Yahoo Lifestyle The Recruit EP Confirms [Spoiler]’s ‘Tragic’ Finale Fate, Shares Early Thoughts on Potential Season 3
Owen Hendricks went into Season 2 of The Recruit with redemption on his mind. And although he ultimately achieved that goal, his victory came at a heavy cost.
“He’s a flawed character,” showrunner Alexi Hawley tells TVLine of Noah Centineo’s danger-magnet lawyer. “He’s a guy who’s young and selfish. And he’s super good at justifying the decisions that he makes, which he makes for the right reason, but they often pull people in that get hurt.”
More from TVLine
Following Owen’s Russian nightmare, the Netflix thriller’s second season relocated him to Seoul, where he became responsible for rescuing the wife of a rogue NIS agent Jang (Teo Yoo), who was threatening to release devastating CIA secrets. Even though Owen had no business getting involved in the first place, this presented an opportunity for him to prove his worth — not only to the CIA, but to everyone he disappointed last season, including himself.
“We really wanted to see him try and grow up this season,” Hawley adds. “This job at the CIA isn’t the same as college or law school. There are real consequences to his actions, and it was important for us with to really show him struggling with that. It’s not just all fun games. People get killed.”
Not wanting to count his chickens before they hatch, Hawley says he doesn’t know exactly how a (likely) third season of The Rookie would play out, but he agrees that Owen’s work is far from over.
Grade Season 2 of The Recruit in our poll below, then read on for Hawley’s thoughts after that explosive finale, including what Owen’s future might hold in a potential third season.
After rescuing his wife (yay!) and getting burned by the NIS (boo!), Jang’s next move is anyone’s guess — mostly because Hawley hasn’t mapped out a plan for Season 3 yet.
“I have a few thoughts,” he tells TVLine, adding that Jang might not come back “necessarily as a regular, but he’s definitely someone I want in our arsenal.”
One person you definitely shouldn’t expect to see in future seasons is Dawn (Angel Parker), following her fatal knife fight against Nichka (Maddie Hasson) in the finale.
“Dawn’s story is ultimately a tragic one,” Hawley tells TVLine. “She’s somebody who got way out over her skis. She was basically robbing from the CIA, creating fake assets and taking the money they were supposed to be paid. This whole season for her was a scramble to try and clean up her tracks and get back into the CIA’s good graces. Ultimately she came up against an obstacle she couldn’t overcome in the end. … Having moments like Dawn getting killed off are powerful within the story, but they’re also important for the audience to be like, ‘Oh, s––t, nobody’s safe.’”
The news is a little better for Dawn’s killer, who could very well reenter Owen’s orbit in future seasons, even if her higher-ups aren’t too thrilled with her recent performance.
“There’s definitely a world where we could see Nichka again,” Hawley says. “I always try to do the unexpected, but unexpectedness is harder to do in this day and age where audiences are smart because they watch so much stuff. Having wild cards out there is super fun because you never know. Maybe they’ll come back, maybe they won’t.”
Considering their last encounter ended with Hannah calling Owen a “parasite of joy” and throwing a chair in a blind rage, Hawley confirms to TVLine that it’s “fair to say” she wants absolutely nothing to do with him moving forward.
“To get Hannah back in any way, shape or form, Owen would really have to prove that he’s a different person, and I don’t know that he’s enough of a different person to get there yet,” Hawley explains. “The realization that that he was the problem is partly what’s driving him towards this need to do something that matters, the heroic thing. He wanted to fight for [Jang’s] love story because he knew that he had f–ked up his own love story. I thought that was really important.”
On the bright side, not everyone was unlucky in love this season. Just look at Janus (Kristian Bruun) and Grace (Kim Young-ah), a relationship Hawley says he explore more after witnessing their on-screen chemistry.
“That relationship was really special, and that’s something that came out of the actors,” Hawley tells TVLine. “It wasn’t boiled in early scripts, but once you see them start to do scenes together, you’re like, oh, there’s something there that we should lean into.”
Best of TVLine
Sign up for TVLine's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
