Reacher Recap: The Russians Are Coming

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In this installment, Reacher finally encounters Xavier Quinn, now known as Julius McCabe. Despite the name change, he remains the vile perpetrator who tormented and took the life of Reacher’s protege, Sergeant First Class Dominique Kohl, back in 2012. Remarkably, he managed to escape Reacher’s attempt to avenge Kohl’s death.

You won’t believe it! The man seems completely oblivious to who Jack Reacher is. It appears the amnesia he mentioned after Reacher shot him 13 years ago was genuine. During his rebuke of Beck for hiring an ATF agent as a housekeeper, Quinn – let’s call him Quinn from now on – actually complimented Beck for recruiting the towering, broad-shouldered man standing next to him. Remarkably, he didn’t seem to notice that Reacher was concealing a gun behind his back.

As a movie buff, I lay it all out for Beck and Reacher—not forgetting Duffy and Villanueva, eavesdropping via the top-secret government phone that Reacher’s been flaunting in his shoe—that I’ve kept Duffy’s informant Teresa Daniel alive due to “the client’s” fondness for redheads. While I peddle arms for cash, my human trafficking endeavors are purely gratis. Frankly, I’m a much more loathsome scoundrel than the puppet, Zachary Beck. However, I need Zachary alive to finalize this significant transaction, I tell them, because “the client” anticipates to seal the deal with Zachary.

Simultaneously, a Russian debt collector appears before Quinn. It seems that Quinn understands Russian well enough to interpret the collector’s response to his plea for more time as “Grant a man an inch, and he’ll take a mile.” Clearly, this individual must be quite formidable if Quinn finds him intimidating.

While driving Pa Beck home, Reacher unexpectedly shifts the conversation into a father-son talk, informing the gunrunner that his son has been enduring hardships for the past five years due to his father’s illicit activities. You see, Zachary Beck’s business has been merged with a more brutal and merciless arms dealer, but his misdeeds go beyond bribing customs officers to evade import duties on trinkets. He’s supplied weapons to cold-blooded killers. It seems strange that Beck is unaware of the deal Quinn struck with the Russian mob, given how Quinn treats him as an underling instead of a partner, but the writers have found a way to subtly convey this expository information to us.

In the ongoing exploration of human empathy by Reacher, he notices Richard staring at the ocean, suspecting the young man might be considering taking his own life. Richard doesn’t dispute this assumption. To divert Richard’s thoughts, Reacher proposes they go into town to acquire some glue to mend a vintage toy pistol that Richard purchased as a gift for Zachary’s upcoming 50th birthday party. This toy pistol was damaged by a group of three thugs, aged around 35, before their confrontation in episode three, which Reacher ultimately won.

In this huge house, there must be a tube of glue somewhere, but the focus here isn’t on the glue; it’s about the outing Reacher suggested, which leads to his meeting with Duffy and her returning her badge. Interestingly, Reacher has planned this so he can meet Duffy. What transpires next is not a usual breach of discipline. Overwhelmed by gratitude that Reacher didn’t kill Quinn when he could have, which would have jeopardized their mission to rescue Teresa, Duffy plants a kiss on him. Her immediate reaction to her own unexpected act – “What the hell!” – made me chuckle. Reacher is concerned when Villanueva appears, not because the old timer is trying to interrupt his romantic moment, but because he worries Richard will recognize Villy as the undercover cop Reacher had supposedly killed in the initial episode. As expected, when Richard suddenly shows up in that alley just moments later, everything becomes clear – it’s all over, like a classic 2009 Pixar movie: exposed.

Reacher doesn’t reveal the truth about infiltrating Zachary’s home and business to save Teresa and eliminate Quinn until he’s certain they’re alone in the car with Richard. The youth remarks that, at best, his father will end up incarcerated. “He’s already imprisoned,” Reacher retorts, “and so are you.

In this episode, I find myself gnawing on my fingers quite a bit, reflecting the green-eyed monster that’s creeping up inside me as I watch Richard idolize Reacher. When Reacher mentions he’s looking out for both the Becks, I retort, “Those in your line of work often take bullets. I can’t help but wonder when yours is due?” Despite being misguided, Zachary’s resentment and jealousy towards Reacher ring true – much like the few aspects of Reacher that do.

In the end, it’s not Richard who reveals Reacher’s secret identity. Instead, it’s discovered that Quinn obtained information from a specific source about Warrant Officer Powell at the 110th Special Investigations Unit running a license plate check, followed by Frances Neagley, Reacher’s friend and ally in vigilante justice (formerly of the 110th), pulling military records on Angel Doll, Winston Duke, and Paulie Van Hoven shortly after this event.

