The Recruit season 2 sees the return of Netflix's action-packed thriller, coming to the streamer in the same month as The Night Agent season 2.
Rookie CIA lawyer Owen Hendricks found himself embroiled in some seriously intense agency business in The Recruit season 1.
And while Owen must suffer the consequences of his actions in the Max Meladze operation, he’s quickly thrown right back into the deep end - this time in Seoul, South Korea. But, it’s far from a holiday as life-threatening affairs await him, alongside espionage, kidnapping, hostage negotiations, and more.
While Owen is joined by returning agents, he also meets a lot of new faces on his international travels - namely, Jang Kyun (Teo Yoo) and Grace Cho (Young-Ah Kim). Though their part to play in The Recruit season 2 is full of twists and turns.
Here's a recap of everything that happened in The Recruit season 2 episode 2.
The second episode opens on Owen waking up in an abandoned building - the Yongsan Garrison, where Owen lived when his father was killed. Jang says he wants to remind Owen of his loss to understand Jang’s motive. He explains that his wife, Nan Hee, was captured in Russia - the woman we saw kidnapped from her van. He needs the CIA to get her back because if he tells the NIS, they’ll think he’s compromised and sideline him. He says no one else knows that she’s been taken because her work is secret.
Jang says he reached out to a member of the jopok - the Korean mafia - who Nan Hee pays bribes in order to gain access to the Koreans in Russia. He says she’s not a spy, but she does think Jang only works for the government, not that he's NIS. Jang demands that Owen helps him and that if Owen tries to betray him, he'll trigger an automatic release of damning intel.
It cuts to Port Louis, Mauritius. Dawn walks into the American Embassy, CIA station. She meets two of the workers, Rina and Mike. Mike explains that this is where careers go to die and Rina hands her a note that says “Awaiting transfer of assets to your replacement.” When told she doesn’t have an office here, she insists they get out of the break room and she’ll make that her office instead.
Back at the hotel in Seoul, Owen is explaining to Janus what’s happened. He tells him that they need to come up with a plan and Janus says that Owen will need to go back to Langley, if he wants help. He says in the meantime he’ll do a deep dive on Jang Kyun while Owen flies home.
At Incheon Airport, Owen boards a tram to his airport terminal and while a man is watching him, another one enters on crutches alongside a woman with a dog. All of a sudden the man with the crutch shoots a knife out the bottom and tries to kill Owen. The other man who had been watching Owen tries to wrestle the assassin down, but he fights him off. Owen manages to escape, pulling the emergency exit and jumping out the back of the moving tram, but the assassin follows. He runs into the airport and locks the assassin out, but he notices the security are now on high alert. Luckily, he just manages to board his flight.
Back in Seoul, Janus arrives at the CIA station to look into Jang and speaks to the boss, Amanda Fern. Meanwhile, Jang arrives at his office and his boss tells him that Owen made it out of Seoul. She’s suspicious and wants Jang to look into both men. Janus explains to Amanda that he can’t tell her about the case and while she refuses to help, he says he’ll have the general counsel or the director of the CIA call her if she doesn't.
While Jang is delivering his briefing to Grace Cho, Owen borrows a stranger's phone upon landing back in the US on the plane, and calls him. Owen asks Jang whether he tried to have him killed at the airport. He says it wasn’t him, meanwhile pretending to Grace that it was his wife calling. Following the briefing, Grace tells him to get close to Janus and flip him to spy on their behalf.
In Washington, Hannah goes to meet her mother, Mei. Instead, she’s greeted by a woman she calls Patrice, a family mediator. Patrice says Mei isn’t coming, but that she’s concerned about her recent decisions. She reads her a letter saying that Mei is upset with her and cannot guarantee her continued employment. Patrice tells her that her mom is paying for lunch though, and after she leaves, she says to charge everyone at the restaurant’s lunches onto her mom’s tab.
Back at the office, Owen explains to Nyland what happened in Korea. Janus is dialled in over the phone and reveals that as far as his research is concerned, Jang is a nobody. But, Owen argues that he saw Jang fighting at the club like he knew exactly what he was doing. Nyland says the plan is that Owen will focus on Jang’s wife, stringing him along, while they try to get Operations to neutralize the dead man’s switch that'll leak secrets. He tells Owen to pretend to try and get her back, but not actually get her back. Nyland asks Janus to recruit Jang and use his duplicity as leverage. Owen is concerned that they’re not going to help Jang get his wife back at all, but he agrees.
At the restaurant, a man approaches Hannah to thank her for paying for his meal. He introduces himself as Jae and reveals he works for his father’s technology company and he’s been trying to get export licenses, but to no avail. She offers to help him from her law firm and he accepts her offer.
