Recruitment Season 2 Ending explained: Noah Centineo Recaps Final, Owen’s fate

This article contains large grades or plot information.


Owen Hendricks (Noah Centineo) has no idea how many times he is rejected by the US government in Recruiting‘S Season 2 final. “Isn’t that crazy? He doesn’t know – he just does his stuff, ”Centineo tells Tudum.

And in spite of all odds, Owen’s plan eventually works at the end of the end of the end of the section 6. The final takes Recruiting‘s Heroes of Vladivostok, Russia, a city that is so dangerous in the series the US government wants no part in the trip. But this is where Nan Hee (Sanghee Lee) – Pregnant wife of Nis Agent and Season 2 Graymailer Jang Kyun (Teo Yoo) – is held. So Owen, Jang Kyun, Lester (Colton Dunn) and Owen’s love interest Yoo Jin (Shin Do-Hyun) command a boat and enter the enemy waters to save her.

Ultimately, Owen manages to free Nan Hee (and an abducted Jang Kyun) from the links of Russian intelligence. He just has 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 in safety. When Owen performs all these simple tasks, an American navy emerges to whip everyone out to friendlier boundaries. Recruiting‘s creator, Alexi Hawley, helped “Pressure Cooker” in an episode that Centineo calls it.

It was “so insanely fun” to film the final according to the actor. “Owen goes through it. You’ve never seen him beat like this before. He takes more of a Christmas in section 6 than in the first season and the rest of the second season combined, ”continues Centineo. “I don’t think we could have done it if Alexi didn’t instruct.”

So how did the team pull it off? And what do Owen and Jang Kyun’s last scene do together in Recruiting Season 2 means? Read on for a complete debrief about these answers and so many more from Centineo, Hawley and Yoo.

Vondie Curtis-Hall as Walter Nyland, Noah Centineo as Owen Hendricks in section 2, Season 2 of 'Recruitment'.

Why is Owen the rubber compartment?

In Season 2 Cold Open, Owen is saved by Dawn (Angel Parker). Then, back in Washington DC, he is immediately the “rubber compartment” of his boss Nyland (Vondie Curtis-Hall) for the international disaster that was the season 1 final. This means that Owen has been put on professional ice cream and is intended to do absolutely nothing before an examination can be completed. Everyone around Owen suggests that the results of the study will not be good for him. Not only could he lose his job – he could end up behind the pillars.

“Owen rolls in this season basically screwed, right? He is blamed for a national security disaster … unless he gets a win, ”creator Hawley tells Tudum. “But he’s been the rubber compartment, and then (he) can’t get a win.”

Or can he when he is Owen Hendricks? His way out comes in the form of a piece of mail – addressed to another – from Seoul, South Korea. Some may say that Owen should leave the letter at peace. But as Centineo points out what would anyone else do, “When they look at death or imprisonment?”

Noah Centineo as Owen Hendricks in section 2, Season 2 of 'Recruitment'.

Who is the graymailer in Recruiting Season 2?

Owen quickly learns that someone in South Korea Graymeling CIA. The letter contained a code that refers to a Korean operation, so secret, alarm bells sound when someone is trying to look it up.

At the end of section 1, Owen Jang Kyun, a Nis agent he meets in Seoul, realizes the mysterious graymailer. His wife Nan Hee, an altruistic NGO worker, was abducted in Russia. Usually, her bribery for organized crime keeps her protected abroad. But this time something went very wrong. Now Jang Kyun will do literally everything to get Nan Hee back. He threatens to reveal all the common intelligence secrets he knows between Korea and the United States, including the identity of each CIA asset in Asia.

“We gave Jang Kyun a human reason (for graymail),” says Hawley. “The idea we always kept alive in the author’s room was that someone who wants to do something for love is dangerous.”

Yoo felt empathy for his character and said to Tudum, “I know what it’s like to sacrifice a lot for the love of your life.”

Why was nan hee kidnapped? And what does it have to do with cryptocurrency?

We learn an important detail about Nan Hee’s abduction at the end of section 3. At that moment, Jang Kyun realizes that his wife’s disappearance is his fault.

He admits to Owen that Nis created a traceable form of cryptocurrency in collaboration with the CIA. But there was a problem: figuring out how to get criminals and terrorists to actually use it. Jang Kyun’s solution was to suggest that his wife inadvertently exploited cryptocurrency for her aforementioned bribery. Although he assumed the money was not traceable, it seems he was wrong. Yakuza figured that Nan Hee’s NGO provided them with marked crypto and probably torturing her in response.

