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The fourth season of Reacher has reached its conclusion on Prime Video. Much like previous outings, the latest run of episodes, which once again take inspiration from Lee Child’s book series, found everyone’s favorite muscular drifter immersed in yet another criminal conspiracy.
A mysterious thumb drive, a couple of knife-wielding terrorists, a biological weapon threat and government cover-up make up the foundation of the season. The result is a story that feels too big in scope compared with previous seasons of Reacher, and too narratively brittle to feel like a Jack Reacher adventure worth taking seriously.
Don’t get me wrong: I don’t think Reacher is a show that should be taken seriously. However, his previous crime-fighting escapades have all transpired in a more street-level arena. Seasons 1-3 proved that our hero works best when he’s outsmarting small-town criminal operations and busting heads in the process.
I understand that the Prime Video series relies on the books for inspiration, and that a show like this can get tired real quick if it keeps running through the same paces each season, but throwing Jack Reacher into the midst of a terror plot involving the CIA, FBI and the potential future United States president feels way more like territory reserved for a more qualified Jack (Bauer and Ryan come to mind).
With that all said, let’s make sense of what went down in the Season 4 finale of Reacher. There are major spoilers below, so tread lightly.
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How did Jack get here?
Jack Reacher is a magnet for trouble. Season 4 kicks off with Reacher witnessing a suicide on the subway, which quickly ensnares him in a government cover-up involving a thumb drive that contains a decades-old picture of soldiers posing with a war criminal.
Through each episode, thanks to the help of this season’s rag-tag team — small-town cop Jacob Merrick (Christopher Rodriguez Marquette), Philadelphia detective Tamara Green (Sydelle Noel) and underground journalist Russell Plum (Kevin Weisman) — Reacher is able to put together the pieces of a conspiracy. It involves the highest office in the government, the formula for an intense biological weapon and Lila (Agnez Mo) and Amisha (Anggun), the unconventional terrorist duo who have infiltrated the US seeking revenge and a big payday for the weapon in question once it’s unleashed on the general population.
The penultimate episode finds Reacher’s crew continuing to evade law enforcement, while presidential candidate John Sampson (Marc Blucas) takes out a suicide bomber, sacrificing himself in the process, and saving the lives of those at his fundraiser and in the surrounding city area.
With their time running out, they’re left wondering where Lila and Amisha might strike next.
What happened in the Reacher Season 4 finale?
Lila and Reacher had an intimate night together earlier in the season, back when she was pretending to be a do-gooder. The foreshadowing was clearly there, though, and it wasn’t long into the season before we learn that the woman is a knife-wielding killer.
They’re really in the US to seek revenge for the death of a war criminal named General Putra, which is a weird choice since he’s been dead for decades. But still, that’s one reason Lila and Amisha are here: to kill John Sampson, the presidential candidate and former military man who killed Putra all those years ago.
A photo featuring Sampson and Putra leads Reacher to suspect the politician, but the real bombshell is the discovery of an AI capable of reading a blurred formula written on the whiteboard in the background of the photo. That formula, you guessed it, was for the biological weapon Lila and Amisha are hell-bent on unleashing on the US.
I hope you’re all clear on that, because the majority of the finale’s second act is a whole bunch of fighting. It was clear that, with all the revelations made in the second-to-last episode of the season, there wasn’t much left to explore narratively to keep the audience engaged.
I did my best to keep my eye on the clock, and all this fighting lasted about 20 or so minutes. I’m not saying it wasn’t fun to watch all the shooting and punching and stabbing, but it’s not a great sign when all this action is happening and I’m repeatedly checking my watch.
It’s also a bit hamfisted to think that Reacher can barrel through a bunch of armed soldiers with a storm of fists and headbutts, while nearly meeting his maker when facing off against Lila and Amisha, who are merely armed with one karambit (a curved knife) each.
When it’s all over, Amisha is shoved out the window of an abandoned restaurant to her perceived death while a bloodied and thoroughly cut-up Reacher, after way more scuffling with Lila, finally puts her down with a syringe full of the chemical agent.
While all this is happening, Jacob and Tamara are off on their own mission to chase down a bad guy who’d escaped the building with the chemical weapon, with orders to release it in public. So, he goes to a nightclub. And in a rather anticlimactic scene, the duo shoots the guy and is able to retrieve the weapon.
Back to Reacher: When he collapses on the street in the rain, the CIA agent, whose ear he damaged earlier in the season, comes out of nowhere to kill him. But he’s taken out by Amisha, who is, surprise, not dead. Still lying in the wet street, Reacher nearly dies at her hand. But he’s saved, in the knick of time by Jacob, who comes out of nowhere, and arrests Amisha, which is a big deal since she’s the one responsible for his sister and nephew’s death.
After all this, Reacher wakes up in the hospital, gets up and walks out. But not before he gives the incriminating thumb drive to Plum, so he can write a story about the whole conspiracy and pursue the journalistic glory he’s been after.
As for Jacob, he gets closure for the deaths, and the show alludes to a romance between him and Tamara. Tamara, in turn, is publicly recognized for her work on the case. And Reacher? Well, he gets back on the subway and shares a sandwich with a disheveled (and potentially unhoused?) woman he sees struggling with a bunch of bags.
Final thoughts
Season 4 of Reacher wasn’t a bad season, per se. The show has developed a passionate fanbase who tune in for a very specific reason: Watching Alan Ritchson crack skulls while enforcing small-town justice for the underdog. He did a lot of skull-cracking here.
But for those interested in seeing some outlaw justice take place on a smaller scale, this season wasn’t it. Is it possible that Jack Reacher will become involved with another high-profile case, like the one from this season? Sure. But not in Season 5.
According to TV Line, the show will tackle Lee Child’s 20th Reacher novel, Make Me, which means Reacher is going back to the small-town formula that makes it so appealing. Not for nothing, but that’s fine by me.
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