Reacher Season 4 Episode 6 Puts the Whole Team in the Crosshairs and Pulls the Trigger

Critic’s Rating: 3.9 / 5.0

3.9

It sure would be a good time for Neagley to show up, am I right?

For the most part, Reacher Season 4 Episode 6 was just a little over a half hour of decimating Reacher and the B-Team with all of their lives hanging in the balance.

And, of course, some more sprinklings of the overarching conspiracy, too.

As a fan of characters like Tamara and her fascinating dynamics with the other characters, the hour (well, less than that) was interesting in the sense of getting more insight into her background, her fears, and just seeing the fun dynamic she’s built up with Reacher.

As I said while watching Reacher Season 4 Episode 5, Tamara, outside of Neagley herself, has probably been the most compelling partner Reacher has had throughout the entire series.

She can match his energy well, not just in personality, but in physicality, too. Our girl is Philly scrappy and can hold her own.

So it was fun to see the two of them whooping ass during the smoked-out scene with the mercenaries coming through and attacking everyone like they were Bane or something.

And it was equally great watching them kick some major ass against the mercenaries who have been after them the whole time, sent by Leo Ahlquist, the scientist in that photo.

Those scenes were great, until they managed to subdue both Reacher and Tamara. Say what you will about this season, but Reacher has been getting the shit kicked out of him every episode.

I want to hate it, because no one wants to see someone deemed invincible injured so often, but truthfully, there’s an element of realism to that, which has grounded the season.

That said, I still call foul on him going down so easily with two tasers and not being able to find a way out of handcuffs. I don’t know. Maybe I had a little more faith in Reacher than that, and he was preparing to die with honor instead.

Reacher and Tamara are pretty much the highlight of the hour.

From the moment Amisha and Lila got away, they were back on the run again with each other, racing to find the scientist in that photo to determine why that drive was so important in the first place.

And doing that when they’re wanted, and their faces were plastered everywhere, was no easy feat.

It meant splitting up again, leaving Jacob to do the noble, albeit risky, thing of taking Plum to the hospital after he predictably got shot. The B-Team‘s two powerhouses had to figure out how to get to Dover thanks to Plum’s last words.

The two of them trying to clean up and get new clothes was hilarious because I love how they both called each other out on stuff.

However, Tamara totally had the upper hand here. Sure, anyone from Mars can see that she and Jacob have a connection, but at least she wasn’t rolling in the sack with a killer without knowing it.

That moment of levity was necessary because it really is horrendous that Reacher got so taken by a pretty “damsel in distress” that he bedded her and had no idea whatsoever that she was an assassin on a mission.

He won’t be living that one down anytime soon. And Tamara’s jabs at Reacher “blending in” when he’s massive and jacked were hilarious, too.

They even carried that fun banter into the bus.

Reacher helping Tamara through her anxiety attacks by being a shit and making her do math was amusing, but those moments finally gave us more insight into why she’s been so devoted to this case and how she ended up benched.

She went after a donor’s kid for assaulting a woman, and she basically paid the price for it, which sucks. But her drive to go after powerful people on behalf of the little people is not only innate but activated with all of this.

Investigating the Anna thing finally made her feel alive again, enjoy her job again, and feel like she could actually make a difference, as she had always wanted before she got screwed over.

The irony now is that she could end up losing her job or dying after all of this. She’s wanted; an endless stream of people are trying to kill her — it never really ends.

It’s that dynamic, and the similarities between Reacher and Tamara, that carry most of the episode, and it all led up to them facing down possible execution. Again, this would be the perfect time for Neagley to show up.

Do you know how hyped I would be to see Neagley and Tamara share the screen? Endlessly. However, the setup is also there for Docherty and Jacob to show up, too.

Jacob was potentially talking some sense into Docherty from the back of that cop car, and I really do believe that Docherty cares about Tamara. That’s the one thing Docherty and Jacob genuinely have in common.

It would also be cool if Jacob were in on saving Reacher and Tamara since his emotions and recklessness have caused so many issues for most of the season.

As you’ve maybe figured out from my latest piece about the guy, I’m a Jacob Sympathizer, or maybe a Jacob Apologist.

Dealer’s choice, really, but I’ve found him to be an interesting character precisely because he’s what it feels like when a normal person gets pulled into things beyond his capabilities and pay grade.

And right now, he definitely feels like he needs to redeem himself. He got caught by Amisha and Lila, which led to Plum’s shooting and losing the drive.

But he put in a good effort evading the cops in the hospital. He thinks quickly on his feet, one of his most admirable traits, though it’s often lost behind his emotions and irrationality.

They barely managed to convince that man of anything the last time they were at the Mayfield police station, so Jacob turning to him this time around was bound to be a poor judgment call.

It was still heartbreaking to see this man who clearly cares about Jacob treating him like he was mentally ill and as if the best call was somehow turning him over to authorities who basically wanted him dead, too.

And then hearing all the vile things Docherty was saying as well just irked my spirit. But now it has me wondering who Docherty has been working for all of this time.

It’s been clear since he first appeared onscreen that he’s been shady, but now, we’re likely to believe that he’s a good cop who may have gotten caught up in bad things and feels trapped.

He definitely seems to be second-guessing what to do with Jacob, so I do wonder if they’ll be the ones who save Reacher and Tamara in time.

So far, the thing about Reacher Season 4 is that the actual mystery and overarching plot aren’t all that interesting, but the character studies and interactions are what’s most gripping.

I don’t really care about this drive, and if I have to watch either Amisha or Lila swing those knives around one more time, I’ll roll my eyes.

They’ve also been where parts of the story feel a bit too hokey, like the expository dialogue that had Lila informing us of the real depth of her relationship with Amisha and Amisha’s relationship with Putra.

Every time they threaten random people to get what they want, it’s irritating, but it also seems ridiculous. Like, how is the hacker they want to decrypt that photo going to be useful if they’re breathing down his neck every five seconds?

Whatever the case, Amisha and Lila met up with, I’m only assuming, the mysterious Waberti, and they’re basically swearing allegiance to him.

Do have any idea what all of that means and where it’s headed? Not really. Am I particularly invested? Nah.

I also think that Sampson’s wife has a bigger role in all of this. She’s shady in every single scene she’s in, and now she’s warning him that Reacher being a wanted man and all of this going on will circle back to him.

She’s not wrong about that. Cahill warned Ahlcrist before he killed himself, and that had him destroying evidence — whatever that is.

It’s only a matter of time before Sampson is dragged through the mud, but we still don’t know the full extent of why, in what way, and what requires all of this to cover things up?

I don’t really know what the writing looks like to get to the other side of this particular conspiracy. There doesn’t seem to be a way to put the genie back in the bottle with Reacher’s face plastered everywhere and all of the B-Team essentially being hunted down.

While I’m not familiar with the book, I wonder whether the plot was serviceable for a full-on season plot. But I’m also just content with the characters I got out of it, too.

Over to you, Reacher Fanatics!

How will Tamara and Reacher escape execution? Will Plum survive? Sound off below!