Season 1 of The Recruit ended with the lovely and vicious criminal Nichka (Maddie Hasson) holding a gun to rookie CIA lawyer, Owen Hendricks’ (Noah Centineo) head. Nichka is Max’s (Laura Haddock) daughter, the greymailer from season 1 who brought Owen into all kinds of trouble. After Owen is rescued, his boss, Nyland (Vondie Curtis-Hall), benches him till a decision can be taken on Owen’s future.
The others involved in the Max affair, including Violet (Aarti Mann) and Kitchens (Colton Dunn) are banished to Warsaw and tasked with turning Nichka, while Dawn, (Angel Parker) who tore out Owen’s fingernail in Yemen as a way of saying hello, is sent off to cool her heels in Mauritius
After spending time doing push ups and creating excellent wall art, Owen is the midst of action again when a graymail threatens to expose all kinds of awful things about the CIA. Owen heads for Seoul with his paranoid colleague, Janus (Kristian Bruun). In Seoul they meet NIS deputy director, Grace Cho (Young-Ah Kim), who is as blunt as her hair.
There is also Jang Kyu (Teo Yoo), who everyone thought was a nobody but is actually a very good agent. His wife, Nan Hee (Sanghee Lee), an aid worker, is kidnapped in Russia and Jang Kyu wants Owen’s help to get her back. Owen’s decision to do the right thing sees him bouncing from Seoul to Washington and back with stops in Doha and Vladivostok with dizzying regularity.
A still from ‘The Recruit’ Season 2
| Photo Credit:
Netflix
He meets allies, such as Tom Wallace (Felix Solis), who works for the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs. As they head to meet the Taliban at Doha, Wallace is horrified Owen has not signed the “death and dismemberment waiver.”
In Doha amidst flying bombs and bullets, Owen meets the very British, very propah mediator, Olive Bonner-Jones (James Purefoy), who is willing to look through his spy rolodex for people that can help Owen.
Back in the States, Hannah, (Fivel Stewart) Owen’s ex-girlfriend and roommate, wants to move on and does so when she meets the handsome and charming Jai (Omar Maskati), only he proves not to be completely trustworthy. Amelia (Kaylah Zander), Owen’s colleague and occasional date, is facing an enquiry while getting lost in “all the negatives,” including non-operations and non-conversations.
A still from ‘The Recruit’ Season 2
| Photo Credit:
Netflix
CIA director, Alton West, (Nathan Fillion) is dragged out of his fishing holiday to deal with the firestorm and Owen takes time out to head to a karaoke bar to meet his childhood girlfriend, Yoo Jin (Shin Do-hyun).
The writing remains sharp as ever, with terms such as “occupational exorcism”, “mercenary for psychopaths” and “perfect storm of chaos” being bandied with the same alacrity as the bullets and punches. Like its first season, each episode is titled with increasingly impossible acronyms, all taken from dialogues in the episode — the finale is called I.D.N.W.T.B.D.I. aka “I do not want to be dead inside”. Incidentally, six is just the right number of episodes.
Centineo’s goofy charm is on full blast and propels the show, ably supported by the smashing cast of characters. The Recruit is fast, furious and full of fun, or in spook speak, F.F.A.F.O.F!
The Recruit is currently streaming on Netflix
Published – February 07, 2025 11:47 am IST
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