We’re going back to Madrid on The Night Manager to find out how much deeper our intrepid agent can sink in to the web of criminal activity sustained by henpecked hubby Dickie Roper. Rolling E4 after the break!

We open with Jonathan staring intently at Dickie, but not picking up any actual words, everything sounds like radio feedback. Either that or my sound is hooped. No, my sound is effed, hold on, that looked like it might have been important.

And we’re back! 3 days later! Dickie’s explaining the new company Jonathan just took over in the place of Corky in the name of Andrew Birch. It’s a Strawman operation and Jonathan-Andrew is the strawman. He’s going to have a company and there will be sale arrangements between his company and Dickie’s company and nobody can ever know where the money comes from, because if they did…*dun dun dun*…they wouldn’t sleep at night.

Jed swans in; it’s 11 o’clock! Dickie carefully explains that they’re in a business meeting, darling, run along now. But Danny’s leaving, perhaps Dickie would like to say goodbye to his son first? Danny wants his dad to take him to the airport, but work, work work, see. Jed’s pushing at the edges of impropriety, talking about Thomas’s new name Andrew in front to Danny and it’s starting to bother Dickie. What’s she playing at? If she’s a secret agent too, she’s an emotional one.

An extremely pregnant Angela is waiting for Juan at a restaurant, it seems our Spanish lawyer is not feeling quite as disposed to chat with her any more. He’s quite brusque, but she pulls out a sheaf of printouts, all the information that Jonathan-Thomas-Andrew texted from Danny’s phone. I sure hope there isn’t cloud situation or someone might get wise super fast.

She knows all about Trespass Holdings, Jonathan-Andrew’s new company, but she doesn’t know what anything MEANS, which is why she needs him. She promises to leave him alone if he helps her.

Jonathan is chillin’ like a villain in bed in his gate house when he hears a loud, obvious noise. He arms himself with a knife and investigates to find…Jed of course. He puts on the kettle for tea (hey! We have the same kettle, except mine is whorered in colour!); he doesn’t think this is a good idea.

Some of the dialogue these actors have to work with; it’s almost as purple as 50 Shades of Grey. Jed and her “I’m sorry if my recklessness upsets you” *deadpan*.

She wants to know why he was in Dickie’s private study; he ALSO wants to know more about the person who employs him. She’s not EMPLOYED, Andrew, she’s in a relationship, in LOVE and Jonathan-Andrew and I make this face.

He wants to know about her son, oh that was Jed’s SISTER calling her a filthy whore and telling Jed that her child doesn’t ask about her any more. Seriously, Harry Potter got a better shake than that kid. Old tale told sparely; Jed was 17, her sister already had a kid, Dickie doesn’t know because that’s “not what he bought on the upper east side.” But, but, you just SAID your relationship didn’t involve money! She doesn’t even know why she’s here (I bet I know), she’d better go.

She turns (dramatically) near the door; what does Jonathan want from them? He’s not her way out of this, so forget THAT, sister. He moves to send her away, by moving closer to her and in between her and the door (I swear to all that is holy, this show is SO) and then he tries to swallow her face with his teeth.

She doesn’t resist, but she doesn’t jump in his lap either, so who can tell what the enigmatic Jed will do? He escorts her out, giving this parting advice “be nice to Roper. Make him happy. Make him believe it.”

Back in London, Rex is finding biking to work not as healthy as advertised, what with two vans intent on smushing him between them. I guess he turned down Lord Edmure’s Drumgool’s indecent proposal.

Angela’s explaining the paperwork to Rob (Adeel Akhtar – he hasn’t been onscreen in ages so we’d better re-introduce) and us; it seems Dickie is planning to use Trespass’s 300 million dollars to buy Weapons of Mass Destruction, then he pays Trespass back a 20% return on investment 12 months later for a tidy profit of $60 million for Trespass. Dickie himself will make about $240 million on the deal, but there are two $5 million payouts to a Halo and a Felix, that’s Angela’s next line of inquiry.

Rex has stormed back to the office, they’re messing with the wrong white collar todger, they are! Angela’s budget is tripled and now she can even tell him about what she’s REALLY been up to with Operation Limpet. He’s excited about Halo and Felix; could that be Drumgool and the Home Secretary?

We’re back in Spain with the big boss’s return, Corky’s sooooo put out by Dickie’s clear preference for Jonathan. Jed strolls up and she and Dickie make up; his bald spot makes for an incongruous combination with her extreme youth. She seems to be taking Jonathan’s advice, though! Jonathan gets an hour to cool his heels while Jed makes things up to Dickie.

Corky makes his move on Jonathan; he’s very put out that he’s been removed from the business deal, Daddy said HE could be the strawman!! He saw Jed walking to Jonathan’s cottage, though, that could be a problem. Corky warns Jonathan; if Dickie ever found out, his fury would know no bounds.

You know, I love Tom Hollander and I think he’s aces in this role, but his insistence that Dickie is going to destroy Jed’s face makes me think that some workshopping between he and Hugh Laurie wouldn’t have gone astray. Laurie is playing Dickie soooooo low key that it just doesn’t fit the hissing serpent that Corky is describing. I mean, Corky’s practically spitting.

It’s a shame Hiddles and I have broken up, look how pretty his eyes are!

