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The Terminal List Season 1 Episode 2 Recap “Encoding”

Don’t miss Celebrity Myxer’s recap of The Terminal List Season 1 Episode 2 “Encoding.” Reece locks onto his first potential target, enlisting Ben’s help. With his mental health in question, Katie and Reece strike up an uneasy but mutually beneficial partnership to find answers. Here’s what you missed!

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Watch The Terminal List Season 1 Episode 2 Recap “Encoding”

Previously on The Terminal List Season 1 Episode 1 Premiere, Navy Seal James Reece (Chris Pratt) undergoes a military operation that backfires, killing most of his team, he is determined to get to the bottom of what happened with a suspected case of an ambush.

Warning… Spoilers below!

On The Terminal List Season 1 Episode 2, James Reece (Chris Pratt) has flashbacks of the murder scene where his wife Lauren (Riley Keough) and daughter Lucy (Arlo Mertz) were killed.

Lt James Reese portrayed by Chris Pratt on The Terminal List

Lt James Reese portrayed by Chris Pratt on The Terminal List

In and amongst that, Ben (Taylor Kitsch) arrives to assist James as they carry the coffins for the funeral. With the funeral over, a friend of the family, Marco Del Toro (Marco Rodríguez), sits with James and consoles him, stating he should not be alone.

James joins Marco around a fire with Ben and Lucy’s godmother Liz Riley (Tyner Rushing) as they reminisce about Lauren and Lucy over drinks. James demands to go home.

Back at the house, James is all alone in the dark as he looks at Lucy’s drawing of the family she had shown him before. Then we have a flashback of Lucy drawing it. 

James plays the guitar, as he jokes about his worries over the picture not being finished before he has to leave. He sings as Lauren joins him for a drink in amusement. 

Once again, there is a thud at the window, which shows the same sparrow lying dead. Lucy asks if it will be fine, to which James reluctantly states she is just ‘stunned.’ Lauren corrects James by saying, ‘you don’t have to lie to her,’ as the flashback is broken up.

James finds himself standing alone in the apartment, as he notices someone walking inside. He grabs his gun and finds a man sitting on his bed looking at Lucy’s picture. However, to the audience’s shock, the man sitting on the bed is James.

The following day, Special Agent Joshua Holder (Warren Kole) visits James’ house. He has been assigned to look into Lauren and Lucy’s homicide. He wants to clear up a discrepancy surrounding where the murder weapon was taken from.

James tells him his gun was stolen from his safe. Holder demands to know how the attackers would have accessed it, as the safe required James’ fingerprints.

James is frustrated that Holder is not doing enough to find the assailants. Holder responds by stating he must look at all possibilities before leaving.

Reece Assaults The Admiral

As Holder leaves, James arrives to meet with his own superior, Admiral Gerald Pillar (Nick Chinlund) and another in command Commander Bill Cox (LaMonica Garrett).

James lets the Admiral know that Special Agent Holder From NCIS is not qualified to investigate his family’s homicide. He demands that a counter-intelligence team is set up and suspects that Kahani has sent people to go after him.

After all, James has been tracking him for years, so things may have become personal. The Admiral is not convinced. The former admonishes James on two counts.

First, he managed to keep James in his job despite the latter giving an inaccurate account of who set off the tripwire, as James admits to having changed his statement from the Syrian trooper towards Donny. 

Second, James has put the Admiral in a difficult situation already. As the Admiral continues highlighting James’ mistakes, Reece loses it and grabs the Admiral’s throat before walking out.

In the next scene, Katie (Constance Wu) gets a call from someone named ‘Jordan.’ She ignores it, as she approaches Special Agent Holder. She wants to know about the homicide, but he refuses to talk to her. 

However, Katie tells him she was with Reece the day before the murders as he ‘waved’ a gun in her face. She is willing to give a witness statement if he talks to her off the record. 

