Line #57 Series/TheNightAgent


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_0757.jpeg]]
2	''The Night Agent'' is a 2023 spy thriller created by Creator/ShawnRyan (''Series/{{Timeless}}'', ''Series/TheShield'') based on the novel by Creator/MatthewQuirk. It stars Creator/GabrielBasso in the role of Peter Sutherland, an FBI agent who earns a promotion after he saves a Metro train from a bomb. One year later, he gets a call from Rose Larkin, the CEO of a failed cybersecurity startup, whose aunt and uncle give her the phone number just before they are murdered by assassins. Together, Peter and Rose must stop a conspiracy that goes to the highest level of the United States government.
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4	It aired on Netflix on March 23rd 2023. It was renewed for a second season a week after airing.
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6	!!Examples:
7	* AbusiveParents: Maddie's father was emotionally abusive, wrongly blaming her for her sister dying when she accidentally drowned. He once hit her too while the two were arguing (which she'd recorded). Later he tearfully apologizes for all this, saying he doesn't want to be that kind of dad.
8	* ActionGirl: Chelsea Arrington, who's a Secret Service agent, shows her skills off while fighting Ellen at the depot.
9	* ActionSurvivor: Rose has no real combat experience, but she is able to handle herself and save Peter several times. Rose stabs an FBI Agent to save Peter, [[spoiler:and kills Ellen the assassin by pushing her off a tower.]]
10	* AfterActionPatchUp: Peter and Rose do this to each other several times. Peter does this in a hotel room with Rose, and he does this on a boat that acts as a safehouse. Rose gets some forehead tape and he gets some bandages.
11	* AlwaysIdenticalTwins: Colin and Matteo Worley are identical twin brothers. [[spoiler:This allowed Colin to [[TwinSwitch impersonate Matteo]] after he died]].
12	* AndTheAdventureContinues: Peter leaves for his first assignment as a night agent, after the conspiracy is thwarted.
13	* AntiVillain: Farr is an ambitious chief of Staff who ''is'' in on the conspiracy, but she cares about the president and is ultimately trying to protect her country.
14	* ArtisticLicenseBiology: At a zoo, Farr claims that, majestic and powerful as they are in the wild, big predators in captivity are basically giant housepets. Many a zookeeper will attest otherwise: animals in captivity are still wild animals, and even with training and very careful handling, they can still be very dangerous.
15	* AssassinationAttempt: [[spoiler:The first season culminates with one on the President orchestrated by the villains using corrupt Secret Service agents, which Rose, Peter and Farr manage to stop.]]
16	* AxCrazy: Ellen not only kills people for a living, but because it's ''fun''. She finds drowning a man in a lake "anti-climactic"; she would rather feel the blood on her hands.
17	* BigBadDuumvirate: CorruptCorporateExecutive Gordon Wick and CorruptPolitician Vice President Ashley Redfield. [[spoiler:Subverted in the end when Redfield gets arrested but Wick escaped and is yet to be caught.]]
18	* BigDamnKiss: Peter and Rose share one on the boat in Episode 7 after Rose gives him a pep talk. Their mutual attraction was teased for some time prior.
19	* BigSisterInstinct: Agent Arrington has this for Maddie, despite knowing her less than a year as a secret service agent. She cares for Maddie even though they are not related.
20	* BodyguardBetrayal: [[spoiler:The attempt to kill the President is made possible by several corrupt Secret Service agents being in on the plot.]]
21	* BodyguardCrush: Peter becomes Rose's protector against assassins. The two fall for each other while they're on the run.
22	* BrainyBrunette: Peter and Rose are both smart and capable individuals. Rose is more Tech savvy while Peter has the FBI training. Both have brown hair.
23	* BrokenPedestal: [[spoiler:Peter is very unhappy to learn his father really was guilty, since he's always believed in his innocence.]]
24	* BuryYourGays: Maddie's professor turns out to have a boyfriend. Both die by the end of the first season, while they're the only LGBT+ people so far on the show.
25	* CementShoes: Dale and Ellen are shown drowning a Serbian politician in a lake who they tied onto a cender block during a flashback.
26	* ClearTheirName: Peter has always believed in his father's innocence, while he wants to prove this.
27	* CodenameTitle: Rose's aunt and uncle went by Gazelle and Sidewinder, respectively.
28	* ColdBloodedTorture: Offscreen, this is [[spoiler:Lorna's]] fate.
