The Night Agent season 2 ending explained: what was Jacob planning?

The Night Agent season 2 marks the return of Netflix's popular action thriller.

Peter Sutherland is now working for Night Action, a top-secret program tasked with uncovering corruption and treason within the government. From his very first mission it quickly becomes clear that Peter doesn't know who he can trust, and so he must fight to uncover the truth. A truth that leads him down a dark path of intelligence leaks and highly dangerous situations.

Here's a recap of everything that happened in The Night Agent season 2 episode 10.

The final episode starts eight years ago. The buyer is at an event, toasting a man called Anthony Ming as they open a new center with his name on it. A man approaches the buyer during drinks and says he knows the buyer is called Jacob Monroe, but what he doesn't know is why Jacob's name isn’t on the building, despite him paying for most of it. Jacob tells the man he won’t be giving him money, if that’s what he’s after, but instead suggests he’ll do some digging for him that could help him gain an advantage, and for that they could negotiate an exchange.

In the present day, a huge police presence arrives at the UN building. Deputy Director Mosley is informed that five men came in with official clearance to fix the HVAC, and that they’re still on the rooftop. He wants to make sure everyone is evacuated and sends men to the roof. As Peter, Catherine and Rose arrive, Mosley wants Rose on the monitors so she can ID Markus. Catherine is angry with Peter and says Solomon’s boss must have wanted something from Peter in exchange for Rose’s location. He says once this is all over, he’ll tell her the truth.

Up on the rooftop, Markus and his men are working on putting the canisters in, but they're disturbed by the police. Markus kills both of them. As the team on the ground hears the shots, they jump into action. When they arrive, Markus has disappeared, though he's dressed in one of the officer’s uniforms and has their comms and his team are now wearing suits. They run off with two remaining canisters of K.X.

As Peter and Catherine move around the building, Peter spots one of the men and Rose confirms that he’s one of Markus’s team. Meanwhile, Markus successfully escapes. Another of Markus’s team is then shot dead while holding one of the K.X. canisters. The last member of Markus’s team has been shot, but is still alive and they team up. As they move into a room, they find the French diplomat, the one Noor gave the files to, hiding. She pleads for her life and Markus turns on his own man, killing him, and then hiding the canister in her bag, pretending to be a police officer. More police enter the room and Markus manages to escape under his guise. Rose identifies the man dead on the floor as one of Markus’s team, but she asks to see the other officer's face. When she sees him, she confirms it’s Markus, but he's already escaped.

Markus successfully leaves the UN building with the K.X. and Noor’s files. They find the other 13 K.X. canisters on the roof, as well as the one from Markus's team, but know that one is still missing. Elsewhere, the buyer, who is now known as Jacob, puts the UN file from Peter into his safe. He gets a call telling him that Solomon has been killed. The bomb squad at the UN building successfully destroy the K.X. canisters they have in their possession, but Markus and the final one are still missing. After questioning one of Markus’s men, it's revealed that the canisters were going to release at midday, during the Security Council’s vote on how to divide Viktor Bala’s dominion into three separate countries.

Rose uses her AdVerse code to try and track down Markus. She’s only received two hits for Tomás, but links him to a man called George Simko, one of Viktor’s legal team. The second hit is Sloane, Tomás's girlfriend, pictured at the Wynnfield Hotel. They go to question Sloane on where Markus could be or where he’s going next.

At Sloane’s penthouse suite, Markus shows up. He says Tomás is safe, but that they all need to leave the country. He wants Sloane to get the jet ready, but she’s suspicious. Though she tries to refuse, Markus holds a gun to her. Peter and Rose arrive at the hotel to speak to Sloane. Before heading to the suite, Peter reveals to Rose what exactly he did to find her and they argue about protecting each other. Meanwhile, Markus has tied and gagged Sloane. He takes off her gag and she spits at him. When she screams, Peter hears and knocks on the door. She comes to answer while Markus holds a gun to her. She holds up her hand, without him seeing, signalling for help.

