At the end of The Recruit season 2 episode 3, Owen Hendricks (Noah Centineo) leaves the scene of a murder in Jang Kyun’s (Teo Yoo) car. Well, The Recruit season 2 episode 4, “A.T.N.W.H.Y.P.A.B.H.,” begins immediately after. Owen speeds through the streets of Seoul and calls Janus (Kristian Bruun), who is not into Owen going rogue.
Owen explains the situation and what he’s doing. He’s on his way to Jang Kyun’s apartment to find the Dead Man’s Switch. Janus warns him about how bad this idea is. If he gets caught, Owen is dead dead dead.
Owen searches the apartment and takes lots of pictures, but Jang Kyun obviously follows him. They get into a huge fight, but eventually, they talk it out like adults. In the aftermath, Jang Kyun makes one final plea to Owen for help. He admits that Nan Hee (Sanghee Lee) is pregnant with his child, and the only way to get them back is for Owen to help crack this case open.
Lester and Violet fly home after Lester was attacked
In Warsaw, Poland, Lester (Colton Dunn) makes a plan to return home with Violet (Aarti Mann). He reveals that someone, an assassin, just tried to murder him. Lester and Violet make a plan to return to Washington D.C. because they’re danger.
Dawn (Angel Parker), who ordered the hit, finds out that Lester lived and booked a flight home. She thinks that they are on to her and are heading home to reveal her secrets. She’s going to make even bolder moves now.
At the NIS office, Jang Kyun checks to see if the Yakuza is dumping the trackable cryptocurrency that he traded, but they haven’t. On the computer, he finds a file with torture videos and watches them. On this way out, he runs into Grace, who informs him that they have 24 hours to find actionable information on what the CIA is up to or he’ll be removed from the case. He needs to find out why Owen is flying back to Washington D.C. again after such a short trip. Janus and Jang Kyun must work together.
Owen, Dawn, Lester, and Violet return to Washington D.C.
With the active CEG investigation, Owen, Dawn, Lester, and Violet are supposed to stay put around the globe, away from Washington, and most importantly, away from each other. So, it’s really bad for all four of them when they arrive at the airport at the same time and see each other walking through the airport. Lester, Violet, and Owen chat while Dawn and one of her minions split up and follow them to find out what they are up to and if they are turning on her.
At the CIA office, Owen reveals his big plan to Nyland and the CIA Director (Nathan Fillion). He wants Lester, who has just returned from Poland to lead the op in South Korea and loop in NIS. It’ll keep the CIA’s hands clean if it’s Lester and not Owen and Janus.
Owen calls Oliver (James Purefoy), the British agent and businessman who Owen met in Doha with Tom Wallace (Felix Solis). They make a plan to meet Oliver in Seoul to set up a meeting with the Yakuza and facilitate some conversations to get Nan Hee back.
Unfortunately, shortly after the call, Amelia (Kaylah Zander) warns them that CEG is in the building. They’re forced to hide in offices and maneuver their way out of the building so they can make the flight to Seoul and continue with this new phase of the mission with Lester and Owen working together.
Luckily for them, the CEG also runs into Dawn, who they are also very interested in. They sit her down for an interview after Owen and Lester escape.
In the interview with Dawn, she denies any involvement with the major issues with the last op that went wrong in Poland and in season 1. Dawn throws some shade Owen’s way in the interview, but he’s more or less unscathed.
In Seoul, Owen and Lester are pulled off the plane by Grace and interrogated before they’re allowed into the country. Grace (Young-Ah Kim) calls Jae (Omar Maskati), who is a South Korean agent and currently dating Hannah, Owen’s ex. Grace wants proof that Owen is an agent, but Jae doesn’t have proof yet. And, Grace is not happy about that. Jae did send the picture of Owen and Yoo Jin (Do Hyun Shin ) from their childhood. That could be big.
Owen and Jang Kyun try to buy Nan Hee back from the Yakuza
Lester and Owen quickly lose their surveillance team and meet with Janus and Jang Kyun at a sketchy safehouse. Oliver joins, as well, and they make a plan to buy back Nan Hee as reps for an insurance company. They pull $1 million together for the hostage exchange, and Oliver walks them through the Yakuza associates they’ll be meeting with to secure Nan Hee’s release.
While they wait for the meeting, Owen sneaks out to a club to watch Yoo Jin and her band play. He actually admits to her that he works for the CIA. Then, Oliver interrupts and gives Owen a little chat about getting his stuff together and not endangering other people’s lives when he doesn’t have his stuff together.
Later, Oliver, Owen,and Jang Kyun attend the meeting with the Yakuza to secure Nan Hee’s release. During the meeting, the Yakuza reveals that Nan Hee is alive. They even show Jang Kyun and Owen a live video feed of her alive and “relatively unharmed,” but they won’t trade her for anything less than $10 million. So, we are officially at a stalemate.
During the meeting, Lester and Janus tracked where Nan Hee is being held. She’s in Vladivostok, Russia. This is not good, not good at all.
Does Jae kill Hannah?
Earlier, Owen stopped at home and saw Hannah (Fivel Stewart) with Jae. They’re dating now, but Hannah and Owen have another moment and wish each other well. Jae, however, starts snooping around the apartment, taking pictures of Owen’s room, and sending them to someone. There’s something wrong here.
Later, Jae is trying to find more evidence that Owen is a CIA agent. He tries to download Hannah’s hard drive, but she catches him in the act. She tries to run, but he stops her. They get into an altercation, and Jae knocks her out. Honestly, the way she hit the wall she might actually be, um, dead. We don’t know for sure right now, but this is a huge moment.
If a South Korean agent just killed someone like Hannah while on a mission for the NIS, this is going to have huge repercussions.
What does A.T.N.W.H.Y.P.A.B.H. stand for?
The name of The Recruit season 2 episode 4 is “A.T.N.W.H.Y.P.A.B.H.” And, as you might have noticed in the episode, “And then Nyand will have you pulled apart by horses.” Okay, that is my favorite season 2 episode title so far!
Janus is always coming up with some banger quotes, but that’s what he tells Owen over the phone while Owen heads to Jang Kyun’s apartment very early in the episode trying to find intel.
We’re officially more than halfway through The Recruit season 2. Only two episodes left!