The Night Manager S2 ending: The shocking death toll as Roper got the better of Pine and main character was killed in finale
We. Are. Not. Okay.
The Night Manager series 2 came to a heartbreaking ending this week, with two of the main characters killed off in a tense stand-off between good and evil – aka Jonathan Pine and Richard Roper.
The body count rose dramatically as Pine put his own life on the line in an attempt to stop Roper’s deadly plan. But we watched in horror as everything fell to pieces before his (rather bloodshot) eyes. Turned out, Richard Roper was one step ahead of Pine at every turn.
The final 10 minutes was one brutal blow after another. Although it does leave the door wide open for a series 3. Here’s the ending of The Night Manager series 2 explained…
***Warning: spoilers from The Night Manager ending ahead***
What happened in The Night Manager ending?
In the closing minutes of the penultimate episode, Mayra Cavendish’s men had shot Basil dead (after some light torturing). And the shocks – and deaths – just kept on coming in the final instalment.
We discovered that Mayra had also ordered the hit on Rex Mayhew (no surprises there). And she wasn’t finished yet. She had one last character to kill. And, readers, as TV deaths go, this one was a tough one to watch.
Teddy Dos Santos and Jonathan Pine came together to foil Roper’s plan. Teddy, because he’d realised his dear old dad was just using him, and planned to go back to the UK without him. Jonathan, because he wanted to stop his adversary’s evil deeds. And, of course, it was personal.
Richard Roper wanted Jonathan Pine’s “head on a stick” – but the brutal ending was almost worse. It left Pine a broken man, with several major deaths on his conscience. As endings go, it was full of twists. And although it looked like Jonathan Pine was going to win the day, Roper was one step ahead.
What was Richard Roper’s plan and did he get away with it?
Richard Roper was using his son Teddy’s charity Aurora as a front for the recruitment of young soldiers (children, in fact) to start and fight a rebel war in Columbia.
He planned to deliver an electro-magnetic weapon – paid for and made by the British – to exiled leader José Cabrera. His men would then drive the weapon into the heart of Medellín during the celebrations of an annual festival. When it detonated, it would plunge the city into darkness, causing chaos. Homes and hospitals would be left without power. People would die, and looting would break out.
Of course, the Colombian people would blame their government. Giving insurgent José Cabrera a chance to send in his rebel army to restore the peace and take charge (all funded and backed by Mayra Cavendish).
In the final episode, Roper’s son Teddy turned on his dad – and attempted to disrupt the plan to destabilise Colombia.
The final episode of The Night Manager focused on Jonathan Pine’s plan to intercept the plane carrying the weapon. And for a while, it looked like the plan would work. But, during tense scenes, Pine discovered that Roper had switched the planes. There were “two aeroplanes with two very different cargos”.
What was Jonathan Pine’s plan?
Teddy and Jonathan had a rather convoluted plan, which we’ll summarise here. Teddy arrived in the jungle with Jonathan Pine as his ‘hostage’. He told Cabrera and his men that Pine was British intelligence, and he was working with Roper. They used pictures of Roper and Pine together – and doctored phone conversations – to make it look like Roper was planning to double cross José Cabrera.
Pine told the mercenaries that Roper actually intended to kill them all. His proof? That the plane wouldn’t arrive. Jonathan Pine’s people – really just Sally by this point and the head of Columbia’s supreme court – would intercept the plane carrying the weapon. But id didn’t work out that way.
Roper, suspecting his son couldn’t be trusted, used a decoy plane to fool Pine and Sally. The real plane carrying the weapon was delivered safely to José Cabrera’s men. Thus proving that Pine had been lying, and Roper really was a villain after all.
Meanwhile, the dummy plane intercepted by Sally contained a single red rose. It may as well have been a middle digit.
What happened to Teddy Dos Santos in The Night Manager ending?
As Roper got the upper hand, viewers were horrified by his final act before fleeing the country. He killed his own son. Is there anything more evil?
We knew he was a total [bleep], but we were still shocked he could be capable of such an act. Before killing him, Richard Roper told Teddy: “I can forgive your immortal soul. But not your mortal one.”
He looked his son dead in the eye, before shooting him in the forehead. He was dead instantly. Just as we’d grown rather fond of him…
Of course, we all know that Roper’s heart really lies with his son Danny (Noah Jupe). And that was his next port of call.
The Night Manager series 2 ending: What happened to Richard Roper?
With the money made from his dastardly deal with the British government, Trickie Dickie managed to pay back the money he owed the Syrians and leave Columbia.
He returned to the UK, and was reunited with his son Danny Roper. It was a rare moment of humanity for the super-villain. But a shallow one, with his eldest son dead in the jungle somewhere.
As Roper described it, he’d “shed his old skin and grown a new one”. But he was still a horrible git. Even if he had a nice tan.
Richard turned up at his son’s expensive private school and whisked him away for the weekend. Thanks to Mayra Cavenish, he’d been supplied with a luxury home in Oxfordshire, complete with a pool, tennis courts, and all sorts of other luxuries he didn’t deserve.
The Night Manager series 2 finale: What happened to Jonathan Pine?
At the end of The Night Manager, Jonathan’s ass had been well and truly whooped. He’d seen Roper kill his own son Teddy, and get away with his evil plan…
Of course, viewers know that Roper had offered Jonathan Pine a tasty deal – 50 million dollars to disappear, leave Roper alone, and start his life again. By the end, Jonathan was probably wishing he’d taken the deal.
Although he’d managed to get away from Roper and the mercenaries, his immediate future looked bleak. Would he be able to escape Colombia, and what would his relationship with British intelligence be like if he ever did? Frankly, there were very few people left who he could trust.
Is Angela Burr dead? Who killed her?
After Basil’s sad death, the always heroic Angela Burr stepped in to fill his shoes. Working from the UK, she cornered Roper’s old pal Sandy and made him an offer he really couldn’t refuse. Provide her with hard evidence against Roper, or get thrown back in jail for breaking his parole.
Of course, he had no choice but to squeal. But it was all too little too late. Even though Angela had all the evidence she needed against Mayra Cavendish, including emails to and from arms investor Adam Holywell, it ultimately meant nothing without the weapon.
This time, Mayra, and Roper had won. But Angela Burr knew too much. In the closing minutes of The Night Manager ending, we saw Angela Burr’s dead body lying on the ground. She’s been shot in the chest. Tragically, her young daughter found the body.
In the distance, a figure walked away. A figure that looked very much like Mayra Cavendish. We need a series 3, and this time it really is personal. We need justice for Angela!
What else happened in The Night Manager ending?
- Roper used Roxana as bait to stop Jonathan Pine, but Pine was too clever for that. Realising Roxana had double crossed him (although she didn’t have a lot of choice to be fair), he left her to her fate. At the end of the series, she looked like she was about to board a flight back to Miami. But, we didn’t actually see her board the plane…
- Richard Roper’s plan had worked. Not only was he back in the UK, but civil war raged on in Columbia following the power cut caused by his weapon. It was a happy ending for Roper, but an unhappy one for a whole country.
- Basically, there were plenty of loose ends left for a series 3 of The Night Manager.
