REVIEW: Reacher – Season 3, Episode 5, “Smackdown”

Television Reviews

It wouldn’t be quite accurate to say that season 3 of Reacher hits its stride with “Smackdown;” the show hasn’t been bad by any means, despite season 3 being my least favorite so far. But this is the best episode of the season yet, significantly ramping up the tension and the fun, constantly putting Reacher in a position where he has to scramble to avoid detection. It also has a terrific build, as it reminds us of all the badassery Reacher is capable of before demonstrating that he’s more vulnerable than we’ve ever seen him on this mission. It’s also got some very funny dialogue, with Reacher in top form as he needles both friend and foe.

As Reacher races to save Duffy and Guillermo Villaneuva from a cadre of Beck’s henchmen, Duffy inadvertently leaves a clue that could blow the whole mission. John Cooper, the captured bodyguard, causes trouble for Duffy and her team. McCabe becomes suspicious of Beck’s handle on his operation. The tension between Reacher and Paulie mounts.

The only way “Smackdown” could have opened is with Reacher finding Duffy and Villanueva before Beck’s men kill them, meaning the episode starts off with an action scene. It’s not a showstopper or anything, and I’m sure it’ll be outclassed later in the season, but it’s good to see Reacher not only use his lethal skills but think quickly to avoid giving himself up. He realizes that if he wipes out all of Beck’s men and emerges as the sole survivor yet again, it’ll look too suspicious, so he helps Duffy and Villanueva escape while leaving the hit team’s leader alive. I like this because it makes Reacher seem vital to the mission; he comes up with this while Duffy is about to shoot the last guy, saving the undercover op just as it’s about to end. For all her bluster and condescension, Duffy wouldn’t be able to pull this off without Reacher, and I’m happy the show establishes this. It also means that Brendan Fletcher (of my newly beloved Christmas action movie Violent Night), who plays lead bad guy Harley in this scene, gets to stick around a little while longer. This also marks the end (I hope) of Reacher looking inept at undercover work, and happily, he’s done with doing stupid things this week.

***SPOILERS***

However, Duffy and her guys are still around to pick up the slack on that score, as “Smackdown” features two big screw-ups on the rogue DEA unit’s part. The first is Duffy leaving her badge behind at the warehouse as she escapes; Reacher recovers it before Harley does, but it causes him plenty of trouble because he has to hang onto it but hide it while he’s at the mansion. Then, Eliot, the younger agent helping Duffy, gives in to Cooper’s whining and lets him have a cigarette – an opportunity Cooper uses to kill Eliot and escape. Eliot’s been kind of an idiot, and Duffy loves reminding him of it, and he dies like he lived: a dope. “Smackdown” does give him a bit of a win before he dies when he finds Duffy’s location for Reacher and warns her that people are coming to kill her and Villanueva. Still, Eliot is dead, Cooper is free, and Reacher now has to intercept Cooper before he gets to Beck and tells him the DEA is watching him. How’s that for putting the screws to your hero?

And that’s what makes “Smackdown” such a good episode. Reacher now has to solve a series of problems created by Duffy and Eliot. He hides her badge in one of his pillowcases, which he knows isn’t a particularly secure hiding spot, but it’s the best he’s got. He just has to pray Beck’s men don’t find it before he can get it back to Duffy. Then, he has to head off Cooper, which involves having Duffy take out an electrical grid and Villanueva stage a car accident on the road to Beck’s mansion while Reacher pretends to drive to the access road to make sure no one is staging an attack. It’s fun to watch Reacher’s plan unfold, and he and Villaneuva share some good laughs while waiting for Cooper. But while Reacher is away, McCabe orders Beck and his men to search the mansion for anyone who could be betraying them, and it looks like it’ll only be a matter of time till they find Duffy’s badge. “Smackdown” is stuffed with thrills as these plotlines play out, and what sells is that even though Reacher manages to get away with his cover intact, there’s a price to pay: Annette, the French cook who was becoming friendly with Reacher, is outed as an undercover ATF agent and killed, an unwitting sacrifice in Reacher’s efforts to protect himself.

But the best thing about “Smackdown” is how it fleshes out Reacher’s character, especially in relation to Duffy and Villaneuva. Duffy is running this operation to redeem herself for getting Teresa Daniels captured by saving her from McCabe and Beck, while Reacher is trying to make up for letting Quinn, the man who may be McCabe, escape during their first encounter, especially after he killed Dominique Kohl when he was an MP. But this week, they both get hit with a dose of reality: Annette dies because of Reacher’s investigation, and Reacher tells Duffy that the swiftness of her murder means Teresa is almost certainly dead as well. Reacher realizes that he just let another good person, an undercover officer who was helping him, die at Quinn’s hands – or, at least, on his orders – while Duffy is coming to terms with the fact that there may be no redemption for her, and she has probably already gotten that girl killed. Reacher is used to this, but for Duffy, it’s new, and she refuses to hear it from Reacher or Villanueva, although she seems to realize she’s lying to herself by the end. And Villanueva finds himself the mirror of Reacher’s younger self (ironically as an older man) because of his dedication to helping Duffy, whom he looks at the way Reacher looked at Dominique; perhaps Reacher’s redemption will be in saving Duffy for Villanueva. The final episodes are being set up thematically, and I’m looking forward to seeing how they play out.

Meanwhile, the big confrontation between Reacher and Paulie is also developing. “Smackdown” has a bunch of classic Reacher moments; he has a hilarious kill in the opening scene, he knocks out one of McCabe’s men to protect Annette’s honor while scaring the hell out of his buddy (“I’m diabetic”), he pulls off his machinations perfectly, and he even flips a car over singlehandedly. And after so much time showing us how badass and nigh-invulnerable Reacher is, “Smackdown” drops a bomb on us when Reacher gets smacked by Paulie and drops to the floor, stunned, ears ringing, mouth full of blood, and, as we discover, scared out of his mind. This is what the trailers teased months ago: Reacher is used to being the biggest, strongest guy around, but next to Paulie, he may as well be a child’s toy. He does his best to play it off, but the look on his face for the remainder of the episode says it all: Reacher is freaked out, unsure of whether he can take Paulie, and it’s got him rattled. The show plays this perfectly, never getting too obvious while making it clear what Reacher is thinking; a lot of the credit goes to Alan Ritchson, who manages to give Reacher the perfect look, like he’s trying to hide his fear but can’t. (A great scene has him act out his frustration by punching Harley in the stomach so hard he pukes.) Between this and Paulie’s murder of Annette, it’s going to be a lot of fun seeing Reacher finally beat him.

“Smackdown” sets up quite a bit by the time it’s over. Reacher knows he must face an enemy he probably can’t beat; Duffy realizes that she likely won’t find Teresa alive (although I bet she does), as well as the consequences of bringing agents loyal to her into her off-the-books mission; Annette’s true identity tells Reacher McCabe and Beck (and Quinn, if he’s not McCabe) are selling arms, not drugs; and the cliffhanger ending teases that Reacher is about to meet McCabe. Next week, we’ll find out if Quinn really is the mastermind or if someone else is pulling the strings; I think the latter is probably true. There’s also the reveal of how  Beck’s men dispose of bodies – dumping them off a cliff and into a pool of water that sucks them to pieces and throws them out to sea. I would bet money that Reacher is going to throw someone off that cliff, and it’ll probably be Quinn; this will mirror Reacher’s failed attempt at killing him, this time ensuring Quinn’s demise. And it’ll be painful… just the way Reacher likes it.

Let us know what you thought of “Smackdown” in the comments!

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