I’ll Never Get Over Noah Centineo Throwing Chicken Nuggets in a Pool on ‘The Recruit’

Netflix‘s The Recruit operates under the assumption that viewers will suspend any and all disbelief. We’re asked to accept Noah Centineo as a 24-year-old CIA lawyer named Owen Hendricks. We’re supposed to believe that after accidentally finding himself in the middle of a dangerous mission with a target on his back and a literal murderer by his side this rookie lawyer simply…survives! And we’re not supposed to question Owen’s non-CIA roommates flying halfway across the world to risk their lives and check if he’s safe. FINE! But one storyline in The Recruit is so deeply chaotic, so unhinged, so ridiculously unconscionable that I refuse to accept it.

Yes, I’m talking about sacrificing chicken nuggets to the pool gods.

This single storyline is so stupid, so pointless, so perplexing, so secondhand embarrassing that I’m physically getting angry just writing about it. But before we unpack the chicken chaos, let’s recap the scenes that made me repeatedly shout “WHAT!?” at my laptop, shall we? Warning: The Recruit spoilers ahead!

In Episode 2 of The Recruit, Owen finds himself checking into a motel at night. He heads out to the pool where he meets a girl named Kelly (Alex Petrachuk) who’s sitting alone with a takeout container. Noah walks over and says, “I just checked in and couldn’t help but notice that you’re eating takeout. I’m starving. How are the chicken nuggets? Any good?”

She tells this nosy man, “I’m not even sure they’re chicken,” and he proceeds to ASK FOR A NUGGET as if it’s socially acceptable to just walk up to strangers and ask for their food. Kelly humors Owen and gives him a piece of chicken, which he seems to enjoy. But after he munches it, she says, “OK now you have to sacrifice one to the pool gods.”

WHAT?!

Without skipping a beat or asking what she means, Owen grabs a nugget, tosses it over his shoulder, and we hear a splash. The camera pans to reveal the motel pool is littered! with! chicken nuggets! and I just need to know WHAT is going on.

“What is that like a good luck thing? Or a ward off evil spirits thing?” Owen asks while throwing air punches. “It is a useless act of destruction thing,” Kelly replies. Owen sits down next to her in front of the chicken nugget pool, and within seconds they’re pouring their hearts out to each other and bonding over their dead dads. Normally, I’d have paid more mind to that accelerated conversation, but I was too busy trying to comprehend the massive motel pool of chicken nugget soup that was apparently concocted out of…sheer boredom?

Kelly straight-up admitted to tossing perfectly good nuggets into a motel pool as “a useless act of destruction,” which is infuriating because she’s both wasting edible food and polluting a swimming pool! I hate it so much! If you pause on the pool it looks like there’s a lot of chicken down there, so it’s possible that Kelly didn’t start this chaotic trend and was simply adding to an already polluted pool, but still. These scenes haunt me.

In Episode 3, we learn that Kelly isn’t just a girl Owen met at the motel. Her dad was murdered by Max, and Owen runs into her at the courthouse ahead of “an emergency hearing.” When Owen sees Kelly, he tells her he’s the guy from the motel and she remembers him once he says, “We sacrificed chicken nuggets together!” (Yes, really!)

After an emotional day in court, Owen finds Kelly sitting by that infamous motel pool and presents her with a gift: a bucket of chicken. “Hey! I brought fresh sacrifices. I just wanted to make sure you’re alright,” he says. Kelly tells him the gesture was “very sweet” and she chucks another chunk of chicken into the chlorinated water.

What happens next? Well, nothing! That’s that! Kelly came, she saw, she conquered the motel pool with chicken nuggets. But I can’t understand why — of all the stress releases in the world — The Recruit writers concocted such a deeply bizarre show of privilege that feels so performatively quirky. Yes, tossing chicken into a pool is a largely harmless. But it’s also deeply irksome and unnecessary! Don’t waste food! Don’t pollute a pool! Consider trying therapy!

To all the nuggets I’ve loved before, I apologize on behalf of The Recruit.

The Recruit Season 1 is now streaming on Netflix.