Holder brings her in to see the crime scene of the clinic where Reece was attacked. Katie tells Holder that Reece did seem a ‘little off’ but not like a man ready to kill his family.

However, there is the potential for the authorities to blame the death of Lauren and Lucy on him. Reece’s account of the attackers being there is disputed, as Holder confirms there were no bodies or blood.

Not only that, but Holder states he was first on the scene and found nothing. And yet, Holder recognises that Reece believes his own version of events. In addition, there is the knife wound that Reece had. Clearly, these loose ends have not been tied up.

Katie and Reece Cooperate

Back at home, James gets a knock at the door. He picks his weapon up and makes an approach. As he notices the person is unarmed, he puts the gun down. It is Katie. She tells him there were no bodies at the scene and asks how is that possible. 

James tells her to meet him at the side of the garage. Katie wants James to sign a document that would allow her to access his MRI scan results. 

Thus, if the scan is clear, it will prove he is not insane. James will only agree if she lets him see the police report on Ernest’s death. She complies as James looks at the document. 

James notices that Holder was the first person at Ernest’s crime scene, as well as at the clinic where he was attacked. After that, he signs the document from Katie. 

Before she is about to leave, James gives her another phone with instructions on how to contact him without being tracked. As he goes to get it, she notices some damage on the window, which the audience knows was caused by the sparrow in the flashback.

Reece Suspects Holder

But with the phone in her possession, she leaves. Once she leaves, James tries desperately to get more information on Holder. He suspects Holder could be lying about his credentials.

As he ponders over it, Reece has a flashback from the attack and puts Holder’s face to the attacker through the eyes that were visible from the mask. 

Clearly shocked, he recognises that Holder was one of the assailants trying to kill him. The following day, Reece goes for a run and grabs his car to arrive at the NCIS headquarters with a camera in hand. 

He is intent on tracking Holder’s every move. With the pictures taken, James arrives at Ben’s house in the dead of night to tell him he knows the killer, i.e. Holder. Ben looks at James’ file on Holder and wants to know the plan of action.

The next scene shows James meeting an estate agent, as he looks to rent an apartment under another name in the same area where Holder lives. 

He looks around the building and takes pictures of the door locks while the estate agent is not looking. This, taken with James’ question about the building’s security, which shows no alarm system, suggests he intends to break in. 

The camera then shifts to James having the lock in his house, as he attempts to break into it. As he tries to do so, Liz leaves a voicemail stating she is in town and suggests that she pick him up to meet.

As the voicemail ends, the camera shows Reece successfully picking the lock. We then shift to Katie playing poker. She is interrupted by Jordan (Arturo Castro), the man whose call she ignored earlier.

She has been ignoring him for a week. As she is about to win, Jordan tells the other player not to go all in. The player agrees, preventing Katie from bluffing to victory, which peeves her off.

Katie and Jordan then proceed to talk at the bar. It turns out Jordan is in the journalist field too. She tells him she has medical authorisation from Reece to access his records.

He tells her she has 24 hours to give him something to ‘release’ to the media, the implication being that he is her ‘boss.’ The next morning, as Holder leaves the house to go to work, Ben is on hand as James’ lookout.

Reece Breaks Into Holder’s Apartment

Ben follows Holder while Reece breaks into Holder’s apartment. Once inside, Reece copies the files on Holder’s laptop. Back at home, James and Ben download the files.

So far, the files do not show anything untoward. However, James is interrupted by a call from someone based in Washington. The next scene shows James arriving at a bar to meet Madam Secretary of Defence Lorraine Hartley (Jeanne Tripplehorn).

James is shocked to see her. She mentions him assaulting the Admiral before sitting down to have a drink. James tells her that Kahani is a threat, and he has reason to believe Kahani has an asset in NCIS.

The Secretary dismisses the idea, as a news report confirms the US has killed Kahani in a military operation. The Secretary tells James this mission ‘is over’ and walks off.

