REVIEW: Reacher – Season 3, Episode 7, “L.A. Story”

Television Reviews

“L.A. Story” is one of those essential but unsung episodes. It’s the last one before the finale, so it’s mostly setting up the final battle, which means it’s not going to have the payoffs everyone is craving at this point in the season. But the buildup is necessary to make the explosion that much more cathartic, and “L.A. Story” is full of suspense, putting all of the characters where they need to be for the big finish and reminding us of – and in some cases, raising – the stakes for everyone as the season prepares to wrap. Unfortunately, it’s also got some really bad writing and characterization that diminish Reacher as a hero.

Reacher and Duffy head to L.A. to track down a drug dealer and make him set up their next play against Quinn. Quinn puts pressure on Beck to do what he’s told as he prepares for the arms sale. Neagley searches for the people who tried to kill her.

“L.A. Story” gives Reacher a personal reason to care about Teresa Daniels in its opening scene. Before they leave for California, Duffy takes Reacher to meet Teresa’s grandmother, a sweet old lady who believes her granddaughter has simply disappeared, perhaps going on another drug binge. She also appears to think Duffy is a social worker rather than a DEA agent, which, on a practical level, is so Duffy can hide what’s really going on, but it also functions as a symbol of her shame. She blames herself for getting Teresa captured – and rightly so – and she fixes things so she doesn’t have to talk about it unless absolutely necessary. But this scene is also where Reacher gets personally involved, having met the grandma and seeing Teresa’s picture on her refrigerator. Suddenly, the story Duffy told him becomes a real girl who needs to be rescued from a monster, and that’s exactly the kind of thing Reacher likes to do… right before he makes the monster pay dearly for hurting her.

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Well, that’s what it should have been, anyway. The biggest problem with “L.A. Story” is that it undersells Reacher’s drive to protect the innocent, seemingly to make Duffy look better. When they arrive in their hotel room in Los Angeles, Duffy asks Reacher why he suddenly cares so much about Teresa, and instead of saying something like “Because I saw her picture on her grandmother’s refrigerator,” or something that indicates the importance of that scene and his own code of honor, he says it’s because he sees how important it is to Duffy, and if it’s important to her, it’s important to him. This is the prelude to Reacher and Duffy finally having sex, and based on the rest of the episode, that’s all it is. After this, Duffy accuses Reacher of not caring about Teresa several times, and Reacher more or less confirms this. That’s what I mean about making Duffy look good; they’re having her be the moral center of the season, the one who cares about rescuing Teresa, while Reacher is portrayed as obsessed only with killing Quinn. It’s annoying and an oversimplification of Reacher; he is vengeance-driven (and he has a terrific line to that effect this week), but he wouldn’t let an innocent girl get killed in the process.

But I guess we’re supposed to think that of Reacher now because Duffy and Villanueva insist on going to the ATF and bringing them in on their bust, which Reacher doesn’t want. It sets them up as caring only about getting Teresa back, which is fine, but Duffy accuses Reacher of not caring about her because he didn’t mention her on a phone call to Beck – a situation in which he’d have no reason to mention Teresa. This seems very contrived and, again, out of character for Reacher when he doesn’t defend his desire to save Teresa. Predictably, the ATF is not happy about their off-the-books mission or their failure to report their undercover agent’s murder. So, of course, Duffy, Villanueva, and especially Reacher are sidelined, told to wait in the van and observe as the ATF makes the bust. Nobody’s happy, but Reacher is especially mad because he wants to rend Quinn limb from limb. Then, Duffy does something I couldn’t believe the writers lowered themselves to doing: she explains the parallel between her wanting to save Teresa and Reacher failing to save Dominique Kohl. Yes, we understand that; there was a whole episode that made this point through the plot and the characters. We didn’t need it spelled out in the form of a lecture to Reacher from someone who clearly thinks she’s his moral superior. Moreover, that episode laid out the argument for Reacher making sure Quinn is dead this time; he didn’t finish the job in the past, and now, another girl is on Quinn’s chopping block. Reacher needs to kill him to make sure he can never hurt anyone again. It was all tied together, but it’s now being presented as two opposing goals at war with each other. I don’t know if this is in the book or a result of the show’s writing, but either way, it’s undermining the season’s themes, character motivations, and storytelling.

It’s also unfortunate because the rest of “L.A. Story” is great. Neagley is back, and after hunting down the guy her two would-be assassins worked for, she learns about Quinn using Beck’s company as a front for his gun-running. She also learns that Quinn has done this before, and when the heat was on, he killed the entire family he’d taken hostage and moved on. The stakes are now raised even higher because Quinn is clearly going to kill the Becks when he’s through with them. And once Neagley gets in touch with Reacher, he arranges for her to pose as a potential buyer and has their L.A. target, a drug dealer named Darien Prado, set up the phony deal so they can recruit Beck to help them. (For an episode titled “L.A. Story,” very little happens in L.A.) Neagley and Beck are now fully on Reacher’s team, and this leads to two of the best scenes of the season. In one, Beck has an honest conversation with Richard after seeing his birthday present and admits to being a bad father on purpose to push his son away so he wouldn’t miss him the way he missed his mother when she died. Anthony Michael Hall has mostly just been harried this season, but he’s excellent in this scene, particularly the moment when he kisses his wedding ring as he talks about his wife’s passing. There is a tragic fatalism to this character – as he tells Neagley, even if he makes it out of this mess alive (which I doubt he will), he’ll probably spend the rest of his life in prison. All he has now is the hope that his son will be okay, and he’s so powerless that he can only accomplish this through Reacher. The abuse and indignities he suffers are all for Richard, and you can’t help but feel bad for him. The other scene is Reacher and Neagley catching up, and instead of complaining about being kept out of the mission, she lets Reacher know how much he means to her, and he does the same. It’s perfect, and it sets Neagley – and every other woman that’s been on the show – in sharp contrast to the obnoxious, self-righteous, overbearing Duffy.

The final moments of “L.A. Story” are the setup for the season finale, as the ATF bust is about to go down, and Reacher leaves with a sniper rifle to take care of Quinn permanently, even if it makes him a wanted man. But something is wrong; Neagley has been following the buyers since they arrived at the airport, and they’re still on the road, not at the location Beck gave them. Quinn pulled a fast one on everyone, and the real deal is happening at Beck’s mansion during his fiftieth birthday party. Did Quinn simply not trust Beck, or does he have an insider in the ATF? My guess is that it’s just Beck; this explains Quinn’s lingering look at Richard as he calls Beck into the other room. If he does have someone in the ATF working for him, it’s almost certainly the suit who yelled at Duffy and Villanueva (although, from his perspective, they deserve it). And who are the guys showing up at the staged buy? If they’re aware of the bust, are they going to open fire and kill the ATF agents? It’ll be funny if Reacher ends up saving them by recognizing the trap. One thing’s for certain: next week, Reacher will have his vengeance.

Let us know what you thought of “L.A. Story” (the Reacher episode, not the Steve Martin movie) in the comments!

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