The Recruit season 2 episode 4 recap: the negotiation goes wrong

The Recruit season 2 sees the return of Netflix's action-packed thriller, coming to the streamer in the same month as The Night Agent season 2.

Rookie CIA lawyer Owen Hendricks found himself embroiled in some seriously intense agency business in The Recruit season 1.

And while Owen must suffer the consequences of his actions in the Max Meladze operation, he’s quickly thrown right back into the deep end - this time in Seoul, South Korea. But, it’s far from a holiday as life-threatening affairs await him, alongside espionage, kidnapping, hostage negotiations, and more.

While Owen is joined by returning agents, he also meets a lot of new faces on his international travels - namely, Jang Kyun (Teo Yoo) and Grace Cho (Young-Ah Kim). Though their part to play in The Recruit season 2 is full of twists and turns.

Here's a recap of everything that happened in The Recruit season 2 episode 4.

The fourth episode starts with Owen driving away in Jang’s car. He calls Janus and tells him he’s gone rogue and he’s going to break into Jang’s apartment to find the dead man’s switch. Janus tells him he won’t hide it there, but there will be clues, so to take photos of everything.

At Jang’s apartment, he searches frantically and takes photos, as instructed. But, whilst he’s searching, Jang comes back. They fight, but it quickly stops when they realize it’s useless. Instead, Jang says he wouldn’t keep the dead man’s switch there because it’s the only thing stopping the CIA from killing him. Jang reveals that Nan Hee is pregnant.

When Lester gets home, he wakes Violet up to say he was nearly killed. He shows Violet the gun the man had and says it’s European special forces. Lester says he can’t tell the CIA what happened because they’ll think he’s been compromised and rubber-room him, like they did to Owen. He’s trying to get promoted to be the chief of Moscow Station and this would jeopardize that.

In Port Louis, Mauritius, Dodge tells Dawn that Lee is dead - the assassin sent to kill Owen - who they then sent to kill Lester. While Dodge says it won’t be traced back to them, he adds that Lester, Violet, and Owen are all on the way back to DC. Thinking they’re onto her, Dawn says she and Dodge need to go back, too. Meanwhile, as Owen packs to leave Korea, Janus says he’ll stay to keep an eye on Jang. Owen tells him that Jang is going to the NIS to look into recent crypto transactions because if the Yakuza have found out about the traceable crypto, they’ll have started to sell it quickly.

At the NIS, Yang looks into the financials on the computer. But while there’s been no change in the value, he notices a folder titled “Torture.” He looks inside and is shocked at what he finds. When leaving, Grace Cho is waiting in the corridor. She asks about the bruise on his face and he says he fell down the stairs. He says he’s still focusing on flipping Janus, but she says that the director heard rumors that the CIA is up to something. She says if Jang can’t get her answers in the next 24 hours, she’ll banish him to a watchtower on the DMZ.

Meanwhile, Amelia and Nyland discuss CEG’s visit to her home and they agree that they need to keep anyone involved in Max’s operation - Owen, Lester, Violet, and Dawn - away from DC. Little do they know, they’re all on their way back. As Lester and Violet arrive at the airport, Owen is there, followed by Dodge and Dawn who spot them secretly and plan to take them both out.

Jae, Terence, and Hannah have dinner at the apartment when Owen turns up home. He goes to get ready in his room and Hannah invites him to eat with them. He says he’s happy that she's found Jae and that he heard what she said to him in Germany about being a better man. He tells her she’s the person he cares most about in the world. Jae interrupts looking for the bathroom, but when Hannah and Owen leave, he comes out and starts taking photos of Owen’s belongings - namely his luggage tags and travel documents, as well as the old photo of him and Yoo Jin. He sends them all to his dad.

Back at the CIA, Owen meets with Director West and Nyland. West wants Jang neutralized, but Owen says it’s best if they give him what he wants. He says they should engage operations to execute a plan to save his wife. West says they can’t do that without involving the NIS, but then they’d have to tell them one of their own is compromised. Owen suggests using Lester, since he’s technically still a lawyer, as his operations paperwork hasn’t gone through yet. West agrees.

