N.L.T.S.Y.P. – The second episode of The Recruit begins in Minsk, Belarus five years previously. Max Meladze (Laura Haddock) is approached by General Kuznetsov (Vitali Makarov) who is told his treat is on the way. The General hates the opera so it will be wheels up for Moscow at intermission. He reveals that the deputy is upset about Havana and is threatening to send Guryev down there. Peytr (Daniel Chichagov) catches up with her and reveals the council is meeting about her although he doesn’t say why. Max believes she will be able to smooth things over regardless. Max gets a call from Xander telling her that the Obshchak put a price on her head so she has a problem. They don’t know she is working for them, but they’re coming to kill her. She got too ambitious too fast and stepped on some toes. When Max notices two men running towards her, she tries to flee.

Max finds herself cornered in the bathroom so she fights with the two men. She retrieves a hidden gun and manages to shoot one man before the fight continues with the others. The caller agrees to help her so he tells her there is an exit package waiting for her at the airport. He offers her a place to lay low in America, but she doesn’t want to go there. Max eventually agrees to go as long as he doesn’t abandon her before ending up in Phoenix. She calls to try to get in touch with the man again, but the CIA won’t help her. Five years later, Owen Hendricks (Noah Centineo) tells Hannah Copeland (Fivel Stewart) that he was subpoenaed by the Senate yesterday. She warns him it is serious since he has already ticked off the Senate Intelligence Committee, but Owen says that is the least of his worries. Terence (Daniel Quincy Annoh) learns about it moments later. Max asks Hannah if her firm ever taught her how to deal with a client she can’t trust.

They learn that he doesn’t trust his supervisors or coworkers. Owen believes he’ll be able to navigate the obstacles once he figures out the system. Terence thinks they have to help him so he urges him to do his homework for once because knowledge is leverage. Owen asks Hannah if she has any more Adderall to spare. She tells him to take the rest of the bottle, but she’ll booby-trap her purse after that. Owen has a flashback of the explosion. When Owen leaves, he gets a call from Max who wants to know where her money is. She warns him that things are only going to get worse for him if he doesn’t get her out of there. Owen thinks it’d make things easier for him if he knew what classified information she was threatening to reveal. He offers to come visit. Max won’t say anything unless they’re driving away from there together. Owen goes to the records department to run a search.

He learns that they might provide different information even if a search by Clandestine Services came up empty yesterday. Liam runs the name Maxine Meladze for him. Since the system is slow and he’ll have to check the files physically, the receptionist takes Owen’s information so he can send him whatever he finds. Violet Ebner (Aarti Mann) and Lester Kitchens (Colton Dunn) search Owen’s office and trash for information until he enters and reminds them it is his office. They worry they didn’t prepare him well for Yemen and they heard he is in over his head with the graymail case. Violet says it is important to make sure he has the tools he needs to succeed. He doesn’t accept their assistance so they try to tell him about the dating situation around there to help him avoid paperwork. Then, they tell him it is his first staff meeting. During the meeting, Walter Nyland (Vondie Curtis-Hall) questions who screwed the pooch this time. He says he is just kidding and everyone had good poker faces except for Tim Maeson (Ellis Arch).

Walter says N-L-T-S-Y-P or never let them see you pucker. Violet tells Walter that their friend in the place says there may be heavy seas ahead but no storm. When Salazar is asked about the deliverables, she says their friend is hearing whispers that the element they’re worried about didn’t materialize. Janus is asked why Walter is hearing about upset stomachs in camel country. Janus is unaware of anything in the region that he mentioned. Owen is asked about the squeaky wheel. He tells Walter he made contact with the former asset. The others suggest he did something wrong because he provided too much information. As he continues telling them about the asset, the others get up and leave. Violet calls him a slow learner. Owen explains he is doing a risk assessment. When he returns to his office, he finds out that there were no records for Maxine.

