REVIEW: Reacher – Season 2, Episode 6, “New York’s Finest”

Television Reviews

In terms of storytelling, Reacher is one of the most well-constructed TV shows I’ve ever seen. Every episode moves the plot forward in leaps and bounds, each scene important to either the unfolding mystery or the characters. Part of that is the short run of episodes – only eight per season. But part of it is good, thoughtful writing that doles out just enough information to keep things barreling forward like a freight train while holding back enough secrets to keep the viewers guessing. “New York’s Finest” follows suit, revealing big pieces of the season’s puzzle while making us hungry for more. It also has some great action scenes that offer yet another perspective on Reacher when he gets angry.

As Russo tries to smoke out a leak in the NYPD, Reacher and his team head to Portland to find Marlo Burns, the New Age executive who set them up for an ambush a few episodes ago, in the hopes that she’ll lead them to Langston. Aside from a brief appearance by AM, everything ties into these two plotlines; this is a tight episode.

“New York’s Finest” gets started with the aftermath of the explosion from last week. Russo and the police show up, and Russo gives Reacher a lead on Marlo Burns before heading off for his own investigation. It’s a simple moment that doesn’t seem to mean much on the surface, but this is a furthering of the partnership between Reacher and Russo. They’re now both actively pursuing leads, working in tandem though they’re split apart, with each man treading on the territory where he’s most comfortable: Reacher with a military contractor, Russo with the police. They’re still trading insults and threats, but it’s more half-assed now because they’re starting to like each other. Domenick Lombardozzi has been great this season, differentiating himself from last season’s Finlay despite playing a similar role.

*SPOILERS*

And I’m going to miss him, because Russo doesn’t make it out of “New York’s Finest” alive. It’s a bummer, but at least they gave him a good final episode with some important character-defining scenes. First, he confronts his boss, Lieutenant Marsh (Al Sapienza; how did we not know he was a bad guy?), about being in Langston’s pocket, facing a hard truth the same way he’s been needling Reacher to all season. And when Marsh makes a convincing argument to Russo about going in with him, Russo refuses, cementing his honor in the face of assured death. That death comes later, while he’s protecting an innocent girl from Langston’s men and sacrifices himself to let her escape, dying a hero and getting a blaze of glory for his exit. It’s an appropriate death for a man who was constantly made to prove himself, and while I’d have liked to see more of him, I’m satisfied that Russo made such an impact on the show.

Russo’s storyline in “New York’s Finest” complements Reacher’s because it’s the inverse of his arc, and it illustrates Reacher’s shortcomings. When they find Marlo at a friend’s house (via her daughter’s Nintendo Switch profile, which leads to a hilarious exchange between Reacher and Neagley), she tells Reacher’s team everything she knows, and it’s a lot. One big piece of information is that Swan is a good guy after all; he’d discovered that Langston was up to something and brought it to Marlo, who was a friend of his and only helped Langston after he threatened her daughter. He brought in Franz, Sanchez, and Orosco to help him investigate Langston. Marlo’s response to the suggestion that Swan was crooked – that no one who knew him would think he was capable of being evil – hits home for the team, and while Reacher acts self-righteous about it, he’s hurt most of all. Reacher was the one who stuck up for Swan, who owes the man his life, and even was convinced Swan was a traitor in the previous episode. Now, he knows that he doubted his friend for nothing.

This informs his decision later in “New York’s Finest,” the one that maybe damns Russo. Marlo tells them exactly what Langston is doing: he’s had certain missile guidance chips marked as defective when they weren’t so he could stockpile them; now, he’s going to equip them in the missiles stolen by AM and sell them to terrorists all over the world. It’s pretty much what everyone figured, but it fits the mentality of a crooked cop, someone who would violate his oath of protection to line his pockets. So, Reacher uses Marlo as bait to lure Langston out of hiding, leaving her daughter with Russo. But when the meeting is about to take place, Russo calls and tells them that Langston has sent men after him and the girl. Suddenly, there’s a choice: stop Langston now or save an innocent child. And while Reacher sends his team after Russo and the girl, he stays to take down Langston. This is the proof of his guilt over doubting Swan; he knows he should help Russo, but he wants to take out his anger on Langston. He probably wouldn’t have been able to save Russo if he’d gone, but he doesn’t get Langston either.  He chose revenge over saving an ally, and now, he’ll have to wonder if that is what got Russo killed.

That being said, the fight with Langston’s men at the truck yard is very cool. This is where you see Reacher from a different perspective, as you get a look at how the bad guys perceive the unstoppable mountain of muscle when he’s on the warpath. Much like the finale of The Equalizer, this sequence is staged almost like a horror movie, with Reacher as the killer stalking Langston’s henchmen. He lures two of them into an empty bus, has them look in every shadow and crevice, and then finally pops out and chokes them to death. We don’t even see what happens to the final one; Reach drags him under a massive metal crate, there are screams, and Reacher emerges, muddy and ready to wash it off with more blood. It’s a nice break from the traditional fistfights and shootouts the show usually presents, and it makes Reacher even scarier. It also complements Reacher’s self-loathing; we see him as the monster he sees himself as after condemning  Swan, a monster he redirects at his enemies. It’s not an accident that he kills the first guy on the bus the same way he said he would kill Swan.

And who are those enemies? We know most of them, but there may be one more conspirator waiting in the wings. “New York’s Finest” has a flashback, this one showing the end of the drug smuggling investigation Reacher and the 110^th were conducting. The colonel who mysteriously showed up when they stumbled onto the case shuts it down before they can make any arrests, spouting some cock and bull story about making another colonel look bad. It seems Swan was the red herring all along, and the colonel really was the bad guy (unless there’s yet another twist coming up). I wonder if  the colonel is involved with Langston and his scheme; it would explain how they found out about Swan and the other 110^th investigators. And the colonel would also have plenty of overseas contacts they could use to sell the weapons. If the colonel is involved, Reacher’s going to have a whole bunch of villains to pay back, and I can’t wait to see it.