John Le Carre was one of the influential writers of the espionage genre. He had worked for the secret services for a long time, and those years became the formative foundation to explore human morality and human psychology through the characters of his novels. So, when I heard that Indian filmmaker Sandeep Modi would create a show based on the popular book ‘The Night Manager’ by Le Carre, I was naturally excited. And after quite a blunt decision by the creators to release The Night Manager Season 1 in two parts, with Part 2 released only today, I have completed watching the show.
Without being too critical of the series, this is quite a unique take on the espionage genre, which maintains the balance between the lavish James Bond style of storytelling and more grounded The Family Man type of storytelling.
In the following article, The Night Manager, Season 1, Part 2 in. So, readers are warned to be aware of spoilers.
The Night Manager (Season 1, Part 2) Recap:
Shaan is just the night manager at the Pearl Orient, minding his own business, when the problems of a young girl change his life. Safina, a 14-year-old girl, is married to Freddy Rehman, a powerful man who owns more than half of the stake in the hotel. Safina wants Shaan’s help in returning to India, but his job does not allow him to get involved with the guests’ problems. However, Shaan is forced to listen when Safina nicks his phone and records a video of Freddy discussing an arms deal with someone.
This is explosive evidence of a conspiracy in the making, and when Safina returns his phone to him, Shaan immediately meets his friend at the Indian High Commission. Things are taken to RAW, where officer Lipika Saikia Rao considers it potent evidence to finally capture Shailendra Rungta (Shelly), a corrupt Indian industrialist who they have been tailing for a long time. They finally have evidence against him in the form of the video. But corruption is vital in the department, and Freddy learns about the video. He understands that Safina must have been the one to record it, and he is ready to kill her.
Luckily, Shaan gets to her before Freddy and hides her from him. Lipika will come to Dhaka the next day to take Safina back home. However, right before leaving for Dhaka, she realizes that her phone has been tapped and Safina’s location is compromised. Before Shaan can get to her, somebody murders Safina and frames it as a suicide by saying she was fleeing after stealing from other guests. A heartbroken Shaan changes his job, and Lipika is demoted from hers.
Two years later, Shaan is working in another hotel in Nepal, and the client he encounters gives him a chance for justice. Shelly lands at the hotel and stays for a few days. He instantly likes Shaan, though his friends and entourage are wary of him. It also looks like Shaan is attracted to Shelly’s wife, Kaveri. Either way, Shaan is extremely vigilant during their stay, collecting their discarded SIM cards to send as evidence.
Shelly leaves the hotel after becoming a fan of Shaan, and as for the latter, he believes he has accomplished what he wants. When he sends the evidence to Lipika in India, she flies down to Nepal immediately to meet him and wants to recruit him for a mission. Lipika wants Shaan to get into Shelly’s gang and act as a spy for her. Shaan refuses, saying he has left that life behind, but Lipika is insistent, and Shaan agrees.
They set up a busy life for him, where he is addicted to drinks, drugs, and gambling and eventually escapes to Sri Lanka to start life afresh after running from the police. Every step of the way is a set-up, which is almost perfect until the end. Shelly’s son is fake kidnapped, and Shaan is supposed to be his saviour, but he takes it too far by hitting the fake goons a little too hard, provoking them to beat him to a pulp. However, according to Shelly, Shaan is still Taha’s saviour, and he takes Shaan in to get him treated while he continues looking into his background.
When Shaan first comes into Shelly’s care, he is still recuperating, and he pretends as if he wants to leave immediately. Shelly’s right-hand man, BJ, suspects that something isn’t right with Shaan’s story, but he has no proof of it. Therefore, Shaan tells Lipika about BJ, and she says that she will take care of it. She plants drugs on BJ’s son and blackmails the lawyer into making sure that his son is kept away from any negotiations.
As a result, Shelly loses his deal, and his closest associates betray him. Kaveri is also involved, as Shaan had told her to tell Shelly that BJ was the mole. Shelly meets with a terrorist leader, a direct betrayal of his deal with R&AW, and offers them a better weapons deal. Shaan informs Lipika of the development, but their mission is a complete failure as the weapons are being transported on a container ship, and Lipika can’t do anything about it.
Shelly seems to know what Lipika is doing and what she will do, which suggests a mole within R&AW. With Shelly’s group, Shaan finds himself in Dhaka, and it is there that his hatred for Shelly begins. He has also grown close to Kaveri, and she wants to escape her marriage. She provides Shaan with the access code to Shelly’s locker, and it is through that locker that Shaan can access Shelly’s bank account. He starts venturing deeper and deeper into dangerous tasks, all to bring down Shelly without getting detected.
