Summary
Episode 5 isn’t just the best episode of The Night Agent Season 2 thus far, but one of the best the series has produced.
By the standards of most episodes of The Night Agent, “A Family Matter” is pretty tame for most of its runtime. But don’t be fooled. Episode 5 isn’t just the best episode of Season 2 thus far, I’d go so far as to say it’s the best episode the series has produced across both seasons. It builds to a stretch of white-knuckle suspense that had me sitting bolt upright, and the conclusion is brutal in its inevitability and moral complexity.
As with my recap of Episode 3, it makes sense to do things back to front. There are things going on here and there that are mostly setups for later payoffs, but the lion’s share of “A Family Matter” is the hastily planned operation to get Noor’s family out of Iran. And that, as we’ll see, needs some space of its own.
Noor Is Running Out of Time
I think it’s safe to assume that Noor’s burgeoning romance with Javad has hit a major stumbling block. Her stress over the fate of her family leads her to be visibly rattled at work, which piques Javad’s suspicions, and her sudden refusal to reciprocate his advances isn’t a good sign.
But it’s when Javad pulls Haleh to interrogate her about the night of the party that things really unravel. Unfortunately, Haleh was in charge of hiring the caterers and finalizing the guest list, but her exchange with Rose was also caught on camera. While she tries to pretend that it was her phone left lying around and Rose was simply returning it to her, Javad sees through that and Haleh has no choice but to rat Noor out to protect herself and her husband.
This leads Javad to prod around in Noor’s room. We also see that Abbas has discovered his briefcase was forced open during the party. Time is running out.
Solomon Negotiates a Pay Rise
The Night Agent Season 2, Episode 5 spends a surprising amount of time on Solomon. Surprisingly, it turns out Celeste is not just in regular contact with him but is aware of everything that he’s doing. She even pushes him to request a raise from his employer, the mysterious bearded buyer from Bangkok.
Solomon’s relationship with his boss is very cagey. He has been working for him for six years but is visibly terrified of him. His efforts to negotiate a raise are so embarrassing that his boss asks him at one point if he’s trying to negotiate a pay cut. But he ultimately gets his way – a 15% pay increase and a new title, Vice President of Acquisitions. His first job is to acquire Peter Sutherland.
It’s obvious that at this point Solomon and the buyer do not know about Night Action. They heard it over a call in Bangkok and assumed it was a callsign, but them looking into it further, and going after Peter directly, doesn’t bode well for the secrecy of the agency.
Planning Permission
(L to R) Gabriel Basso as Peter Sutherland, Arienne Mandi as Noor, Luciane Buchanan as Rose Larkin in episode 205 of The Night Agent. Cr. Christopher Saunders/Netflix © 2024
“A Family Matter” opens five years in the past, with Catherine meeting and recruiting a U.S. Delta Force operative named Sami Saidi, who is being railroaded after refusing to cover up the nephew of a four-star general having shot a civilian. In the present day, Sami becomes the only hope for getting Noor’s family out of Iran.
There’s a lot of toing and froing about this. Catherine and Peter don’t believe there’s time to conduct an operation and instead want to blackmail Noor into giving them the photos, but Rose is adamant – not to mention disgusted. Privately, she compels Peter to find another way. And that way is Sami.
Since Sami isn’t keen on the idea of hanging Noor out to dry either, he agrees to try and retrieve Noor’s mother, Azita, and brother, Farhad, within 24 hours. He also helps Peter process his guilt over Alice’s death by telling him to find a “moral anchor”, someone to focus on when the decisions get hard so that he can ask himself what that person would think of him if they knew the things he did. Needless to say, this will matter.
Noor insists on being present with Peter, Rose, and Catherine, who wait by the phone for Sami to call with news.
Tragedy Strikes
When Sami gets into Iran, he discovers quickly that Azita hasn’t told Farhad that they’re leaving. And this immediately causes chaos.
It’s easy to hate Farhad in this scene, but it’s important to remember that he’s a teenager being told that he’s leaving his entire life behind. I’d still say he doesn’t handle it well though. In fact, he kicks off to a dangerous extent, alerting a neighbor to the presence of a stranger in the house, making tons of noise, and refusing to play along.
It’s Peter, of all people, who convinces Farhad to leave, telling him that Noor’s life is at risk if he doesn’t. Sami is able to get them out of the house and into the car, but he has to fight his way through a mob to do it. On the way to the airfield, Farhad’s girlfriend calls him, and he decides once again that he can’t leave. In the midst of his meltdown, they’re pulled over by the police.
I was so convinced Sami was going to die here that I didn’t even consider any alternate possibilities. Sami has to kill the two officers, but when he turns around, Farhad is holding him at gunpoint, having picked a gun off the floor. He takes a shot at Sami, which misses, and Sami kills him in retaliation. It’s a self-preservation instinct; he doesn’t think about it until it’s done. But Azita is devastated, and Sami has to haul her back into the vehicle and subdue her with handcuffs.
Sami calls Peter to let him know what happened. And Peter, obviously not thinking too much about his moral anchor, which is obviously Rose, lies and tells Noor that her family is safe.
And Another Thing…
A final note about The Night Agent Season 2, Episode 5 that didn’t fit into the main recap:
- Artoun doesn’t fire Rose. On the contrary, he tells her that the changes she made to AdVerse have been a major hit and secured the company significant investment. Pivoting the company to using the technology as a tracking tool will require a significant shift, though, and Rose threatens to leave if she doesn’t get a pay rise, some equity, and if Artoun doesn’t form an ethics board to ensure that the technology isn’t misused.
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