Previously in Episode 5 of “The Recruit,” we saw Max had called Owen back to Phoenix, and under the orders of Dawn and Nyland, Owen had had to travel to Phoenix to return her to the CIA. But Max needed Owen to tie up some loose ends for her. She thus persuaded him to approach cartel boss Sandoval Luna, whose men arrived to pick him up.
Spoilers Ahead
Did Owen And Max Pass The Lie-Detection Test? What Did The Scorpion Sign Mean?
At the beginning of “The Recruit” Episode 6, Talco’s car has just arrived at Luna’s outpost, and they made Owen wear a hood. They unmasked him and took him into the station, where Owen saw some scorpion-marked containers among the numerous boxes and tanks. Owen brought up Max’s agreement to Luna, but she only offered him $3 million, which Owen thought was insufficient. Owen persuaded him that since Max would soon return to Belarus as a Russian asset, a good agreement with Max would be necessary for Luna to get access to a new market in Eastern Europe. Owen told him about Sun Bank City employee Zuri Wench, who would offer him empty houses and all the necessary business papers. They struck a contract, and Owen returned with $7 million from him. As Max and Owen traveled back to Virginia, Dawn Gilbane met them and revealed a false identity to Max, shocking Owen. Owen had to contact Hannah and Terence while Dawn took Max to debrief her. Dawn was recruiting Max as a completely new asset to avoid being suspected by CIA security personnel, who believed all operatives were double agents. Max questioned Dawn about whether or not she actually intended to murder her, to which Dawn said that, if necessary, she would have done it already but she wanted Max to be alive. However, she clarified that if Max failed the lie detector exam, she would become a burden rather than an asset. Terence was talking to a friend from his workplace when Owen approached him. He introduced him to Linus, a foreign asset manager. Owen apologized to Hannah and told her how he ended up at the hotel with the Russian asset, so Hannah let go of her grudges and forgave him. Meanwhile, the two secret service operatives who had previously taken Owen to Kevin Mills reappeared to take him to the chief of staff again. Owen met Kevin and informed him that his nickname was being used in numerous activities by Xander Goi. Owen asked Kevin for a favor to help him drop his subpoena by speaking with Senator Smoot, to which Kevin agreed. But in return, he made the same request that the senator had made: he requested that Owen provide him with some information on what is happening at OGC. But Owen firmly refused, claiming that doing an investigation behind Nyland’s back would be an act of betrayal. Kevin told him that he had passed the test and said his goodbyes. Owen, Max and Dawn came to the office for the psychological and polygraph tests to determine whether or not the asset was trustworthy. Meanwhile, previously, we saw Owen discover scorpion-marked tanks, which piqued his interest, so he inquired of Janus and discovered that this was a symbol for American anti-tank missiles, which every terrorist desired to possess. Janus and the special operations team were sneaking these items out of the nation so they could surreptitiously monitor who bought them. Janus phoned the crew and inquired whether they had swapped these with any cartel leader since he had an eyewitness who had spotted them in a cartel’s train yard.
Janus cautioned Owen if this case came out, it would be the largest scandal, and not only Janus but also Owen would have to be involved and perhaps have to reveal the reason why he was on that cartel’s train. Owen was so anxious about the situation that he couldn’t even breathe properly, but he knew that the job he’d chosen was fraught with danger, and he couldn’t ignore it. Even he constantly had to be suspicious at this agency so that he could figure out the reason behind any mishappenings. Owen talked to the psychiatrist at the agency and discovered that, while the psychology test is simple and the asset may pass the exam easily only if she behaves herself, the polygraph is far more difficult since if the asset tells a small lie, the polygrapher, Dustin Hatch, would fail her. Owen was worried because if his asset failed, not only Max but also himself would be in danger. He would then have to resign from the post since the CIA would think of him as a traitor. Owen was getting panic attacks all the time while Max completed the polygraph test. She didn’t lie for the record, but her baseline was fluctuating since she had consumed too much energy drink before the exam. Owen was doubtful about Dawn Gilbane, believing that she could have known Max from a long time ago, and was pretending not to know her. However, Dawn Gilbane was the one who recruited Max when she escaped from prison after she had murdered her husband, a member of a Russian criminal organization. Despite the fact that Max aced the lie detector test, Dawn Gilbane wanted Owen to leave the case. So she persuaded Nyland to have the polygrapher take Owen’s test. Dawn showed Nyland a photograph of Owen and Max living in a hotel room so that he could agree to run the test, which he did, but he called Amelia to supervise the trial so that Dawn couldn’t screw things up. Owen was preparing for the test under the supervision of Amelia, but he assured Dustin that he could easily take control of his sphincter muscle while he was lying, and Dustin wouldn’t even detect the lie. Dustin was irate and questioned him inappropriately, such as if he had seen Max naked or wanted to have sex with her. Amelia interfered so that Dustin couldn’t irritate Owen; therefore, Owen finally passed the test.
Finally, after passing the tests, both Max and Owen arrived to speak with Dawn about their next moves. In the meantime, Amelia broke up with Owen for making such immature mistakes in his life, though Owen didn’t appear to mind because he had more difficult things to think about. He learned that Max had to pay a bribe to a lieutenant named Lev Orlova, who might demand ten million dollars in exchange for which they would have to open a Swiss account because all of Max’s accounts had been closed six years earlier. So, Dawn brought this work to Owen because he was a lawyer and could figure out some way to approve this account.
So, Owen went to Terence’s colleague Linus, who used to work at a treasury of foreign assets, so that he might withdraw the sanction of Max’s Swiss accounts for a brief duration, but in exchange, he wanted a date with Terence. Owen eventually assisted Dawn and Max in opening the accounts, and they all traveled to Geneva together. But Nyland sent Lester and Violet behind them to keep an eye on Owen so that if any danger emerged, they could back Owen and safeguard the agency. Given the overall asset scenario, Owen had no choice but to succumb to the conditions, since the problem of anti-tank missiles had surfaced, it would be difficult for Owen to ignore it, so in the forthcoming episodes, let’s explore if these illegal weapons had anything to do with the operation Owen and Max were in.