The Night Manager (Season 1, Part 2) Ending, Explained:
Does Freddie Rehman Recognize Shaan?
After landing in Dhaka, Shelly introduces Shaan to Freddie Rehman, his business associate in Bangladesh as Abhimanyu Mathur. Though the introduction goes well, Freddie seems sure about meeting Shaan, aka Abhimanyu, before. But he needs to remember the exact time or place of their meeting. So, he constantly pushes Shaan to give away the information to him. But Shaan keeps his mouth shut as an actual spy and denies Freddie’s claim to know him.
After Shelly closes the deal with the terrorist group leader in Freddie’s house, they all go for a grand celebration in the hotel. Shaan deliberately makes Freddie drunk and takes him home to prevent any scene at the hotel. At Freddie’s house, Shaan reveals that they are connected through a girl named Safina. By hearing that, Freddie understands that Shaan is a spy and he is going to expose the whole operation. He tries to kill him but fails because he is too drunk to move. Shaan seals this opportunity to make things even and drowns him in his pool.
What Happens to Kaveri?
Meanwhile, Shelly gets a message from Angelo, BJ’s henchman. In that message, it is revealed that the kidnap of Shelly’s son, Taha, is staged by Shaan to gain Shelly’s trust and infiltrate his entourage. Shelly understands Shaan’s whole game, and Kaveri is involved with Shaan in this entire thing.
He tells his henchmen to torture Kaveri till the morning till she gives away the name of Shaan by herself. But she keeps her mouth shut and endures the inhuman torture by Shelly’s men.
What Happens to the Arms Deal?
In the morning, Shelly, Shaan, and Jayu go to the warehouse where the arms are loaded. On the road, Shelly learns that Freddie is found dead in his pool, and Lipika and Sarang are staying in the Orient Pearl Hotel for Shaan’s assistance. Shelly orders to terminate Lipika and Sarang but does not reveal to Shaan that he has been compromised.
At the warehouse, Shelly’s men beat Shaan but don’t kill him as Shelly needs his retina authorization to transfer the business money after the deal. Shelly threatens Shaan that Kaveri will be dead if he tries to do something clever.
The terrorist head quickly seals the deal by transferring the money to Shaan’s Swiss bank account. But when Shelly tells Shaan to transfer the funds, the transaction fails, revealing that the scanner is a dummy. In flashback, we see that Lipika enters Shelly’s suit at night when they are all busy partying at the club and opens the safe with the code Kaveri shares, and switches the original scanner with a dummy.
In the meantime, Shaan reveals that he set many time bombs in the warehouse and only six remaining minutes to go off. Enraged and bewildered by this, the terrorist head threatens Shelly to return their money immediately. But Shelly has no access to the bank account under Shaan’s name. So, they threaten to kill him as the crime of showing mistrust towards them.
All flee from the warehouse, and immediately, the bomb goes off. Shelly points a gun on Shaan’s head, but Shaan tells Shelly that he will give access to his bank account if he spares Kaveri. Shelly agrees to the deal, and they all head toward the hotel.
What Happens to Shelly?
After reaching the hotel, Shelly and Shaan enter the suit and find that Lipika is alive after being attacked by Madhu, one of Shelly’s men. Knowing his game is finished, Shelly calls Indradhanush to codename for a higher government official in India, Mittar, to clear up this mess. But Mittar double-crosses him by sending the police to arrest Shelly.
Shelly is acting as an asset for Indian Government. He is on the payroll to orchestrate proxy wars and conflicts, which diverts any danger to India. But as Shelly becomes greedy, he seals a deal with the enemies of India. Shaan finds out about Shelly’s this plan when he visits the warehouse the last night and finds the destination of the weapons is Gujrat. He makes a video of the whole thing and sends it to RAW. As Shelly goes to make a deal, which will affect India, he becomes a liability to the Indian Government. So, they decide to neutralize him by arresting him on terror charges for the blast in the warehouse.
But another twist is waiting for all of us as the terrorist group, whom Shelly fails to deliver his trust, money, or weapons, takes him, hostage. We don’t know what happens to him after that, but perhaps he meets his end.
Does Shaan Get His Peace?
After everyone goes from the hotel, Shaan, the last person remaining, goes to the same hotel room, where he left Safina to get Imarti for her. As fate came, he never got to deliver the imarti to her.
As he enters the room, all her memories come to his mind. He sits at the same spot where he last saw Safina sitting and imagines her having delicious bites of the imarti. He looks towards her. She reciprocates and offers him a piece of imarti. He gestures that he doesn’t need one, but she can continue.
With this scene, the series ends. It signifies that after all these chaotic events, perhaps Safina gets justice, and Shaan gets peace from his guilt of being unable to save her.
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