‘Reacher’s Latest Episode Embraces One of the Show’s Worst Recurring Flaws

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Reacher Season 3, Episode 7.

The recent Season 3, Episode 7 of Reacher, “L.A. Story,” shows Jack Reacher (Alan Ritchson) and DEA Agent Susan Duffy (Sonya Cassidy) making a jaunt to Los Angeles to investigate the drug kingpin, Darien Prado (Greg Bryk). With Reacher’s cover blown in the previous episode, “Smoke on the Water,” Reacher and Duffy have run out of leads. Prado is their last connection back to Zachary Beck (Anthony Michael Hall) and Xavier Quinn (Brian Tee) as they seek to discover the whereabouts of Duffy’s missing informant, Teresa Daniel (Storm Steenson).

However, since Prado is based in Los Angeles, Reacher and Duffy must travel out of Portland, Maine, where most of the main story and action occur. The road trip for Reacher and Duffy embraces one of the show’s worst recurring storytelling habits.

Reacher and Duffy Travel to L.A. To Extort Prado

In “L.A. Story,” Reacher and Duffy jet to LA to put the proverbial squeeze on Prado. After reviewing surveillance footage, they see Prado using a handicap placard on his car, enabling Reacher and Duffy to extort Prado on a trumped-up three-strikes rule. They used a legally dubious charge to blackmail him into setting up a meeting between Zachary Beck and Frances Neagley (Maria Sten) back in Portland, Maine. The LA trip came off as strangely pointless since it didn’t yield any new insight regarding discovering the whereabouts of Teresa. Agent Duffy’s main goal is rescuing Teresa, as she stakes her entire career on saving her informant, who is later revealed as Quinn’s prisoner. The only thing Reacher and Duffy coerce from Prado is a mere phone call to Beck to set up a meeting with Neagley back in Maine.

The latest episode depicts Reacher and Duffy flying to the other side of the country to blackmail a drug dealer to call Beck under pretenses and to set up a meeting. That comes off like an overly convoluted waste of effort if the end goal was merely for Prado to make a phone call just so Reacher and Duffy could arrange a meeting between Beck and Neagley. Reacher and Duffy do not interrogate Prado about his dealings with Beck. Prado does not reveal any new information about Quinn, Beck, or Teresa. It feels like Reacher and Duffy could’ve devised an easier, more sensible plan to organize a meeting between Beck and Neagley.

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Yes, “Smoke on the Water” reveals how Quinn keeps Zachary and Richard Beck (Johnny Berchtold) as tortured prisoners in their own homes, with both victimized by the unhinged Quinn. After Reacher’s cover is blown, Quinn keeps the Becks under even closer watch, forcing them to play a dangerous game of Russian Roulette for his amusement. He later makes Zachary slice off his own ear as punishment. This means Reacher and Duffy logistically had few methods left to covertly speak with Beck, and the Los Angeles road trip might have been their only option. The problem is that the storyline fails to stress the importance and necessity of traveling to LA, so they can figure out a way to persuade Beck to betray Quinn. The LA trip instead comes off as an artificial way to take a break from the intensity of the main storyline.

Reacher’s Trip to LA Doesn’t Feel Natural

Flying to Los Angeles to blackmail Prado to set up a meeting still comes off as excessively laborious and unnecessary. If Reacher and Duffy wanted Beck to covertly meet with Neagley, they probably could have figured out easier ways to do it. At the very least, they could have solved that problem without having Reacher and Duffy travel across the country. The series does not adequately set up the stakes of why Reacher and Duffy need to go to Los Angeles to extort Prado. Although it’s clear that Duffy wants to reunite Teresa with her grandmother, the LA trip does not even take a small step toward that goal. Instead, the road trip plays out as a convoluted, performative event for a problem that could have been solved without having the main characters leave the state of Maine.

The problem with the road trip in “L.A. Story” stems from how the events feel inorganic and disconnected from the main storyline. The central storyline of Reacher Season 3 is set in the state of Maine. Later, it is revealed how that Quinn is holding Teresa prisoner in Maine. The Beck estate is in Maine, and Quinn runs a gun smuggling operation in Maine. All the main action of the season takes place in or around Portland, Maine. Teresa is not in Los Angeles, and the main characters simply go to Los Angeles to blackmail a drug kingpin to set up a short meeting with Beck and Neagley. The disconnect of Reacher leaving the main story to go on a road trip in the middle of the season stands out as a recurring issue that has happened before.

‘Reacher’ Has a Recurring Issue With Road Trips

Every season of Reacher showcases an instance where Jack Reacher and/or his allies leave the location where the main action takes place and travel somewhere out of state to find clues. In the middle of the first season, Reacher leaves Margrave, Georgia, and goes to New York to question a key witness for insight into the Kleiner Foundation’s counterfeiting ring. In Season 2, Reacher and his former military comrades make multiple trips across the country, traveling to New York City, Atlantic City, Boston, Denver, and back to NYC, with most of the main action occurring in or around New York City. Although the story usually includes one reason or another for Reacher to leave the state, the show habitually removes Reacher from the setting of the main action.

Reacher is not a bad series by any means. However, the road trips usually run in a disconnected manner from the main storyline. They usually appear to serve little purpose other than to offer a short break from the central narrative with Reacher playing and investigating in a new environment. Ultimately, “L.A. Story” epitomizes the worst instance of the Reacher Road Trip, because this specific trip seems more disconnected than any of the aforementioned previous examples.

With a fourth season of Reacher on the way, hopefully, the writers will figure out more organic ways to utilize the Reacher Road Trip for upcoming stories. It’s not that Reacher should never go on a road trip in the middle of the season, but the writers must do a better job establishing the necessity of Reacher’s road trips and their crucial reasons for advancing the plot. Otherwise, they come off as utterly superfluous.

The Season 3 finale of Reacher is right around the corner, debuting March 26 on Prime Video. Every episode of the series is available to stream now on Prime in the U.S.

Reacher

Release Date

February 3, 2022

Network

Prime Video

Showrunner

Nick Santora

Directors

Omar Madha, Carol Banker, Julian Holmes, Lin Oeding, M.J. Bassett, Norberto Barba, Stephen Surjik, Thomas Vincent

Writers

Cait Duffy