Part 2 of The Night Manager took an unnecessarily long time to grace our screens. We had been wondering whether the makers had completely forgotten about it. However, Part 2 keeps up the pace of Part 1 and offers pretty much the same things. We did feel bad about the way Shelly’s arc ended, even though that was a given, but that is because we love Anil Kapoor. Other than that, here is a recap of The Night Manager Part 2.
Spoilers Alert
Why Does Shaan Go Against Raw?
Since Shelly is sufficiently impressed by Shaan, as we saw in Part 1 of The Night Manager, he brings him headfirst into the business. Much to his delight and BJ’s annoyance, Shaan is making strides, and he impresses clients with his characteristic charm. According to his word, Shelly gives Shaan access to unlimited money along with his new identity, Abhimanyu Mathur. Shaan has a way of impressing people, and when he asks Shelly to spend time with his son while he takes care of the work, it is evident that Shelly considers this a point in his favor instead of thinking that Shaan is up to something. But this is where things get complicated.
Back in India, Lipika and Danish approach the Union Home Secretary with the list of codes for the weapons that Shelly is about to trade in. The Secretary involves Mitter, the very man that Lipika and Danish thought was in cahoots with Shelly. However, Mitter reveals to them that, while they think correctly, the matter is something else. Shelly is a means to an end for India: to fight wars that they officially cannot. By supplying arms to those whose agenda suits India, Shelly has maintained a delicate relationship with the country, where they do not interfere in his matters in return. This deal stands as long as Shelly never harms India. As absurd as this sounds, Lipika and Danish know that their hands are tied. While they don’t reveal anything about Shaan being undercover, they can’t protect GV’s secret, and Shelly has already killed him for switching sides, no matter what his reason. Lipika is forced to ask Shaan to call off his mission since they know that they cannot risk his life anymore in the face of such a revelation and the government’s favoritism towards this criminal.
But Shaan is not willing to back down. He has just helped negotiate a deal with Bargati in Dubai and seen for himself the scores of weapons that Shelly is going to trade. The scale of destruction that his actions will wreck is almost unimaginable, and pulling out of the mission would mean allowing that to happen, not to mention leaving Kaveri stranded with him, which Shaan is not willing to risk. Therefore, Shaan turns his back on them by pretending that they are following Shelly and his team. He beats them black and blue in the interest of his cover and escapes with Shelly once again. This little stunt by Shaan creates new doubts for Indian Intelligence regarding whether he has genuinely changed sides, but they are in for a surprise.
What Is Shelly’s Arms Deal About?
Shelly and his team go to his oil fields from the hotel, where they test their new weapons. Shaan catches on that the demo has another motive, that of an exhibition for a buyer. True to his suspicions, there is one. Since he refused to give his name, we will call him Mr. Bard, as he quoted something from him. Mr. Bard plans on using these weapons for widespread terrorist attacks, and he warns Shaan not to go back to India, as that is going to be their target. When he leaves, Shelly is miffed at Shaan for asking Bard about the attacks, but Shaan pretends to be worried that an attack on India could increase the heat under their feet. However, Shelly is ready to sever ties with India in return for preserving his own empire. This means that Mitter’s reason for protecting Shelly is no longer valid, but he doesn’t know that yet. He institutes an inquiry commission against Lipika and Danish to try and find out the name of the spy they have incorporated into Shelly’s organization.
Meanwhile, Shelly is also trying to find the mole, and Shaan is trying to find some proof or clue that can stop the transport of the arms. He finds a paper with the numbers of the trucks that are going to transport the arms, and he sends that picture to Lipika. As for Shelly, he believes that BJ must be the mole. Kaveri lies to him that she had taken a picture of the codes to try and understand what Shelly did for a living. She says that her phone had fallen into the hands of BJ, and Shelly’s suspicions regarding him grow stronger, especially since he has been acting very rowdy and insubordinate for the past few days. But the truth is that BJ finds Shaan fooling around with the paper and is about to tell on him when Shaan kills him and says that he was the spy. A dejected Shelly asks for him to be buried with respect since he was a friend.