Jang calls Owen and reveals the security cameras were turned off during his attack at Incheon airport. He gives him 30 hours to find his wife or he’ll release a secret. Owen asks Amelia for advice on who to go to at the Department of State to ask about Nan Hee in Russia. She tells him to start at BEEA, the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs. Meanwhile, the CEG shows up looking for Owen and Amelia as part of their investigation into what happened with Max and the possible counter-intelligence breach.
They introduce themselves as Marcy Potter and Juno Marsh. Owen successfully dodges them by saying he has an urgent doctor’s appointment and he’ll speak to them as soon as he can. Instead, Owen goes to State where he bumps into Hannah and Jae. She reveals Jae is a new client and the exchange is frosty. The BEEA pass him around and say they can’t help him, but to try DHRL instead. There, they say they can help, but not fast.
In Seoul, a man is walking down the street watching his phone. Jang suddenly grabs him and addresses him as Ji Min before holding a gun to his side and telling him to get into the trunk of his car. They arrive by the water and Ji Min gets out of the trunk, telling Jang that he’s keeping his secret about Nan Hee having gone mission. Jang presses him for honesty saying he’s put Ji Min’s brother in solitary, but he could get him killed instead. Ji Min says if he started asking around about Nan Hee, that his people would want to use her disappearance as leverage against Jang. He asks about the attack on Owen at the airport, to which Ji Min says it was just someone local, rumors, and that he hadn’t heard names. Jang gets a text message from Deputy Director Grace Cho saying they need to pre-brief before he meets with Janus and leaves the man on the dock.
It cuts to Warsaw, Poland. Lester and Violet argue about having to live together during their operation. Lester says he wants the intelligence win so he can go back to being a lawyer. But, Violet says he’ll never achieve that with Nichka as his only asset and she’s a live wire. Owen calls and asks Lester to use one of his assets to get him intel on where Nan Hee is. While Owen speaks to him on the phone, someone is following him. Lester says he’ll get Nichka to do it, if Owen gets him Dawn’s assets. Owen hangs up and goes to hide from the car following him, of which the CEG agents get out.
Jang and Janus meet and quickly realize they’ve been tasked with turning each other into assets. They agree that Janus will pretend to be talking with Jang about flipping to the NIS, but that Jang will actually be an asset and tell the CIA about Grace. He reveals she’s a single mother. He says that if Jang can bring him something that impresses the CIA, the harder they’ll make Owen work to get him back his wife. Jang agrees, but says he needs to tell his boss that he’s got Janus interested and set a price for what he’d want for spying for the NIS. He reveals it’s $50,000 and a VIP package to the BTS reunion tour. She says she’s using assets to look into the pair of them and wants to find out what they’re up to.
Owen goes to meet Nyland to tell him CEG are pursuing him. He says he can’t help him. But, he asks for help on Nan Hee, to which Nyland asks if he’s tried SPEHA - the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs. Another acronym Owen’s never heard of and, as it turns out, the best person to ask for help in a hostage situation.
It cuts to Nichka sitting in a train station. Lester sits behind her and asks her if she’s got contacts on Sakhalin Island. She says she might and asks for money. But he says she’s not getting paid until she proves herself. He says get me the intel or he’ll tell the Russian mob. Nichka calls Owen and says he lied so she’s going to reveal his secrets. He promises to get her paid and she realizes it’s him who is looking for the woman in Russia. With this knowledge, she asks for $200,000. If not, she’ll call his boss. He agrees and she says she’ll need to hurt people to get the intel, which he also agrees to.
Nichka, heavily armed with weapons, arrives to speak to a man called Sergei to ask questions about Sakhalin Island. She swiftly kills his guards and while Sergei tries to escape, she shoots him in the hand. She asks again about Sakhalin, but this time he says he can call someone that can help.
Meanwhile, Owen calls Dawn to ask about giving her assets to Lester. Though he reveals Lester doesn’t know about her ghost assets, he says she should give him one or two of her real ones. She refuses, but he says CEG are on the case, and that she needs to do something about it to buy herself some time. Hanging up, he arrives at a private jet to speak to SPEHA - a man called Tom.
As they talk, Tom discusses how he goes to places and speaks to people he shouldn’t, whilst signing a death and dismemberment waiver. But, there's a British man that can help them where they’re headed - as the plane begins to take off with Owen stuck onboard. He says Owen hasn’t signed his own waiver and Owen asks why he would need to. Tom says because we’re going to speak to the Taliban.
All episodes of The Recruit are available to stream on Netflix now.
