The Recruit season 2 episode 5 sets up the final mission of the season: rescuing Nan Hee (Sanghee Lee) from Vladivostok, Russia, where she’s being held as a hostage of the Yakuza.
The Recruit season 2 episode 6, “I.D.N.W.T.B.D.I.” begins as Jang Kyun (Teo Yoo), Owen (Noah Centineo), Lester (Colton Dunn), and Yoo Jin (Do Hyun Shin) are approaching Vladivostok by boat. Nichka (Maddie Hasson) calls Owen as they approach the docks, and she informs him that she’s near the compound. While Lester and Owen hide, Jang Kyun pays off the Russian officers who board the boat as they head to the docks.
Meanwhile, Dawn and her team meet up with Owen and the gang on the boat as they make their move to find Nan Hee and rescue her.
The CIA is ready to blame Owen for everything
Back at the CIA, Amelia (Kaylah Zander) puts together a public statement throwing Owen and Lester under the bus and claiming the agents went rogue. Amelia reads the statement to the CIA Director (Nathan Fillion) and Nyland (Vondie Curtis-Hall), and then she burns the letter. The South Koreans do the same.
Shortly after, the NIS Director informs Grace (Young-ah Kim), who is Jang Kyun’s boss, that she has one day to get this situation resolved or she’s going to jail. She visits Janus (Kristian Bruun) in jail and asks for his cooperation in finding the other CIA agents, but he knows that he has all the leverage in this situation. He doesn’t give anything up.
In Russia, Nichka poses as a mafia enforcer and visits the Yakuza. She claims she is taking over. She visits Nan Hee, who is barely alive. Then, she calls the team and reveals the bad news. There’s no way that they could get to her at the compound. Instead, they make a plan to force the Yakuza to bring Nan Hee for a prison swap as the K&R guys. They tell the Yakuza they have come up with their $10 million offer for Nan Hee.
While they wait for the swap, Lester and Dawn (Angel Parker) talk about their issues and agree to move on if they survive what’s next. Lester threatens that he’ll kill her if she ever tries to have him killed again.
Yoo Jin and Owen have a moment on the boat that night, too. They talk about Owen’s past and the chaos and mayhem that followed. Owen admits it's the grief he carries with them and that sadness that worries him, not the danger of the missions. Then, they kiss and hook up. It’s been heading this way all season. After, Owen wakes up in a panic, worried about failing Nan Hee and Jang Kyun. He also worries that he has selfish reasons for trying to save Nan Hee.
Owen and Jang Kyun talk again before the prisoner swap. Jang Kyun tells Owen that he would kill him to save Nan Hee, and Owen agrees that he knows.
Nyland doesn’t ask Amelia to watch the prisoner swap on a live feed somewhere in the agency (but he actually does).
The hostage swap goes bad
As they prep for the hostage swap, the team is going to storm in 45 seconds after the Yakuza reveals the hostage. Owen and the gang have to stay alive on the ship long enough to secure Nan Hee and flee. Will it work? We’re about to find out!
On the boat, they bring Nan Hee out, but after Owen presses the button to alert Dawn, Lester, and the rest of the team. Then, the Russians show up armed to the teeth. Dawn and Lester are forced to stand down. Jang Kyun and Owen try to fight their way out, but they can’t. Jang Kyun is shot. Owen is nearly captured, but he jumps off the ship and swims to safety, or does he? Nichka doesn’t blow her cover yet. She stays on the yacht.
Owen chooses to swim after the yacht with Jang Kyun and Nan Hee. He is not leaving them behind just yet.
After Amelia watches the failed mission, Nyland reveals the plan she must take. They are going to abandon Owen and have him take the fall for everything that happened. Amelia is instructed to protect the CIA at all costs.
Owen eventually makes it to the dockhouse/houseboat thing and breaks in. He takes shelter behind their couch. When the soldiers return, Owen fights his way out and kicks one of the men over the balcony, killing them.
He calls Lester and Dawn and tells them what happened. He tells them that he won’t leave Jang Kyun and Nan Hee behind. While Lester and Dawn won’t help, they call Nichka to try to get her help.
Nichka double-crossed Owen and Lester
While the Russians and Yakuza meet to interrogate Nan Hee and Jang Kyun, it’s revealed that Nichka double-crossed Owen and the CIA. She asked the Russians for backup, so the CIA agents wouldn’t try anything during the prisoner swap.
Then, she travels to meet Owen at the boathouse. She convinces Owen to get in the car with her. She promises to take him Lester, but when they get to the car, she tries to stuff Owen in the trunk. He realizes, then, that she is a traitor. She informs him that she used his offer to sell them to the FSB for a small fortune and a new job. So, she’s basically a double agent.
Violet (Aarti Mann) travels to South Korea to meet with Grace. She lays out the situation and all of Grace’s missteps. Violet tries to recruit Grace to the mission of pinning everything on Owen. Then, she frees Janus from South Korean custody. On his way out, he actually hits on Grace, and she’s surprisingly into it.
At the CIA, the CIA Director calls Lester and Dawn and informs them that they cracked the code on Jang Kyun’s Dead Man’s Switch, so they can come home. They share that now Owen and Jang Kyun are actually in Russia. Dawn makes her move. She negotiates a promotion to Moscow station chief if she kills Jang Kyun and Owen from the Russians. The CIA Director accepts that deal and then kicks Nyland out of the meeting. If this goes bad, the CIA Director will be forced to step down.
Owen saves the day
Owen sneaks into the airfield, nearly dying in the process, disguised as a Russian soldier. He still thinks he can sneak in and rescue Nan Hee and Jang Kyun by himself. My guy is nothing if not ambitious. He finally breaks into the hangar where they’re being held, but Dawn has a sniper rifle locked on them. Thankfully, Nichka finds Dawn first, and they find it out! Nichka eventually kills Dawn and throws her body in the water.
Back on the boat, Yoo Jin saves Lester’s life after Dawn’s dude tried to kill him again, but then she knocks out Lester and starts driving the boat somewhere, probably to rescue Owen.
Owen, Jang Kyun, and Nan Hee steal a car and make for the bay. They start swimming while the Russian soldiers shoot at them from the shore. Luckily, Yoo Jin shows up, collects Owen and the husband and wife, and sets sail for international waters. The Russians don’t give up, though. They give chase, peppering the boat with bullets until a US Navy submarine surfaces and saves the group. Jang Kyun thanks Owen, who offers Jang Kyun and Nan Hee a home in America as long as the couple is willing to give up some secrets to the CIA.
And, that’s where the episode and season ends!
What does “"I.D.N.W.T.B.D.I." mean?
Finally, we have the perfect episode title acronym that really sums up The Recruit season 2. "I.D.N.W.T.B.D.I." stands for “I do not want to be dead inside.” That’s what Owen tells Lester and Dawn when he reveals that he’s alive in Russia and that he’s going back for Jang Kyun and Nan Hee. He tells the pair of his colleagues that they are “dead inside” for how ruthless they are in their own selfishness and that they’d leave people they know behind. That’s not how Owen does business.
The Recruit season 2 was such a great season! Now, we wait for news about season 3. Stay tuned for more information about the future of this great series.