29	* TheConspiracy: The trio of [[spoiler:the President's Chief of Staff Diana Farr, Vice President Renfield, and powerful mercenary CEO Wick]], who plan on assassinating Omar Zadar, a foreign leader of another country. [[spoiler:The latter two also try to assassinate the President and install Renfield, who is more militaristic towards other countries, in her place.]]
30	* ConspiracyTheorist: Peter is hounded by one name Elliot Rome. He believes Peter was behind the Metro bombing, along with his many followers. We see him harassing Peter in a video, while his followers later do this too.
31	* CorruptCorporateExecutive: [[spoiler:Gordon Wick]] is the CEO of a [[PrivateMilitaryContractors mercenary company]] willing to murder anyone in his way.
32	* CorruptPolitician: [[spoiler:Ashley Redfield is the Vice President of the United States, and it turns out that he's deeply corrupt. He not only is in bed with the CEO of a [[PrivateMilitaryContractors corrupt mercenary company]], Redfield willingly becomes involved with a plot to assassinate the President, which will let him take over.]]
33	* CoolOldLady: Lorna, who worked with Rose's aunt and uncle, is a RetiredBadass who keeps a shotgun in the umbrella stand and a knife in an ankle holster. [[spoiler:It doesn't help her in the end.]]
34	* CruelMercy: Rose spares Farr so she can face trial and rot in jail for everything she did, including framing her and Peter.
35	* DarkActionGirl: Ellen, ''oh'' so much. A skilled, ruthless assassin, her pure black hair and SlasherSmile cement the trope.
36	* DarkAndTroubledPast: So many:
37	** Peter was 16 when his dad was killed in a car accident, and he had to fight accusations of him being a traitor.
38	** Rose lost both her parents at a young age, her startup was destroyed when her coworker Adam betrayed her, and her aunt and uncle are killed in the very first episode.
39	** Maddie lost her mom to cancer, her sister died via drowning when she was five, and her father, The Vice President blamed her for it.
40	** Agent Monks got addicted to painkillers after saving the president.
41	* DarkIsEvil: Assassins Dale and Ellen both wear dark clothing usually. They also have dark hair and olive skin.
42	* DeathOfAChild: It turns out that Maddie's younger sister drowned accidentally while they were both little, as we're shown in a flashback. Her dad blamed Maddie for not watching her, and it damaged their relationship ever after.
43	* DeclarationOfProtection: Peter gives one to Rose when as they are driving to the [=AirBnB=] In Episode 1.
44	* DidTheyOrDidntThey: Peter and Rose on the Boat in Episode 7.
45	* EstablishingCharacterMoment:
46	** Peter gives up his seat on the subway to a woman and her daughter; he's a genuinely NiceGuy. Then, after finding a bomb and hustling the passengers off, he spots the bomber, fights him, and gives chase for several blocks until being hit by a car; he's also TheDeterminator.
47	** Dale and Ellen are first seen cold-bloodedly killing Rose's aunt and uncle (by gunshot and strangulation, respectively). Then they use [[WouldHurtAChild someone else's baby]] as a prop to infiltrate a house, murder the owner, and then [[KickTheDog abandon the baby]] to most likely die.
48	* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes:
49	** Twisted as she is, Ellen is fully and passionately in love with Dale, and he loves her the same way. She goes [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge utterly berserk]] [[spoiler:after he's killed.]]
50	** Farr is genuinely friends with President Michelle Travers [[spoiler: which is why Redfield and Wick concealed their plan to assassinate her because they know it's a line Farr wouldn't cross. She turns on them to stop this after learning about it.]]
51	** Ashley Redfield loved his late wife, and one of his daughters drowning was devastating to him. [[spoiler:This is exploited by the Metro bomber who takes his other daughter Maddie as a hostage. He nearly confesses to being behind the bombing to get her back.]]
52	** Colin Worley, the Metro bomber, [[spoiler: seeks to avenge the death of his twin brother who was eliminated by the conspiracy.]]
53	* EveryoneHasStandards: Farr may be in on the conspiracy, but she is a good friend of the POTUS and does not want her dead.
54	* EvilCounterpart: Ellen to Rose. Both are extremely intelligent and capable, but one is a vicious murderer. Bonus points since [[spoiler:it's Rose who eventually kills Ellen.]]
55	* EvilIsBigger: Gordon Wick, a billionaire military contractor who is one of the series' villains, is 6'3'' and towers over the rest of the conspiracy members, let alone basically the entire cast.
