lies and says there is none. The betrayal in that answer enrages her.

Charged confrontations fuel The Night Manager Season 2 Episode 5.

What follows is a charged confrontation, half accusation and half seduction. Roxana attempts to reclaim power through intimacy, a tactic that might have worked on Season 1’s Pine. But this Pine is sharper now, too focused on something bigger. He sees the maneuver for what it is and refuses to be swayed.

In London, Basil is taken to the same house that Mayra has been using to meet intermediaries. She confronts him with proof that Alexander Goodwin is alive — photographed in Medellín only days earlier — and demands to know of his, of Pine’s, whereabouts. Basil refuses to cooperate. Muscle is brought in. When intimidation fails, a final choice is offered. Basil holds his ground. So a gunshot follows. And the implicit murder lands with a sickening finality, severing one of the last lifelines connecting London to the operation abroad.

Back in Colombia, Roper reinforces his inner circle with the return of Frisky (Michael Nardone), an old associate tasked with restoring order after Pine’s exposure. Teddy offers to find Pine himself, but Roper declines. “A man hell-bent on revenge guarantees only his own demise,” he warns, an irony that borders on dark comedy.

When Teddy’s phone rings moments later, everyone seems to know who it will be. Pine doesn’t bother with pleasantries. He demands to speak to Roper. And, just like that, after a decade of absence, Jonathan Pine and Richard Roper are speaking again.

Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie reignite the ease of their dynamic.

Their meeting at the hilltop restaurant is the episode’s centerpiece and a showcase of restrained, venomous acting. Hiddleston and Laurie slip back into their shared orbit with chilling ease. They talk like old friends, old enemies, father and son, and something even stranger still. Roper laughs genuinely when Pine tells him he looks older. The familiarity is unsettling. Even after everything, there is relief here. Recognition.

In an interview with TV Insider, Hiddleston described Pine and Roper’s relationship as that of a dragonslayer and dragon: “They are defined by the other…The dragon slayer is defined by the dragon, and vice versa.” Episode 5 allows that dynamic flourish. Roper breaks Pine in a way no one else can. But, in that vice versa, Pine counters him with a calm that unsettles Roper just as deeply. Their final exchange is pure threat disguised in their specific brand of civility: Pine demands Roper surrender himself by morning or face his end. Roper responds, telling Pine that he is sitting at a fork in the road and should choose his next path carefully. Neither man blinks.

Paranoia and illusions intensify and shatter.

Elsewhere, Roper’s paranoia explodes. He discovers a listening device hidden on one of his dogs, animals he has compared to Teddy for their loyalty and obedience. The reaction is swift and utterly horrifying. Roper executes the dogs for becoming vulnerable, reinforcing the terrifying logic of his worldview: loyalty is only valuable until it becomes inconvenient. The parallel is impossible to ignore, and deeply ominous, this close to the end.

Teddy, now relegated to logistics, receives another call from Pine. This one is different. Pine seeks him to tell the truth — about Roper, about himself, about the future Teddy was never meant to have. When they meet, Pine plays Teddy audio proving Roper never intended to acknowledge him as a son. That his only heir was always Danny, safe in England. The illusion Teddy has built his life around collapses completely.

Diego Calva delivers a heart-wrenching performance.

The emotional collapse that follows is devastating. Calva strips Teddy down to something heartbreakingly young, a child molded by false promises and broken systems. When he finally breaks, collapsing in Pine’s arms, the moment is unguarded and raw. Pine holds him tight, repeating, “It’s okay,” as though willing it into existence for the other man.

This season has a habit of granting Pine and Teddy their most impactful quiet moments, and this episode proves to be no exception. In the gentlest miracle, Pine takes Teddy back to the church where they once shared communion, this time to reunite him with his sister, Clara. Teddy arrives stripped of his usual armor. Gone is the immaculate tailoring, gone is the black he wore last time. Dressed simply in white, the visual confession is unmistakable. His plea for forgiveness as he clings to his sister feels larger than the moment, and like an attempt to atone for an entire life shaped by abandonment.

A globe-trotting examination of crumbling security.

By the episode’s end, alliances have shifted, blood has been spilled, and nothing feels secure. Roxana is drawn back into Roper’s orbit, her survival once again contingent on cooperation. Sally, Pine, and Martín regroup with the information Teddy provides — and even Sally acknowledges the obvious: Pine didn’t just recruit Teddy. He won his heart.

The Night Manager Season 2 Episode 5 is dense and occasionally unwieldy, juggling characters across continents, countries, cities, and a wide range of emotional registers. But that messiness also feels intentional. This is the sound systems make when they’re collapsing and of people realizing, too late, where they stand within them.

As the finale looms, questions hang heavy: what choice will Roxana make? Will Teddy finally find the belonging he’s been chasing? And, most importantly, will Jonathan Pine finally succeed in taking Richard Roper down at last?

The Night Manager airs on BBC One and is available to stream on BBC iPlayer and Amazon Prime Video.