Reacher Recap: The Seventh Sense

One of the big differences between the 2003 Jack Reacher novel Persuader and this season adapted from that book is that Reacher is a lot chattier on TV. Much of this is down to the formal necessity that comes with translating a first-person novel to the screen. But not all of it: In Lee Child’s book, Reacher truly is on his own once he cons his way into shady importer/exporter Richard Beck’s heavily guarded household. When he’s inside, his only contact with Duffy — the DEA agent who has press-ganged him into this unsanctioned mission — is via a primitive but theoretically secure texting device.

On TV, it’s just a phone, which means Reacher is yapping away all the damn time. He begins this episode by ringing up Duffy as soon as he finds her girl Teresa’s earring in Beck’s carriage house. Based on a half-eaten plate of food he saw Duke carry out to this building earlier and the presence of a cot with a space heater, he concludes that Teresa’s captors must have moved her no longer than a few hours ago. He’s quick to puncture Duffy’s relief. If Beck is in league with Reacher’s old nemesis Francis Xavier Quinn, “they’re not keeping her alive and healthy for a good reason,” Reacher says.

At the rental property where Reacher’s DEA allies have set up shop, babyfaced rookie agent Elliot has Richard Beck’s bodyguard — the one Reacher supposedly killed — cuffed to a chair. Duffy bursts in and starts beating the man, demanding to know where Beck is keeping Teresa. Villanueva pulls her off of him, pointing out that they’re detaining this man illegally. “Keep it cool, Suzie Q.,” is Villanueva’s odd advice. When Elliot dares to agree, Duffy mockingly addresses the kid as Magellan. I laughed, as this was the guy whose inability to read a map resulted in Duffy’s warrant to surveil Beck being voided.

“Sometimes I call him Ponce de Moron,” Duffy tells Villanueva. C+ for that one.

Back at the Beck house, it appears that Duke has caught Reacher on his forbidden walkabout until the big man emerges from the bathroom. It’s the season’s first big serving of shirtless Ritchson, and he looks swell. Duke tells Reacher he’s to accompany another henchman named Angel Doll on a road trip to point out the pickup truck used in the kidnapping attempt on Richard Beck. He then leaves Reacher alone so Reacher can call up his bestie, Duffy, again and pass all this along, this time at extreme risk of being overheard.

The errand makes no sense. Presumably, Beck — who has the kind of connections to run Reacher’s fingerprints and get a copy of his Army dossier in mere minutes — could get the plate number of a vehicle in police custody without sending an unreliable henchman to the lot in the middle of the night. A henchman who makes clear that he’s prepared to kill the cop minding the lot if that’s what it takes, which would only draw more attention. Beck is no Professor Moriarty.

However flimsy the excuse, getting Reacher out of bed in the middle of the night is a smart play. A sleep-deprived person is more likely to make a mistake. Evidently, it takes more than surviving a round or three of Russian roulette for Reacher to evade suspicion.

On that furtive call with Reacher, Duffy tells him the pickup truck and the Audi Richard Beck’s bodyguard were driving in the same police lot. Reacher points out their entire ruse will be blown if Angel sees the Audi minus any grisly evidence of a man having been exploded in the driver’s seat. Duffy says she’s leaving for the impound lot to move the Audi, but Reacher must stall for time.

Angel Doll, the henchman assigned to drive Reacher to the lot, is a talker. How a guy with lips this loose ever found his way into this criminal conspiracy is a good question, but he won’t be in it for long. That’s a shame, because the way actor Manuel Rodriguez-Saenz makes arias of lines like “I got more whoookups than the Central Maine Power Cooompany” is a sound for sore ears. Reacher learns that Angel is, like him, a former Army man and that the criminal organization they both work for rewards initiative. Most importantly, he confirms what he already suspected: Beck is not the real boss.

Duffy and Villanueva manage to reach the impound lot before Reacher and Angel, but the Audi gets stuck behind a disabled car. Duffy needs more time to move. There’s a funny cut to Reacher stretching out his bathroom and coffee break beyond all reason.

Since they can’t just flash their badges the way Duffy and Villanueva did, Reacher asks Angel how they’re going to get into the impound lot. Angel shows him the carrot, which is a $500 bribe, and the stick, which is a gun. When the cop refuses the bribe, Reacher saves the man’s life … by love-tapping him out cold before Angel can shoot him. Again, risking the heat that killing a cop would bring down just to get the number of a probably stolen license plate seems like a bad plan to me, but what do I know?

As Reacher feared, Angel spots the Audi in the lot, with damage consistent with the kidnapping attempt but no viscera inside. “Cleaner than my car,” Angel notes. Reacher points out it has Delaware plates. That’s because Duffy just swapped them out and is, in fact, hiding underneath this Audi at this very moment. Angel still seems suspicious, but that’s outweighed by thoughts of the promotion he expects the successful completion of this chore will bring him. “I’m moving on up like George Foooocking Jefferson!” Angel says.