56	* FaceDeathWithDignity: [[spoiler:Lorna.]] "I have nothing to say to you. Get it over with."
57	* FatalFamilyPhoto: [[spoiler:Erik shows Chelsea a picture of his daughter. He's dead by the end of the episode, killed by Ellen.]]
58	* FBIAgent: Peter, one of the protagonists, is an FBI agent who works in the White House answering a phone as part of a covert operation when the story starts. Many fellow FBI agents are supporting characters.
59	* FollowingInRelativesFootsteps: Peter became an FBIAgent just like his father.
60	* FromCamouflageToCriminal: Gordon Wick is a former US Special Forces soldier turned CEO of Turn Lake Industries (they are PrivateMilitaryContractors). He uses murder and extortion to eliminate issues preventing him from profiting. One of the people he employed to commit a bombing also was once in the military.
61	* HeroWithBadPublicity: Peter not only gets suspected of the bombing he stopped by a {{conspiracy theorist}} but later also gets falsely accused in Maddie's kidnapping to discredit him. This is while he's trying to protect Rose from assassins and expose a criminal plot by very powerful people.
62	* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler:Dale strangles most of the people we see him kill. He dies like this as well at Peter's hand.]]
63	* HoneyTrap: Maddie's professor seduced her for use in his environmental advocacy. His boyfriend had seduced him too to instigate this so he could get close and kidnap Maddie.
64	* IJustWantToBeNormal: For all her AxCrazy tendencies, Ellen also wants to move into a big house instead of living on the run.
65	-->Maybe we could try this for a while? See what it's like... being people who go to work and come home... We could be happy here... even if it's just for a little while.
66	* INeverSaidItWasPoison: Farr betrays herself when she tells Peter that Rose is with "a trooper friend", something he never told her.
67	* JustInTime: Peter rescues Rose from Dale right before he was about to kill her. She returns the favor too when Peter gets pinned down by Dale soon after.
68	* TheLoinsSleepTonight: Dale is apparently impotent, since he can only have sex with Ellen by using his hand on her.
69	* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: The assassins make multiple victims look like they died due to accidents, or attempt this.
70	* ManipulativeBitch: Farr is an expert at manipulating others to trust her and do her bidding, often by convincing them ''they'' need to prove themselves to ''her''.
71	-->'''Peter:''' I'm just trying to consider all the angles, okay?\
72	'''Rose:''' OccamsRazor says there's only one angle, the conniving bitch angle.
73	* AMillionIsAStatistic: The reasoning behind the Metro bombing. [[spoiler:VP Redfield and his conspirators were targeting Omar Zadar, but knew that an assassination would make him a martyr to his supporters. By setting up an explosion that would have taken out two whole city blocks, they would be able to paint Zadar as a terrorist who got caught in his own bomb.]]
74	* MinorityPoliceOfficer: Erik Monks and Chelsea Arrington are black Secret Service agents, while the director Ben Almora is a Latino. Peter's old friend Cisco is also a state trooper and he's Asian. In a flashback we learn that Chelsea's mom was against her career, believing the US doesn't care about black people, though she supports her daughter nonetheless. Erik and her also know it's harder for them, as black agents, to rise up in the ranks. [[spoiler:After Almora's death, another black agent becomes the director.]]
75	* MissingMom: Maddie's mother died from cancer when she was little.
76	* MoralityChain: Well, not ''morality'' per se, but Dale is a calming influence on Ellen and restrains her from just killing anyone who might inconvenience the couple in the slightest way (like a random cop giving them a speeding ticket). She goes completely off the leash [[spoiler:after his death.]]
77	* OneHeadTaller: Peter is significantly taller than Rose, as shown when they kiss where she cranes her head up.
78	* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Peter's friend Cisco is only identfied once with his full first name, Francisco, when he calls for backup.
79	* PaperThinDisguise: Ellen dressed in a maid outfit and a wig, while openly holding a silenced pistol down by her leg. Strangely enough, it works.
80	* ParentalAbandonment: Peter's mother was dead already when his father died in a car accident too.
81	* PragmaticVillainy: Dale tells Ellen not to go shooting as they are in a "clean" car and do not need to draw unnecessary attention. He also prefers bloodless killing (hence his frequent use of the garrotte) because blood is messy and needs to be cleaned up.
