Owen Hendricks (Noah Centineo) has no idea how many times he gets disavowed by the American government in The Recruit’s Season 2 finale. “Isn’t that crazy? He doesn’t know — he’s just doing his thing,” Centineo tells Tudum.
And, despite all odds, Owen’s plan ultimately works out in the final minutes of Episode 6. The finale takes The Recruit’s heroes to Vladivostok, Russia, a town so dangerous in the series, the US government wants no part in the trip. But, that’s where Nan Hee (Sanghee Lee) — pregnant wife of NIS agent and Season 2 graymailer Jang Kyun (Teo Yoo) — is being held. So Owen, Jang Kyun, Lester (Colton Dunn), and Owen’s love interest Yoo Jin (Shin Do-hyun) commandeer a boat and head into enemy waters to save her.
Ultimately, Owen manages to free Nan Hee (and an abducted Jang Kyun) from the clutches of Russian intelligence. He just needs to jump off a yacht, kill a soldier on a houseboat, survive a shoot-out with the unpredictable Nichka (Maddie Hasson), locate Jang Kyun and Nan Hee in a heavily armed base, and swim with them to safety. Once Owen accomplishes all of those simple tasks, an American Navy submarine shows up to whisk everyone off to kinder borders. The Recruit’s creator, Alexi Hawley, helmed the “pressure cooker” of an episode, as Centineo calls it.
It was “so insanely fun” to film the finale, according to the actor. “Owen goes through it. You’ve never seen him take a beating like this before. He takes more of a beating in Episode 6 than in the first season and the rest of the second season combined,” Centineo continues. “I don’t think we could have done it if Alexi wasn’t directing.”
So how did the team pull it off? And, what does Owen and Jang Kyun’s final scene together in The Recruit Season 2 mean? Read on for a complete debrief on those answers and so many more, from Centineo, Hawley, and Yoo.
In the Season 2 cold open, Owen is saved by Dawn (Angel Parker). Then, back in Washington DC, he is promptly “rubber-roomed” by his boss Nyland (Vondie Curtis-Hall) for the international disaster that was the Season 1 finale. That means Owen has been put on professional ice, and is meant to do absolutely nothing until an investigation can be finalized. Everyone around Owen suggests the results of the inquiry will not be good for him. Not only could he lose his job — he could end up behind bars.
“Owen rolls into this season basically screwed, right? He is going to be blamed for a national security disaster … unless he gets a win,” creator Hawley tells Tudum. “But he’s been rubber-roomed, and so [he] can’t get a win.”
Or can he, since he’s Owen Hendricks? His way out comes in the form of a piece of mail — addressed to someone else — from Seoul, South Korea. Some might say Owen should leave the letter alone. Yet, as Centineo points out, what would anyone else do, “when they’re looking at death or prison?”
Owen quickly learns someone in South Korea is graymailing the CIA. The letter contained a code referencing a Korean operation so secret, alarm bells sound when anyone attempts to look it up.
At the end of Episode 1, Owen realizes Jang Kyun, an NIS agent he meets in Seoul, is the mysterious graymailer. His wife Nan Hee, an altruistic NGO worker, was abducted in Russia. Usually, her bribes to organized crime keep her protected abroad. But this time, something went very wrong. Now, Jang Kyun will do literally anything to get Nan Hee back. He threatens to reveal all the joint intelligence secrets he knows between Korea and the US, including the identities of every CIA asset in Asia.
“We gave Jang Kyun a human reason [for the graymail],” Hawley says. “The idea we always kept alive in the writer’s room was that somebody who will do anything for love is dangerous.”
Yoo felt empathy for his character, telling Tudum, “I know how it is to sacrifice a lot for the love of your life.”
We learn a key detail about Nan Hee’s abduction at the end of Episode 3. One of her supposed allies confirms to Jang Kyun that Nan Hee was actually kidnapped by a particularly dangerous Yakuza clan. In that moment, Jang Kyun realizes his wife’s disappearance is his fault.
He admits to Owen that the NIS created a trackable form of cryptocurrency in collaboration with the CIA. But, there was one problem: figuring out how to get criminals and terrorists to actually use it. Jang Kyun’s solution was to suggest his wife unwittingly utilize the cryptocurrency for her aforementioned bribes. Although he assumed the money was untraceable, it appears he was wrong. The Yakuza figured out that Nan Hee’s NGO supplied them with marked crypto, and is likely torturing her in response.
While Owen wishes he could ditch Jang Kyun after this revelation, he can’t. Because the cryptocurrency isn’t merely popular with criminals — it’s spread to ordinary people. That means the CIA is also tracking American citizens without their knowledge.
