Walter Nyland

 is a character on The Recruit. He is portrayed by Vondie Curtis-Hall.

Biography
Walter is Owen Hendricks' boss and the general counsel of the CIA. He is intimidating and places lots of faith in his new hire, Owen, but doesn't want to get caught up in his tangled web of espionage.

Throughout The Recruit
On Owen Hendricks's first day of work, Violet Ebner and Lester Kitchens hand him a pile of graymail, and ask him to determine which threats are legitimate. After doing some digging, Owen discovers that one graymail from Max Meladze seems legitimate, as she has knowledge of code names that no one outside the CIA would know. When he brings this news to his boss, Walter Nyland, Walter questions why Violet and Lester did not discover this earlier when they were tasked with going through the graymail. Walter tells Owen to continue his investigation. Violet and Lester, who don't trust Owen, purposely misdirect him by implying that he should travel to Yemen to investigate the case, knowing that Owen had not yet been issued a black passport to provide him with diplomatic immunity.

Walter Nyland instructs Owen to help Lester Kitchens with one of his cases, which involves traveling to Lebanon. In Lebanon, Owen and Lester meet with Lester's former colleague, Dave. He refuses to pay his ex-wife child support, causing his wife to threaten to reveal CIA secrets that Dave told her. Owen and Lester give Dave a contract agreeing to let the agency deduct his pay to pay his wife child support. Dave initially refuses, but after Owen and Lester convince him his life will be over if his ex-wife were to leak state secrets that he told her, he reluctantly signs the contract.

When Owen is out buying breakfast, he is handed a stack of documents by a man from the Office of Technical Services. He goes to Walter Nyland's office, where he is introduced to Dawn Gilbane. He immediately recognizes her as the woman who pulled out his nail during his trip to Yemen. Walter and Dawn inform Owen that they intend to make Max an asset in Belarus again, due to her connections with the FSB. This complicates the case, as it means the Attorney General can no longer just make the case disappear, as Owen had planned.

When Walter hears about the documents from the Office of Technical Services, he wants to put Lester on the case, but Owen convinces him to give it to Violet instead, since she had said earlier that she wanted a challenge. However, this attempt to help Violet backfires as she doesn't want an AI case. She believes Owen purposely sabotaged her.

Appearances

 * The Recruit