‘The Night Agent’ Season 2 Has Too Many Villains

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for The Night Agent Season 2.Netflix’s The Night Agent returned with an even bigger and more dangerous story than the premier season. After the low-level agent Peter Sutherland (Gabriel Basso) and unprepared civilian Rose Larkin (Luciane Buchanan) saved President Travers (Kari Matchett) and uncovered a conspiracy in the White House that went so deep as to involve the Vice President, they both took on new adventures. Peter became a Night Agent himself, undertaking a mission to identify who was leaking classified information while Rose started working at a tech company. Yet, when they come back together in Season 2, there are not one but two threats to the government for them to stop. Certainly, this amplifies the mystery, as even Peter and other elite Night Agents are stumped by what is happening, but it creates a problem for Season 2 by creating too many villains.

With several false leads and a few side stories, Peter, Rose, and Peter’s Night Agent handler Catherine Weaver (Amanda Warren) encounter one enemy after the other, and it becomes difficult to keep straight what they are trying to stop at any given moment. Between Warren Stocker (Teddy Sears), Javad (Keon Alexander), Solomon Vega (Berto Colon), the Balas, Markus Dargan (Michael Malarkey), and Jacob Monroe (Louis Herthum) all working against Peter, Rose, and Catherine in different ways, Season 2 adds too many villains without enough time to dedicate to them.

‘The Night Agent’ Season 2 Explores Many New Villains with Drastically Different Goals

One issue that Season 2 faces is that, unlike Season 1, the villains are characters who are not part of the story. While the audience knew Redfield (Christopher Shyer) and Diane Farr (Hong Chau) before they were revealed to be at the top of the conspiracy, Season 2’s villains are mysterious and stay that way for a while. Peter and his allies’ investigation leads them to Monroe as they uncover the identities of new villains each step of the way, gradually getting closer to the highest ranks. Meanwhile, the competition between Markus and Tomás (Rob Heaps), who want to gain favor with Viktor Bala (Dikran Tulaine), is a different dynamic that brings multiple antagonists to the series. With so much going on, these characters and their storylines become overwhelming.

While the Balas and Markus seek revenge for Viktor’s imprisonment by unleashing a chemical weapon on the UN, Monroe hopes to control the Presidential election. Both create a high-stakes case for Season 2 as Peter gets wrapped up in each one, but because these issues are so different, they make it more difficult to determine what the season is about. Though there is a tie between them, as Monroe sold the information about Foxglove, there is no overlap in goal, making them two separate issues. In many ways, Monroe’s story line is set up to continue in Season 3, especially as his goal is not revealed until the end when he succeeds — yet having several opponents whose goals are mysterious made Season 2’s mystery more confusing.

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‘The Night Agent’s Season 2 Storylines Don’t Come Together in the End

Navid Negahban as Abbas and Keon Alexander as Javad in Season 2 of 'The Night Agent' — Image via Netflix

The Night Agent Season 2’s villain problem is exacerbated by the fact that the various enemies do not come together into one conspiracy. Javad is the best illustration of this as, though he is a menacing character, he is only involved in the side story that features Noor’s (Arienne Mandi) work in the Iranian Mission, making him part of the side story. This is not new territory for the series, as it is similar to Maddie Redfield’s (Sarah Desjardins) plot. However, that collided with the main story by the end of Season 1 when Maddie was kidnapped by Colin Worley (Andre Anthony), who placed the bomb on the metro and wanted to use her to blackmail Redfield into coming clean. While Season 1 had many villains, they were all connected to the metro bombing (either by being part of the attack, helping to cover it up, or working for the more central villains). Season 2 did not tie everything together in the end, leaving only thin connections between the villains and making Season 2 feel jumbled.