‘The Night Agent’ Recap, Season 2, Episode 4

Season two has featured its fair share of chases and gunfights already, but with the protagonists coming from such a reactive place, there hasn’t been a chance for a proper undercover operation since the all-too-brief Bangkok sequence in the premiere. So “Desperate Measures” is a much-needed shot in the arm, an episode structured around the mission to infiltrate the ambassador’s residence and get photos of the papers in his mysterious briefcase.

Like any good heist, this one requires careful planning, along with several scenes establishing just how impossible it will be. There are no phones allowed at this party, plus every floor is covered with security cameras, plus Abbas’s study is only accessible by a keycard he keeps on his person, plus Javad and his security guys are really, really tough. Noor and Peter are both deeply stressed about this for different reasons, but Rose helps the latter by suggesting he “troubleshoot” and work through the stupidest version of the plan.

Rose has signed up to help provide a distraction at the party, so she’ll be the plus-one for Emil Giger, a Swiss attaché for special affairs whom Noor discreetly adds to the invite list. But this whole plan relies on a lot going right, so Peter asks Rose to promise she’ll walk out if anything goes wrong. She does, but come on, we know Rose. You just know she’s gonna break that promise.

Giger seems like a friendly guy, though he refers to Catherine as a “captor” on the way to the party and explains that he’s only working for her as part of a deal. (She caught him red-handed “making an error” a few years back.) He’s a calm, confident agent, reminding Rose to be patient when she gets antsy upon arrival.

The mission starts off well: Peter trips the security system to disable the cameras for 15 minutes, and Noor swipes the keycard from Abbas after Rose fake-chokes on a crostini while meeting him. Where things start to fall apart is the handoff: Peter is supposed to grab the keycard and make for the study, but Javad asks for his help with something, and Noor is powerless to interrupt. Luckily, Rose is here to do her usual Rose thing and take over the mission despite the extreme danger. She grabs the keycard and a phone from Noor, then goes straight to the study.

I’d give Rose a B on this assignment: She’s a smart improviser, jimmying the briefcase clasp open when the code doesn’t work, but also potentially leaving evidence that someone was here. She manages to take the photos and make it out — Giger cleanly slips the keycard back into Abbas’s pocket afterward — but she’s spotted with a phone by a rightfully suspicious Haleh. The lie that she just found Noor’s phone sitting somewhere won’t work for very long, and the cameras turn back on early enough to capture Rose on a restricted floor.

Peter, meanwhile, is in pure self-preservation mode, lying his ass off to Javad about his cater-waiter history and denying any career in counterintelligence. But Javad recognizes him for what he is based on his habit of scanning each new room for escape routes, a habit he shares. He doesn’t know what exactly Peter is here for, but he has his guards take him to the basement to get those answers out of him, preoccupied by reports of a Noor-related problem. That problem, of course, is an even bigger distraction than the choking: Noor intentionally spilled a platter of drinks on Giger, and now he’s going off on the lowly aide who ruined his bespoke designer suit. Rose might be good at improvising, but these two are great at improvising.

Rose, Giger, and Noor get out fine, and Peter doesn’t have much trouble dealing with Javad’s guards in the basement, another satisfying and well-choreographed close-quarters fight. The information Catherine later provides Peter is about what we expected: the CIA and the U.S. military developed incredibly dangerous chemical agents in the mobile lab that went missing (stolen by Markus), supposedly as a way of preemptively creating antidotes for synthetic weapons that could be used on America. (The CIA is great at inventing a pretext for something awful.)

Most of Catherine’s screen time in this episode is spent on her own, continuing to investigate Foxglove. Most of her leads go nowhere: KinCare Trust is a dead end, and Mosley has nothing to report from CIA head Gedney. He even tells Catherine to leave him alone, not because Gedney could be dangerous but because he’s a feckless bureaucrat. (Mosley, though, might be someone to watch.) But she does get through to him eventually anyway, confronting him at dinner with a bag of Alice’s ashes. They’ve been sent back and forth between Night Action and Alice’s dad, the latter of whom didn’t want them; his daughter gradually lost touch with her whole family after her big secret promotion at the FBI, and it broke Isaac’s heart. “I’m not leaving until you tell me what she died for,” Catherine says. Gedney might not know everything about Foxglove, but he’s aware of the basics.

In the last episode, Rose suggested Catherine show more of her vulnerable side to Peter, which happens in this episode. Scattering Alice’s ashes at the pier where the two agents used to meet, she and Peter reminisce about their old colleague and friend. It’s a nice moment for the two of them, even if those stories don’t mean much to us as viewers. Catherine also mentions that she lost another person once a while back, which I’m guessing will connect to her history with Peter’s traitor father.

The big cliffhanger of this episode is stronger than the first three: Noor stands firm and refuses to show Peter and Catherine the photos of the files in the briefcase before they extract her family from Iran. It’s thrilling to see Noor refuse to be a pawn, even if taking a stand might not work out well for her in the end. The U.S. government isn’t exactly known for honoring deals.

• Another flashback at the beginning, this time offering some insight about why Noor would want her brother out of Iran. Their father apparently died suffering after years of being force-fed propaganda and lies.

• Tomás and Markus reaffirm their arrangement with Solomon, which means they’re even more connected to the buyer than we might’ve thought. (Their original plan was to document the mobile lab for blackmail, not actually steal it.) Tomás also tries to flex his power and get his cousin in line by scolding him for making moves behind his back, but Markus is not having it, and he even accuses Tomás of disloyalty for sitting back while his father rots away in a cell. Is there a word for murdering your cousin? Tomás should be scared.

• Peter and Rose kiss after the mission is over, foreshadowed by a classic flustered “you look great” reaction upon seeing Rose dressed up for the party and some sexual tension as he stands behind her and hooks her clasps. Good for them.

• Apparently Celeste up and moved in the middle of the night, which suggests she and her brother Solomon are still in contact.