Summary
Reacher Season 3 ups its body count in Episode 5, but there’s still something about the plotting and characterization keeping viewers at arm’s length.
There’s something just a little bit off about Season 3 of Reacher, and now we’ve returned to the present day after an episode spent almost entirely in the past, I think I’ve figured out what — or, more accurately, who — is up. Episode 5, “Smackdown”, is mostly fine; a bit of wincing brutality here, a lot of tough guy posturing there, and a couple of last-minute improvisational solutions to urgent problems to reiterate that Jack Reacher has brains as well as brawn. It all seems like business as usual. But I find myself being kept curiously at arm’s-length from the plot and the characters. And I think it’s Susan Duffy’s fault.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Sonya Cassidy in everything. Everything except this, it seems. The accent’s too wavery, and the demeanor’s too inconsistent. She either seems like she’s over-acting or barely acting at all. I can’t always tell when she’s being sincere and when she’s being snarky. It’s an issue because Duffy is consistently present in the plot, and several of its key dramatic turns involve her. Teresa’s fate is almost exclusively tied to Duffy’s guilty conscience. And another key character’s death in this episode impacts her primarily too, so I’m starting to feel this more and more. There’s a bit where she speaks to the victim’s father on the phone and it’s so insincerely handled that it took me a moment for the context of the conversation to sink in. I thought she was checking on her dry cleaning.
But anyway, let’s not get sidetracked. There’s a fair bit to go over.
You’ll recall the previous episode ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, so the first order of business is Reacher handling that situation by making sure Duffy and Villanueva can escape without Harley catching on. Sure, it’d be easier to just kill him, but Reacher being the sole survivor of two ambushes in a row wouldn’t have great optics. The search yields a few clues for Duffy and Villanueva to chase up while Reacher returns to Beck’s place so Harley can show him the gorge they dump the bodies in (foreshadowing, folks.)
Throughout all this, Eliot has been left alone with Cooper for days. It has been so long that the two men have developed a bit of a rapport, and Eliot finally relents and agrees to let him smoke a cigarette. This turns out to be a mistake. Cooper uses the distraction to get free and — in a scene that genuinely shocked me, I have to admit — brutally stamps Eliot to death. It’s a nasty, unceremonious ending for a thoroughly underutilized character, but it’s also the most effective individual moment in Reacher Season 3, Episode 5, so what can you do?
Naturally, this creates a major problem, since Cooper can rat Reacher out. That means making his way to Beck’s place, though, which gives the heroes a bit of time to improvise. Duffy riskily calls Reacher’s shoe phone to give him a heads up, and he instantly freestyles a plan that involves flipping Villanueva’s car in the middle of the road leading to Beck’s mansion and then ambushing Cooper. This requires Duffy to destroy a nearby transformer, cutting power to the entire area, to give Reacher an excuse to leave.
Roberto Montesinos (Guillermo Villanueva), Sonya Cassidy (Susan Duffy) in Reacher Season 3 | Image © Amazon Content Services LLC
The plan works great aside from a single crucial detail. An already-suspicious Julius McCabe — aka Xavier Quinn, as we know — sees the power cut as a bridge too far and orders every room in Beck’s house to be tossed and searched. The tension here is supposed to come from the idea of Reacher’s burner being discovered. When he returns to the house he finds everyone standing around all jumpy, claiming they caught a traitor in their midst. As Reacher prepares to defend himself, it’s revealed that the traitor was actually Annette. She had a hidden phone she was using to give the ATF biweekly updates on Beck’s movements. The good news is that Reacher is in the clear. The bad news is that Annette is dead, having had her head slapped off — not completely, but you get the idea — by Paulie.
Naturally, Reacher doesn’t love this news, and attempts to confront Paulie for his cavalier attitude about it, and this is a great tease for their inevitable showdown later in the season because Paulie slaps the taste out of Reacher’s mouth. Ritchson sells this very well. He sinks to the ground in shock and embarrassment, spitting blood, ears ringing. It works because it’s totally contrary to everything we’ve seen from Reacher in three seasons. He’s never physically outgunned. And to add insult to injury, it’s up to him to dump Annette’s body.
But if nothing else Reacher puts the pieces together about what Beck is up to. He isn’t running drugs — he’s running guns. That explains the involvement of the ATF, the fact the dogs couldn’t smell anything in the back of the truck, and the deals with lubricating oil companies. And with a big sale coming up and no shortage of potential buyers including terrorists, mercenaries, fringe groups, and foreign militaries, it’s more imperative than ever to put a stop to Quinn’s operation.
“Smackdown” ends with Reacher and Beck being summoned to meet “Julius McCabe” at Bizarre Bazaar, which is exciting news since we still don’t know the extent of his apparent amnesia. He might recognize Reacher immediately, or he might have no idea who he is. Nevertheless, Reacher is readying himself to kill the guy on principle and worry about other matters — including how to find Teresa — later. With Duffy and Villanueva watching from outside and Reacher and Beck entering the lion’s den, we fade to black on another cliffhanger.