Their predawn chore concluded, Reacher wants to sleep. He won’t get it. He’s had his head on the pillow for just a few seconds when Beck knocks on his door and orders him downstairs to the gym to confer with Paulie and Duke about the day’s tasks. Duke is doing dips on a bench, while Pauli is pressing what looks to be eight plates. Like John C. Reilly in Boogie Nights, he asks Reacher how much he can bench. Reacher, whom author Lee Child wants you to know comes by his Herculean physique by eating in diners and never exercising on purpose, says he doesn’t know because a bench press is not a true test of strength.

Reacher suggests “Bavarian arm wrestling,” with an expression that tells us he’s just invented this European sport on the spot. Anyone who’s ever attended grade school will recognize that Reacher is setting Paulie up to punch himself in the face, but it’s still fun to see a plan come together. After knocking himself down, Paulie is spoiling for a fight. I love that Reacher grabs what was either a five- or a ten-pound plate off the rack to hit Paulie with before Duke interrupts this spirited debate with Reacher’s assignment. He needs Reacher to drive a Bizarre Bazaar truck to New London, Connecticut. I’m familiar with New London, having once spent two weeks at the nearby Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Critics Institute just a few miles down Ocean Avenue there! That was more fun than just driving a truck there would be.

Reacher is to follow a GPS navigation device to his specific destination within six hours, not exceed the speed limit, and not worry about what he’s hauling. Rugs? Drugs? A DEA informant named Teresa Daniels, who until very recently was being held hostage at the Beck compound? Reacher calls up Duffy from the road and arranges to meet her team so they can break into the back of the truck and assess its contents.

He also calls up his old friend from the 110th Special Investigators, Frances Neagley (Maria Sten), who does not appear in the novel Persuader but who’s been too beloved since the Amazon series began not to elbow her way into subsequent seasons. Reacher asks Neagley to pull files on Duke, Paulie, and Angel Doll, the latter two of whom should have Army service records. Neagley offers to drop her current caseload and come back Reacher up. She’s rightly stung when Reacher says it’s too dangerous, asking, “Who’re you up against, Reacher?” He hangs up without answering. Reacher is a great ally but a shitty friend.

At the meetup with Duffy and Villanueva, Reacher mansplains basic cop shit to these two veteran cops, like why he waited 72 seconds after parking the truck before getting out. “That’s the amount of time it takes to drive a mile at 50 miles per hour. And no one would follow visually at a distance greater than a mile,” Reacher lectures. Duffy confirms that the earring he found on the Beck property belonged to Teresa. Reacher tells Duffy there’s no way she can possibly prepare herself for what could be inside. She should be offended; she’s seen dead bodies before, presumably. But she’s fallen under the spell of Reacher’s condescension.

Villanueva pops the lock on the back of the truck, and a K-9 officer friend of Duffy’s arrives with a drug-sniffing dog named Pfizer. “Because drugs are her business!” the flatfoot says. Solid joke. He boasts that “the dogs I train can smell a Christmas fart on New Year’s,” and pronounces Reacher’s truck free of contraband. Reacher concludes that this entire long day’s journey into New London is a test of his loyalty. He gives Villanueva his GPS device and tells him to get back on the highway, assuming his progress is being monitored. In the novel, Villanueva restores the lock on the truck. In the series, it’s Reacher, which enables a joke about how he’s only used a soldering iron to get a recalcitrant suspect to talk. It’s worth it for the look on Duffy’s face as she does the math.

As Reacher and Duffy drive to catch up with Villanueva, “Dry the Rain,” by the Beta Band, is on the stereo. If last episode’s “Surfin’ Safari” debate at the Vinyl Vault felt like an implicit shout-out to High Fidelity, here’s an explicit one! Reacher says that Angel’s revelation that Beck is not calling the shots makes him think that Francis Xavier Quinn, the old Reacher enemy whose face we have briefly glimpsed but who has yet to utter a line, is the villain behind the villain. He then confides that he, too, once had a protégé, like Teresa is for Duffy.

“What did Quinn do to her?” Duffy asks. Lee Child’s favorite phrase is “Reacher said nothing.” That’s what he says here.

Reacher drops Duffy back with Villanueva, then drives on to his destination. He’s immediately ordered to drive a different Bizarre Bazaar truck back to Maine.

Arriving back at the warehouse after something like 12 hours on the road, Reacher finds Angel alone. Angel has been stewing in his suspicions. He doesn’t like that Reacher stopped him from killing the cop. He likes even less that the minivan Reacher claims he stole to drive Richard home showed no sign of having been hot-wired. “I have a seeeeventh sense for theeeese things,” Angel says. The horn of Duke’s car summons the two men outside.

Coming to an executive decision, Reacher slams Angel’s head into a desk, getting the chatterbox his wings with a single blow. He has to break the fresh corpse’s leg to make it fit under a desk. We’ve seen Reacher do this before. Outside, an irritated Duke asks Reacher what the holdup was. “Angel talks too much,” Reacher says. I liked hearing him talk, personally. His accent was more musical than Duffy’s Bawhstuhn brogue.