The next day, Lipika receives the message with the truck numbers when she is in the middle of the inquiry. She hatches a plan with Danish, where he convinces his friends in the American embassy to act on the information. However, this turns out to be a bluff since the weapons were never in the truck. The ship carrying them was still at sea and was going towards its real destination. Shelly had done the whole thing to weed out the mole, and he had achieved the illusion of it. The weapons are going to Dhaka, and this is the place where it all began for Shaan. As luck would have it, they are staying at the Orient Pearl, the very hotel that Shaan used to work at. Luckily for him, his ex-manager understands that this is a sensitive situation and keeps his real identity to himself. But when Freddy runs into Shaan, he can’t help but think that he recognizes him. This is a running theme in the majority of their interactions with Shaan, completely denying that they ever met.
‘The Night Manager’ Ending Explained: How Does Shaan Foil Shelly’s Plan?
In India, Shelly sends an assassin to Lipika’s house to find out the name of the agent who was within Shelly’s ranks. Lipika manages to fight him off, but when she ends up in the hospital with her husband, it is a wake-up call for Mitter. Lipika finally tells him why she is so obsessed with Shelly. Years ago, when a terrorist attack took the lives of over 150 schoolchildren, Shelly started dealing with that particular weapon the next day. He had seen opportunity in other people’s pain and suffering, and that is why Lipika was so hell-bent on stopping him at any cost. Additionally, the fact that he was sending assassins to Indian agents’ houses meant that he was no ally of the country. Understanding what Lipika is saying, Mitter gives her two days to come up with proof against Shelly, and for Lipika, it is enough. Shaan has already informed her that he is in Dhaka, in the Orient Pearl, and she reaches there to execute the next stage of their plan. By this time, Shaan has taken the opportunity to take a drunk Freddy home, where he kills him for the murder of Safina. From there, he goes to Shelly’s arms factory and creates a situation, knowing that it would make the deal impossible.
Back in the hotel, Shelly has finally discovered that Shaan is the mastermind behind everything. BJ had employed a man to trace the kidnappers of Taha (Shelly’s son), and they revealed that Shaan had been in on the plan all along. This revelation also makes Shelly realize that Kaveri must be in cahoots with him, and he leaves no stone unturned in torturing her.
Shelly cannot kill Shaan right away because he needs his retina scan to access his bank account, and that is why he keeps him alive. Shelly takes Shaan to the warehouse, where he reveals that he knew about him being a traitor. Shaan knows that his game is up, but he is dangerously calm. We realize why when Mr. Bard comes on the scene. Shaan has rigged the place with explosives that are going to burst within minutes. This means that the entire cargo of weapons is going to be ruined, and Mr. Bard is not happy. He demands that Shelly return the money to him, but Shaan has taken care of this as well. The device that scanned Shaan’s retina to access the account has been replaced by Lipika; therefore, it doesn’t work anymore. Shelly is about to lose his entire cargo and get into a debt of millions. Everything that he ever had is going to turn to dust, and that is exactly what happens. At the end of The Night Manager Part 2, we see the warehouse being blown to bits as an enraged Shelly and a very satisfied Shaan look on. Back in the hotel, Lipika is waiting to arrest Shelly, and there is nothing he can do. However, he remains confident that he can get out within days. But that hope is dashed when some men take him away from police custody. We believe that these men work for Mr. Bard, and this is their payback for the non-delivery of weapons. Lipika and Shaan don’t interfere, saying that Shelly deserves the worst possible death to come his way.
As The Night Manager wraps up in its final few moments, we see that Shaan is still in Dhaka, and he is sitting in the room where he was once protecting Safina. She was the girl who changed the course of his life and, for a brief amount of time, gave him a purpose. The weight of not having been able to save her life weighs heavily on him, but he is trying to make peace with it. As for the others, we think that Kaveri must have gone back to her son, and Shelly is dead, so the rest of his gang must have dispersed, trying to find a new source of bread and butter.
Final Thoughts
The Night Manager is one of the shows that rides strong on the power of lookism. While being average in every other aspect, it held our attention because we had to continue looking at the screen. We would actually recommend this to people because we genuinely enjoyed how it occupied our time. It is a point in its favor that, if nothing else, it wasn’t boring at all. That is it for the show, and you should give this a watch.
