"The Recruit" Just Dropped, So Here Are Noah Centineo's Best Moments As Owen Hendricks
Noah Centineo is back on our screens in Netflix's The Recruit, and no more is he our internet boyfriend. He's a (sort of) spy now!
Netflix
Just kidding, he will always be the internet's boyfriend. But as Owen Hendricks, Noah definitely proves that he's ready to be an action star while still showing off the charms that made him such a great rom-com lead.
The Recruit is about Owen Hendricks, a 24-year-old lawyer who is recruited to the CIA fresh out of law school. He encounters a blackmail letter from a former asset threatening to reveal agency secrets and is suddenly tangled up in international criminal activity. Safe to say, he's way over his head.
The time of Peter Kavinsky may be over, but Owen Hendricks is here to become your new fictional TV bae. Here are some of his (and Noah Centineo's) best moments from Season 1:
🚨SPOILER WARNING🚨 for Season 1 of The Recruit.
1.From the first moment we meet him singing "I Knew You Were Trouble" while he's peeing in the snow, it's clear Owen is an absolute dork (affectionate).
Not that there's anything inherently dorky about singing Taylor Swift, but given the context that he's on a LIFE-THREATENING CIA OPERATION, it tells you he's just a sweet silly dummy.
2.He's also a bit of an idiot, given how he walked up to a black site in Yemen and just started demanding information. He immediately gets a fingernail ripped off and pees his pants.
Amusing for us, very unsafe for him.
3.He might work for the CIA, but he's not above googling "How to negotiate with drug dealers."
Owen has some real moments of brilliance throughout the season, but it's scenes like this that made me wonder how he wasn't dead already.
4.He's refreshingly self-aware for an action hero, frequently repeating to anyone who will listen that he is not qualified for the increasingly dangerous situations he finds himself in.
Normally I'd be annoyed at a white man who continuously failed upwards, but Owen knows he's not ready for any of this and tries to remove himself from the situation. It's just that nobody listens to him every time he says "I'm not a spy. I'm just a lawyer."
5.Owen doesn't actually know how to fight, but his fight scenes are still exciting because he desperately swings around whatever he can get his hands on to avoid dying.
Noah admittedly did not do all his own stunts, but there are some things he clearly did do that look cool.
6.He often relies on the "fake it 'til you make it" approach regarding his spy work, but does seem to be a good lawyer. It's a combination that helps him do things like blackmail a Swiss banker like he does in Episode 7.
7.And like all respectable action heroes, Owen/Noah can rock a disheveled, blood-spattered appearance.
I mean this in as respectful a way as possible, but he looks hot. I am only human.
8.The Recruit is first and foremost a spy/action show, but it's also a show starring Noah Centineo and you know what that means: he's gonna have insane chemistry with everyone, but especially his three love interests. Three!
No woman alive can resist!! Defenseless to his charms!!!
9.Owen's relationship with fellow lawyer, Amelia, is reminiscent of 2000s rom-coms with its sexy banter and fun workplace dynamic.
She ultimately breaks up with him because he's too immature, but I'm hopeful. Amelia puts him in his place, which he desperately needs sometimes, but also won't get him killed. She's the perfect balance of all the love interests, and their Anderson Cooper-themed roleplay is funny and cute.
10.Owen and Hannah are set up as the show's OTP and perfectly fit the friends-to-lovers trope, but both have some growing up to do before they can give their romance another shot.
When Owen helped Hannah steal a book from a library, it was as if Peter Kavinsky was back in our lives for one glorious moment, and I swooned. But we need to face the hard reality that Owen takes Hannah for granted and she does not stick up for herself!
11.Finally, there's Max, the rogue CIA asset who will definitely get Owen killed one day but whose relationship with him is the absolute best thing about the show.
These two are a cross between Chuck and Sarah from Chuck and Nick and Catherine from Basic Instinct. Their chemistry is wild, I tell you. They go from antagonistic to sexy to caring in the span of a single scene. Their relationship definitely borders on toxic, but you can't look away.
12.The relationship between Owen and Max leads to the climax of Owen's entire arc when he immediately kills two people after they shoot and injure Max in the season finale. It's also Noah Centineo's best acting moment of the season.
Owen had vehemently avoided killing anyone all season, so it's a big fat deal that he did it for Max.
13.Lastly, unlike some of Noah's previous characters, Owen is not the perfect idealized man. Frankly, he's a mess.
Noah's rom-com characters weren't perfect, but they definitely represented a romantic ideal. On the other hand, Owen is selfish and acts impulsively, which makes the people in his life unsure if they can count on him. He's also clearly not meant for this line of work if his frequent anxiety attacks toward the end of the season are any indication.
