The Disney+ Hotstar spy drama concludes with a showdown between the good and the bad. The first part of The Night Manager spanned four episodes and ended with Brij being outed by Shelly from the position of CEO. In desperation, Shelly chooses Shaan to be the face of his agro-tech company, which is just a front for the arms deals he carries out around the world. Shaan Sengupta is now of British nationality, and his new name will be Capt. Abhimanyu Mathur, but he will be keeping an eye on Shelly’s moves for Lipika as they systematically plan to bring him down.
Part two begins with the implication that Shaan has come too close to the man to be backing out because he started realizing why Shelly is addicted to power. Shaan here is a spectator and an informant of the events unfolding, and he is enamored to witness how much Shelly loves to live in luxury, and how he would do anything to sustain that lifestyle.
Spoilers Ahead
Shaan And Lipika’s Game Plan
The fifth episode, titled Abhimanyu, begins with Shaan basking in the glory of his new identity and the kind of things he can do with the power given to him on a platter, but he decides to lay low and work on the assignment to not attract Shelly’s attention. Shelly is a shrewd man, but lately, his judgment has been clouded, and he has not realized a lot of things have gone haywire since Shaan’s arrival.
Brij is unable to get Shelly’s attention to let him know of his inability to trust Shaan because Shaan manipulated the whole situation. Brij keeps a local guy named Angelo on Shaan’s trail to gather concrete evidence against him. Ahead of the Dubai trip, Brij is asked to stay away from the team because of another erratic meltdown, which makes it easy for Shaan to get closer to Shelly’s plans. Shaan is walking on eggshells, for one misstep would expose him. This shows his dedication to making this mission a success, even though he is sleeping with the devil, or rather, the devil’s wife, Kaveri. Their relationship is emotional, as he is not taking advantage of her as a woman trapped in a marriage away from her son.
Lipika, with the help of Shelly’s partner Jeevi, gets hold of the decoded weapons list, but to her horror, Shelly is informed of the leak, and Jeevi is immediately caught red-handed and executed. This had to happen because it was clear that someone in R&AW was sheltering Shelly. Her immediate boss, Mr. Mitter, turns out to be Shelly’s man, but things are not what they seem. Her boss reveals Shelly’s role in providing arms to the rebel groups in neighboring countries to keep the tension going, and in return, the Indian intelligence offers him a blanket of security. This is the case with a regional superpower like India, which takes advantage of the problems in neighboring nations as a way to protect its national interests. There is collateral damage, but that is the case with any conflict. It is implied that India does get involved in the internal politics of the neighboring nations, but only covertly.
Stunned by these revelations, Lipika plans to extract Shaan in the hope of saving his life. Shaan does not want to abandon the plan because he has come too close to Shelly to back out all of a sudden. He takes it upon himself to desert his Indian operatives and run away with Shelly and his entourage to another oil-rich nation. This is where the Abhimanyu ploy comes into play. As per the mythology, Abhimanyu walked into Chakravyuh, not knowing how to get out of it. Here, Shaan, as Abhimanyu, crosses into uncharted territory for the first time without the support of Lipika, and he is not sure if he will come out alive, but this is a risk he is willing to take.
The Display Of Power And Ammunition
The sixth episode, Magic Trick, begins with Shelly, Shaan, and Jaiveer ready to showcase their arms to their client right in the middle of the desert. The power of the arms on display is a terrifying sight to behold that disturbs Shaan to the core as he is a witness to what titillates Shelly, witnessing the annihilation of places. Shaan has gone too deep into the nexus, and at this point, he cannot walk out because of the fear of how dangerous Shelly can be.
Meanwhile, Shelly suspects Kaveri, Shaan, Jaiveer, and Brij of leaking the information to Lipika. His apprehensions come from the fact that he is bankrupt and cannot afford to lose the contract because of the mole, and that is why he is getting onto each one of them to find out who the rat is. He also invites Brij to keep him closer. Brij is killed by Shaan to put in motion the plan of pointing fingers at him being the mole. This theory is confirmed by Kaveri herself when she was aggressively questioned by Shelly about her involvement in the leak. She blamed it on Brij at Shaan’s insistence. Shelly is visibly agitated as he cannot trust the people closest to him, so much so that he believes Brij deceived him. It can be understood that Shaan has been successful in getting into Shelly’s head and messing with it.
Shelly meets with the leader of a terrorist outfit, who offers him a better deal for weapons than the Myanmar group. This proves that Shelly’s motive is making a lot of money, and for that, he is willing to go against his deal with R&AW as well. He is overconfident at this point because he starts feeling invincible, even with Shaan trying to stop him from making a deal with an organization that could harm their country as well. A terrified Shaan shares the details of the trucks carrying weapons with Lipika, who involves their American allies in raiding the trucks. The mission turns out to be unsuccessful because no weapons are found, as most of them are headed to the final location of the delivery on a container ship as per the master plan made by Shelly, who somehow knew there would be an interruption. Shelly either was informed by Mitter, or he anticipated a move from Lipika in the hope of finding out who the mole was.
The whole situation from now on turns darker as Shaan seems to have fallen into a never ending pit, and he will be able to get closer to understanding what Shelly’s bigger plan is. It is easy to conclude that Shelly has gone rogue, and that to sustain himself, he would do anything, even if it meant betraying his countrymen.