“The fact that Jang Kyun is holding this over our heads is a nuclear explosion for intelligence and absolutely elevates the season,” Centineo says.
Hawley says Nichka is “a bit of a Bond villain” and “a walking ‘fuck you.’ ” She lives up to these descriptors throughout Season 2, beating up enemies, bilking the CIA out of a fortune, and, in the finale, deciding to double-cross Owen by selling him to Russian intelligence.
In a twist of fate, Nichka’s betrayal of Owen is what keeps him alive. In Episode 6, CIA Director West (Nathan Fillion) gives Dawn the green light to kill Jang Kyun and Owen, who are behind enemy lines. West knows if both men are captured alive they will eventually spill agency secrets.
But, Dawn’s execution is foiled by Nichka, who happens upon her in the woods. Nichka — who is all about the money — needs Owen and Jang Kyun alive if she is going to get her payout from Russian intelligence. She has a knife fight with Dawn, and wins.
Nichka still doesn’t get what she wants. Owen and Jang Kyun go free, which angers Russian intelligence. The last time we see Nichka, she’s hit in the face with a gun by one Russian agent and yelled at by another.
Despite their on-screen antagonism, Centineo loved working with Hasson. “Maddie is such a tour de force actress and such a professional, so prepared,” he says. “She does all of her own stunts and is very good, very good at fighting choreography.”
Yes, Nan Hee does survive. Owen saves her and Jang Kyun from the Russian intelligence base, and the trio swims to safety in the finale. First, they board Yoo Jin’s fishing trawler. Then, they find true safe passage on the US Navy sub. So, technically, graymailing the CIA works on The Recruit.
The Recruit Season 2 is as much a fight for Owen’s soul as it is a search for Nan Hee. Owen not only kills a Russian soldier in the finale, but also an armed enemy in Qatar during Episode 3. Centineo doubts his character has a chance to come to terms with the bloodshed.
“But he gets to try to reclaim his humanity. I don’t think he’s becoming desensitized to killing people,” he says. Centineo points to two conversations Owen has in Episode 6 that prove that he’s still striving to be a good person: one, where he tells Lester and Dawn he won’t be “dead inside” like them, and another, when he refuses to kill someone unnecessarily when Nichka advises it. Still, Nichka eliminates the adversary, telling Owen that killing will still be done — even when he lacks the stomach for it.
“That is part of Owen’s journey in Season 2 — if you [do] something and bad shit happens, that’s on you. You have to own that,” Hawley says. “He was not owning it up until late in the game.”
In the last scene of the finale, Owen seems to finally accept his reality. At this point, he has survived the impossible, saved his job, and managed to keep himself out of jail (at least for now). Once he and Jang Kyun are safe on the Navy ship, he suggests the latter become an American asset. As Centineo says, “Owen is in a cold, brutal, violent world. The kid has no real friends, but what he does have is leverage and he finds his leverage in unique places.”
Yes, that sure was. Hawley plays the Navy ship captain in the last scene of the episode, which serves as a pressure valve for the high stakes of Season 2.
“That’s a real moment of calm for Owen — of triumph,” Centineo says. “It’s a true moment of camaraderie and friendship, which he hasn’t had in a while.”
Owen closes the finale by giving Jang Kyun two options. The CIA could either tell the world he and Nan Hee died in Russia — giving the couple the opportunity to flee to America and start a new life together — or send Jang Kyun back to Korea, where he will surely be tried for treason. Obviously, Jang Kyun would prefer option 1; Owen tells his new ally that this will simply cost him all the secrets in his head.
While it appears the recruiter has officially become the recruiter, Yoo and Centineo believe there’s more to the scene than cold manipulation. “It’s a hint from Owen that there’s a fresh start in the cards for Jang Kyun, which is exciting to see,” Yoo says.
Centineo agrees, saying, “Owen is more so giving someone safe harbor in return for secrets. So, it’s slightly less of a conflicting force,” he explains. “In a weird way, it’s a lovely little ending. They’re speaking in a language that they both understand.”
No matter what’s next for Owen, it’s clear he isn’t leaving the intelligence game, despite a season of protests to the contrary. “The ending means he’s not going to get out,” Hawley says. “He’s now going to have to deal with being the hero. Will that make him more reckless?”
Knowing Owen, the answer is almost definitely yes. To relive all of his most impulsive moments, (re)watch The Recruit now — and keep coming back to Tudum for all of your most urgent intel on Owen Hendricks.