He’s having a fitting for some swanky new clothes and he’s just so tickled! Even though old fatty has gotten himself up to a 32.5″ waist, I mean. He’s not quite as excited when Dickie tells him he’ll have to pay for them himself, but that just means that Sandy’s gotten credit cards in his name.

We’re on a super yacht in the Palma de Mallorca, Corky is NOT happy that he’s being sent back with Jed and not getting to play with the big boys on their trip, so he’s drinking even more than usual. He’s embarrassing everyone by hassling the water and catches Jonathan and Jed in some inadvisable eye contact. Corky wants to make a toast! To the Lovers! He carries on a bit more but this is my very favourite part

And my second favourite part!

I don’t really get that part…but I liked it! Is it weird that I was surprised at how squishy Tom’s bum is?

Jonathan-Andrew charms the table nearby while Dickie watches and Corky slow-claps the hisses at Dickie about “the human bloody hand grenade.”

Angela’s arranged a meeting with Harry (Neil Morrissey) to bring him up to speed about what’s going on an ask the 5 million dollar question: who are Halo and Felix? He spills almost immediately; Drumgool IS Halo, and Felix is someone in Langely. She’s disgusted with him, come on Harry!! He’ll have something for her for pickup by the next day.

Sandy cuddles up with Jonathan for a bit, then Jonathan and Jed are sent for drinks while the menz talk. They almost touch hands while walking, but she’s mad, who is he?? Is he Andrew Birch? Thomas Quince? Jonathan Pine?

TELL ME ABOUT IT! Try recapping it, sister!

They have some time…where’s his room? They have very fast sex up against a wall, I still can’t figure out if she’s into it or not.GREAT shots of Hiddle-bum, though, not complaining.

The menz are discussing Rex and what evidence he thinks he has, Sandy’s off to take a call as Jed and Jonathan return. Dickie wants some of his upper east side purchase now, fanks, he’ll be gone for awhile. I sure hope Jed had a moment to, er, tidy up.

The expanded Operation Limpet is really rolling now, they’ve found all the altered end-user MOD certificates from Drumgool, they’re off to Istanbul where Dickie and Andrew are going!

The Home Secretary (Katherine Kelly – from Happy Valley S2!) isn’t very happy with Angela’s work, however, she’s in raging at Rex. Well, you know, British raging, which is lots of clipped vowels and sharp-ish looks. She pushes and he pushed back; Angela is so close to cracking this! Then he shows her the paperwork, jfc, Rex, you KNOW she’s probably Felix! COME ON! He’s not suspicious at ALL that a higher-up is bumrushing an operative that just happens to be cracking a case wide open. A case where unknown higher-ups are known to be on the take.

The Home Secretary is visibly shaken and struts back to her office to call Drumgool.

Drumgool calls Harry into his office; Harry tells Angela that Juan’s cover is blown and Angela rushes back to yell at Rex. She said NO-ONE, Rex! Come ON! Meanwhile, the Spanish Lawyer’s booked it

Jonathan-Andrew is sleeping as cinematically as possible when awoken by the phone. It’s Jed and she just needs to know that he’s there. So he hangs up.

Jonathan-Andrew asks after the Spanish Lawyer, he’s missing. They have a new lawyer, but he refuses to sign the garbage documents they’ve given him, someone cares about his schooling! Tabby makes a show of his gun at his side, but Jonathan-Andrew has a better way. He sweet talks Mr. Azu (Rami Masr) and his greedy side, Dickie is impressed. There is an unusual security feature, though, a lawyer takes an iris scan. Will that come back to haunt our Jonathan later?

They all go to the port after where they meet with the Latvians to check out their farm equipment. The music tells us it’s about to get exciting! Time to check the weapons! They all look very large and expensive; Jonthan-Andrew likey. And snarfs something while Dickie watches.

Signing time! Jonathan-Andrew has his eye scanned and the money goes through. Guns for all! This is a very dangerous time for strawman Jonathan-Andrew; he’s signed, his iris has been scanned, who needs him any more? The Latvians hand him a bottle of vodka and I wouldn’t drink that…

He doesn’t drink it, though, whew! Dickie does, and he’d like to know what motivates our Mr. Pine. He doesn’t drink, doesn’t take any of the flesh proffered so carelessly by Dickie, what’s his THING? He doesn’t know if he can trust a man with no appetites. Well, he’ll have to, Jonathan-Andrew isn’t sharing.

Angela is bonding with Grace (Simona Brown) over how little Angela likes to be around her husband, but there’s a story there about killing children with Sarin. She cries but I’m sorry, I’m mostly just uncomfortable. Unwieldy.

The phone wakes up our Jonathan again; he’s up and running over to see Rob and crew, who heard his phone call from Jed. Is he compromised??? Rob calls Angela who yells at Jonathan, he’s being pulled out right NOW! He is getting picked up with no supper for playing footsie with the boss’s girlfriend and whatever will he do?

Joel’s gained entrance to a compound; what’s he looking for? He sees a glass staircase (my NERVES) and starts to peek around.

Meanwhile, Jonathan’s decided to run his own plan, involving notifying Dickie of Rob and crew’s presence in the foyer. Oh my, Mom is NOT going to like that. Dickie calls for evacuation while Joel makes his gruesome discovery: the Spanish Lawyer and his girlfriend are no more.

Everyone’s running away while the cops screech up, Jonathan selling it by punching an agent on the way out and I was right, Mom did NOT like that. Why does Jonathan only beat up frendlies?? Honestly. We’re oot, until next time!