In Netflix’s “The Recruit,” the story is about a young, inexperienced lawyer who works for the CIA. This is different from most spy thrillers. Alexi Hawley’s action-comedy series, “The Rookie,” is about a new CIA lawyer named Owen Hendricks (Noah Centineo) who has to deal with “grey mail” that the agency gets.
Maxine “Max” Meladze, a dangerous and manipulative woman who says she knows the CIA’s darkest secrets, crosses Owen’s path. But Owen faces several dangerous situations as he works with Max. If you want to know if Owen gets through all the challenges and pressures of his high-stakes job, here’s what you need to know about how season 1 of “The Recruit” ends. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Review of The Recruit
Owen Hendricks is a lawyer who just got out of college. He is recruited by the CIA’s General Council’s Office to work there. Owen is new to his job and is having a hard time figuring out how to do it. Violet and Lester, who work with him, try to hurt him.
They give him the folder with messages from different people who say they know the CIA’s secrets. Owen finds a threat from a woman named Maxine “Max” Meladze. She says she used to work for the CIA and threatens to leak sensitive information if she doesn’t get out of jail.
Owen meets Max and checks out what she says. He knows that Max is serious about his threats. So, Owen asks his boss, Nyland, for permission to look into the matter further. Owen does some questionable things as he tries to get Max out of jail.
But Owen quickly learns that the most important tool for getting around in the CIA world is leverage. Owen’s personal life is also going downhill, and his friends Hannah and Terence worry about how his mind is doing. Owen also starts dating Amelia Salazar, who works with him at the office of the General Council.
Owen finds out that Max used to be close to high-ranking members of the Council, a Russian mafia group. After sanctions were put on Belarus, she had to leave the country. She moved to the United States and opened a safe house. But she killed a man who had hurt her friend and was sent to prison.
Since Max is from another country, it is hard to get her case thrown out. Also, there is a person who saw what happened and could change the jury’s mind. Still, Owen gets past all of the problems and gets Max out of jail. But he is tricked and comes close to dying several times during the process.
READ MORE:- The White Lotus Season 2 Ending Explained- Who Died in the End?
Owen’s nightmare does not end after Max is released. Agent Dawn Gilbane shows up at the CIA and convinces Nyland that Max could be useful because of how Russia’s government is changing.
So, Nyland agrees to send Max to Russia as a CIA asset who has been checked out and can gather information. So, Owen is pulled back into Max’s life and has to work with her on the dangerous mission. But Max says that he won’t try to trick Owen, and they agree to work together.
Why Did Max Kill Kusnetsov at the End of the Recruit?
In the last episode, Max and Owen set up a meeting with General Kusnetsov. Agent Gilbane is in charge of a plan to get Max back into the Council, a Russian mafia group with ties to Russia’s political leaders. But Max’s past makes it likely that Kusnetsov won’t put Max back on the Council. Because of this, the mission is very risky.
During Max’s talk with Kusnetsov, a mysterious group of attackers strikes the facility. Gilbane’s group fights with the attackers, but some of them get inside. Owen goes into the place to help Max. Kusnetsov is shot in the leg as he fights off the attackers.
Before he can hurt Max, one of the attackers is killed by Owen. Owen is very upset and disgusted by what happened. But Max kills the last of the attackers. Kusnetsov is still alive, she realises. Since Kusnetsov won’t let Max back into the Council, she can’t leave him alive.
Also, the attack on the facility makes it easy for Max to kill an official like Kusnetsov without getting caught. Owen begs Max not to kill Kusnetsov, but she kills him anyway to get what she wants.
READ MORE:- The Banshees of Inisherin Ending Explained: Did Padraic and Colm Rekindle Their Friendship?
In the end, Max’s murder of Kusnetsov drives a wedge between her and Owen. The first-year lawyer is upset about the violence, bloodshed, and selfishness in his line of work. So, Owen quits his job, making it impossible for Max to avoid getting hurt in the massacre.
She needs Owen to explain to the law why she did what she did at work. Owen has quit, though, so Max has no choice but to deal with the consequences of killing Kusnetsov. Still, before Max and Owen can think about what they should do, they are surprised by the danger.
Who Took Max and Owen Away?
Max is taken away by a mysterious group of masked killers at the end of the episode. Owen calls Hannah, who is waiting for him in Prague, at the same time. Hannah goes to Prague when she realises that Owen may be in danger.
But she ends up making Owen’s life even worse. Owen and Hannah finally meet at a memorial park. The two people still have feelings for each other and finally meet to talk about it. But before Owen and Hannah can get back together, Hannah is also taken.
When Owen opens his eyes, he sees that he and Max are in a warehouse. Before Owen can figure out what’s going on, a strange woman walks into the room. The woman had met Owen before and said her name was Marta. She seems to be a killer who works for the Council, though. Also, Owen is shocked when Max says that the woman is her daughter Karolina. Before, Max told Owen that her daughter had died many years ago.
Before Max can explain herself, Karolina shoots her in the chest. Max seems to be gone for good. But Max’s death makes Karolina’s past hard to understand. Max told no one in the CIA the truth about her daughter. Also, the fact that Max was killed by her daughter shows that Max and Karolina were no longer close.
Also, Max might have hurt Karolina in the past, which would make her daughter want to get back at him. Still, Karolina turns her attention to Owen after she shot Max. She wants to know why Owen is helping Max in Russia and wants to know why Owen is doing what he is doing.
READ MORE:– A Plague Story: The Requiem Ending Explained- Amicia’s Fight Against All Odds Comes to a Tragedy!
In the end, Max’s death brings Owen back to the beginning. Only because he knew Max did he decide to help with the mission. Owen wants to help Max get back home, but her selfish actions make him feel like he can’t. But Owen’s chances of getting away from the Council don’t look good without Max.
Also, Owen’s boss, Nyland, has told Lester and Violet to get rid of any signs of the mission if things go wrong. The two don’t like Owen very much, and their main goal is to keep the CIA’s presence in the area from being found out. So, it’s not likely that the CIA will do anything to help Owen.