Summary
Some key revelations in “Murky Waters” thread a lot of The Night Manager Season 3 together, and things aren’t quite as they seemed in various respects.
As we enter the back half of The Night Agent Season 3, Episode 6 feels like a clear turning point, the kind of episode that delivers some pretty key revelations that recontextualise everything we’ve seen thus far. The Broker is Isabel’s father! And he might not be the Big Bad we thought he was! The First Lady is up to no good, behind her husband’s back! The real villain is a… banker? If nothing else, “Murky Waters” certainly lives up to its title.
It also delivers a fun suspense sequence, which makes for two of those back-to-back. The show’s really finding its rhythm now, balancing the twists and turns with solid set-pieces and a palpable sense of danger, especially since it’s now no longer clear who’s good, who’s bad, and who might be next on the chopping block. If the remaining episodes keep on like this, we could see things out in pretty impressive fashion.
Like Father
The opening flashback in “Murky Waters” shows how the Father picked up the son during the assassination of his parents. At the time, he was just a baby. When the Father was putting away the pipe he had threaded through the house to gas mom and dad, he heard his wails and clearly took things from there.
In the present day, the son is playing in the hotel pool while the Father angrily takes calls about how complicated his mission has become. But the son is still pretty suspicious, so he uses the pretense of retrieving his goggles to root through the room and the Father’s bags, finding his various disguises and weapons. Later, during a game of D&D, the son confronts the Father about being a spy who hunts bad guys.
Sensing that a best-case scenario has arrived at his feet, the Father plays along, promising to give the boy a secret identity of his very own as soon as he gets back from his latest job. Thanks to having cloned Isabel’s phone, his latest job involves her and Peter, but we’ll get to that in a moment.
I Still Don’t Trust Theo
On the White House side of the aisle, Chelsea makes the mistake of opening up to Theo about having taken Brian’s phone from FLOTUS’s desk during their dinner in the residence. Instead of being supportive, he immediately tells her to put the phone back and call in an anonymous tip, all while gaslighting her about imagining things on account of the shooting.
I seriously don’t trust Theo. I don’t trust Jenny, either, who later realises that Chelsea swiped the phone. Luckily, Chelsea knows better and is looping Peter in on everything she’s doing. This will all come to a head sooner rather than later, but it doesn’t in this episode.
The Broker Is Isabel’s Father
In a kick-yourself moment, The Night Agent Season 3, Episode 6 reveals that the Broker is Isabel’s father, which, to be fair, I should have caught when she talked about him at the hunting lodge. But no matter. Peter and Adam follow Isabel as she probes her father about his apparent involvement in the downing of Flight Pima 12, as well as various other illicit activities, including Jay’s kidnapping, since it has finally dawned on her that Jacob is the broker Peter is looking for.
Through a Langley contact, Adam finds out that Jacob was a CIA asset during an op in Mexico City in the ’90s, which puts the pieces together for Peter. But here’s the interesting thing. We start to see some genuine vulnerability from Jacob here. He does have cancer, and at one point, he removes his wig (he’s bald from the chemotherapy). He also seems to earnestly care about Isabel. He’s genuinely clueless about Mike’s death and the hit on Senator Lansing, though he knows enough to privately put the pieces together.
When Jacob heads out to try to ensure Isabel is safe, Isabel pokes around the security room and spots Jay on one of the monitors. She calls Peter to fill him in, and they plan to break Jay out of there while Adam follows Monroe.
The Great Escape
Jacob goes straight to Freya, the banking CEO he met with earlier in the season, whose company he had expressed concern about. It’s Freya who is pulling the strings of the Father, trying to cover up her involvement in the Pima 12 incident and whatever’s coming next. Her bank stands to profit from all this, though it isn’t yet totally clear how that might be. Jacob offers Jay’s life in exchange for Isabel’s, but Freya doesn’t take the deal. Instead, she tasks the Father, who is already en route to Monroe’s house since he received the same text Peter did with the location, with killing Isabel, Peter, Adam, Jay, and now Jacob.
The Father doesn’t manage any of this in “Murky Waters”, but he has a good go at it. He turns up at Monroe’s expansive residence and starts laying waste to the security staff, but Peter is already there. With Isabel’s help, he’s able to spirit Jay out of the guest house, though he takes a bullet in the process, and then he’s able to break Isabel out of the guest house, which the Father has set on fire.
It’s a close-run thing. But now that Peter knows about the next LFS attack, there are going to be some pretty pressing matters to deal with.
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