The Night Manager series 2 has just delivered its most jaw-dropping moment so far – because at the end of episode 3, Richard Roper turned out to be very much alive. Yes, you did read that correctly.
Jonathan Pine was left reeling as he clocked a secret meeting between Teddy Dos Santos and his dear dad Roper. Seeing those two dangerous men together was enough to send a chill down anyone’s spine…
Once the initial shock wore off, the questions came thick and fast. How can Roper possibly be breathing after we watched his ‘corpse’ laid out in episode 1? Viewers may feel a little cheated – but spare a thought for Jonathan, who clearly had his entire world turned upside down.
Here’s everything we know so far about Richard Roper’s dramatic return, the leading theories about how he pulled it off, and what it could mean for Jonathan Pine in the future.
***Warning: spoilers for The Night Manager series 2 episode 3 ahead***
Richard Roper’s ‘dead’ body being identified in The Night Manager episode 1 (Credit: BBC)
Who is Richard Roper in The Night Manager?
Hugh Laurie’s Richard ‘Dickie’ Onslow Roper – aka “the worst man in the world” – was a smiling assassin. Beneath the charming facade and the expensive suits, he was an arms dealer utterly devoid of conscience. His motivations were simple: power and profit. The only crack in the armour seemed to be his son Daniel.
Series 2 has subsequently revealed another son from a different chapter of Roper’s life. Teddy Dos Santos was born from a relationship with a Mexican woman during Roper’s youth.
Back in series 1, former soldier turned hotel manager Jonathan Pine was recruited by British intelligence to infiltrate Roper’s operation. Against the odds, Pine helped dismantle the arms dealer’s empire.
But Roper never made it to justice. After Operation Limpit officers arrested him, furious Syrian criminals took matters into their own hands, hijacking the police van and driving off into the desert. Watching it disappear, Angela Burr summed it up perfectly: “He deserved it.”
Is Richard Roper dead?
Fast forward four years to The Night Manager episode 1, and viewers watched Jonathan Pine and Angela Burr in Syria identifying what they were told was Richard Roper’s body. We were informed he’d been executed – though, tellingly, no visible injuries were shown.
Despite Hugh Laurie’s brief appearance as the lifeless Roper, most viewers assumed that was the end of the character. Episode 3 proved just how wrong we were.
Richard Roper is clearly not dead, as we learnt in the closing minutes of The Night Manager episode 3.
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