‘The Recruit’ Ending Explained: Does Owen Manage to Get Maxine Out of Jail?

Welcome to the Ending Explained for The Recruit, the latest spy TV series coming to Netflix. The series is created by Alexi Hawley and introduces Noah Centineo, one of the streaming platform’s most renowned actors, as a young lawyer who the CIA has just recruited. Sadly, What the young lawyer think will be an easy job, becomes one of the biggest cases in the agency. One that now, he must follow through to the very end of the line, or his family and friends could also be in danger.

The Recruit proves that spy stories don’t have to be overly complicated and that you can still have tons of betrayals and plot twists while being clear on characters’ motivations and plot progression. Not everything is perfect, though, as the direction and most of the production design feel kind of cheap. The action sequences are especially hurt by poor choreography and the generic staging of the action. A bit more effort in these aspects would have gone a long way.

The following paragraphs contain spoilers for The Recruit. Read at your own risk.

Does Owen Manage To Get Maxine Out Of Jail?

The series begins with the introduction of Owen, our main protagonist. He is a lawyer fresh out of law school who has been recruited into the CIA and is ready for his first day at work. He soon realizes that everyone in the agency is on their own against others, and that teamwork doesn’t really exist. As the new guy, Owen gets appointed to deal with what the agency calls graymail. Letters from people who say they can divulge state secrets unless they get something from the government.

Most of the graymail doesn’t really have any validity to its claims, but Owen finds one letter that stands out from the rest by using very specific vocabulary. The letter was written by a woman named Maxine, and she is right now incarcerated for murder and awaiting trial in the state of Arizona. Owen’s investigation brings to light the fact that she is the real deal and could be quite a problem. It is revealed that Maxine is a former Russian agent who served by going undercover inside the Russian mob, but when the Russian government stopped having a use for her, she became a liability, so she escaped.

Owen makes the most out of his job and manages to bring Maxine out of jail, even when this means that he has had to bend some of his moral codes to do the job. At his work, Owen is being praised for being successful at getting Maxine out of jail, and now they plan to transform her into an asset for the CIA. Owen sees this as a very bad compromise, as Maxine was trying to get out of that life in Russia. It seems that it will be impossible for them, as now she will be working for the United States of America.

Owen’s own relationships have been affected by his work at the agency. He is barely home, and he has established a relationship of mutual benefit with a co-worker named Amelia. This really worries Hannah, Owen’s roommate and also ex-girlfriend, who clearly still has feelings for him. Owen shares those same feelings, so he knows that while he is moving up in his work, he is hurting the already complicated relationship she has with Hannah, whom he loves.

Does Maxine Become An Agent For The US Government?

As expected, Maxine doesn’t receive the news of her new forced employment very well, and she escapes. Owen manages to get to her, and soon they become a couple on the run. Owen is trying to bring Maxine back to the States, but Maxine has other ideas in mind. These ideas include getting revenge on the people who made her disappear from Russia in the first place. The people who destroyed her life many years ago. It is revealed that Maxine was a mother, and that this loss drives most of her anger.

Owen follows Maxine through Europe as she takes care of her vengeance, and the pair becomes closer and closer until the moment when they have to have sex just to release the tension between them. It becomes clear that the relationship between both of them is not romantic, but something more. Dawn, another US operative, gets involved, and things start getting violent, with basically the entire CIA coming after them as they see that Owen can not do his mission alone and that he has probably jumped sides in the conflict.

Maxine finally manages to kill the mob boss that turned against her so long ago in the first place. However, Owen feels tired, and he just wants to leave the mission and the agency altogether. He believes he is not cut out for it. Maxine tries to stop him, but she lets him leave in the end. Owen realizes that Hannah has followed him to Prague and that they can finally meet after so long. Owen has a lot of things to say to her. However, on her way to meet Hannah, Owen gets kidnapped by an unknown party.

When Owen wakes up, he realizes that Maxine has also been captured, and then a woman whom Maxine recognizes as Karolina appears. Owen knows this girl; he met her and had drinks with her when he arrived in Europe for the first time. Karolina shoots Maxine and then asks Owen who he is. It is revealed that Karolina is, in reality, Maxine’s daughter. The series ends with a cliffhanger that makes us wonder what will happen to Maxine, who is probably not dead but also not in the best situation now that her daughter has found her.