Previously in Episode 3 of “The Recruit,” we saw Owen realize that Xander Goi attempted to murder him in Vienna, and now he informs Max about Xander’s appearance in exchange for instructions to Beirut. His subpoena will put him in grave jeopardy since he ought to investigate his boss Nyland in order to have the subpoena dropped. We learned how Max was arrested after murdering Talco’s collaborator, a jerk named Salvatore Kwitny.
Spoilers Ahead
How Did Max’s Record Come Clean?
“The Recruit” Episode 4 begins, and we see Violet seems angry with Nyland for sending Owen and Lester to Beirut, despite the fact that she is an experienced lawyer who has worked in JAG for a long time. She thought it was a little misogynistic of him to ignore her presence in this way. Owen believed that he and Lester had finally bonded, but Lester disagreed. Meanwhile, an elderly man approached Owen and handed him a document, stating that it was an incident report on OTS (Office of Technical Service) and that they were gathering AI intelligence but that some issue may have occurred, and that Owen should check into it. Owen was annoyed because he had another challenge to address while his life was already in deep trouble. Dawn Gilbane had come to meet Nyland in his office when Owen arrived there. She believed that Max Meladze should be reinstated in the Russian mob in Belarus so that the CIA could once again utilize her as an asset. Her records should thus be clear without any CIA interference, which is why Owen needed to speak with the attorney general once again to refrain from dismissing the accusations. Max being returned to Russia as an asset raised some concerns in Owen’s mind, but Dawn was certain of it because she was aware of Max’s efficiency as an asset. After Dawn had left, Owen told Nyland about the OTS, who were having issues dealing with a damaged AI intellect after their AI had severed one of the suspect’s arms during an interrogation. Nyland informed Owen that he shouldn’t handle such cases while he was on the graymail case, so Owen advised that this case be assigned to Violet, who was looking for such challenges.
Violet didn’t appear to be too pleased with this choice, though, as no lawyer would want their name to appear on a court document involving a killer robot. So, after meeting with the technician and the robot named TIM, Violet urged him to lock up the robot until she retired. When Owen met with the attorney general to urge him to drop the idea of clearing her charges, the attorney general said that it would be challenging to completely clear Max’s record because there was an eyewitness to the murder case. Owen now had yet another cause for concern. He accidentally told Max about this, and Max began her investigation to identify the eyewitness, and from Cora, she found out his name, Danny Woodrow. We are pretty sure that Max would hire someone to kill the witness. Owen asked Hannah to take him to a party that is actually a gala arranged by the Sea Life Society, where Senator Smoot would be the honored speaker so that he could talk to him until his subpoena was withdrawn. Hannah hesitantly agreed to take him since she knew her parents wouldn’t approve of her spending time with Owen, but Owen needed to speak with Smoot. So, to make an impression on the Senator, Hannah brought him and presented him to everyone from the elite class, which surprised Smoot seeing Owen meeting with the highest notch. He, therefore, put off issuing his subpoena for a week while keeping it intact. While Hannah and Owen were enjoying their time together, Owen suddenly realized that he had forgotten to tell Hannah that he was meeting Amelia tonight. He wanted to drive Hannah home, but she was upset to hear about his date. When Owen was on his way to see Amelia, he ran into Dawn Gilbane, who questioned him about why he wasn’t working in operations, given his history. Although Owen didn’t want to seem cool, he did want his feet on the ground, so he rejected her suggestion. Since Amelia had earlier observed Dawn inspecting Owen’s office and attempting to install a camera there, and since Amelia had alerted Owen about it, he told her to keep away from his files and office.
Owen arrived at Amelia’s residence after Dawn had dropped him off. Amelia appeared to be a fierce character who may be dangerous for Owen if she told Violet about him, but in my opinion, she wanted to protect Owen, or she had any other evil intentions on her mind. Anyway, Owen and Amelia spent some quality time together, and following a passionate encounter, Owen learned that she was practicing reading the news in her room, where a TV news station had been set up. Owen joined her and discussed the graymail case, in which he discovered that it would be extremely difficult to exonerate a killer given the presence of an eyewitness. Since the CIA had its own version of a protection control strategy, it could relocate the witnesses. Owen had already approached the Phoenix regional office, where he had informed them beforehand that he needed to find the eyewitness in Max Meladze’s case. He thus had no trouble locating the witness, Danny Woodrow. Owen arrived at Woodrow’s on the day he was scheduled to testify in court. Owen lied about his identity to inform him that instead of coming to court, they were going to tape his testimony at his house because some people were chasing him to finish him off. Owen videotaped his statement upon learning that Max had brutally murdered Salvatore Kwitny, although he had no idea why Max had killed him at the time. Owen was incensed at the depiction of the murder and no longer had any sympathy for Max, but soon after their interview, a hitman arrived at Woodrow’s house and began firing at it. Owen and Danny sought to hide, but the hitman broke into the house. After blinding the hit man’s eyes with cleaning liquid, Owen fled down a toilet chamber with the help of Max’s directions. Max informed Owen that she had hired this man to kill Woodrow, so she apologized for not trusting Owen in the first place.
But eventually, the prosecution against Max Meladze was abandoned due to a lack of evidence, and Max was released. Kelly, Kwitny’s daughter, was devastated by the loss of this case, which also affected Owen. So he addressed Max and told her that from now on, he would have no contact with her since she was now the operation’s issue, not his. Owen contacted Hannah on his way back to console himself. He was continually blaming himself for expunging a murderer’s record. Hannah informed him that he had a good heart but that he could be selfish at times, such as when he called her not to check on her but to discuss his own troubles, which made him feel even worse, and he accepted that no matter what he did, he was going to be a bad person because of his profession, leaving him with no independence to make his own decisions. Meanwhile, Dawn called Xander Goi to discuss Max’s release, and it seemed that she was preparing to kill her rather than return her to Belarus, which is still ambiguous in “The Recruit” Episode 4, and we expect to have a clearer picture in the following ones.
At the end of “The Recruit” Episode 4, we witness Max Meladze emerge from jail like a lion emerging from its den to hunt. Owen may be stuck in his problems and regret his choices, while Max is the polar opposite since she made her own decisions no matter where she worked because she believed in independence rather than laboring mindlessly for her nation.