In the earlier episode, it was Warrant Officer Powell who seemed thrilled to be conversing with the iconic Major Jack Reacher. However, he demonstrates that he’s not just a star-struck admirer by enduring a severe beating and steadfastly refusing to disclose Reacher’s name. Interestingly, he had earlier revealed Reacher’s identity to Duffy when she threatened him with obstruction of justice charges, which led to Duffy enlisting Reacher in her risky undercover mission initially. Despite Powell’s silence, Quinn orders his tormentors to perform a gruesome act, suggesting they remove organs from Powel’s body, starting from his tongue to his groin, and let him bleed out – what an unsavory character!

In a skyscraper in Windy City, Neagley manages to outlive two assassins dispatched to eliminate her. It seems she was the sole occupant on this floor and the entire building, as the numerous gunshots fired between her and the attackers went unanswered until Neagley herself dialed 911. The lackluster security for a top-tier private investigation agency is concerning to say the least! When one of Neagley’s attackers, mortally wounded in the abdomen, asks the woman he had just tried to kill to call him an ambulance, Neagley retorts, “You are your own ambulance.

The corny dad humor is undoubtedly the main reason I can’t tear myself away from Reacher. Bring on more!

In simpler terms, since both groups investigating Quinn and his team are ex- or active members from the 110th, it’s simple for Beck, even if he’s not very smart, to realize that Reacher, who used his connection as the creator of the 110th to convince Beck to hire him, is betraying them. Quinn tells Paulie to go upstairs and shoot the larger man, but Reacher has already fled towards the garage. He’s intelligent enough to puncture the tires of other vehicles before taking the snowplow-fitted pickup truck to break through the front gate.

In my own words, as a die-hard fan: Despite that massive, ammunition-fed weapon in the watchtower trying to hinder him, he manages to flee, albeit with the vehicle taking some heavy fire. I quickly call Duffy for backup, but it’s not before a gang on all-terrain vehicles gives chase into the forest. What started as another intense gun battle transforms into something straight out of a horror flick: I smear mud over my face like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Predator and take down the last of my pursuers by choking him with a winch from one of their ATVs. MacGyver would be left speechless!

At the Beck residence, Quinn ponders that no tool surpasses a serrated blade as he demonstrates subpar knife-handling abilities in the kitchen. He subsequently torments both Becks by compelling Zachary to witness him coerce Richard into playing Russian Roulette. Richard’s chances are significantly worse than Reacher’s were when Beck made Reacher play, because this revolver holds five bullets instead of six, and it lacks a notch cut for Richard to identify the bullet’s chamber like Reacher had. When Richard emerges unscathed, Quinn insists on “an identical pair.” His illness calls for an escalation – more pain, specifically targeting his ears.

In the previous episode, it might have seemed as if Reacher was too consumed by sorrow, perplexity, bodily discomfort, or a mix of these emotions while transporting Annette’s body for disposal to fully listen to Harley ramble about how this unexpected killing had spoiled his weekend plans. However, contrary to expectations, Reacher caught wind of Harley boasting about his boat, the Sweet Marie, as he suddenly informed Duffy that the boat was where Teresa was being held captive. They swam out to examine it and found proof that Teresa had indeed been detained there under sedation. They were still on board when Harley appeared. Believing him to be truthful when he claimed ignorance about Quinn’s relocation of the hostage, they left him restrained on the deck of the Sweet Marie, which caught fire after he attempted to shoot Duffy. Instead of making an effort to put out the flames, Reacher added more fuel to them. And with that, Harley, the despicable little weasel, met his explosive end.

Reacher gently scolds Duffy for glancing at what seems to be Reacher’s substantial physique as they both take off their wet suits, but she’s actually troubled by the fact that their latest clue in finding Teresa has exploded. However, Reacher offers a different solution. “Gather your sunscreen,” he suggests, “We’re heading to Los Angeles.

I wonder what Canadian metropolis will play the City of Angels.

In an Investigation, Details Matter

In the scene where Neagley takes down the two assailants in her office, she’s sporting a T-shirt advertising the authentic record store, Siren Records of Doylestown, Pennsylvania. It’s worth noting that while the Margaret Lee Van Buren Center for Creation and Activity is fictional, Siren Records is a genuine part of Doylestown’s landscape!

For the past three episodes, I’ve been eagerly anticipating Reacher’s sunlit confrontation with Richard’s thugs in downtown Abbottsville to have some repercussions. In Lee Child’s Reacher series, both the books and screen adaptations often depict Reacher’s tense interactions with inefficient or crooked local police forces, but it seems that Abbottsville doesn’t even have a local law enforcement presence.

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2025-03-13 18:55