While Owen wants him to be able to ditch Jang Kyun after this revelation, he cannot. Because cryptocurrency is not only popular with criminals – it spreads to ordinary people. This means that the CIA also tracks American citizens without their knowledge.

“The fact that Jang Kyun holds this over our heads is a nuclear explosion for intelligence and is absolutely raising the season,” says Centineo.

Maddie Hasson as Nichka Lashin in section 2, Season 2 of 'Recruitment'.

What happens to nichka?

Hawley says nichka is “a bit of a bond villain” and “a walking ‘fuck you.’ “She lives up to these descriptors throughout season 2, look up enemies, make sure the CIA out of a fortune and decided in the final to double -check Owen by selling him to Russian intelligence.

In a fate fate, Nichka’s betrayal of Owen is what keeps him alive. In section 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 caught alive, they will eventually waste agency secrets.

But Dawn’s execution is foiled by nichka that happens on her in the woods. Nichka – about the money – needs Owen and Jang Kyun alive if she wants to get her payment from Russian intelligence. She has a knife match with Dawn and winner.

Nichka still doesn’t get what she wants. Owen and Jang Kyun go free, like angry Russian intelligence. The last time we see nichka, she is hit in the face with a gun by a Russian agent and shouted by another.

Despite their antagonism on screen, Centineo loved to work with Hasson. “Maddie is such a Tour de Force actress and such a professional, so prepared,” he says. “She makes all her own stunts and is very good, very good at fighting choreography.”

Is Nan Hee alive?

Yes, Nan Hee survives. Owen saves her and Jang Kyun from the Russian intelligence base, and the trio swims to safety in the final. First they board Yoo Jins Fiskertrawler. Then they find the real secure passage on the US Navy Sub. So technically, graymailing of the CIA works on Recruiting.

Noah Centineo as Owen Hendricks in section 2, Season 2 of 'Recruitment'.

What happens to Owen?

Recruiting 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 final, but also an armed enemy in Qatar during section 3.

“But he gets to try to regain his humanity. I don’t think he’s being desensibilized to kill people, ”he says. Centineo points to two conversations Owen has in section 6 that proves that he still strives to be a good person: one where he tells Lester and Dawn that he will not be “dead in” like them, and another , when he refuses to kill an unnecessarily when nichka advises it. Still, Nichka eliminates the opponent and tells Owen that killing will still be done – even when he lacks his stomach for it.

“It’s part of Owen’s journey in Season 2 – If you (do) something and bad shit happens, it’s on you. You have to own it, ”says Hawley. “He didn’t own it until late in the game.”

In the last scene of the final, Owen seems to finally accept his reality. At this point, he has survived the impossible, saved his job and managed to stay out of jail (at least for now). When he and Jang Kyun are sure of the marine ship, he suggests that the latter become an American asset. As Centineo says: “Owen is in a cold, brutal, violent world. The children have no real friends, but what he has is leverage and he finds his gearing in unique places. ”

Was it creating Alexi Hawley in the final?

Yes, it was definitely. Hawley plays the Navy ship’s captain in the last scene of the episode, which acts as a pressure valve for the high bets in Season 2.

“It’s a real moment of calm for Owen – of triumph,” says Centineo. “It’s a true moment of camera and friendship that he has not had in a while.”

Noah Centineo as Owen Hendricks in section 2, Season 2 of 'Recruitment'.

What makes the end of Recruiting Season 2 means?

Owen closes the final by giving Jang Kyun two options. The CIA could either tell the world that he and Nan Hee died in Russia – giving the couple the opportunity to escape to America and start a new life together – or send Jang Kyun back to Korea, where he will surely be tried for treason. Of course, Jang Kyun prefers option 1; Owen tells his new allies that this will simply cost him all the secrets of his head.

While it seems that the recruiter has officially been recruiting, Yoo and Centineo believe there is more to the stage than cold manipulation. “It’s a tip from Owen that there is a new start in the cards for Jang Kyun, which is exciting to see,” says Yoo.

Centineo agrees and says: “Owen is more so to give any safe haven in return for secrets. So it’s a little less of a contradictory strength, ”he explains. “In a strange way, it’s a nice little finish. They speak in a language that they both understand. ”

Whatever is next for Owen, it is clear that he is not leaving the intelligence game despite a season of protests against the opposite. “The ending means he doesn’t come out,” Hawley says. “He now has to tackle to be the hero. Will it make him more reckless? ”

When you know Owen, the answer is almost certainly yes. To relive all its most impulsive moments, (re) see Recruiting Now – and continue to return to Tudum for all your most urgent Intel on Owen Hendricks.

Let’s have a Noah Centineo Watch -FestIn honor of his latest series RecruitingLet’s have a Noah Centineo Watch party!