Pretty much every part of DEA agent Susan Duffyâs unauthorized investigation into Bizarre Bazaar has been flimsy. Even the part where she added in Reacher was weak, despite the diameter of his biceps. But the flimsiest, weakest part was locking Eliot, her rookie agent, in the same room with a dangerous criminal. And what was obvious becomes true in episode 5 of Reacher season 3 when Eliot is overpowered and murdered.
Now a federal agent has died on Duffyâs watch, during a case sheâs not supposed to be working, which she and her remaining team are no closer to solving. âWhen itâs all over, Iâll come clean,â Duffy tells Reacher during another of their tiny phone conversations. GROAN! Just groan. Reacher is at its own flimsiest moment whenever the series weakly attempts to square its completely unregulated, off-book activities with any kind of real world accountability.
Just get back to the immediate consequences, Reacher! Like when the frenzy around Beckâs guy escaping inspires Duffy to destroy a power transformer â add that to the âcoming cleanâ list â which leaves Reacher in the dark at the estate. Zachary Beck, Paulie, and newly-arrived henchman Harley were already twitchy. The attempted kidnapping of Richard Beck, the ambush that killed Duke, the death of Angel Doll and the loss of the Bizarre Bazaar shipping data on Angelâs laptop: itâs all part of Duffy and Reacherâs kayfabe. But from Beckâs perspective, with every second he becomes a bigger target for Quinn/McCabeâs wrath. So Beck has Paulie and Harley aggressively search everyone in the household.
âTurns out I let someone in my home thatâs working with the feds,â Beck says in the gloom, and Reacherâs considering how he might kill three armed men in the half-second before they can reach him when Beck brandishes a tiny phone different from his. âThis was found in the maidâs room,â Beck continues. They donât actually know about Reacher and his shoe phone at all. As it turns out, Annette wasnât a French housekeeper, but an undercover agent for the ATF. Thatâs right, Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. Beck and Quinn/McCabe arenât drug dealers. Theyâre gun-runners. And Duffyâs ass-backward DEA investigation is now responsible for the deaths of two federal agents from two different agencies.
When Paulie bragged about killing Annette, Reacher punched him. Payback for a woman who didnât deserve such a fate. But the shot was also totally ineffectual. Reacherâs giant fist hit Paulieâs massive midsection like a little bird flying into a brick wall. And in what we believe is a first for the small screen history of Reacher, the titular tough guy is taken out by Paulieâs resulting physical clapback, a glancing blow across the chin that leads to our guy spitting gobs of blood into the sink. Imagine what could happen when they really fight.
Richard Beck catches him in the act of recovery. âIâm not afraid of Paulie,â Reacher tells the kid. âI just havenât solved him yet.â Itâs interesting phrasing, and a reference to the Reacher books, where the big man will spend entire pages explaining his thought process, the precise steps heâll take in the dispatch of an adversary. Our biggest boy better get to solving the even bigger Paulie. Because while his undercover status was always precarious, now it might as well be underwater. How many times can he throw Beck and his goons off the scent?
It really seems like now would be a great time for Frances Neagley to arrive as a one woman army. But Reacher has been too busy to call her for backup, trying to coordinate with Duffy and her team, get closer to Quinn/McCabe on his own, and tallying ever more henchman deaths along the way. Harley even introduces him to the âNeptune Society,â the criminal organizationâs use of a peculiarly-shaped pocket of rocks to suck unwanted corpses out to sea. Naturally, Reacher is forced to do the same with Annetteâs body. But he manages to find a bit of payback. When his last few seconds with her are disturbed by Harley spouting some bullshit about Annetteâs murder being an inconvenience for him, Reacher punches him til the guy pukes. âThere. Found your off switch.â It was actually surprising when Reacher didnât just toss him into the maw of the Neptune Society. Maybe next episode. Harley deserves his own consequences.
Would Quinn even recognize Reacher, were they to meet face-to-face? The shadowy criminal mastermind is said to have gotten amnesia from the first time the big man tried to kill him. Who knows if thatâs true, and it doesnât matter anyway, because an increasingly jumpy Zachary Beck says McCabe has demanded an immediate audience with him and Reacher. Another surreptitious call on the tiny phone â seriously, itâs also very weak and very flimsy that he just runs the faucet in his bathroom to cover up these conversations â and Duffy is set to take up a cover position outside the location of the meet. Paulie has tagged along. (If itâs striking to see Olivier Richterâs seven-foot-two-inch frame next to Reacher, itâs disorienting to see him walking next to Harley. Brendan Fletcher, who plays Harley, is 5â6â.) Inside the warehouse, there are hundreds of crates bursting with brand-new small arms, the actual tools of Bizarre Bazaarâs trade. And Reacherâs standing there thinking about what he told Duffy â âI donât care what his plans are for me; I have plans for himâ â when somebody asks if heâs ready to meet the boss. âYes,â Reacher says, as he slides the safety off the pistol in his waistband. âIâve been waiting for this moment for some time now.â Â
Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a Chicago-based writer. A veteran of the alternative weekly trenches, his work has also appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.
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