The Recruit Season 2 Ending Explained
The Recruit Season 2’s ending, much like the action-packed finale for Season 1 of the Noah Centineo Netflix drama, is a classic spy situation. Minus the main character being a spy, that is.
After five episodes telling a tale of espionage spanning numerous countries, languages, and timezones — poor Owen Hendricks (Centineo) can barely keep up with what time it is on an episode-to-episode basis — Season 2’s sixth episode concludes with an all-out fight to save CIA assets and CIA asses. See what we did there?
**Warning: This article contains major spoilers about The Recruit Season 2, now on Netflix**
While the Season 1 finale left off on a major cliffhanger with Max Meladze (Laura Haddock) being shot and killed by her own daughter (Maddie Hasson) in front of Owen, Season 2 did a decent job of tying up the loose ends that were unraveled throughout the second installment. Down from eight episodes in Season 1, the writers were smart to supersize this smaller season by packing on the drama in each episode and upping the stakes for Owen, Lester Kitchens (Colton Dunn), and the rest of the CIA team. But with fewer episodes and more ground to cover, there are so many questions that remain about how the finale wraps things up. Here’s what you need to know about how The Recruit Season 2 ends…
The Recruit Season 2 Ending Explained: Season 2, Episode 6 “I.D.N.W.T.B.D.I.” Recap
After coming to terms with the fact that the only way out of South Korea would be by water — remember, the South Korean government and the NIS (National Intelligence Service) were desperately trying to locate Owen, Kitchens, and Jang Kyun (Teo Yoo) — Owen was forced to enlist the only person in his close proximity who he was sure had access to a boat: Yoo Jin Lee (Shin Do-Hyun). Although he tried to bribe her to just let him take off with the fishing vessel, her one and only condition for giving him access to the boat was that she would get to come along. Owen, knowing that this whole situation could end in bullets raining down, hesitated to accept her offer but reluctantly said yes as NIS head Grace Cho (Kim Young-ah) arrived on the scene and tried to take Owen into custody. Luckily, our protagonist and his childhood crush were able to ride away from the cops and make it to the boat where they met up with the rest of the team. From there, the group embarked for Vladivostok, the Russian port city where Jang’s wife was being held by the Yakuza.
Episode 6 begins with the group on the boat, laying out their plan of action on the water as Nichka (Hasson) drives to the dock where Nan Hee (Lee Sang-hee) is locked in a crater and awaiting her husband. Nichka — who is being paid a handsome fee of $1 million to report any intel she can find — ultimately shares her observations with Owen, Kitchens, and Jang, reporting that the compound where Nan is being stashed is more locked down than Fort Knox. It’s her intel that leads the group to decide that they cannot attempt to rescue her on enemy soil and must lure the Yakuza out onto the water to finalize the deal and secure her safe return.
Back in the U.S., Nyland (Vondie Curtis-Hall) and CIA Director West (Nathan Fillion) are doing everything they can to cover their asses should Owen and Kitchens fail abroad. That includes bringing in Amelia (Kaylah Zander) to consult on a statement the CIA can put out, relinquishing the agency of any blame in the likely scenario that the situation goes belly up. Halfway around the world, agents with the NIS are doing the same thing and burning their own paper trail should Officer Kim also perish while working with the Americans. Long story short: no government wants to take the blame for any part of this clusterf**k.
After walking the compound and relaying to Owen that there is no chance in hell the group will make it through, Nichka agrees to stay in Vladivostok and take part in the deal to retrieve Nan. Believing this could save them in the case of an ambush, the Russian operative reminds the group that she will go as far as she can, just so long as she is getting paid out the wazoo. Get that bag, girl!
After a romp in the hay with the girl that got away, Owen and Jang meet with the Yakuza on the open water, and nearly seal the deal but end up in an all-out brawl after attempting to hand over a briefcase of money, which really just included a heavy book. They were planning to have Dawn (Angel Parker), Dodge (Jesse Collin), and their covert team swoop in and pull off the mission, however, a Russian boat of agents on the water prevented the group from moving in on the Yakuza. This left Owen in a precarious situation in which Jang is shot by one of the Yakuza and Owen jumps into open water to escape the escalating conditions. From the deck, one of the Yakuza’s musclemen fires multiple rounds to take out the CIA lawyer who is just below the surface. R.I.P. Owen Hendricks, gone too soon.
Just kidding, like they would kill off the titular character! Or kill him off with 40 minutes left in the finale, at least. As the Yakuza pull away and Owen’s crew abandons him (they do think he is dead, to be fair), Amelia and Nyland begin the process of spinning the story so that Owen is blamed for all of the mess that has unfolded in connection to the graymail sent by Jang. After swimming to safety and taking refuge in a nearby home — and beating up some guards in the process — Owen makes contact with Dawn and Kitchens and informs them that he plans to attempt to rescue Jang and Nan from the hands of the Yakuza, an idea they cannot more strongly share their opposition to. Alas, Owen is Owen and he is going to do what he is going to do… even if it gets him and everyone else killed.
After linking up with Nichka, Owen discovers that she has been acting as a double agent for the CIA and the FSB — Russia’s security administration — the entire time. We learned that in order to increase her riches and her rank, she promised to hand over both Owen and Jang to Russian officials, making a small fortune in the process by taking money from the Americans and her home country. Sadly for her, the plan is foiled as Owen fights back and successfully knocks her out before she can take him to her handlers. It’s another near escape for Owen, who just so happens to be the luckiest person alive at this point, having survived trained agents from Russia, Belarus, and South Korea. Reminder: he’s just a lawyer, not an actual spy.
After CIA Director West (Nathan Fillion) confirms that agents were able to crack the code and find out where Jang was storing his graymail intel, Dawn commits to taking out Jang to tie up loose ends and prevent the Russians from torturing any information out of him. This goes over with Kitchens like a lead balloon and they’re forced to tell West that Jang and Nan are both being held by foreign operatives at a nearby air base. As Dawn cuts a deal with West to get herself a promotion by killing Jang, Kitchens protests and the team further fractures. Not that they were best friends by any means, Dawn did try to have both Owen and Kitchens killed earlier in the season, lest we forget.
As Owen sneaks onto the base where Jang and Nan and being held, Dawn sets up a sniper rifle to take out Owen and his escapees. Before she has the opportunity to take the shot, however, Nichka stumbles upon Dawn and picks a gruesome fight with her over who gets Owen. It doesn’t end well for Dawn, though, as Nichka fatally stabs the CIA agent and abandons her body in the nearby woods outside of the Russian compound. The Yakuza, it appears, have turned over Jang and Nan for a hefty price and now are leaving their fate up to the Russians. The trio of escapees attempt to drive away but are stopped by Nichka and blazing guns, forcing them to run to the nearby water and swim for their lives.
When all hope is seemingly lost, Yoo Jin — having knocked out Dodge on her father’s boat — arrives just in time to rescue the three swimmers from the water and tow them to safety. The relief is brief as the boat ends up in a chase with the Russian Coast Guard stopped only by a deus ex machina arrival from a United States Navy ship, swooping in to rescue the bunch. How lucky can this group get?
The finale ends with Jang and Owen engaging in a heart-to-heart where Jang thanks Owen for saving his wife and his life. In exchange, Owen simply asks Jang to fake his death and join the team as an asset for the United States, to which he reluctantly agrees. As for Owen, his own fate remains up in the air and will just have to be explored in a third season.
The Recruit is currently streaming on Netflix.
