Reacher Season 2 Just Made A Major Change From The Books
This post contains spoilers for the first six episodes of "Reacher" season 2, as well as for the novel it's based on, "Bad Luck and Trouble."
This week's "Reacher" episode includes perhaps the most emotionally charged moment in the entire series so far: Detective Russo (Domenick Lombardozzi) sacrifices his life in a shootout with Langton's men, saving the life of a young girl in the process. It's a bit of a redemptive moment for him; Russo spent the first half of the season as a potential mole for Langston, and he didn't do himself any favors with his repeated delusional threats to kick Jack Reacher's ass. (Good luck with that, man.) But after showing his more sensitive side with Calvin Franz's kid in last week's episode, "Burial," and then helping Reacher out in the graveyard shootout sequence, it became clear that Russo really was as honorable as he claimed to be. In hindsight, we should've known he was about to die.
But what makes his death scene particularly noteworthy is the reaction that Neagley (Maria Sten) has to it. Russo reaches out his hand and Neagley, despite her lifelong discomfort with physical touch, grabs his hand for his final moments. It's a nice moment of solidarity between the two, and an important event for Neagley. Even in the book this is based on, "Bad Luck and Trouble," the closest Neagley ever gets to something like this is a casual fist bump with Reacher. Extended palm-to-palm contact (with a near-stranger, no less) is a big step for her. But when it comes to the show switching things up from the source material, Neagley's character moment is hardly the most important element here.
Russo and Brant/Mauney
At first, it seemed like the closest character equivalent to Russo in the book was Thomas Brant, whom Jack Reacher also finds following him in an unmarked vehicle. Like in the show, book Reacher sneaks up on Brant and beats him unconscious, and Brant is very sore about the whole thing. When the two meet again, Brant tries to sucker punch Reacher, but Reacher easily incapacitates him and lets him off with a warning. Brant sulks away, and that's pretty much the end of him.
After that, the main detective character in the book is Detective Mauney. Mauney appears to be amiable enough; sure, he's using Reacher's team as bait, but at least he's honest about it and willing to share the information he has with them. Mauney and Reacher continue through most of the book with a strained-yet-productive alliance, before it's revealed in the final act that Mauney's working for the bad guys.
For the first few episodes of season 2, it looked like Russo was meant to be a combination of Brant and Mauney. In the end, he's turned out to be more of a Captain Finley-esque character — a guy who doesn't like Reacher's reckless methods but who slowly forms a friendship with him anyway. But because there's no sinister twist to Russo's character in the show, that leads us to another uncomfortable question as we head into the season's final act: If Russo's not the mole, then who is?
Not looking good for the Special Investigators
For book readers, it's hard not to notice that the show has constantly been raising the question of whether former special investigator Tony Swan might be a villain. The book never once considers that Swan might anything but a blameless victim of this whole conspiracy, but the show's had Swan's innocence called into question countless times over the past few weeks. As of this week's episode, "New York's Finest," it seems like Swan's been vindicated, but maybe that's just a misdirect so that his villain reveal will hurt more.
After all, someone has to betray Reacher, and the guy from the book who did it is already dead. If the show's looking for a reveal that would truly sting, Swan would be the smartest choice. We've seen how much it matters to Reacher that everyone on his Special Investigations Unit is a noble person, worthy of him picking them for his team in the first place. If Swan's dirty, this will be the first time in the show Reacher turns out to be wrong about something this important. He'll be forced to face not just a major personal betrayal, but the realization that his judgment might not be as perfect as he thinks it is.
Why it should be Swan
At every chance "Reacher" gets, the show expands and complicates its source material. In the book, the mysterious A.M. (Ferdinand Kingsley) goes on a fairly uneventful road trip; the scenes where he kills a doctor and then a police officer are inventions of the show, meant to build him up as a more serious villain. We're not sure what he'll do in the season's final two episodes, but odds are he'll play a much bigger role than he did in the book's finale. Every show character has had more to do than their book counterpart, after all, and A.M. seems like no exception.
Likewise, making Swan (or perhaps another missing Special Investigator) the surprise villain gives the show a chance to improve on the book's biggest weak spot: that the Mauney reveal is kind of lame and underwhelming. Detective Mauney wasn't a memorable character pre-reveal, so his betrayal meant little to Reacher and even less to the readers. Mauney's also pretty forgettable post-reveal, as Reacher takes him down with ease and Mauney doesn't put up much of a fight anyway. We don't know how a Swan vs Reacher battle would shake out, but we know a fellow Special Investigator would make for a far more compelling showdown.
Maybe the show won't go there. Maybe it's a little too blasphemous for the show to turn one of the famously noble, unbreakable Special Investigators into a bad guy. But after all those flashbacks to young Swan and all the arguing on Reacher's team, this sort of twist definitely wouldn't be out of left field. "Reacher" season 2 has been a bold, exciting bit of TV so far; a final big twist like this would be the perfect way to cap it off.
The penultimate episode of "Reacher" season 2 premieres January 12, 2024, on Prime Video, followed by the season finale on January 19.