This article, “Who is Roscoe Conklin” contains spoilers regarding Amazon’s Reacher season 1.
Roscoe Conklin, a Deputy Officer of the Margrave Police Department, is an essential character to the new Amazon Prime series, Reacher. While a secondary character, she represents an expert community leader, knowledgeable of the town’s history, tendencies, and residents. She also acts as a defacto example and mentors to Jack Reacher, the ritual character the show is based on. How? Jack Reacher is just out of the service and lived in a military family his entire life. She reacclimated him to a world full of choices and how to operate as a private citizen.
So, this begs the question:
Who is Roscoe Conklin in season 1 of Reacher?
We meet Officer Roscoe Conklin in the freshman series first episode. She is the officer that books Jack Reacher at the local Margrave police station. He was brought in for suspicion of walking around like Bigfoot. (Though, they brought him in as a suspect for the two murders under an overpass). They almost immediately establish a connection because, in her words, he has kind eyes. She is tough, bright, has a spitfire temper, and is extremely intelligent. So much so she was recruited by the FBI and the CIA. As Reacher put it, she was denied because she lacks interpersonal skills.
In other words, she is perfect for him.
What does Roscoe Conklin do?
Officer Roscoe does the background when Reacher is arrested. She manages to clear him by finding evidence he was on a Greyhound bus heading into town. When she drives him home from prison, she asks him to dinner, and he immediately says yes. However, she is there when Reacher discovers one of the dead bodies was his brother, Joe. She then becomes his emotional/social support for the rest of the series when he doesn’t realize he needs one.
They spend the night together, establishing a physical relationship. The next day Roscoe is there when special forces assassins attack her, and Reacher from Venezuala then slaps the man to draw them away from her like a helpless woman who can’t protect herself. She also protects Charlie Hubble and her daughters when she relieves Picard from the safehouse. However, when Picard picks all of them up the following day, no one hears from her for a while. That is because Picard is in the pockets of the Kliners. They use her as leverage for Reacher to track down Paul Hubble or kill her and the remaining Hubble family.
Reacher and Oscar Finlay manage to free her, and she joins them in the siege of the Kliner distribution warehouse where the bad guys operate the counterfeiting ring. While Reacher takes out KJ and others, Finlay takes out Picard. Roscoe blows the head off Mayor Teale’s shoulders. When they escape, except Reacher, she is noticeably relieved when he walks away from the burning building. She runs up to him, kisses him, and they spend another night together.
The last scene with Roscoe is her sitting at the pavilion with Reacher, as she knows he will say goodbye. She writes down her number on a Clark bar wrapper for him if he wants to reconnect.
