With Pine now in close proximity to Richard Roper, Episode 3 sees The Night Manager start to really come alive.
Despite having played a rather minimal role in the previous two episodes, Hugh Laurie gets his moment — okay, several of them — in the spotlight, as the focus of the hour is set around his Mallorca hideaway. With Pine (the ever dapper and nice on the eyes Tom Hiddleston) back on his feet after taking the beating that got him close to his target, he’s now deeply ensconced in his business, to the extent that Roper offers him a job within one of his ‘shell’ companies.
Laurie’s portrayal of Roper as a cunning yet almost care-free individual is spot on, and he proceeds to deliver a spiel that perhaps even Shakespeare, were he a modern day man, could be proud of: “I’m a free man … free to think, free to work, free to climb a mountain or lie in bed all day eating peppermint creams without any bugger telling me how. Becoming a man is realising that it’s all rotten. Realising how to celebrate that rottenness, now that’s freedom.”
Having helped spur Pine into action, Angela Burr is very much a second thought in this episode, which is a shame as Olivia Colman is one of the best actresses to hit TV screens in some time. Her moments on screen this week are largely forgettable, as viewers wait eagerly for the next scene in Mallorca.
Said next scene is Roper’s supposed interrogation of Pine — though it’s not as menacing as perhaps some would have hoped. Instead, although he delivers his threats with menace and gusto (I certainly wouldn’t want to cross him) the snarl with which he says: “If you step out of line I will make you howl for your mother” is somewhat lacking — perhaps it’s the lovely scenery that doesn’t help?!
Meanwhile, Pine swipes Roper’s son Danny’s phone and somehow manages to break into the building’s citadel (where Mr. bad guy stores all his nasty secrets). He uses said phone to send out the information to Burr and finally give her something to do (hurrah!).
With dangerous information now in Burr’s hands, the stage is set for Pine to make his next move and test just how cunning, clever and perhaps even conniving he can be in order to get what he wants — revenge on Richard Roper.
Quite how he plans to go about it and what his next move is, we’ll have to wait and see, but, in the meantime, leave your thoughts on tonight’s episode in the comments!
