The Night Manager Part 2 is a fitting finale to the Sandeep Modi-directed espionage thriller series starring Aditya Roy Kapoor, Anil Kapoor and Tillotama Shome, streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.

Adapted by Modi and scripted by Pathaan co-writer Sridhar Raghavan, this Indian version of the British TV series starring Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie — and based on the John Le Carre novel of the same name — also features Sobhita Dhulipala, Tillotama Shome, Joy Sengupta, Ravi Behl, Vikram Kapadia, Prashant Narayanan and Saswata Chatterjee.

Here’s how the three key characters evolve in the last three episodes of the show revolving around the covert operation undertaken by an Indian spy to catch an international arms dealer moonlighting as a millionaire philanthropist.

Shaan becomes Abhimanyu

Shaan (Aditya Roy Kapur) plants himself in Shelly’s (Anil Kapoor) inner circle by forming a bond with his young son and putting his Navy background to good use. He is given a new name, Abhimanyu Mathur, and is appointed the CEO of Shelly’s new venture through which Shelly plans to strike the biggest deal of his career. Shaan gets a taste of the high life in his new profession and is captivated by Shelly’s considerably younger partner Kaveri (Sobhita Dhulipala). Roy Kapur’s transformation from Shaan to Abhimanyu is smooth and he wears his charm on his sleeves.

To get close to Shelly and his business, Shaan has to completely immerse himself in the new role and continue to prove his worth to keep Shelly’s suspicions away. It seems like Shaan has really changed and switched sides when he attacks his fellow agents to help Shelly and his associates escape but we soon realise it is all a part of his game plan as he kept delivering crucial information to his handler Lipika (Tillotama Shome).

Two sides of Shelly

While Part 1 showcased Anil Kapoor’s middle-aged Shelly as a flamboyant, charismatic businessman, Part 2 reveals his dark side. This is the real man behind the expensive suits, one who’s entirely consumed by greed. In the second episode of Part 2 titled Magic Tick, Shelly wastes no time to show why he’s ‘the worst man in the world’.

The classy single malt-sipping, cigar-smoking Shelly can smoothly morph into the feared Shailendra Rungta, who stabs an associate to death with a ballpoint pen for betraying him. He also educates Shaan about the beauty and profit of wars with a twinkle in his eyes after exhibiting the full might of his arsenal to prospective buyers, and Anil Kapoor strikes a fine balance between swagger and scary.

Because of its location, Shelly’s large oil field estate in the Gulf serves as his guns showroom where he paints the dunes with napalm at night for his clients. He even has a private army made up of ex-soldiers.

Shelly has no allegiance or affiliation to any nation; it is only money that he is interested in and will not hesitate to deal with those who aim to wreak havoc on India. He subtly masks this aspect through his charitable activities such as shipping oil to Sri Lanka to help resolve their energy crisis.

Lipika Saikia, the woman on a mission

Although Shaan is an unauthorised spy, he is no longer a ‘lone wolf’ and the makers made sure this was not lost in the fast-paced narrative. Shaan works for RAW agent Lipika Saikia (Tillotama Shome), who plods on despite resistance from her superiors to expose Shelly. She discovers that Shelly is receiving assistance from high-ranking Indian officials in supplying illegal arms in order to manipulate South Asian affairs as per India’s wishes. She continues to run the mission and it results in an internal audit of her and her colleague Danish Khan (Joy Sengupta) as well as an assassination attempt on her by one of Shelly’s henchmen.