Is anyone else reminiscing about Noah Centineo almost showing it all in ‘The Recruit’ Season 2?

Noah Centineo had one shot to shock the audience of The Recruit Season 2 … and he did not miss.

Viewers who watched the new season of Centineo’s Netflix dramedy about a CIA lawyer know that he puts in a lot of effort into the show. However, in the Season 2 premiere episode, “Y.N.A.H.Y.A.L.,” he goes above and beyond.

**Spoilers ahead for Season 2 of The Recruit**

In the previous season finale, Owen Hendricks (played by Centineo) witnessed the death of Max Meladze (Laura Haddock) at the hands of her daughter Nichka (Maddie Hasson). Season 2 begins with Owen in a tough spot, having to plead for his life and eventually being rescued by his CIA team. Despite being beaten by Nichka, a highly skilled Russian assassin, Owen manages to survive.

Upon returning to the base and trying to clean up in the bathroom, Owen faces interruptions while partially undressed. First, Dawn (Angel Parker) confronts him, and they agree to keep each other’s secrets. Just as Owen hopes for some privacy, Nichka surprises him while crawling through an air vent from the neighboring restroom, learning about Dawn and Owen’s arrangement.

“You are naked,” Nichka says as Owen attempts to cover up his very exposed body parts with the rolled-up sweatpants the agency laid out for him. He’s forced to talk with her, at least until he can get the sweatpants on and cover up enough to walk out into the hallway of a government facility. It’s at that moment that Centineo bares his body not only to show off his ripped status (six-pack and all!) but also to craft a hilarious scene. Maybe it was easy for him to say yes to it given the impeccable shape he is in, but we are not discounting the commitment it takes to pull off a scene like this.

The thing is, Centineo and the writers know what they are doing here. They have clearly seen people jokingly state that they cannot distinguish between The Night Agent and The Recruit and therefore wanted to give them no reason for confusion. This scene to me screams, “Try confusing us now, why don’t you.” Centineo exudes confidence and sexiness, and it feels effortless for an actor who has fought hard to be taken seriously.

There are so many reasons I cannot stop thinking about this scene. One reason is obvious and does not even need to be said out loud (“He’s hot,” she whispers), but the second big reason is that it tells me how comfortable he is as an actor, putting himself out there for the betterment of a project he cares deeply about. One quick look at his surprisingly sparse Instagram page will tell you that this is a passion project through and through. He has just 15 posts on his page and nearly half are devoted to promoting his hit show. He is proud and not afraid to admit it! Not to get too sentimental, but it does make me care more about a film or TV show when an actor is willing to really commit and back their words up with actions. Or abs-tions, in this case. (That pun doesn’t work nearly as well as I thought it would.)

I think we just need to recognize that Centineo might be one of those actors who was long placed in a box but deserves to break out of it. I’m always in favor of actors trying out new things — the point of acting is to become a new person, entirely — and I think he is showing time and time again that it’s something he takes seriously. In a weird way, his almost fully nude scene tells me just how much he cares about his show, his audience, and the career he has ahead.

Between his near-full frontal scene and his surprise-ish appearance in another Netflix project, XO, Kitty Season 2, he is really starting to carve out a name for himself as a man for the people. As anyone with a Netflix subscription and a pulse circa August 2018 can remember, Centineo starred as Peter Kavinsky opposite Lana Condor in the To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before adaptation. XO, Kitty — a spinoff of the To All the Boys franchise — stars Anna Cathcart as Kitty Song-Covey, the younger sister of Lara-Jean Covey (Condor). As it happens, both The Recruit Season 2 and XO, Kitty were shot in South Korea, making a cameo feasible for Centineo.

“[All The Boys producer and XO, Kitty exec producer] Matt Kaplan and one of my friends over at Netflix called me and said, ‘Hey, you’re going to be shooting in South Korea the same time that we are. Would you be interested in coming back for XO, Kitty?’” Centineo told Deadline.

He added, “And I said, ‘Yeah, anything for Anna.’ I think Anna is just wonderful and hard working and super talented, just a professional, and she deserves the world.”

Thank goodness that he is a man for the fans!

The Recruit and XO, Kitty are both streaming on Netflix.