Decoding the Conclusion of Season 2 of ‘The Night Agent’: Can Peter Rescue Rose and Prevent the Terrorist Attack?

Shawn Ryan’s popular Netflix show The Night Agent made a thrilling return for its second season on January 23. The Season 2 finale not only set the stage for a potential third season but also provided answers to key questions, such as whether Peter manages to rescue Rose and prevent the planned terror attack on Midtown Manhattan. It’s all in a day’s work for our hero!

Adapted from Matthew Quirk’s novel, the second season of The Night Agent followed Peter’s journey after a failed Night Action mission that led to the tragic death of his partner, Alice. With Rose and Catherine tracking down Peter in New York, their paths intersected with Noor and Jacob Monroe, each with their own motives and agendas. As the season unfolded, Peter and his team raced against time to stop a dangerous chemical weapons threat. So, did our Night Agent emerge victorious once more? And what sacrifices were made along the way? Let’s find out!

If you’re curious about how Season 2 of The Night Agent wrapped up, fear not. Decider’s detailed explanation of the Season 2 finale will provide all the answers you seek. Join us as we revisit the key moments of the final episode titled “Buyer’s Remorse.” Just a heads up – spoilers ahead!

The Night Agent’s Season 2 finale picked up right where the penultimate episode left off — well, almost. Episode 9 ended with Markus (Michael Malarkey) and his men loading canisters of the deadly KX poison into the HVAC units at the United Nations building in New York. But before we saw their next moves, the series flashed back eight years earlier and showed Jacob Monroe at a ceremony in honor of the Anthony Ming Center of Entrepreneurship. After a toast to Ming, a man approached Monroe and asked why he secretly funded the building. Monroe said he liked to keep quiet about his philanthropic endeavors, and though he refuses to offer the man financial assistance, Monroe did say he could do some digging and find skeletons to edge out his competition. In exchange for what? Stay tuned…

Back in present-day, the NYPD and FBI surround the UN building and learn that five men arrived earlier that day to fix an issue with the HVAC. Before Catherine and Peter are sent in to assist, the deputy director warns Peter that they’ll have lots of questions for him later about the unconventional tactics he used to further their investigation. When Rose questions Peter, he brushes her off he concerns and promises to tell a concerned Catherine everything as soon as the mission ends. 

Inside, Markus and his team take down the first round of security, then change our of their maintenance uniforms to better blend in with their surroundings. While some men don dress shirts and ties to pose as UN employees, Markus changes into a United Nations Department for Safety and Security (UNDSS) uniform and sets out for the second target. The change of attire is no match for Rose, who the FBI’s deputy director invites behind the monitor to help identify the men involved with her kidnapping. Thanks to Rose’s keen eye, the majority of Markus’ men are quickly apprehended, and the team finds a total of 14 KX canisters inside the building. The NYPD bomb squad arrives to safely collect them, but there’s still one problem: Rose and Dr. Cole manufactured 15 canisters, which means one is still unaccounted for.

After sneaking the 15th canister outside and ditching his UNDSS disguise, Markus disappears and the FBI is left without a lead until Rose swoops in to save the day (again). Her facial recognition technology locates two recent tags on Markus’ cousin, Tomás (Rob Heaps) — one of which is in a social post from his girlfriend, Sloane. They head to the Penthouse at The Winfield Hotel in hopes of chatting with her, but Markus beats them there and tells Sloane to ready the private jet. With no word from Tomás, Sloane suspects something is wrong, so Markus holds her at gunpoint and ties her up until their flight is ready. Before Markus can make his great escape, however, The Night Agent’s dynamic duo shows up at the Penthouse door and threatens to call hotel security if Sloane doesn’t speak to them. She answers the door at gunpoint and says all the right things to make Peter and Rose leave, but she wisely flashes the hand signal for distress to let them know she needs help. 

While Peter heads in to take down Markus, Rose overhears a maintenance man talking about fixing the HVAC and follows him, uncovering the final KX canister, which is hooked up to the hotel’s HVAC at 192 KWh. (As a reminder, the tripped wire releases the chemical weapon at 200 kilowatts per hour, which means they have about eight minutes to come up with a plan.) As the HVAC repairman races to the ground floor to spread word of a chemical weapon in the building, Rose pulls the fire alarm in hopes of speeding the evacuation process and heads to the terrace of the penthouse to assist Peter. She meets his eyes through the glass doors, holds a gun up behind Markus, and fires, frightening him into setting Sloane free. By the time Peter shoots Markus, the gauge is at 195 KWh with only six minutes left to save the day. But this is The Night Agent, so we’re not sweating just yet!

