Y.A.R.A.C.O.T.D.O.P. – The episode begins with Owen Hendricks (Noah Centineo) waking at the Garrison he was staying at when his father died. Jang Kyun Kim (Teo Yoo) says he has taken him there because his wife, Nan Hee Kim (Lee Sang-Hee), was kidnapped a week ago and he needs the CIA to get her back. Jang tells Owen that he has 48 hours to find his wife and bring her home or he will release all the information he knows about the NIS’s involvement with the CIA.
At the CIA station in Port Louis, Mauritius, Dawn Gilbane (Angel Parker) meets Rina Whalen (Arghavan Jenati) and Mike DdeMarco (Alan Ramon Ward). She quickly learns that Port Louis is the station where careers go to die.
When Owen tells Janus Ferber (Kristian Bruun) about Jang, he suggests they go back to Langley with the news. Jang returns home to listen to Nan Hee Kim’s voicemail.
Owen is attacked on the tram at the Incheon Airport in Seoul, Korea. He receives help from another passenger, but he ends up getting his butt kicked and Owen has to take on the man alone. He eventually manages to get off the tram and make his way to his plane.
Janus heads to the Seoul CIA station to speak with Amanda Fern (Alana Hawley Purvis) while Jang heads to work as normal. Jang’s boss, Grace Cho (King Young-a) tells him about Owen flying back to the US and then calls him into her office for a meeting. While Janus strong-arms Amanda into giving him a briefing on 10 INS officers, including Jang, Jang gives Grace a briefing on Janus and Owen. During this briefing, Owen calls Jang and asks if he tried to have him killed last night. Jang lies to his boss and tells her that he is talking to his wife, while he tells Owen that he will call him back later. At the end of Jang’s briefing, Grace tells him to get close to Janus and try to flip him
Hannah Copeland (Fivel Stewart) thinks she is arriving for lunch with her mother but instead, she gets Patrice Cole (Genevieve Fleming), who tells her that her mother isn’t happy about her recent decision-making. Patrice also tells her that her mother can no longer continue her employment. After Patrice leaves, Hannah tells the waiter to put all the patrons’ lunches on her mother’s tab.
Back at Langley, Walter Nyland (Vondie Curtis-Hall) and Owen have a conference call with Janus where they discuss Jang and his wife. Walter basically tells Owen to string Jang along until they can dismantle his dead man’s switch. Walter also tells Janus to flip Jang and turn him into an asset. Owen is stunned that they aren’t going to do anything to help Jang.
Hannah hits it off with a man named Jae King (Omar Maskati), who comes up and thanks her for paying for his lunch. After Jae tells her that he is in town trying to secure export licenses for his father’s company, she gives him her law firm’s details.
Jang calls Owen at Langley and tells him that whoever attacked him last night had the clout to hack into the airport’s security systems and delete the footage. Jang also threatens to release a secret if he doesn’t get his wife back in 30 hours. After the call, Owen goes to Amelia Salazar (Kaylah Zander) for advice on how to go about finding a Russian detainee. She tells him to go to the Bureau of European and Eurasia Affairs. The CEG interrupts and asks to speak with Owen about Max Meladze (Laura Haddock) but he tells them that he has an urgent doctor’s appointment.
On his way to find out information about Nan Hee, Owen briefly runs into Jae and Hannah. His attempt to find out information about Nan Hee goes just about as well as the conversation. Jang kidnaps Ji Min (Nico Wan) just to make sure that he hasn’t spilled the beans about Nan Hee. As for the hit at the airport, he heard that someone hired a local but promises to keep his ear to the ground. The conversation doesn’t get much further thanks to Jang receiving a text from Grace.
Lester Kitchens (Colton Dunn) and Violet Ebner (Aarti Mann) are in Warsaw, Poland when they receive a call from Owen, who wants help finding out about Nan Hee. Lester promises to ask his only asset if she knows anything about Nan Hee if Owen gets him Dawn’s assets. Owen promises to try but has to rush off the phone because he notices he’s being followed.
When Janus meets with Jang to try to turn him into an asset, Jang tells him that NIS wants to turn him into an asset. They decide to use this as cover so they can continue to communicate without drawing suspicion. Jang later tells Grace that he set the hook.
Lester meets with Nichka Lashin (Maddie Hasson) to get her to look for information on Nan Hee. She tells him that she wants paid for the job but he tells her that she doesn’t get paid until she proves herself useful. He also threatens to out her to her Russian contacts if she refuses to play ball. After the meeting, she calls Owen to tell him her dilemma and threatens to spill his secrets. Once he asks hypothetically how much she would want, it doesn’t take her long to realize that it is him who is asking for information on Nan Hee. She tells him that she wants $100,000 for the job or she goes to his boss. He agrees. Nichka is then shown visiting Sergi, killing his guards, and getting him to leverage his contacts to find out about Nan Hee.
Before meeting with Tom Wallace (Felix Solis) on his plane, Owen calls Dawn and convinces her to hand over a few of her assets to Lester. Owen gets stuck on the plane, but the good news is that the man Tom is going to might be able to help Owen. This is where the episode ends.
The Recruit Review
Unfortunately, The Recruit just isn’t doing it for me. I can’t say that the episodes are horribly acted but the story is completely unbelievable and feels slapped together. I understand that TV is fantasy, but I do like a little authenticity with my series. I do enjoy the action and I like how each area is introduced on the screen, but other than this, the series just isn’t doing it for me. This is probably a little bit worse than The Night Agent and that isn’t saying much. If the episodes were a little bit shorter and there wasn’t so much ping-ponging, they might have something here, but unfortunately, that just isn’t the case. I’d have to give this episode a 5 out of 10.
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