What To Know
- Reacher Season 4 opens with the death of a Pentagon employee, whose mysterious flash drive sparks a deadly conspiracy.
- As Reacher investigates, he uncovers that she was far more than a simple HR clerk.
Warning: The following post contains discussions of self-harm and suicide.
Reacher has returned, much to the joy of action lovers, fans of Lee Child‘s book series, and dads everywhere. The hulking hero is back for a fourth season on Prime Video, this time in an adaptation of Child’s 13th Jack Reacher novel, Gone Tomorrow.
Season 4 launched with its first three episodes, which waste little time throwing Reacher (Alan Ritchson) into another conspiracy. What begins with a disturbing encounter with a woman on a Philadelphia subway quickly spirals into a mystery involving a dead Pentagon employee, her missing son, a mysterious flash drive, the CIA, a congressman with presidential ambitions, and more than a few people willing to kill to keep the truth buried. Here’s what happened in the first three episodes of Reacher Season 4 and where the mystery stands heading into Episode 4. Warning: Spoilers ahead for Reacher Episodes 1 through 3.
The season kicks off in Philadelphia at 2:18 a.m., where Reacher spots a distraught woman (Karen Kwong-Chip) on a subway, both hands buried in a blue bag. Based on his MP training, she is checking all the boxes for a suicide bomber. She isn’t, but she does have a gun. “No one can help me now,” she tells him before shooting herself in the head.
At the station, Reacher meets detectives Tamara Green (Sydelle Noel) and Shaun Dockery (Kevin Corrigan), her partner, and quickly realizes they are stalling until the feds arrive from D.C. The dead woman is Anna Merrick, a federal employee, and the government interest in what looks like a suicide immediately gets Reacher’s attention. So does the arrival of Anna’s brother, Jacob (Christopher Rodriguez Marquette), a cop from New Jersey. He insists Anna would never have killed herself: She was happy, loved her job and, most importantly, loved her son, Ben, whom Jacob suddenly can’t reach.
There are other odd details. Why was Anna wearing a winter coat? Where did she get the gun? And why are federal agents so interested in whether she gave Reacher anything before she died? There were four other people on the train, but now one is missing, so what happened to the fourth witness?
That last question becomes much more important when two men jump Reacher looking for a flash drive they believe Anna gave him. Reacher has no drive, but now he knows Anna’s death wasn’t simply a suicide. She worked in HR for an Army general; people are willing to beat him up over something she supposedly had, Ben is missing, and the federal government is involved. Reacher was also the last person who might have helped Anna before she died, which makes walking away considerably harder.
The mystery gets another wrinkle when Reacher meets Lila (Agnez Mo), a young woman who claims she has leukemia and needs to find her biological father for a donor match. Anna had apparently been helping her, and Lila says her father is Congressman John Sampson (Marc Blucas), the result of an affair her mother (Anggun) had with a soldier involved in a Delta mission in Indonesia in the ’90s. Anna was supposedly going to give Lila files she could use to blackmail Sampson — files that would technically amount to espionage. Reacher and Jacob start looking into Sampson, but Reacher is soon attacked again by men looking for the drive. Then Ben’s disappearance becomes official, and Reacher himself is tranquilized and abducted.
Courtesy of Prime
Episode 2 “Cage Fight” finds Reacher waking up in a cage alongside Tamara and Jacob. Their kidnappers appear to be the CIA; they think Reacher has Anna’s drive, and they want to know where Lila is. When they threaten Jacob and Tamara, Reacher takes down all three.
Their escape is aided by freelance journalist Russell Plum (Kevin Weisman), who is brought into the fold. He has been watching the building for weeks because he suspected it was a CIA black site and, now that people are dying, he wants the story. He also points out the obvious: Anna worked for the Pentagon, so whatever was on that flash drive is probably military-related.
Tamara and Jacob head to Anna’s apartment and find more signs that something is very wrong. Her mail is old, a meal is still sitting out, and her keys and car are gone. They are attacked by a man inside, but manage to take him down. They also learn Ben hasn’t shown up for football practice. Their search for him eventually leads Reacher, Tamara, and Jacob to his frat house, where they learn he left with an OnlyFans foot model. Unfortunately, when they find the woman’s apartment, she has been tortured and murdered. Whoever has Ben — or is looking for him — is not a nice person.
Courtesy of Prime
Reacher, meanwhile, tries to get to Sampson. At a campaign event, the congressman tells the crowd, “A person can be a little too clever for their own good. You are better off telling the truth and taking your medicine.” Reacher corners him and his wife Elsbeth (Kathleen Robertson) afterward. Still, Sampson pokes a pretty significant hole in Lila’s story: Anna was supposedly an HR file clerk, so how would she have access to classified information about a Delta mission Sampson was part of? Sampson even offers up his DNA when Reacher brings up the alleged love child. At this point, Reacher knows Sampson is telling the truth.
Reacher also can’t believe the CIA would kidnap cops on American soil to cover up a decades-old political sex scandal. He walks away thinking Sampson isn’t behind it — only to uncover a much bigger connection. Nolan Cahill (Chris Owens), Sampson’s chief of staff, was the mysterious fourth witness on the subway train when Anna killed herself.
By Episode 3 “One Small Step,” Reacher, Tamara, Jacob, and Russell have one hell of a mystery on their hands: Anna is dead, Ben is missing, Cahill was on the train, the CIA wants the drive, and nobody actually knows what is on it. Russell makes things even worse by going on 4Chan and falsely claiming he found the flash drive. CIA agents show up at his loft, only for another armed group to arrive and mow them down. Reacher takes care of the newcomers and discovers Lila’s address on one of them.
That leads him back to Lila, whose story falls apart spectacularly. She doesn’t have leukemia. The woman she introduced as her mother isn’t her mother. And she doesn’t believe Sampson is her father. Lila says she is a journalist investigating allegations that Sampson helped train violent squads in Indonesia that attacked and killed civilians. According to her, Cahill was Sampson’s commanding officer, and Anna was supposed to get the drive to Lila. She wants whatever is on it exposed before Sampson can reach the White House. Reacher isn’t entirely sold, but agrees to find the drive and judge the evidence for himself.
Meanwhile, Tamara keeps working the case despite Dockery wanting her off it, and Anna’s car provides another set of questions. Why did she ditch the car and take the subway? Why did she pull an old winter coat out of the car and wear it on a hot, stuffy subway? And why does Anna have two work badges, one at home and another in the car?
Using Anna’s pass to enter her office leads to an even bigger discovery: She had a Level 8 security clearance. So much for being a simple HR employee.
Reacher finally confronts Sampson about Indonesia and General Putra. Sampson confirms they met but denies torturing or killing civilians, or helping anyone do it. Then Reacher tells him Cahill was on the subway with Anna.
Sampson doesn’t believe him.
They find Cahill drinking heavily at a rooftop bar, where he looks at Sampson and says, “You would have made a good president.”
Then makes his way to the ledge and jumps.
So, three episodes in, Anna and Cahill are dead, Ben is still missing, the flash drive is nowhere to be found, Anna clearly wasn’t the low-level HR employee everyone thought she was, and both the CIA and another heavily armed group are willing to kill to get whatever she was trying to expose. The question is no longer whether Anna was hiding something. It’s what she knew, and who is willing to kill to keep Reacher from finding out.
Reacher, Season 4, Wednesdays, Prime Video
If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or dial 988. If you or a loved one are in immediate danger, call 911.