Max is attacked by another inmate at the prison and stabbed, but she ends up getting the upper hand. Owen approaches Janus (Kristian Bruun) to see if he can get some advice from him. He asks why he can’t find an official record for his graymailer in the archive. Janus suspects someone cleaned up their mess. He doesn’t think they should dig into who did it because you might end up in a dark room with plastic on the floor. Owen believes he will only be able to survive if he figures out what she knows. Janus tells him he’ll need her hall file or Rumors Intelligence before explaining it is just gossip. He will need to find a case officer willing to talk to him about her. Owen learns about the prison attack so he approaches Walter to see if they did it. Walter makes it clear that he doesn’t want to ask such a question. He urges Owen to get her under control because he can’t tolerate a scandal. Owen goes to the prison in Phoenix so he can talk to Max in private.

In private, Max confirms that the shanking was Talco in retaliation for burning his face with acid. She knows he is going to keep on trying to kill her. Owen asks why she didn’t graymail the agency when she first got to America. She says she wants to go home even though Owen knows she can’t do that. Max says promises were made and she will burn this place down if she has to. When she says she doesn’t want to spend the rest of her life in prison, Owen thinks she’ll need to negotiate a truce with Talco. She’ll need out to do that. Max suggests she can help him in exchange before asking what he needs help with. He tells her about the Senator who subpoenaed him to mess with his boss. Max believes he just wants dirt on the boss and the subpoena will go away if he gives the Senator dirt. She will get word to Talco and she wants Owen to prepare a peace agreement. Once Owen enters his motel room, he calls Violet to ask about getting his graymail case moved into the federal system.

She tells Lester this might be their opportunity to get someone close to Owen who is busy trying to find out how to negotiate with drug dealers. They agree to set him up with Amelia Salazar who will also keep an eye on him. After the call, Owen goes outside by the pool to bum a chicken nugget from a stranger. They talk about their reasons for staying at the motel. She ends up telling him that his dad was killed recently and he was the only one who made her feel safe and loved. Owen’s father died when he was 12 in a war. Once he goes back to his room, Owen is attacked and restrained in a chair. Talco (Victor Andres Turgeon-Trelles) takes one of his jackets. Talco wants his money and he is willing to torture Owen to get it. Owen blurts out that it is in the parking lot of Perryville Prison, but they won’t be able to find it without him. He asks Talco to cut the tape so they can get out of each other’s lives. As they drive to the prison, Owen tries to get information about Max from Talco.

Talco says Max created a niche business when she hit town. She crossed a line with the money by taking something that didn’t belong to her. When Max gets the bag and opens it, Talco takes pictures of him. Talco agrees that things are square with Max before stealing Owen’s rental car. Owen texts Max to confirm that the deal was made and he gave Talco the money. Owen goes back to the motel and covers up the woman who is sleeping outside. Max goes over to the woman who attacked her and says she isn’t going to hurt her because soldiers aren’t responsible for the orders they were given. She did some investigating and found out that the woman’s daughter is beautiful. Max had a daughter of her own once. Max insists she would never harm a hair on her daughter’s head. She will kill everyone else in her family unless the woman starts working for her. Max wants her to feed Talco lies and tell her what he is up to.

The woman agrees to cooperate. Owen goes home where he learns that Hannah called in sick because she couldn’t tolerate another day of document discovery in a subzero conference room. They share pizza bagels while Owen admits it isn’t going well. Hannah is worried about him because he keeps jumping into the deep end to prove himself. She wonders why he wanted to be a lawyer and why he took a job at the CIA. Hannah doesn’t think proving his crazy mother wrong is the only reason he makes extreme life choices. When he asks if she wants him to quit, Hannah reminds him he is allowed to admit he made a mistake. Owen thinks he is allowed to make mistakes. Hannah is just worried the CIA will amplify his worst instincts. As they continue talking, Hannah mentions that his Senate subpoena has misspelled words on it. That triggers something for Owen who believes that is how he can find her.

