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Owen Hendricks (Noah Centineo) went through hell in the Season 1 finale of Netflix’s The Recruit, barely making it out alive following an unsparingly violent mission. But Season 2 of The Recruit ups the ante even further. Despite a shorter season order (just six episodes, down from eight in Season 1), the stakes for Owen are raised significantly. And man does Owen go through the ringer to prove himself as a worthy CIA agent.
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The primary mission for Owen in Season 2 is to save the life of Nan Hee (Sanghee Lee), who was kidnapped by the Yakuza because she was working for an NGO with a marked cryptocurrency for her bribes to help repatriate Koreans. She’s the wife of Korean NIS (National Intelligence Service) agent Jang Kyun (Teo Yoo). It’s been a quest rife with complications, and as the show approaches the finale, it seems like there’s no hope in sight. But at the end of the penultimate episode, Owen devises an impressive plan to utilize a team on the ground in Korea to get Nan Hee back from the Yakuza, who are holding her in eastern Russia. Getting the green light from CIA Director Alton West (Nathan Fillion), the mission is a go. The writing in Season 2 convincingly develops Owen as he comes into his own, and his negotiation with West (Fillion) proves how far he’s come as an agent. It’s clear Owen’s got the stuff.
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They’re gonna need a boat
To accomplish the mission, they’ll have to get a boat out of Korea. The only person Owen knows with a boat is his childhood love Yoo Jin Hee (Shin Do-hyun), who has access to her father’s fishing boat. They secure the boat, barely evading Korean intelligence forces, and are on the way to save Nan Hee. Owen and company, including Jang Kyun, Yoo Jin, and CIA agents Lester (Colton Dunn) and Dawn (Angel Parker), pose as a K&R (kidnap and ransom) company and make a deal to buy Nan Hee.
Nichka (Maddie Hasson), who’s been working with the CIA since she killed her mother Max at the end of Season 1, has found the wife in a vast locked-down complex, informing the team that it’ll be all but impossible to extract her. But they have a plan: International law prohibits K&R companies from doing business on Russian soil. So they plan to meet on the water, where they can get on the boat—one with significantly reduced Yakuza forces—and extricate Kyun’s wife.
Owen and Jang Kyun take a small boat to the yacht holding Nan Hee, refusing to reveal the money until they see the hostage. Jang has a particularly challenging mission here: If he or his wife react and reveal they know each other, they’ll both be killed. Jang manages to keep his composure, approaching his wife quietly. He speaks to her in Korean (a language no one else in either party speaks), saying they’re going to get her released. In his hand, he’s written a message in Korean, which translates as “You don’t know me.” They manage to keep their relationship a secret.
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Owen sends the signal via his watch that they’ve made contact with the hostage, but a Russian Coast Guard boat appears, meaning they cannot help and extract Owen, Jang, and Nan. Getting into a firefight in front of the Russians would have devastating personal and international complications, so the mission is blown. Yet hope is not lost. Once the briefcase is revealed to have no cash inside it, Owen and Jang fight for their lives. Owen manages to escape, jumping off the yacht and into the water. Underwater, he narrowly escapes bullets flying at him. Jang and Nan remain on the yacht. Stranded in the water with the yacht heading back to where it came from, Yoo Jin’s words ring in Owen’s ears: “Better to fight for love than abandon it.” Owen swims toward the boat, risking his life to save Jang Kyun and Nan Hee.
An ally becomes a foe
After swimming to and brutally fighting his way out of a house with two Russian soldiers, Owen calls Lester and Dawn, who encourage him to leave the mission behind. Owen refuses, telling Lester and Dawn that they’re dead inside and that he refuses to let the human part of him die. Surprisingly, they respect his decision (despite calling it “misguided”) and offer to involve Nichka to help him.
If only it were that easy! Nichka finds Owen at the Russian house and offers to help him, but she’s turned on him and sold Owen out to the Russian security agency (the FSB), and she’s taking him to an airfield to be captured by the FSB—the same airfield where Jang Kyun and his wife are taken to. The two brawl and Owen manages to outsmart her, knocking her out and locking her in the trunk of her car. Owen is determined to save Jang Kyun, and not even the extraordinarily capable Nichka can get in his way.
Meanwhile, the CIA is working hard to cover their tracks after the mission gets blown. They attempt to make deals with Grace (Young-Ah Kim), a senior intelligence officer at the NIS, and one of their own—Dawn, who’s been gunning for Owen since day one. Their plans are laid out, and they want to pin their failings on Owen, label him as a rogue, and eliminate him to avoid international catastrophe.
Owen sneaks into the complex, dodging numerous soldiers and even a landing plane (The Recruit has no interest in subtlety, and it’s all the better for it). He finds Jang Kyun and his wife and starts to get them out of the complex. Which, of course, will not be easy. Watching them with a sniper rifle is Dawn, who was offered a deal to take them out to pin things on Owen and improve her status in the CIA. But she’s stopped by Nichka, who wants to kill Owen herself. After an intense knife fight, Nichka kills Dawn and throws her into the river. There will be none of the mutually assured destruction that Dawn threatened Owen with after all.
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Owen gets Jang Kyun and Nan Hee into an SUV and begins to drive off to safety—but Nichka is standing, gun in hand, in their path. Wisely, Owen refuses to move, forcing Nichka to roll away before she can shoot. She gets back up and starts shooting, taking out the rear window of the vehicle and alerting the soldiers at the complex, who begin shooting and chasing after the car. Owen drives the car to international waters, and they have no choice but to start swimming. Impressively, Yoo Jin has tracked them down in her father’s fishing boat, and they get on, under heavy fire from a Russian coast guard boat.
What Owen doesn’t know
In case things weren’t hectic enough at this point, just when it seems like all hope is lost, a gigantic US Navy submarine emerges (I told you The Recruit is anything but subtle!). This leads the Coast Guard unit to wisely retreat, ensuring Owen and company’s safety, against all imaginable odds. Owen came into Season 2 hoping to prove his worth as a CIA agent after so many errors, and his incredible heroics in the finale have made his talents impossible to ignore. A bit later, and safe from Russian guns, Jang thanks Owen from the bottom of his heart; he still can’t quite believe he and his wife have made it out alive. Jang Kyun and Owen have formed an unshakable bond.
Proving his mettle as a CIA agent even further, Owen makes one final play to recruit Jang Kyun as an American agent. His sales pitch is undeniable: Go back to Korea and spend a lifetime in prison, or come to America, start a new life with plenty of money for him and his beloved, and join the CIA. Jang shakes his hand and smiles, confirming his decision to join up with Owen.
The episode ends on a somewhat peaceful note, as Owen looks out at the sea, smiling. But his smile starts to fade away as they make their way back to America. While Owen almost singlehandedly pulled off a remarkable rescue mission, the CIA attempted to make multiple deals to pin everything on Owen and kill him off—which he has no idea about. What awaits Owen when he gets back to America? Will Jang be allowed to join the CIA, or has Owen made a promise he cannot fulfill? These are the big questions we’ll have to wait for answers to until The Recruit Season 3.