82	* PrivateMilitaryContractors: Turn Lake Industries is a company with this work, mostly in the Balkans.
83	* ProfessionalKiller: Ellen and Dale are both professional assassins who go after Rose.
84	* RailingKill: [[spoiler:Ellen meets her death by being pushed through a railing and off the platform she was using as a sniping perch.]]
85	* RedOniBlueOni: Ellen (Red) has fun killing people and screams in frustration when she's balked. By contrast, Dale (Blue) is coolly professional and calms her out of her rages.
86	* RetiredBadass: Rose's aunt and uncle are a married pair. Not that it keeps them alive past the first ten minutes or so. There's also their old friend and partner Lorna, a CoolOldLady who keeps a shotgun behind the front door.
87	* {{Retirony}}: Agent Monks mentions his daughter to Arrington after sharing his atoning for his addiction. He is killed by Ellen shortly after.
88	* TheReveal: At the end of episode five, "Eyes Only", it's shown that the mysterious man behind the plot is [[spoiler:the Vice President, Maddie's father]].
89	* SacrificialLion: [[spoiler:Agent Monks is killed by the assassins. So is Peter's friend Cisco. Both are sympathetic supporting characters whose deaths show us just how dangerous they are.]]
90	* SinsOfTheFather: Peter is suspected of being a criminal multiple times due to his father having been accused in a previous case.
91	* StepfordSmiler: Maddie is a Type I (Depressed) when forced to play to the cameras with her father, the Veep.
92	* SympatheticVillainDespicableVillain: The series features a BigBadDuumvirate between CorruptCorporateExecutive Gordon Wick and CorruptPolitician Vice President Ashley Redfield. [[spoiler:Both act as the masterminds behind the Metro bombing which nearly kills thousands but differ in how the work depicts them. Wick is a slimy OnlyInItForTheMoney mercenary just wanting to advance his profits but Redfield is a genuine WellIntentionedExtremist who planned the bombing in order to kill a suspected terrorist who he believes would pose a danger and gets PetTheDog moments which show he's more nuanced than initially thought to be.]]
93	* TakingTheBullet: Veteran Secret Service agent Erik Monks is famous for saving the President this way, being shot in the shoulder when a man opened fire on him, with the entire thing recorded. Since then multiple mashups have grown popular on Youtube.
94	* TattooedCrook: The bomber had a scorpion tattoo on the side of his torso that Peter identified him by.
95	* TeacherStudentRomance: Maddie's art professor seduces her, with her willing cooperation. [[spoiler:He's setting her up to be kidnapped.]]
96	* TooDumbToLive: Ditching your Secret Service detail so you can have a romantic rendezvous definitely counts, especially if you leave your phone behind so you can't be tracked.
97	* TrackingDevice: Rose had one placed on her, it turns out, letting assassins Dale and Ellen find her.
98	* TwinSwitch: [[spoiler: After the conspiracy mistakenly murders Matteo Worley instead of his brother Colin, the latter switches ID with him.]]
99	* UnholyMatrimony: Ellen and Dale are ruthless, cold-blooded assassins. They're a couple too and have a genuine love for each other.
100	* VillainRespect: Posthumously for [[spoiler:Lorna]] (as the vilains are disposing of the body):
101	-->'''Ellen:''' She took longer than expected.\
102	'''Dale:''' Yeah. I knew she wouldn't go easy.\
103	'''Ellen:''' [[WorthyOpponent She was a real pro, huh?]]\
104	'''Dale:''' She was.
105	* WouldHurtAChild: Dale and Ellen masquerade as parents to gain entry to a woman's house, using an actual baby as a prop. [[spoiler:After they murder the owner, they just leave the baby strapped into a carrier and sitting on the kitchen table; for all they care the kid can die of neglect and starvation, not to mention ''they obviously kidnapped the baby in the first place''.[[note]] A few episodes later, [=Matteo/Colin=] tells Maddie about the incident and says the baby was found and returned to her mother, but we have no way of knowing whether or not he was telling the truth.[[/note]]]] This incident also serves as an EstablishingCharacterMoment for the two of them; they are absolutely heartless and will [[KickTheDog kick any dog]] if it helps them.
106	* YouCalledMeXItMustBeSerious: This exchange between the President and Farr:
107	-->'''Farr:''' All due respect, Michelle, you're not making my job very easy.\
108	'''POTUS:''' Whenever you call me Michelle, I know you're pissed.

Context Series / TheNightAgent