For the first time Reacher has disappointed me. I don’t know if I’ve ever written a breakdown for a show with nothing, not even a nod, to an Enneagram framework.
LEFTOVER NINE
This time we have a small skip. The trio is in the car, listening to a news broadcast. All three look upset, and Finlay, driving, speaks first. “We shouldn’t have left her.”
They fear crooked cops, even at the state level, or being blamed for Molly Beth’s death. The disrespect of leaving her body behind, though, weighs on them.
ONE
As they continue to drive, Reacher notices they’re passing the yard with the picket fence. The dog is down, injured. Finlay pulls over and hops out while Reacher clears the fence. Coming in through the gate, Finlay has had enough. He unchains the dog, prepared to take it. When the owner storms out, Reacher nails him in the nose. Roscoe, lol, has no idea what’s happening. The dog, its neck bleeding a little, sits in the back seat with Reacher as they take it to a safe shelter.
Reacher borrows another car from the Hubble’s garage.
Roll credits.
Driving a country road, Reacher pulls over. His attention is caught by a field of dairy cattle, grazing. Walking back to the car, he notices a teazel on his pants, and flashes back to Hubble’s dress shoe.
A bucket of soapy water. Reacher pulls into the station lot where Roscoe, in uniform, washes her truck. Reveal that “whore” is written down the side of the truck in red paint. Reacher gets right back in the car and peels out. Roscoe drops the sponge to chase after him.
Reacher confronts Kliner Jr. in a diner. He beats on him until Roscoe and Finlay break it up. Kliner Sr., entering, insists Reacher be removed from town.
Outside with Reacher, Roscoe get a call from Chief Teale. He’s firing her. He’s checked paperwork and discovered she’s not investigating what he wants. Roscoe drops a bunch of f-bombs while Finlay tries to calm her down.
They wonder where to go next with this case. The only option left is to look at Gray’s files. Reacher wants to see the Desert Eagle’s gun case. He gave Roscoe something a year before he died, which is not the behavior of someone suicidal.
Cut to the ornate wooden box as Roscoe sets it before Reacher. She can’t believe it as Reacher discovers a small drawer hidden in the corner join. Inside is a key. Roscoe can think of nothing with a lock. Reacher remembers she’d said Gray went for a weekly trim. But he had no hair. They’re off to Mosley’s barber shop.
Mosley’s been waiting, lol, for Roscoe to come looking. He’s had a steamer trunk hidden in his basement this whole time. Inside are files. It’s an emotional moment for Roscoe. One ledger, with a ribbon tying it, has pressed daisies in the front cover just for her.
Now they go through Gray’s paperwork. Reacher finds a record of Kliner’s cattle — all 116 of them. When does a family farm become a commercial farm? About 120 head will bring state inspectors. Roscoe, having none of it, threatens harm to him if he says the animal feed line one more time. Mosley, bringing down sandwiches, interrupts. He gives Finlay a hard time for asking for salad. (“I got tomato salad with mayo between two slices of bread right in front of you.”)
Gray’s accounting is meticulous. He’s investigated ten years’ worth of tax records for the Kliner Foundation. Finlay and Reacher realize that the coast guard blockade has restricted the counterfeiting business, even though Margrave is a geographic hub for transportation. While the two men brainstorm, Roscoe goes back to the daisies. She realizes that Gray was murdered. Finlay follows her out.
Cleaning up, Reacher dips a rag in the barber shop jar of disinfectant to wipe off the glass-covered map. He flashes back to his younger self getting a haircut. Their mother is preparing the boys to look nice when they go to apologize. He and Joe aren’t happy. The next shot, though, is the family in dress clothes as they approach the Curtis boy’s house. Sporting a black eye, the kid joins his parents on the front porch. Joe steps forward when prompted and delivers a respectful apology. Young Reacher refuses. He insults the boy and walks away. In slow motion, his face starts to smile.
SWITCH
Back to grown Reacher. He steps outside, fired up, and tells Roscoe “no apologies”. Bad people should get what’s coming to them. Neagley calls with a coded message. She has news, and Reacher heads off to meet her.
FIVE
The E.P.A. investigator on Joe’s list was gunned down in his home. He had been looking into toxic pollution levels in the Mississippi. Whatever he discovered about the source of the pollution is missing from his report.
Jasper the coroner plays an old school video game on his work computer. When Roscoe pops in he quickly changes the tab. She’s here to ask about Gray’s death. The mortician at the time mentioned covering a large cut in his head they assumed was a result of a fall off his suicide stool. Jasper has a picture of the wound in his files. She asks him to look at the injury with a new perspective. What if his head was struck by something else? He zooms way in on the photo until he can pick up the pattern of what made the wound. It has a diamond-shape quality. Roscoe blanches, and then finds her anger. She rushes out.
Now we’re in Arkansas, following a lead with Reacher and Neagley. They approach a man fishing in the river. A business dumped a bunch of chemicals in and left. The river is dirty. The parent corporation of that business: Kliner Industries.
