Diksha Sundriyal
Tension revs up in the third and fourth episodes of Netflix’s ‘The Recruit‘ Season 2 as Owen Hendricks finds himself in a tight situation that only seems to get worse. These episodes push the plot forward, introducing some key elements and characters that become important later in the story. At the same time, they also show us how far Owen is starting to fall in the hole he dug for himself. Danger closes in from all sides, and his anxiety starts to creep up again. Still, there are silver linings that give him the hope that things might turn out alright after all. SPOILERS AHEAD.
H.H.I.I.T.K.A.L. Underlines Owen’s Propensity for Survival
“How hard is it to kill a lawyer?” says Dawn Gilbane in reference to her target. In the third episode, Owen Hendricks takes a detour when he unwittingly joins Tom Wallace, who works with hostage negotiation, on his next mission. If his own mission wasn’t dangerous enough, Owen now finds himself face-to-face with the Taliban. The good thing is that they are joined by Oliver Bonner-Jones, a British businessman who has deep pockets and high connections and seems to be the only person at the moment who can help Owen figure out what happened to Nan Hee. The bad thing is that when surrounded by terrorists, things are expected to go haywire, and they do.
This isn’t the first time in the season where Owen finds himself facing death. In the second episode, he successfully evades an assassination attempt, which leaves him confused. He doesn’t understand who is trying to kill him, but in the third episode, things are cleared up pretty fast. One of the many enemies that Owen made during the events of the first season was Dawn Gilbane. She blames him for everything that happened with Max and the mission, but more importantly, he knows too much about her crimes and can bring her down.
Before Owen can make a move against her, she decides to have him eliminated and sends a mercenary to kill him at the Incheon airport. The assassination attempt fails, and when Dawn discovers that Owen is alive and well, she is frustrated, which is what makes her question: “How hard is it to kill a lawyer?” This line serves as the title of the episode and fits pretty well on Owen because despite all the dangerous things he has been through in the short amount of time since he joined the CIA, he somehow always seems to survive.
A.T.N.W.H.Y.P.A.B.H. Shows Owen What’s in His Future If He Fails
“And then Nyland will have you pulled apart by horses.” This is said to Owen when he is already in a precarious situation. There is no doubt that Owen Hendricks has a penchant for survival, even when his enemies are more experienced and powerful than him. However, instead of learning from his mistakes and not testing his luck again and again, he pushes it to its limits and always lands himself in situations that feel impossible to get out of. He somehow lands smack in the middle of conflict, solving which would turn him into a hero, but failing the task would destroy his life. In the fourth episode of the season, Janus says something to Owen to summarise the situation for him if the second possibility comes to pass.
As usual, Owen disregards protocols and whatnot and focuses simply on the task of helping a man get his wife back to safety. He is shocked and disappointed that the CIA is not going to help Jang Kyun find his wife, so, with the savior complex and whatnot, he decides to take the task upon himself. Because Janus is his partner in this mission, he reminds the young lawyer that he cannot let things go south because his superiors will make a lesson out of him if he fails. “And then Nyland will have you pulled apart by horses” refers to the situation in a similar context, where Janus is trying to warn Owen to slow down and not do anything rash. Of course, if he listened to the advice and acted upon it, he wouldn’t be Owen Hendricks.
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