The Devil We Know – As the ninth episode of The Night Agent begins, Diane Farr (Hong Chau) listens to a news report about the metro bombing one year ago. She receives a call from Valerie (Jessie Liang) who says Willett and Hawkins are already in the situation room. Ashley Redfield (Christopher Shyer) calls her to say they need to talk about the attack. When she meets Redfield, she is introduced to Gordon Wick (Ben Cotton). Although Ashley says it had to be done, Diane can’t imagine why they would have to bomb a metro car full of American citizens to assassinate a foreign politician on US soil. They talk about Omar Zadar (Adam Tsekhman) and the possibility that he could get control over their nuclear warheads.

Redfield warns her that the whole administration will be in jeopardy if the investigation uncovers their involvement in the bombing. Diane gets upset because he is trying to use her loyalty to the President to save himself. Ashley says it would save them all. Diane is given a moment to collect herself before coming out with a plan. In the present, Rose Larkin (Luciane Buchanan) checks Ellen while Peter Sutherland (Gabriel Basso) searches Colin Worley’s body. When Rose finds Ellen’s phone, it begins vibrating. She runs it over to Peter who takes Colin’s wallet. Gordon Wick asks whether she has found his guy and girl yet. Rose pretends to be Ellen and says yes. She claims she did what he asked.

After Gordon tells her to get to the safe house, Rose tries to find out the location of the safe house from him. He realizes she is lying so he decides to hang up. Peter hears sirens in the distance and says they need to go. Chelsea doesn’t want to leave Erik’s body. Maddie questions whether her dad really was behind the metro bombing. Peter thinks he was trying to kill Omar Zadar, but blamed it on him after the plan failed. Peter says they’re planning another attack so they have less than 24 hours to stop it. Maddie suggests she can help by getting a message to the President or Ben. Rose thinks Ellen’s phone might have the evidence they need to convince them. Peter and Rose leave in a hurry.

Chelsea tells Maddie what to say just before the police arrive to help. Gordon Wick and Ashley Redfield wonder who Gordon was speaking to on the phone since it wasn’t Ellen. Diane gets off the phone with Willett and tells them about the shooting at the DC container depot. When Wick learns about the three dead bodies, he suggests Chelsea picked up the phone. Diane calls it a cluster f*ck. Gordon Wick says he is good to go tomorrow morning since Zadar’s plane will land at Joint Base Andrews at 0400. The car will be set to go and Zadar will no longer be a problem. Diane wants confirmation as soon as it is done. Gordon tells her to let him worry about Zadar while Diane says she’ll deal with Michelle Travers. Ashley asks what they should do about Maddie.

Diane says they need to find out what Maddie and Chelsea know so she is going to ride shotgun on Chelsea’s debrief. Once Diane leaves, Wick tells Ashley that Diane has lost all utility if she can’t keep POTUS in check. Peter and Rose visit Jim Wilson (Tim Kelleher) because they need help. He lets them come in. Rose starts working on the phone before leaving to take a shower. Jim asks Peter why everyone thinks he kidnapped Maddie Redfield. Maddie gives Chelsea’s necklace back. Chelsea tells her that signaling like that was smart of her before Maddie apologizes for her loss. Maddie blames herself and says she shouldn’t have ditched her, but Chelsea insists this isn’t on her. Briggs (Toby Levins) comes over and says Ben Almora is out of town.

He takes Chelsea’s gun, badge, and phone while saying she’ll get them back after finishing her after action. Willett and Farr have asked to sit in on the debrief. Jim and Peter go over the evidence and discuss the possibilities. Jim thinks he needs Diane or Ashley’s fingerprints on a crime. They begin arguing about the article Jim wrote calling Peter’s dad a traitor. Jim wishes he could believe in his dad’s innocence like he does. Peter hopes he has the balls to print it when he finds out the truth about his dad and gives it to him. Nothing would make Jim happier because Peter might see that the people who love him don’t care whether he was innocent. Rose interrupts to say she has cracked the phone and might’ve found something.

She tells Peter that she managed to restore the deleted texts and photos. She had pictures of the Night Action binder as well as information about Rose’s aunt and uncle. Peter notices that they were taken in the Night Action room. She finds that the photo was taken on January 9 and 2:37 AM. Peter remembers that he called in sick that day. Besides Peter, two other phone operators, Farr, and Hawkins had access to the room. They’d had to look at the White House access logs to determine whether Diane Farr took the photos. The only person who could manually change the data is Ben Almora. Since they can’t wait for Chelsea, they need to find someone else to request the logs.

Later, Jim tells Peter to send anything his way. He is going to the news desk to try to corroborate everything he has given him so far. Chelsea cries while cleaning the blood from her hands. She joins Maddie and tells her that Omar Zadar was given a Secret Service detail the last time he was in the country. Chelsea could warn his agents since he might be the target of another attack. She is going to need a phone. Maddie has an old cell in a box in the basement. Ashley Redfield interrupts to check on his daughter who says it is good to be home. Chelsea is told that Willett and Farr are waiting for her downstairs. While Ashley Redfield tries to get answers from Maddie, Chelsea speaks to Diane Farr and FBI Director Willett (Hiro Kanagawa).