Peter and Rose go to alert the police, but Sloane grabs a vase and beats Markus. As she screams for help, Markus grabs her. Peter heads in to help, but a man comes out of the lift saying he’s fixing the hotel’s vent system that has messed up. Hearing this, Rose follows him and leaves Peter with Sloane. She finds the canister of K.X. has been hooked up to the hotel’s vents with the same trip wire that will trigger when it reaches maximum capacity. The man fixing it says that means they only have about eight minutes. Rose pulls the fire alarm to get people to evacuate. Then, she moves around behind the window where Markus is stood holding Sloane hostage. She holds a gun to him, while Peter holds one from the front. Markus says he'll cut Sloane's throat if he tries anything. Rose shoots the door which makes Markus drop Sloane and Peter shoots him dead. She tells Peter that the K.X. will release in six minutes, so they rush to evacuate everyone.

Catherine arrives and tells everyone to leave the hotel. She goes with the maintenance man to shut down the vent system, but she calls Peter as they can’t shut down the top four floors from the computer terminal. So, Peter has to do it manually by starting a fire to trigger it to automatically close. Rose insists she can help. They run upstairs and Rose checks the K.X. which shows they have less than a minute left to stop it. They throw sulfuric acid in with ethanol from cleaner supplies as Rose learned from Dr. Cole that this would start a fire. Just as the K.X. starts to release, the fire starts and the vents shut, trapping it inside.

Elsewhere, at The Hague, Viktor speaks to George Simko on the phone to see if his plan has gone ahead. He’s told of its failure. At the hotel, Peter says he’s going to turn himself in and admit what he’s done to Catherine, but he doesn’t know what that will mean for him. He wants Rose to promise him something first. He says because she means everything to him, that people will use her against him. He wants her to promise she won’t wait for him, look for him, and instead must forget about him. She agrees. After this, Catherine thanks Rose and takes Peter into custody.

The Night Agent season 2 ending explained

Deputy Director Mosley and Catherine question Peter in a filmed interrogation around everything that happened from the very beginning. Elsewhere, at an election event, Jacob arrives to meet with Governor Hagan. Hagan is revealed to be the man that he met at the event eight years ago. He hands him the UN file exposing the secretary general. Hagan says it’s the best thing he’s had over eight years and the three elections that they've worked together. As Hagan says it’s good work, Jacob says, “Let’s not forget who works for whom.”

As Hagan unpacks some boots, he begins to tell a story about how he became more popular in the polls when a journalist reported that they were his uncle's. But, he only brought them in a thrift store. His tale leads him to say that sometimes it’s better to let people believe what they want about you. Letting that land with Jacob, he leaves.

Elsewhere, Noor and her mother have been granted asylum, as well as a check from the US government to reimburse her for damages. Noor is upset about her brother’s death and that the government thinks he’s worth a number. She now works in a library and Rose comes to see her. She says that her mother is sad about Farhad. Rose tells her that she’s back at work, still going to therapy, and life is good. When asked about Peter, she says she doesn’t know, but that it’s better that way.

Catherine takes Peter out of his cell for a walk. She hands him a newspaper saying that Governor Knox has dropped out of the presidential race, just two weeks before the general election. It’s revealed that when he was director of the CIA, he authorized Foxglove and sold the weapons to Viktor Bala. An unknown source sent an audio file of Knox to the New York Times that revealed the truth, but while they were found years ago, they somehow never made it into evidence in court, until Peter retrieved the file for Jacob. Peter doesn’t understand Jacob's motives, but Catherine explains that Hagan is guaranteed to become President now meaning Jacob has a man in the White House making for a lot of opportunities to continue as an intelligence broker buying and selling information. Peter's actions to save thousands, but most importantly Rose, in fact helped swing the entire Presidential election.

Catherine reveals she has lied to Peter. She tells him she was tasked in Night Action to find the mole in the Pentagon breach and that led her to Peter’s father. She explains though that having Peter as his son made him change his mind and that he wanted Peter to know that he did whatever he could to make up for it. She says if he wants the same opportunity to right his wrongs, she’s assigning him a new mission.

With the new President-to-be working for Jacob, all secret intelligence is now in jeopardy of being sold to the highest bidder. She says because Jacob believes he owns Peter, when he calls asking for him to do a job, he has to do exactly as he says. Then, he’ll gain his trust and he can start exposing from the inside for as long as Catherine needs him to. Catherine tells him that the mission is even a secret from Night Action, but if he does it, he can have a clean slate. Peter says he’s in, so all he has to do now is wait for Jacob to call.

All episodes of The Night Agent are available to stream on Netflix now.