It’s a new dawn on Reacher. This is the first episode of the entire show in which Reacher (the splendid Alan Ritchson) goes west of the Mississippi! While Neagley (Maria Sten) lives in Chicago, Reacher’s previous adventures have kept him in Georgia, Arkansas, New York City, Maine, and now Massachusetts. But before anyone goes west, Duffy (Sonya Cassidy) turns into a walking Boston cliché by bringing the missing Theresa’s grandmother (Nicky Guadagni) chowder for breakfast. Sorry, chowda. The grandmother might be grieving her missing granddaughter, but at the sight of Reacher on her doorstep she proves herself neither blind nor stupid. After she injures her eyes admiring Reacher, she inquires how long Reacher and Duffy have been an item with the subtlety of, well, Reacher entering a room. This allows Reacher the small joy of leaning forward and whispering, “She just wants me for my body.”
But despite the teeny-tiny moments of levity, this entire episode is heavy on the exposition as the pieces move into their final position on the board. Will the evildoers get away with doing evil? Or will our crack squad of private detective, former military intelligence and two federal agents, all prepared to take the law into their own hands, continue to do the wrong things for the right reasons? Justice is not enough for Reacher and, therefore, not for us.
Certainly at the poolside bar in Los Angeles, where icky scumbag Darien Prado (Greg Bryk) is found with a much younger woman, it’s all business. The image of Reacher doing surveillance work that involved him, just spitballing here, maybe sipping a mai tai while floating on an inflatable unicorn was obviously too delightful for the dads of the world to handle. The discussion regarding driving laws will keep the pedants happy, but that takes place in a modern art gallery where the man without fear, who has opinions about literally everything, regrettably keeps his thoughts on the (not bad!) art to himself.
All too soon we are back in the disused quarries, night-time salvage yards and empty airfields of the east coast, with Neagley a full-time member of the crew whether Reacher wants her to be or not. There’s even a moment between Neagley and Reacher, which is downright over-emotional. It’s so sweet it’s almost silly. The extended scene between Beck (Anthony Michael Hall) and Richard (Johnny Berchtold) is also a remarkable masculine fantasy of a different kind. Daddy issues get addressed, men take responsibility for their mistakes, talk about how great their mothers were, and shed a few manly tears. Tears! When was the last time American men were allowed to cry onscreen? Fortunately Quinn (Brian Tee) is keeping busy keeping evil, which is all the more effective by Mr. Tee’s excellent acting choice to underplay the grisly dialogue.
And yet we must return to the concept that Reacher is designed for: justice is not enough. In the America of the present moment, where money can buy everything and the government is barely fit for purpose while normal working people must fight over scraps, justice can feel like a hollow dream. The ability to not only achieve justice but surpass that with revenge (or worse) is the modern fantasy which has propelled this show into the stratosphere. In the rest of the world, where the trappings of civilisation are not quite falling apart, Reacher the show has been met with some indifference, because it is not meeting the same need. While nowhere near as dark as Reacher’s previous episode, the disregard shown in L.A. Story by the good guys for doing good continues to be profoundly disturbing. When people take the law into their own hands, it’s because there is no actual law. When officers of the law do the same, it’s such a betrayal of the values of civilisation that it’s hard to articulate. And this quiet betrayal is, of course, the heart of this show. People have been let down, people make bad choices, people’s consciences are their only guide. If they have no conscience? Then you’d best hope you have the wherewithal – as Reacher, the man without fear, does – to force them to stop. There are no other choices. It’s quite terrifying.
One season-long cliffhanger is finally resolved, though: Reacher finally does get to eat some Maine lobster. Sorry, lobsta. His thoughts on whether it’s up to par are sadly unverbalised. Separately, what happens on a business trip in Los Angeles stays on a business trip in Los Angeles. The smirks in the car later though speak for themselves. It doesn’t last though, of course; it never does, especially when Duffy goes so far as to threaten Reacher with a good time. The woman respecter manages not to roll his eyes at her when she does so, at least.
Credit needle drop: neither Google nor Shazam could identify it for me! The deepest cut of all.
Season 3 of Reacher is now streaming on Prime Video.
Learn more about the show, including how to watch, at the official site for the title.
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