Lester is mad at Owen for involving him, saying it’s ruining his shot at the Moscow Station. He says unless he’s got any links to Yakuza he can use, then this operation isn’t going to work. To this, Owen pulls out Lord Oliver Bonner-Jones’s card.

It cuts to Hong Kong, Oliver picks up Owen’s call and pulls up the crime dossier on the Yamazaki clan for him. He says they kidnap people who owe them money or targets for blackmail and that she must be involved in their affairs in some way. He says he’ll do some digging and meet them in Seoul. Before they can leave, Amelia tells them both that CEG is looking for them. As they escape, Juno, a CEG agent, follows them down the stairs but comes across Dawn coming up in the lift and corners her instead.

When questioned, Dawn suggests to the CEG that she’s being used in a covert operation and that they need to look at Owen, who’s meant to be a lawyer but is acting like operations. She adds that she thinks he’s an assassination target, which is actually what Dawn made him, though she doesn’t tell them that. Dodge comes to pick her up and she says Lester can’t know that they sent an assassin to kill him, or they’d be arrested by now, and that Owen hasn’t said anything either. Instead, they’re going to follow them both to Seoul.

Elsewhere, Jae receives a call from his dad, which turns out to be a cover for NIS deputy director, Grace Cho. She says she needs hard intelligence and that’s why she assigned him to Hannah. He says the girl in the photo in Seoul means something to Owen, but Grace isn't interested. Instead, she threatens him and says she’ll release the arrest warrant for Jae’s drug offenses which will get him extradited back to South Korea. Or, she’ll tell the US government that he’s operating as an unofficial spy and he’ll be arrested for treason. Meanwhile, Grace lets Owen and Lester go. They dodge the surveillance team sent out to follow them around Seoul, but Lester says they’ve not got long before Grace sends the whole army.

Owen, Lester, Janus, and Jang meet at a motel and Oliver comes to meet them there. He reveals the Yamazaki lieutenant they need to speak to is actually in Seoul, but they need a cover story. Lester suggests they pretend they’re a kidnapping and ransom firm, which Jang agrees would be a good link to Nan Hee. He says they can get a proof-of-life call with Nan Hee and trace her location to get her out.

Owen suggests instead that since they’re pretending to be an insurance firm wanting to buy her back, they should actually just buy her back. They think they’ll need one to two million dollars that Lester could pull half from different accounts since Dawn will be held accountable still. And Jang agrees to do similar in the NIS.

They set up their operation and collect the funds. Oliver arranges the meeting with Kenta Nakano - the ruthless front-facing man in charge of most of the Kamazaki clan dealings, as well as a very scary-looking bodyguard. That night, Owen sneaks out. Jang warns him it’s too risky, but he goes to see Yoo Jin’s band at a bar.

They talk after her set and he tells her that he’s a lawyer for the CIA. They kiss, but he says he needs to go back to work. He asks if he can call her, but she says he can keep surprising her instead. As he goes to leave, Oliver is there. He warns him that he’s jeopardizing a team of people who are risking their jobs and lives.

That evening, Oliver, Jang, and Owen go to meet Mr Nakano. Owen has a camera hidden in his buttons, so Janus and Lester can watch from the motel. They introduce themselves to Mr Nakano as working for GFL Insurance. Jang is clearly on edge and as Owen offers up one million, he asks what the price will actually be. They bring in the bodyguard and Owen says they can pay two million, but Nakano asks for ten. To this, Jang asks for proof-of-life and he’s shown a live camera feed to where she’s being held - and Nan Hee can see him, too. Before she can say anything, revealing Jang's identity, Owen spills his beer on the laptop. Owen tries to haggle with Nakano, but he doesn’t waiver, calling an end to the meeting.

Back at Jae’s hotel room, Jae takes Hannah’s laptop while she’s showering and copies all her files onto a thumb drive. Hannah catches him in the act, but when she tries to run, he grabs her and throws her into the door, knocking her out. Meanwhile, back at the motel in Seoul, Lester reveals he was able to trace the IP address of the video call, finding Nan Hee’s location - Vladivostok, Russia.

All episodes of The Recruit are available to stream on Netflix now.