There’s something in the water here in the UK (other than sewage overflow), which has turned the TV viewing public into gluttons for subterfuge. Deception, betrayal, fragile alliances: these descriptors could be applied equally to both of 2026’s biggest shows, The Traitors and The Night Manager, which concluded its second series tonight. But did Tom Hiddleston’s mystery man get banished from the Amazonian jungle? Or did he manage to turn the tables on his treacherous opponent?
With Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie) on the verge of an arms deal that will destabilise Colombia’s peace and (somehow) repay his Syrian creditors, focus moves to the seductive powers of Jonathan Pine. Successfully “turning” Roper’s pouting illegitimate son and obedient lieutenant Teddy (Diego Calva) allows Pine to inveigle his way into the Colombian rebels’ operation. “You can be free,” Pine implores Teddy. “But not with him alive.” Sadly, for Teddy, it is Roper who comes out on top/ “I forgive your immortal soul,” he whispers to his son, before putting a bullet into his forehead. “But not your mortal one.” There is no mercy, either, for Olivia Colman’s Angela Burr, whose power struggle with MI5 Chief Mayra Cavendish (Indira Varma), ends with her bleeding out in the French snow. And so the series, which seemed to be building towards some retribution, ends with Roper restored, rolling through the Cotswolds in a blacked-out Range Rover, while it is Pine’s turn to end a season bruised, bloodied and running for his life. So much for justice.