Cut to Teale’s cane head, in sharp close-up focus, and rack to Roscoe as she comes through the door with a purpose. He says something smarmy, and she, all in one motion, starts punching his face. Finlay pulls her off and leads her out of the station. Teale wipes at a bloody nose.
In the car, Finlay yells at Roscoe. He fears they’ll try to arrest her and kill her in custody. She needs to leave town.
Neagley takes Reacher to meet Officer Aucoin. His partner tries to persuade him to let the case go. Reacher gives Neagley a look and they climb into the back of the police cruiser.
Crosscut to Finlay pulling up at a motel for Roscoe when Picard calls him.
EIGHT
A stripper bar with pole dancers. This is where the officers have taken them to meet their informant. He says that the killer of the E.P.A. investigator goes by the name “The Viking”. Neagley’s eye is caught by a stripper giving a client a lap dance. He’s rough — grabbing her breasts and holding her in place. Neagley’s up like a shot. Reacher (usually the first to act) stands after her, then sits back down. Like a freight train, Neagley gets to the guy and slams her boot flat against his crotch. After driving his face a couple of times into the table, she quietly tells him, “When a woman says she doesn’t want to be touched, she doesn’t want to be touched.” She takes the bills from the table and hands them to the stripper. Reacher, watching, nods and stands to leave. The officers, who’ve sat there the whole time, follow.
On the road with the cruiser, driving. Finlay calls Reacher and updates him about Roscoe. She’s going to replace Picard watching the Hubbles. Finlay suggests that he illegally search Kliner’s, which gives Reacher a chuckle. Aucoin says they’ll look at police database for The Viking. It’s then that his partner, driving, pulls his gun out and threatens Aucoin. Reacher and Neagley yell at him from the back seat to shoot his partner. Partner, crying, shoots Aucoin. From behind the safety glass, Reacher and Neagley can do nothing. Partner keeps crying. He’s so sorry. He’s going to pull in the woods and shoot them real quick. As one, the team kicks at the partition, knocking Partner in the head. He crashes the car in a river, then, trapped, yells for them to help him as water leaks in. Reacher offers to save him, but he’ll just go to jail where he’ll be killed along with his family. Partner chooses to drown as Reacher breaks the passenger window. He and Neagley swim to shore.
NINE
Then they go dumpster diving in the thrift store drop-off bin. They strip down and change into dry clothes. When Reacher tries to order Neagley to give up the case, she scoffs. She’ll track down who is The Viking.
A dark road as a car pulls up and kills it lights. Finlay walks into the undergrowth and scales a chain link fence. He sneaks up to the building and climbs a radio tower to a terrace near Kliner’s suite. After jimmying the door lock, he hurries down the hallway of stuffed animal heads. Close on his face (mostly it’s just flare from the flashlight) as he enters Kliner’s office. Rack on Finlay, then reverse to rack on what he sees. It’s Kliner, sitting at his desk, dead with his throat slit.
Reaction shot from Finlay as he says, “I guess you’re not pulling all the strings.” Roll credits.
CRITICAL NOTES
I really don’t know how to break this episode apart. It feels more like vignettes than an arc that builds to a climax. Writing down the beats has been difficult. Not only is it a list, but the events have no shape. We have detective clues without an emotional framework. To keep from posting an unmanageable mishmash, I’ve shortened some of my note taking.
For instance, the climax of this episode is the tension in the patrol car. It’s the event before the Nine and it takes place at the end; therefore, it’s an Eight. Where is the Two that sets up this moment? What Trouble happens at the beginning that needs this scene — an escape from a drowning vehicle — as its resolution? It’s a very exciting sequence, but it’s just a vignette, a separate whirl of conflict. The showrunners wanted something lively to close the episode, but it is disconnected from everything else.
Roscoe has an arc: KJ defaces her truck; Teale fires her; she and the team discover Gray’s secret files; she realizes Gray was murdered; she learns Teale administered the killing blow; and she confronts him. This is an emotional through-line. However, Roscoe is not central to this episode. The Enneagram can’t hang on her. She’s absent at the Eight and she has no impact at a Two slot. It’s a shame, really, because her character goes through upheaval. Also, what she learns is important to the detective plot. If this episode had built itself around her arc, it would’ve been very interesting. That’s not what happened, though.
The other option for an Enneagram would’ve been to build this episode around Reacher and Neagley. They have some charming buddy moments and a good rapport. Their detective work is the backbone of what this episode wants to say. Neagley’s reaction in the stripper bar at the Eight is a strong beat and an important character reveal. If this storyline had been beefed up around the two of them, and a parallel Enneagram had been structured with Roscoe, this would’ve been in impressive episode.
As it stands now, I’m kind of gobsmacked. The detective work, the clue-chasing, is hard to follow because no structure supports the action. I could not tell you the facts of the case, and that seems like a terrible flaw. For a really good show, this is shocking.