In ‘The Recruit’, Cora is part of the reason why Max is in prison. To get released, Max gets Owen Hendricks involved in a case that is much bigger than he expected. The series is now streaming on Netflix.
When Owen Hendricks comes across a graymail blackmailing the CIA, he decides to meet the woman who wrote it — Max Meladze.
Max is in prison for murdering a man, but she refuses to tell Owen why she committed the murder. Owen coincidentally befriends the daughter of the man Max killed, and she tells him that her father was a good man.
Owen is forced to ignore his guilty conscience and help Max get released. However, when Max meets Cora in prison, the audience gets to see why she committed the murder.
The audience might even feel sympathy for Max’s character, played by Laura Haddock, and Cora, played by Amanda Schull.
An old friend
When Owen gets Max’s case moved to federal jurisdiction, Max is moved to another prison. She is told to speak to an inmate named Cora if she wishes to acquire a phone.
Cora is not just an old acquaintance, she is part of the reason why Max is in prison. The two met three years ago.
Max used to provide safe houses to people who needed them at a cost, and Cora was one of her clients. She was wanted by the FBI and needed a place to lay low.
Max tries her best to keep Cora at an arm’s length, as it was an essential requirement in her business. She tells Cora that she will be safe as long as she does not go out, does not tell anyone about her whereabouts, and does not get comfortable.
She further informs Cora that she can live here only for two weeks, and then she will have to leave.
Cora tries to befriend Max, but Max rejects her advances. However, it does not last for long because Cora convinces Max to have dinner with her the next time they meet.
Max, who cannot remember the last time she ate at a table with company, and Cora, who has not spoken to anyone in weeks, bond over dinner. Max tells her about her daughter, the only person she has ever loved, and Cora tells her about her neglectful mother.
Cora requests Max to let her stay there for another week, and Max, who always sticks to her rules, makes an exception for her.
How do Cora and Max end up in prison?
When Max comes to meet Cora, she finds her there with another man. Cora was clearly assaulted by the man, and she broke a rule by bringing him to the safe house.
Max asks them to vacate her house within an hour. When she returns later with her gun, she finds Cora almost unconscious and covered in blood.
Cora begs Max not to call the police, but Max has to do it in order to save Cora’s life, which lands Cora in prison.
Max, on the other hand, comes across Salvatore, the man who assaulted Cora, at a gas station. She follows him and then beats him to death when he does not show an ounce of regret for what he did to Cora.
After murdering him, she takes the bag full of cash that the man was carrying. She hides the bag, but she gets arrested for his murder.
How does Cora help Max?
Apart from buying the phone that she uses in prison from Cora, Max asks for her assistance in finding out the identity of the person who had witnessed her murdering Salvatore.
While Cora blames Max for getting arrested, Max justifies her actions by arguing that she saved Cora’s life. Max also feels like Cora owes her, as she is only in prison because she murdered Salvatore for Cora’s sake.
Cora finds out everything about the eyewitness and gives the information to Max. She warns Max that getting the witness killed could get her locked up in prison for life.
Although Cora only appears for a short time, she is instantly liked by the audience as she is one of the bright characters in the series.
She is friendly and peppy, even winning over Max who, despite claiming that they would never be friends, ends up killing Salvatore for hurting Cora.