How Does Shelly Find Out Shaan Was The Mole After All?
The final episode is titled ‘Imarti’ and begins with Shelly and his entourage heading to Dhaka, which is a place that brings back all the memories for Shaan because the story is coming full circle for him. His hatred for Shelly began in this city, and by the looks of it, he will be able to end this man’s life here. Fate works in a twisted way because Shelly consciously or unconsciously brought Shaan back to the hotel when he first met Freddie Rehman, and his wife Safina, and how his life has changed ever since. Freddie, who happens to be the owner of the hotel and one of Shelly’s associates in this arms deal, can’t seem to place Shaan after all these years. Shaan is ridden with anxiety, but he will have to be calm in the hope that his guilt over being unable to protect Safina does not overwhelm him and cause him to make a stupid move.
On the other hand, Kaveri and Shaan have become very close emotionally and physically, and she is eager to get out of the marriage with Shelly because she cannot pretend to like anything about their relationship anymore. Since she has realized he is a dangerous man who could harm her and her child, it is clear what she wants from life, and it is peace of mind. It is still surprising to comprehend that Kaveri, being Shelly’s spouse, was not aware of this actual business and remained ignorant until now.
Kaveri gives away the code for Shelly’s hotel room locker that stores the phone, which would be the access point to his bank account that requires Shaan’s retinal scan to access. This comes across as a convoluted plot point because, to reach the end goal, Shaan is going to have to get involved in dangerous tasks without getting detected, especially by Shelly.
Shelly finally comes to know that Shaan is the mole from Brij’s informant, Angelo, who reveals that his son’s hostage drama was staged . Shelly joins the dots to finally conclude that Kaveri was in on it with Shaan as well to provide information, and he ends up assaulting her in retaliation. This comes across as a convenient plot point because there was no direct link that would lead Shelly to believe Shaan was having an affair with Kaveri unless someone told him about it. This was the missing link in the plot that did not make sense. Kaveri ends up being the collateral damage in this messy game, and she is on the brink of being killed by her husband because Shelly does not take betrayal very well.
Shaan drowns Freddie Rehman, for he admits to having killed Safina on the orders of Shelly. From him, he gathers information about the place where all the weapons are stored in the city. Using his power as the CEO, he checks up on the objects and concludes that, as per the labeling, they would be transported to India to be used against the country. Shaan had to share this information with Indian intelligence as his duty.
Lipika and her husband are attacked by Shelly’s men, and she confronts her boss about his allegiances since the man came close to getting rid of an R&AW agent. Mitter understands the seriousness of the matter and the fact that Shelly may have crossed the line, and he sanctions his arrest order. This comes across as a suitable narrative for her boss, who was dead against trailing Shelly, but one incident was enough to change his perspective. Mitter realized that Shelly might soon become a liability, and the government cannot lose face if information about their deal with Shelly is leaked. His arrest is the only way to shut him up.
Shaan is confronted by Shelly at the weapons factory about him being the mole, and the latter is forced to be civil in front of the terrorist leader as a last part of the deal. The phone does not recognize Shaan’s retina, as the actual phone was stolen by Lipika from Shelly’s locker, and there is no way Shelly will be able to access Shaan’s account. Shaan also made sure to set off all the bombs in the factory to destroy Shelly from the core. Shaan took this action to pay him back for Safina’s murder and the fact that the man lives off murdering innocent people and has no regrets.
The terrorist outfit and their leader, who has not been named, but it is obvious which country they represent, are livid at the infighting between Shaan and Shelly and demand their money back from the latter. They wouldn’t want the deal to go kaput, or worse, the intelligence services to get involved, which would bring them closer to serving time in jail. Shaan agrees to part with the money only if Shelly lets go of Kaveri. After all his ammunition is destroyed in the factory, Shelly has nothing to rely on but the money Shaan would be giving him back, and he will probably try to restart his business from scratch. They reach the hotel only to see Lipika waiting in his room to arrest him.
Shelly is overconfident here because he knows he will be out of jail in no time because of his connections. Unluckily for him, Mitter sanctions his arrest for indulging in anti-national activities. Shelly believes that once he is out, he will probably work on revenge plans against Shaan. This is what he hopes he can do for sure; the Indian laws cannot stop him from leaving the country. He is too powerful and has too much dirt on the government for them to be putting him behind bars for years. He is sure the officials will be forced to act upon his demands.
Kaveri is finally rescued by Shaan, but it is not revealed if they will be living together from here on or if she will be heading back to India to be with her son. Abandoning this plotline does not make sense because their affair was an indication of a new path for the two of them away from trouble.
The Night Manager ends with the van Shelly’s was placed in after his arrest being taken over by the terrorist outfit from the neighboring country, who had lost not just the ammunition but the money as well; instead of letting Shelly escape jail time and the country, they take hi, hostage. This implies that Shelly will surely be tortured and killed by these men, and his fate is sealed for good. It is not sure who passed on the information that let this organization take him away before he was extradited to India. It is assumed from the body language that it was most likely Lipika who did it, knowing the only way to stop Shelly was to throw him to the pack of lions, and they would do the rest for them. Lipika’s boss would also want Shelly dead because if Shelly opens his mouth, Mitter will have to take the fall for the government and he will be discredited. Getting rid of Shelly is the best solution, and this time again, the Indian government’s work is done by someone else without any blood on their hands.
