REVIEW: Reacher – Season 3, Episode 8, “Unfinished Business”

Television Reviews

“Unfinished Business” brings season 3 of Reacher to a close with a mostly satisfying finale that wraps up everyone’s stories and features plenty of action and some good one-liners. But as with most of the season, it’s missing a few things that would have brought some of the conflicts full circle – one in particular–  and it fails to deliver on a big setup from earlier in the season.

When he discovers that the weapons deal is a trap, Reacher goes into action to get Duffy, Villanueva, and the ATF agents out alive. Neagley follows the trucks to Beck’s estate, where Quinn plans to sell the weapons during Beck’s lavish birthday party.

Considering the way “L.A. Story” ended, “Unfinished Business” had to pick up during the phony arms deal, with Reacher ironically being the only one who can save everyone because he defied orders and went after who he thought was Quinn. The trap is a massive ambush, with Quinn’s forces surrounding and moving in on the ATF team and Beck. Reacher makes quick use of his sniper rifle, picking off Quinn’s thugs while trying to protect the agents who tried to sideline him before jumping into the fray and killing bad guys left and right. It’s a decent action sequence, and Reacher has some fun kills, like walking along a barrier in lockstep with one of Quinn’s men before they see each other, then shooting him before he can make his move. Duffy and Villanueva lend a hand, but this is Reacher’s show, something the show thankfully doesn’t forget throughout the finale.

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Reacher, Duffy, Villanueva, and Beck are the only ones who make it out of the ambush, plus one of Quinn’s men who’s left alive to help get them where they need to be: Beck’s mansion, where the real arms deal is happening. This is good; Reacher is all about being a throwback to old-school action, and that means you take the hero and maybe a handful of sidekicks and send them to war with an army of bad guys. That’s exactly how “Unfinished Business” plays out, and the episode-long (or thereabouts) climax is framed well, with each character having a task to accomplish. Duffy heads off to save Teresa, Villanueva is sent to rescue Richard, Neagley keeps an eye on the party so she can find out where Quinn is selling the terrorists their weapons, and Reacher goes after Paulie. That means that everyone’s task is either personal to them or doesn’t step on anyone else’s toes, which ensures that they’ll all get a satisfying resolution by the end.

That Paulie fight is both the highlight of “Unfinished Business” and its biggest letdown. It’s a long fight, which it had to be, with Reacher giving his all against an opponent who is much bigger and stronger than he is. It starts at one of the trucks (after Reacher has executed the one henchman he left alive because, as he tells Duffy, he couldn’t find any rope to tie him up with), moves across the lawn to the shed where Teresa was once held, goes over the cliff and into the water, then manages to find its way back to the guard house, which has been Paulie’s lair for the whole season. And it’s grueling, with Reacher having to use any means he can find to put a dent in Paulie, from makeshift weapons to barriers he can duck behind to get a better vantage point while he dodges Paulie’s powerful punches; he even kicks Paulie in the nuts at one point. The best part is about halfway through, when Paulie hangs Reacher in the shed with a chain and thinks it’s over, only for Reacher to break the ceiling and emerge from the shed, hungry for blood. What makes it great is that this is the moment where Paulie realizes that Reacher is a lot tougher than he thought, and it’s gratifying to see the hint of fear in him as Reacher advances, no longer afraid.

Why is the fight a letdown? Because of the way it ends. After Reacher thinks he’s drowned Paulie with a well-placed throat chop, Paulie emerges from the sea and follows Reacher back to the guard house. (I like this aspect of it; it’s like they’re two Terminators who keep getting up from something that should have killed them, and it plays into the classic action throwback angle of the show by casting them as indestructible super-beings.) But in the guard house, the game of macho fistfighting is over, and Reacher defeats Paulie by jamming the LMG he keeps in the guard house and allowing Paulie to pull the trigger and have it explode in his face. I know a lot of people are going to like this, but I would have preferred to see Reacher defeat Paulie in battle, winning the physical competition instead of finding a way to cheat. That was the battle that’s been brewing all season, the one Reacher needed to win to triumph over the monstrous Paulie and prove himself. I would have even been fine with the throat chop and subsequent drowning being the means of Paulie’s demise because it would have been a physical defeat. The way it happens, even though you can argue it’s smarter, feels like a copout, which is a shame because Reacher is at its best when it delivers a satisfying bad guy comeuppance.

Regardless, the rest of “Unfinished Business” plays out pretty well. Duffy finds Teresa on the bed in one of the rooms in Beck’s mansion and saves her from being raped by one of the buyers. Villanueva has a great scene where he fights one of Quinn’s henchmen, the payoff being when Richard finds him bloody and beaten (but victorious!) on the floor and asks who he is, and Villanueva says, “I’m here to rescue you.” Neagley has a very funny moment with the head caterer while disguised as one of his staff. But the best non-Reacher moment comes when Beck uses his replica toy gun – the one Richard gave him for his birthday, the one that symbolizes the love between father and son – to save Richard from Quinn, making good on his promise that he wouldn’t let Quinn hurt Richard again. This scene has more heart and sincerity than any other in the episode, and seeing Beck die saving his son is the best possible end for the character. And, of course, Reacher finally gets Quinn, although he and Neagley have to convince the Russians to let him go first. This is more satisfying than Paulie’s death, with Reacher shooting him again and doing it right this time – with a shotgun blast to the face at point-blank range, something from which Quinn won’t be walking away. Reacher also makes sure Quinn knows this is revenge for Dominique Kohl. It would have been nice if they had incorporated that section of the water that destroys bodies somehow; it figures into the fight with Paulie, but nothing comes of it, so it never feels like the payoff it should have been. (Why not kill Paulie that way?)

Otherwise, “Unfinished Business” ends how you imagine it would. Everyone gets a nice sendoff, and Reacher rides off into his next adventure on the back of a motorcycle. Duffy, of course, has to give Reacher the brush-off instead of the other way around so we know how cool and tough we’re supposed to think she is; I’ve never been so glad that Reacher’s love interests only last one season. All in all, this was a fairly middling season of Reacher, and easily my least favorite so far. But it was still well worth watching, and I look forward to seeing the show come back. Maybe it just needs to draw from a better book next time.

Let us know what you thought of “Unfinished Business” and season 3 of Reacher in the comments!

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