Hello, my beautiful bi bonbons! I hope everyone is doing well out there.
Who doesn’t love a good spy story? All the fun elements of storytelling are there — glamour, mystery, adventure, intrigue … and usually an ill-advised romance with someone who could blow our hero’s cover. Add to all of that Tom Hiddleston (AKA my future husband) as the lead, and you’ve got The Night Manager, a thrilling series on Amazon Prime. The first season came out way back in 2016, so when I saw a second season was on the way — including a possible queer love triangle involving Tom’s character — I knew I had to check it out for the Scale.
Oh, before I get going, though, I should take some time to go over some disclaimers. First and foremost, there will be SPOILERS for both the 2016 season and the 2026 season herein. So if you’re concerned about that, you may want to go watch them and then report back. (Don’t worry, both seasons are short, each with six, one hour-long episodes.) Also, I should give some content warnings, including but not limited to: violence, murder, and animal abuse. (If you’re concerned about a particular trigger, you can check the more full list here.) Finally, if you’re new to the Scale or would just like to get a refresher on our metric, you can do so here.
All set? Then off we go, my darlings.
The Night Manager (2016, 2026-) focuses on Jonathan Pine (Hiddleston), a hotelier who uncovers a plot to sell illegal arms under the guise of charity work by a dastardly billionaire named Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie). Soon Pine is recruited by English government operative Angela Burr (Olivia Coleman) to infiltrate Roper’s inner circle to learn enough about his operation to nail the arms smuggler and put him away for good. The show is based on the best-selling 1993 novel of the same name by John Le Carré. The second season revisits the original characters a decade later, when Pine soon discovers a similar operation being run in Colombia to fund a regime change by arms kingpin Teddy Dos Santos (Diego Calva), who is harboring a dangerous secret.
What I liked:
I have to emphasize that it’s important to watch the first season in order to understand the second season — not just for plot reasons, but to understand Pine’s understated bisexuality.
In the first season, in nearly every episode, it’s mentioned by one character or another how handsome Pine is. We do see him start a clandestine affair with Roper’s girlfriend, Jed (Elizabeth Debicki). But even she notices and comments on it in Episode 4: “Who are you? You come into our lives. You disrupt our balance. Everyone is attracted to you.”
This gets pointed out again by Roper, talking about his henchman, “Corky” Corcorran (Tom Hollander), being attracted to Pine. Pine and Corky have an unusual relationship throughout the season, wherein every chance he gets, Corky both notes how attractive Pine is while in the next breath basically saying he’s onto him and that he’ll kill him if he steps out of line.
Pine doesn’t respond outwardly to these passes. Cut to the first episode of Season 2, a decade later, Pine has relocated to London, and we learn he has a cat. The name of the cat? Corky. This may seem like a stretch, but why name a cat after someone who said they wanted to off you if there wasn’t a little bit of affection for him?
Maybe that doesn’t matter, as what happens in Season 2, in the pursuit of Teddy and trying to nab him for his nefarious deeds, he picks up on Teddy’s closeted queerness and has no problem in folding in flirting as another form of getting information out of him. Consider this flurry of exchanges in Episode 2, while Pike poses as an investor with money to burn, and Teddy tries to convince him at a gala to donate to his charity front (note all of these were said while their bodies were surprisingly close to each other:)
Teddy: So you came alone? No one to keep you company?
Pine: I’m always open to offers ….Teddy: So, not a family guy?
Pine: Let’s just say … I like my freedom.
Teddy: I’ve looked into that bank you work for. They are a secretive bunch.
Pine: Aren’t we all.
Maybe that seems like playfulness, which could be explained away. And we do have a new female love interest this season, Roxana (Camila Morrone), a beautiful shipping broker who knows more than she lets on. (Note: Teddy and Roxana were previously involved but are now mostly just co-conspirators.) But any doubt of that gets thrown out of the window when the three characters get involved in a steamy three-way slow dance in a restaurant, the chemistry crackling between all three of them. For those who assumed Pine was straight because of his involvement with Jed the previous season, a gentle reminder — just because a character was involved with one gender one season doesn’t mean they aren’t attracted to more than one gender.
I also want to counter that for those who may say it’s all part of an act to get information, that Pine’s caring doesn’t stop when he learns that Teddy is the secret love child of Roper. While his flirtations pull way back once he learns this information, he still cares about him and tries to help him out (in his own way) as the plot thickens.
It’s also important to note that Teddy is not a one-note stereotypical South American crime lord, either. He is smart, charming, sensitive, and can often be funny, with dreams of greater closeness to his father. He is also not hard-hearted, because the show attempts to give him a redemption arc as he and Pine band together to try to take on Roper and stop him from arming a war.
What I Didn’t Like:
Unfortunately, we do not get Pine using the term “bi” to define himself here. At most, he just says that he has “a bad track record with the people I care about”. And unfortunately, Teddy doesn’t make it past the end of the season, with Roper killing Teddy for his betrayal, which hits the #KillYourGays trope. No fun.
The Rating:
All that said, it’s super fun to have our beloved Loki as a bi spy! Pine’s bisexuality is an important part of the season’s story, but not the only thing the character has going on, and even our supposed villain, who turns into a tragic figure in Teddy, ends up getting far more fleshed out than his role normally would. I wish we had gotten a full redemption arc, but I guess we can’t have everything.
The Night Manager is chic, sleek, and much more queer than meets the eye. The show is an imperfect win in the queer espionage category, but far from a Pyrrhic victory.
