Diane Farr, who was the chief of staff in the Netflix series “The Night Agent” in the government led by President Travers, seemed like the only person who was working for the welfare of the state and was devoid of any vices. She was a loyalist, and on more than one occasion, she had very blatantly stated in front of high-ranking officials that no matter what happened, she would never go against the president. Diane Farr and the President shared a long-standing relationship, and they had been friends since they were in college. Diane Farr had placed her bets on Peter Sutherland Jr., whom she saw as a dark horse who would go a long way, provided he played his game tactfully.
Being a part of an organization like the FBI and CIA had its own challenges, as it is not only your work and dedication that mattered but a lot of times, it was about how you turned the odds in your favor when the entire facade seemed futile. Diane knew that which is why, time and again, she used to remind Peter that if he somehow managed to sustain and do what was asked of him, then one day, he would get to reap the benefits. Something felt wrong when Diane ousted the authority of the FBI Deputy Director, Hawkins, and favored Peter as if to show everybody how much she trusted him. But we realized that it was not only trust that drove her to vouch for Peter; she had some vested interests in what he was being asked to do. When Peter came into contact with Rose Larkin, Diane told him to take her to a discreet location without informing his supporters about it. Diane had broken the chain of command by asking Peter to go against the chief of his own organization, which would have had serious ramifications in the normal course of business. Diane was able to do all this because Peter never doubted her intentions, and for him, she was no less than a savior who had shown him light when there seemed no hope at all. Rose, on the other hand, was not so sure about Diane’s motives and warned Peter about the outcome of trusting someone blindly.
In “The Night Agent,” Episode 6, Peter discovered that he was merely a pawn in the dirty game of politics and corruption. Diane Farr had been lying to him the entire time, as were Vice President Ashley Redfield and Lake Turn Industries CEO Gordon Wick. Diane had no qualms about making Peter the prime suspect when she knew that the boy was not guilty and, moreover, had trusted her more than anyone.
Throughout the series, Diane takes a very pragmatic approach to things, and even if she knows what she is doing is not morally correct, she justifies it by telling herself that she is looking out for the safety of the nation’s leader. There is no denying that Diane didn’t want to harm the president, but it makes us wonder: would the president have let her go to such extremes to safeguard the government, or would she have acted otherwise? Nobody asked the president what she wanted; everyone did what they did because they believed it was a selfless act that demonstrated their love for their country. But they all knew that they were fooling themselves and living a lie because they were too scared to face reality and expose their hypocrisy.
Diane could argue that she was not a part of the conspiracy to bomb the metro train and that she was only included in the team after the plan failed and VP Redfield needed her to cover their tracks, but does that make Diane Farr any less of a traitor than Gordon Wick and Redfield? Well, we don’t think so. At first, Diane stood her ground and told Gordon and Redfield that what they had done was extremely foolish and negligent. She told them that risking the lives of hundreds of American citizens was not justified, no matter how beneficial the outcome would have been for the country. Redfield told her that if there is an investigation and it becomes known what they had done, then the entire administration could be in jeopardy. We believe that was the point when Diane decided that she would have to fend for her interests and save herself, even if it meant burning the whole country down. The moment Diane chose to side with the perpetrators, she too became a traitor, as even though she wanted to safeguard the residents, she had betrayed the trust of the American people.
Diane Farr was excluded from the planning when Redfield and Gordan were attempting to execute the assassination of Omar Zadar for the second time. The plan was to bomb Camp David, where the president was supposed to meet Zadar, and that is why Diane was kept out of the loop because Redfield knew that she wouldn’t have agreed to kill President Travers.
While Peter bore the guilt of not being able to save the life of that one victim who had died in the metro bombing, Diane was not burdened by any such feeling. Diane had learned to be ruthlessly pragmatic, and she said that if the public came to know about every detail and every scandal, then society would collapse on itself. She took solace in the fact that scandals like these happened in every country and under every regime, and it was an inevitable reality no matter how much anybody denied it. Diane lied to herself, and she let innocent people die on her watch, and she could still sleep at night because she had convinced herself that whatever she did was non-negotiable and she had to do it if she wanted to save the nation and the leader. Rose had the opportunity to kill Diane and avenge the deaths of her uncle and aunt, but she didn’t want to end her life and let her go so easily.
Towards the end of “The Night Agent” Season 1, we saw that Diane was delusional enough to believe that she had dedicated her life to the welfare of the nation. Rose wanted to see her flawed perception crumble, which is why she told her that she wouldn’t kill her but would let her rot in prison until she saw her true face in the mirror.