Ashley tells his daughter he never got any videos because he would’ve done exactly as the kidnapped asked. He attempts to deflect everything from the metro bombing. Ashley knows he hasn’t been a good father, but this has been a wake-up call. He says he loves her and doesn’t know what he would’ve done if she didn’t make it. Chelsea says she returned fire. One of her shots hit close to the shooter causing her to lose balance. She fell over the side of the loading tower. When she checked on Monks, he wasn’t breathing. Chelsea tells them about the video accusing Ashley of being involved in the metro bombing. Diane still suggests Peter could be involved so Chelsea says she didn’t see him at the container yard.

Diane and Willett talk about Colin Worley who was on their list of suspects before he died. While Peter and Rose wait in the vehicle, they hold hands. They suspect the attack will happen tomorrow so it’ll be over 24 hours from now. Peter asks her what they’ll do after they stop the attack. Rose wants to start by taking a five-day-long nap. She wants to go back to California so she can try again. As for Peter, he isn’t interested in going back to Night Action. He’d like to buy a cabin and disappear for a bit. He heard California is great. They follow Valerie into her apartment building before she begins running from them. Rose pulls a gun on her and says she is going to do exactly what they say.

Peter stops her before asking Valerie to take them to her apartment. Valerie reluctantly helps them access confidential information. Peter tells her that he doesn’t have time to explain right now. He insists Diane was responsible for the murders of Rose’s aunt and uncle. She questions if he has ever thought he could be on the wrong side of this. Peter apologizes before putting tape on her mouth. Rose finds an email from Valerie to the president’s secretary. Travers disinvited Farr from a briefing about Omar Zadar today. Valerie was emailing to figure out why although she never got an email. Chelsea tries to get her gun and badge back. She also checks Ben’s schedule to see where he is.

He is surprised to see he has gone to Camp David. Briggs enters to tell her that Ben would like to talk to her first. They briefly talk about Erik Monks before Chelsea leaves. Maddie pretends to be asleep until her father leaves to speak to Diane in private. Diane thinks Chelsea knows more than she is saying. She goes on to say Willett has drawn a connection between Worley and the metro bombing too. Diane thinks she can handle it although they need to delay a little longer. The president will want to speak to Maddie and Chelsea. If they say something they shouldn’t, they’re screwed. She wants Wick to call her after he is done with Zadar. Later, Maddie overhears her dad speaking to Gordon on the phone about her, Peter, and Rose.

He claims he can issue pardons all around by tomorrow night. Maddie rushes back to her room. Ashley finds blood near the stairs so he suspects she has been out of her room. He goes to Maddie’s room to thank Chelsea for bringing her back. Then, he learns the President is on the phone. Once they’re alone, Chelsea checks to see if Maddie got what they need. Rose tells Peter they got the access logs. She confirms it was Farr’s badge that night so she took the photos of the Night Action binder. Peter tells her to send it to Jim. Chelsea calls and learns about it. She suspects Zadar might be meeting the President at Camp David. Since Travers was suspicious of Farr, she might’ve moved the location of the meeting without telling her.

They wonder whether Redfield and Farr could really try to kill Zadar at Camp David. Maddie thinks they might try to kill him with the President there since her father was mentioning pardoning people. Peter says there is only one person who can call this off and Valerie should have a key to her house. Chelsea can’t get in touch with Ben. Ashley comes in and says they have to go to Camp David because the President wants to see them. Omar lands and begins his trip to Camp David. Maddie and Chelsea get on the airplane with Ashley. Chelsea seems worried when she sees agents she doesn’t recognize. Diane Farr gets money, a passport, and other stuff from her safe.

Before she can leave, Peter and Rose enter and confront her. Peter says they have proof that she is involved in the murder of Rose’s aunt and uncle. It is with the Baltimore Sun. He wants her to contact Redfield and Wick so they can call off the assassination. Diane claims not to know about it because Redfield and Wick haven’t answered her calls. She rushes to call the President so she can warn her only to find they’ve cut communications. Diane reveals that the attack on Zadar was supposed to have happened when his plane landed. It didn’t go off. Diane believes Redfield and Wick have pivoted to Michelle Travers without her because she wouldn’t do it. Peter says they’re going to Camp David and she is getting them in.

 

The Night Agent Review

The ninth episode of The Night Agent did a good job of setting up the storyline for the remaining episode of the season. The story is a bit farfetched considering everything that has happened. Unfortunately, the assassins really didn’t amount to much after being built up for half of the season.

While it is easy to want to see what happens, it isn’t really easy to cheer for any of the characters. I’d probably feel nothing if Peter or Rose were killed in the last episode so that isn’t great. The episode was a little slow since it didn’t have a lot of action, but it might’ve saved everything for the final episode.

It scores a 5.5 out of 10. Recaps of The Night Agent can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent site here. Learn more about advertising with us at this link.