A new season of Netflix’s hit political thriller The Night Agent has arrived on Netflix, and if you’re an eagle-eyed fan you might have noticed the fact that Gabriel Basso’s character Peter Sutherland looks a bit different this season and we can confirm your eyes are not deceiving you.
In the first season of The Night Agent, Peter’s tattoos were a point of much discussion among fans who were eager to find out whether they were Basso’s real tattoos or whether they were fake tattoos applied by the makeup team as part of Peter’s character.
While some shows and movies choose to have their stars cover tattoos rather than making them part of their characters’ look, the creative team opted not to cover Basso’s arm sleeve or the tattoo on his ribcage in season 1. They became a part of Peter’s overall look and, honestly, they did a really nice job in helping to set Peter apart from the rest of the sea of suit-and-tie FBI agents we met in the season. They also, in a sense, gave Peter more individuality and gave him a more distinct look.
Perhaps it’s for that reason that it was so jarring when just minutes into the season premiere, Peter gets out of the shower and there are no signs of his arm tattoos or the tattoo on his ribcage. Not only are his tattoos gone, but there is no immediate explanation provided as to why there suddenly is not a single tattoo visible on his arm or ribcage.
What happened to Peter’s tattoos in The Night Agent?
So what happened to Peter’s tattoos in season 2 of The Night Agent? Well, that explanation comes early in the second episode of the season, though you might have missed it if you weren’t paying attention as it comes via a very quick one-off conversation.
In the second episode, “Disconnected,” we flashback to when Peter first arrived in Thailand for his first mission. When he met his case officer, Catherine, he explained that his processing in Germany took longer than expected which Catherine replied, “Getting all those tattoos removed, that can’t have been pleasant.”
Peter quips, “They didn’t give me much of a choice.” The “they” in question being the Night Agent program which clearly took issue with Peter’s tattoos and made him remove them. No further explanation is provided as to why Peter was permitted to have his tattoos as an FBI agent but unable to keep them as a Night Agent.
The FBI does not ban its agents from having tattoos so Peter having tattoos as a standard FBI agent makes sense. However, it would make sense that a more covert and secret government agency such as the Night Agent program would have more strict procedures in place, especially when it comes to tattoos which can be used to help identify individuals. With Night Agents often going undercover, it would make sense for the agency to not want its agents to have easily identifiable markings such as the tattoos Peter visibly sported in season 1 as they could make it easier for him to be identified in the field if his cover was blown.
Still, it is interesting that the writers chose to incorporate that creative choice in the show’s second season after not addressing or attempting to hide Basso’s tattoos in the first season. That could also explain why we saw Peter in so many long-sleeved shirts in season 2 as the wardrobe choices helped to cover Basso’s tattoos organically without the need for makeup… and also explain why there were far fewer shirtless scenes involved for the character in season 2 as well.
Given the show’s use of flashbacks, we do see Peter’s tattoos a few times when revisiting the time before he became an official Night Agent and it’s possible we could see them in flashbacks in season 3 as well; however, it seems that in the present timeline, we’ll no longer see Basso’s real tattoos incorporated into Peter’s character.