When Catherine arrives on scene, she calls to inform Peter they have four minutes to shut down the broken HVAC system for the top four floors. How? By setting a fire within the system, which will cause it to shut down all vents to smother the flame, and in doing so, trap the released KX inside. Rose remembers Dr. Cole taught her sulfuric acid and ethanol will spontaneously combust, so the she and Peter swipe some supplies from a cleaning cart and sprint to the roof, with only a minute to unscrew the vent and fashion a fire. Just as the gauge reaches 200 KWh and the KX begins traveling, the fire seals the vents and neutralizes the threat. Peter and Rose share a massive hug and we see Viktor Bala (Dikran Tulaine) getting a call in prison to alert him the plan was a failure. 

Before the heroes head outside to face their complex reality, Peter pulls Rose aside and says he plans to turn himself, admit he released Solomon from custody, and broke into the UN to steal classified info for his boss in hopes of learning the location of her and the mobile lab. “I need you to promise me something. As long as I’m a Night Agent, people are gonna try to use you to get to me, cause they know that your safety — that you — mean everything to me,” Peter tells her. “As long as you come searching for me you’ll be at risk. Promise me you’re not gonna wait for me to call. You hear I’m in trouble, you’re not gonna come look for me. Just forget about me.” After an emotional hug (and head kiss!) goodbye, Catherine arrives to take Peter away and thank Rose for her invaluable assistance. Peter turns over his gun and cuffs himself, fully prepared to spend the rest of his life in a cell to make up for his rogue move. As he gets interrogated, admits to helping the “intelligence broker” gain sensitive information, and explores his true intentions, The Night Agent brilliantly mirrors his and his father’s journeys. 

While Peter is stuck in a cell, Jacob Monroe is on the move. We follow him backstage at what appears to be a presidential rally, where Season 1’s Chelsea Arrington (Fola Evans-Akingbola) double checks his briefcase to ensure he poses no threat. While he may not be carrying a weapon, he is carrying the drive that Peter swiped from the UN. He hands it over to Governor Hagan, a presidential candidate who viewers will recognize from the Season 2 finale’s opening flashback scene, when Monore offered to get dirt on his competitors. Welp, eight years and three elections later, he’s still delivering. And as Hagan notes, this is his “magnum opus.”

The contents of the drive are so damning to his competitor, Knox, that Hagan gets cocky enough for Monroe to remind him of his place. “Let’s not forget who works for whom,” the boss says, handing over the drive and a little threat. Still on his high horse, Hagan returns the threat right back to him, which makes Monroe visibly irate. So what’s on the drive? Proof that Hagan’s opponent, Knox, spearheaded the classified chemical weapons program Foxglove when he was CIA director and oversaw the sale of weapons to Viktor Bala. 

Before the season ends, The Night Agent checks back in with Noor and her mom, whose asylums have been granted. Still reeling from the loss of her brother, however, the women don’t feel nearly as joyful as they’d hoped. Noor appears to be working in a library in Illinois, where Rose visits her for lunch and the a catch-up session. Noor prays life will get less painful for her and her mother. Meanwhile, Rose is back in California, buried in work thanks to a promotion, and doing therapy twice a week. As for Peter? She has no idea what he’s up to and she thinks it’s better that way.

We know what Peter’s up to, though! Catherine pulls him out of his cell to take a walk and drops a bomb. She reveals that Knox withdrew from the race two weeks before the general election because of his October Surprise. The archive files Peter stole contained proof that Knox was connected to Foxglove, which played right into Monroe’s grand plan.

“Governor Hagan’s virtually guaranteed the presidency now,” Catherine tells Peter. “You aided and abetted in the swinging of the presidential election.” As the two walk in front of the White House, Catherine finally comes clean with Peter and reveals she worked one of the biggest Night Actions to date: finding the mole in the Pentagon breach. She investigated Peter’s father but chose not to share the information because she knew their relationship would be soured from the start. She chooses to tell him now, because she watched his dad become a double agent so that if the truth ever got out, Peter would know he did what he could to atone for his mistakes. She offers Peter the same second chance, and he agrees to a new mission so top secret it’s separate from Night Action.

“There’s a strong possibility that this broker is working with or about to control a sitting president and that every piece of classified intelligence that crosses the resolute desk is up for sale to the highest bidder. We need you to determine the exact nature of their relationship,” she explains. “…He still believes he owns you, so we’re gonna let him. There’s going to be a day when he will call on you for a favor. or to give orders, and when he does I want you to do exactly as he asks. Gain his trust, and we’ll cover every snake on his payroll and then expose. Destroy.”

“You already know I’m in,” Peter says. Before the end credits roll, he gets his phone back to wait for the call and gazes out at the White House, wondering if this next mission will lead all the way up to the Oval Office again.

The Night Agent Season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.