Sometimes it’s the show that you don’t expect to love that you find yourself loving. I was prepared to go into watching The Recruit and tear it apart. Why? Because I couldn’t see Noah Centineo playing this role. I thought that there is no way that he can play a CIA agent.
But the smartest thing that they did with The Recruit is make Noah’s character of Owen someone who is still naive and makes mistakes. He’s still a 24 year old who eats pizza bagels and lives with roommates and is growing. It’s one of those things that you don’t expect when you hear that it’s a show about the CIA.
This show is smart. This show is exciting. This show will leave you wanting more. Even with having to witness the travesty of Max’s bangs. Yes, that will be shit I continue to harp over and no, I won’t apologize for that.
In episode 2 we get to learn more about Max. I’m not always one for a flashback, but there are shows where you need them. There are shows that thrive off of a flashback and you look forward to them. This is one of those shows, because it’s the only way we’re going to learn exactly what Max has on the CIA.
She was an asset in Belarus, and marked for assassination. She gets a heads up and is able to defend herself, which results in a bad ass action scene (one without bad bangs). Max Meladze is a character that you can’t help but start to like in this episode. Sure, she’s shady as fuck, but Laura Haddock brings her to life with such veracity that you can’t help but root for her.
Her handler, Xander, does give her an exit package and sends her off to Arizona. I’d be pissed too if I was sent to the depth of hell and what looks like south Phoenix. She keeps calling the CIA looking for her handler, but without a name, what is is she supposed to do.
Back to present day and Noah’s subpoena from the Senate Intelligence Committee. He doesn’t seem to be phased and thinks somehow that things will work out. I have a feeling that’s his go to mood. That things will just always work out. BUT, that’s not the way that life goes Owen. Sometimes it’s a complicated shit show.
His friends are more concerned than him and it’s gotta be hard for him, because he can’t just get rid of this. They worry that the CIA is taking its toll.
Shit, if they only knew.
Owen is loving his job though. He wants to figure out who Max is and the challenge of doing that excites him. Max isn’t someone to be messed with thou. She calls Owen and even I am shocked she found his number. But she did and wants to know where her money is. Max wants to know where the documents are.
And all I am wondering is who has the upper hand.
The only two that I know don’t have an upper hand and are shady fucks are Violet and Lester. I need to know why they are snooping around Owen’s office, what they are looking for, and why they are so threatened by him. Those shady shits are not to be trusted.
But what we need to worry about is Max, because she got shanked. Now, yes, I know that Max can handle her own shit, but I can still worry. It wasn’t the CIA that did it, but that makes us all go, but who? Max knows – Talco. Basically she tells Owen that he needs to bargain a truce.
And that person that shanked her? Max is like biotch, you’re gonna be a double agent, or I will kill your family.
Max is actually really terrifying. Like I have no doubt that she would do just that.
Owen though, he’s not given up on figuring shit out. Talco is waiting for him, and he does get his ass kicked and once again, attached to a chair. He makes a deal to give the money back if Max and him will be square.
One has to wonder just what Max’s end game is. I am really not sure what it is, but I also feel like the more I grow to like her the less suspicious I will be.
Owen knows something is up when there are no records of Max. His roommate gives him the idea of looking for misspellings, when she mentions that Owen’s name was misspelled on his subpoena. But even with misspellings, there is not much on her. Yet, what it does give him a name of one of her handlers.
And that brings him to Vienna. Vienna is apparently the hotspot for spies. Owen isn’t trained in counter intelligence, so he gets spotted and tailed right away.
When he goes to the embassy to meet his contact, he’s not really getting anything. Xander is being shady, but keep getting caught in lies. Owen knows that something is up and he’s not falling for anything that Xander is saying.
But he’s still fucked. Why? Someone has hired assassins to try and kill him. Luckily he’s on the phone with Max and she helps him get through it. Granted he has to like jump off a bridge. So that’s not fun.
OTHER THOUGHTS
- Violet and Lester have gone way beyond hazing and I don’t trust them
- The General Counsel is the shit. I kinda love him and his attitude
- Laughing that Owen knew that Violet had his black passport and he went for it
- Amelia makes me LOL – she’s blunt and gives no fucks. But I love that she was straight to the point.
- Owen and his roommate need to get together
- Like really if a girl makes you pizza bagels – she likes you
- Who is the girl at the pool? Is she important to the story?
- The staff meeting was the funniest shit ever
The Recruit is streaming now on Netflix.