Owen goes back to the records department with 100 misspellings of Max’s name for the receptionist to run. Then, Owen introduces himself to Amelia (Kaylah Zander) who says he’ll have to put in some effort if they start dating because she needs romance. She is just looking for dinner and a movie once in a while. Once he agrees, Owen explains that he needs his asset’s case to go federal so he can drop the charges if necessary. Amelia agrees to talk to A’Nyah Bell at Main Justice to see if she can help. Lester and Violet bombard Owen with questions as soon as he leaves Amelia’s office. Back in his office, Owen learns from Liam that someone made sure to get rid of misspelled files too but they missed one. It is heavily redacted so he is told about the case officer mentioned at the bottom. Owen tells Walter he needs to go to Vienna because a case officer there might be the key to understanding just how dangerous his squeaky wheel is.

Walter tells him to go, but be careful because Vienna is the espionage Olympics. Owen finds his passport in Violet’s stuff. She claims it must’ve gotten mixed up in her mail. He wants Violet to help him set up a nominal cover identity. Owen goes to the lobby as instructed to pick up the key. He is watched as he goes to the meeting place. A man comes over to tell him there is a phone call for him. Xander tells him that he is being followed by the entire United Nations. He instructs Owen to meet him at the embassy because he isn’t going to blow his cover for this. Owen meets with him moments later. Xander doesn’t believe it when Owen tells him this isn’t a thing. Owen confesses that it is a thing and he is a bit screwed. Then, he asks Xander about being stationed in Belarus in 2014. He is told that he was only there on temporary duty for a few months between formal assignments.

Xander calls it a sh!t show and says he couldn’t wait to get out of there. Owen tells him that he is looking for the hall file on Max although he won’t say why. Xander explains that Russia and Belarus are mafia states and the mob provides the muscle for them. Max was good at keeping the elites happy. When he arrived, Max was between handlers because hers dropped dead of a heart attack. Once Xander complained to Langley, he was asked to fix it. There was no way he was going to get stuck in that mud. As he was moving on Belarus became a denied area which means it was an extremely hostile, operational environment with heavy surveillance. Xander claims he doesn’t know what happened to Max because he was long gone by then. Owen pushes him on that until Xander says he heard she was empowered to run her own network of agency assets.

As a result, she knows all their spies in Belarus and Russia. When asked why she left Belarus, Xander says she ticked off the wrong person in the mob and he was trying to kill her. Once she was dead to the Russians, she stopped being an asset so she was dead to them as well. Owen wants him to go into his files and get him everything he has on Max. As he leaves, Owen calls Max to say he knows what she is threatening to expose now. He gets into a taxi before telling Max that the person he talked to had a lot to hide. She warns him that the secrets she knows are worth killing to keep quiet. Owen soon realizes that the driver doesn’t own the cab so Max suspects it is an assassin who must be killed. Eventually, Owen and the driver get into a scuffle as he tries to grab her gun. Once he gets out of the car, Max gives him tips for getting away since she has been to Vienna many times.

The female assassin comes after him so Max urges him to steal a car to get away. After stealing a van, Owen gets into a crash and runs from the scene. He finds himself surrounded by the assassins. With few choices left, he follows Max’s instructions and jumps into the freezing water beneath the bridge.

 

The Recruit Review

The second episode of The Recruit didn’t deviate much from the opener although there were slightly more action scenes. The performances are decent even though the script isn’t great. It is unlikely anyone could’ve played the roles any differently to achieve something more because the script and dialogue are so silly. The Recruit has a high schoolish, teenage action flick feel that could probably be described as juvenile with the dialogue and soundtrack sticking out like a sore thumb.

The action scenes are mostly good although some of the camerawork could be a lot better. It just feels too artsy at times with the focus blurring in and out randomly. The Recruit had some high points through two episodes, but it is hard to imagine it’ll ever break through the mediocre ceiling. The action scenes and the ineptness of Owen Hendricks can only carry The Recruit for so long before the dialogue and script must improve.

Viewers willing to overlook these issues and ignore the believability problems may enjoy bingeing The Recruit for its mindless entertainment alone, but it is unlikely it’ll have a lasting impact. The episode scores a 6 out of 10. The Recruit recaps are available on Reel Mockery here. Find our recaps beneficial? Consider supporting us! Learn how to do so here.