Reacher season 1 – who is Oscar Finlay?

By Marc Miller
Published: February 4, 2022 (Last updated: last month)
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Who is Oscar Finlay in season 1 of Reacher - amazon original series

This article, “Who is Oscar Finlay” contains spoilers regarding Amazon’s Reacher season 1.

Read the review of Season 1.

Chief Detective Oscar Finlay is a secondary character in Amazon Prime’s new series Reacher. However, based on the best-selling Lee Child books, Finlay is crucial to the show. He just isn’t a man who loves to relax with a tall glass of water, while resing in the south sun in his tweed jacket, listening to the silky smooth south rock harmony of Jacksonville’s own, 38-Special. He serves as the sounding board, the moral conscience of the show, who goes by the lawful code, while Reacher goes by his own. So, this begs the question:

Who is Oscar Finlay in season 1 of Reacher?

Margrave’s Police Department’s Chief of Detectives is Oscar Finlay. He is a retired police detective who put 20 years in while working for the Boston PD. Oscar moved to Georgia under mysterious circumstances. He is intelligent, stoic, always well-kept, proper, and says using curse words is a sign of unintelligence. He takes over the case of the murders of two men under a local underpass and originally fingers Reacher as the killer. That’s until they find out Reacher’s brother Joe, who was working on a counterfeiting ring for the Secret Service, was one of the deceased.

What does Oscar Finlay do?

Chief of Detectives is Oscar Finlay does not start to trust Jack Reacher until the third episode in the series. After initially arresting him and placing him in prison, which almost gets Reacher killed, Finlay finally begins to understand that something is hinky in Margrave. The fact that Oscar has been hiding in Margrave because of some personal issues may have clouded his judgment. Detective Finlay left Boston because his wife left him as we initially thought. It turns out, he confesses to Reacher, his wife died of cancer.

Along with Reacher and Roscoe, Oscar helps solve the mystery of what is going on in Margrave. Kliner Industries is turning one-dollar bills into one-hundred-dollar ones. They are then shipping them worldwide because American currency is the largest and most important by far. After investigating, before they can completely take down the Kliner klan, Finlay is fired by Mayor Teale and then betrayed by his old friend, FBI agent Picard. He is held against his will until Reacher breaks him out of the cell at Margrave police station.

From there, Reacher, Neagley, Paul Hubble, and Finlay take down the Kliner distribution warehouse, resulting in Finlay killing Agent Picard in self-defense. He meets Reacher at the local diner. He gives Jack Reacher some advice before he leaves — don’t be afraid to let people in.

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