With James looking dejected, Ben arrives back at home to tell him what he found on Holder’s files. It turns out Holder got James’ fingerprints two days before the murders.

Therefore, he could have used the prints to access James’ safe to get the gun to kill his family. James states the only way to know is if Holder has a knife wound on his left arm.

Thereafter, Ben gives James a gun in honour of Ernest and James’ family to use on Holder if it was him. Meanwhile, Katie arrives at the clinic to get James’ scan.

The receptionist tells her a new doctor has to be assigned to the case before any information can be released. Katie convinces her otherwise by bribing her with some cash.

With the files in her possession, Katie rings Jordan to tell him she needs another neurologist to look at the case, as she has discovered something. The audience, however, is not told what that is. 

Reece Kills Holder

As for James, he breaks into Holder’s apartment at night, fully armed. He enters the bedroom, pointing the gun at Holder. The latter has no knife wound on his arm and denies killing anyone. 

James continues to ask him who he works for? Suddenly, James has flashbacks. He is in a war zone with Ernest, as he fades in and out of the past and present. 

Holder continues to deny any involvement and tells James he will forget all about it and not press charges. With Reece pointing the gun at Holder, there is a danger he could fire it.

Holder informs Reece that he is unwell. Reece refuses to believe that he would kill his own family. With that being said, he gets ready to blow Holder’s brains out.

With Holder now begging for his life, he spills the beans. Holder tells him that a man by the name of Saul Agnon (Sean Gunn) pays him to get information on Reece.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, Holder attacks Reece. In the scuffle, Reece shoots him dead. He quickly clears up the scene and leaves as the episode ends.

What did you think of The Terminal List Season 1 Episode 2? Let’s talk about The Terminal List in the comments below! Missed any of the episodes? Catch up with our recaps!

Air Date: July 1, 2022

The Terminal List Cast

  • Chris Pratt as Lt. Commander James Reece
  • Taylor Kitsch as Ben Edwards
  • Constance Wu as Katie Buranek
  • Jeanne Tripplehorn as Lorraine Hartley
  • Riley Keough as Lauren Reece
  • Patrick Schwarzenegger as Donny Mitchell
  • Arlo Mertz as Lucy Reece
  • Jai Courtney as Steven Horn
  • JD Pardo as Tony Liddel
  • LaMonica Garrett as Commander Fox
  • Alexis Louder as Nicole Deptul
  • Tom Amandes as Vic
  • Christina Vidal Mitchell as Mac Wilson
  • Jared Shaw as Ernest “Boozer” Vickers
  • Catherine Dyer as Rachel Campbell
  • Remi Adeleke as Terrell “Tee” Daniels
  • Hiram A. Murray as Jackson
  • Matthew Rauch as Captain Howard

Catch a new episode each week on Prime Video, check out listings dates below. Stay right here, stay mixed in because The Terminal List Season 1 Episode 3, stay tuned! Drop your email to get insights into your inbox…

The Terminal List (TV Series Hub)

The Terminal List Season 1 Episode Guide

Season Episode Title Air Date
1 8 Reclamation” The Terminal List Season 1 Finale July 1, 2022
1 7 Extinction July 1, 2022
1 6 Transience July 1, 2022
1 5 Disruption July 1, 2022
1 4 Detachment July 1, 2022
1 3 Consolidation July 1, 2022
1 2 Encoding July 1, 2022
1 1 Engram” The Terminal List Season 1 Premiere July 1, 2022

Photo credit: Prime Video

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About the Author
Hasib Afzal is a writer on a mission to give you a low-down on the best TV shows, movies and celebrity news. Dream it, believe it, do it. Follow me on TikTok below www.tiktok.com/@funnyart4everyone

2 comments on The Terminal List Season 1 Episode 2 Recap “Encoding”

  1. Gia says:

    You cannot “peeve” someone off.

  2. Mr Clark says:

    Has anyone read the book? Does it follow the author’s script?

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