HAS THE TV spy thriller reached peak saturation? Almost every other week, it seems like another streamer or network is airing its own unique spin on the genre (Slow Horses, The Day of the Jackal, The Agency, Black Doves, Special Ops: Lionessto name several), crowding the landscape of hitmen, undercover agents, and international terror threats. And yet, the hunger for more espionage remains unsatisfied. Fortunately, there’s still space for The Night Agent to pick up the baton and re-enter the fray.
It’s been almost two years since Shawn Ryan’s 10-episode series became one of Netflix’s most popular streaming titles, thanks largely to its engaging protagonists, suspicious supporting characters, and unpredictable narrative web. Over that long hiatus, it’s understandable if you might have forgotten what FBI agent Peter Sutherland Jr. (Gabriel Basso), his trusty tech-whiz and love interest Rose Larkin (Luciane Buchanon), and a whole bunch of other government officials got into throughout the show’s explosive first season.
The good news? You don’t need to sit by a mysterious phone waiting for a Night Action call in order to get answers. With season 2 now streaming (and season 3 already confirmed), we’ve put together a handy catch-up guide to debrief you on the key details and plot points you’ll need to remember before you binge through Peter’s next dangerous mission.
What is Night Action in The Night Agent?
This is important, since it’s the premise of the entire series! Night Action is a clandestine U.S. counterintelligence program within the F.B.I.
While most of the program’s agents are performing secret investigative work around the globe, Night Action also requires a White House-based phone operative to sit in a windowless room beside an old-school landline, waiting to answer any distress calls from the field. As one government official explains, “it rarely rings.”
How did Peter become a Night Agent?
Season 1 begins with a literal bang. As a low-level FBI agent, Peter boards a D.C. Metro train and sees a hooded figure drop a suspicious bag beside a seat before exiting the train car. When he discovers a bomb inside the bag, Peter pulls the emergency brake and forces passengers to evacuate, severely limiting the explosion’s blast radius and saving countless lives. But his heroism isn’t appreciated by everyone. After Peter fails to apprehend the terrorist, it’s not long before conspiracy theorists suspect that he planned and thwarted the attack for his own personal gain.
A year later, Peter has been relegated to Night Action as a phone operative in the White House basement, reporting to the president’s chief of staff Diane Farr (Hong Chau). The role takes the heat off Peter’s name, but promises to be a boring job. That is, until he unexpectedly gets a call from Rose Larkin (Luciane Buchanan)a former cybersecurity CEO, who’s in danger after witnessing two assassins murder her aunt and uncle, who she just learned were government operatives. Instructed to call Night Action in an emergency, Rose connects with Peter, who sends over police and helps her hide from her the people who killed her relatives. Once in the clear, the pair team up and attempt to unravel a large-scale conspiracy while being pursued by the same unrelenting assassins.
-What was ultimately season 1’s conspiracy plot?
Let’s quickly break this down. Peter and Rose learn that her aunt and uncle’s deaths are actually part of a larger plot to cover up an assassination. It turns out, the Metro bombing was orchestrated by vice president Ashley Redfeld (Christopher Shyer) and his shady contractor Gordon Wick (Ben Cotton), who believed a wide-scale attack would kill Omar Zadar (Adam Tsekhman), a controversial foreign leader Redfield didn’t trust, without it appearing like a targeted killing. After Peter’s unforeseen heroics, Wick hired the assassins to clean up loose ends (including Peter and Rose, who eventually discover the vice president’s intentions) and started scheming another attack.
This time, he and Redfield plan to bomb Camp David, where President Michelle Travers (Kari Matchett) has set up a meeting with Zadar. As Peter and Rose avoid getting killed, they learn that Farr had been working with Redfield and Wick all along to cover up the Metro bombing. It’s a massive betrayal to Peter, but Farr promises she had no idea Redfield intended to make Travers collateral damage and vows to prevent another mass casualty event. With her help, Peter and Rose infiltrate and evacuate Camp David before the compound detonates. In a tense final scene, Peter then grabs the president (and holds her at gunpoint, which seems like something a maniac would do, but it was actually his only option), preventing her from boarding Marine One, which had been timed to explode upon her airlift.
How did season 1 end?
Pretty good! As a reward for personally saving her life, President Travers offers Peter the opportunity to be a Night Action field agent, which requires him to travel and be stationed internationally. It’s a bittersweet proposition considering he developed romantic feelings for Rose throughout their trauma-filled attempts to avoid death. But that’s not the only thing that Travers gives Peter.
Throughout his life, Peter has struggled to reconcile the widespread belief that his father, a former FBI counterintelligence section chief, betrayed his country. Though leaked classified documents that threatened national security were traced back to him, Peter’s father ultimately died in a car crash before he could be convicted. As a result, Peter has always believed in his father’s innocence—until Travers allows him access to his father’s undisclosed case files, which prove he was, indeed, guilty of treason.
Still, Travers explains that his father had good reason to confess his guilt: He’d agreed to be a double agent. When his cover was blown, however, a foreign agent took his life. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but Peter now knows the truth about his disgraced father.
What comes next? How is season 2 set up?
With his name cleared, Peter accepts Travers’s offer, gives Rose an emotional goodbye on an airfield tarmac, jets off to his next covert destination, and learns about his new mission. While season 2 will undoubtedly put Peter into the center of another mass conspiracy, he’ll have to contend with his past experiences and lessons. There are plenty of questions to answer, too.
Who can he still trust? Will Diane Farr pay for her crimes? Are the government sources closest to him compromised? Was there more to his father’s work as a double agent? And, importantly, is there still a future with Rose? Stay tuned.
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