ONE
Close-up on Finlay’s wedding ring as he spins it on a picnic table. Reacher explains to him that the gang they’re working against is Venezuelan. Kliner Sr.’s neck wound is a signature move of theirs, a “butterfly cut”. Insert a cell photo of the dead man, just to remind us how the last episode ended.
TWO
They thought Kliner was the boss, but now they know they’re dealing with someone bigger who doesn’t like how messy this Margrave situation has become. Reacher wants a stakeout to see how the change in leadership will effect Kliner Industries. They’ll need a car no one will recognize. Reacher’s on it, while Finlay is called back to the station house. The “dung” — as Finlay euphemizes — has hit the fan.
Roll credits.
At the station, Chief Teale directs the officers. Stevenson is to look at footage of the road leading to Kliner’s. When Finlay enters, Teale rushes over to get him on the case. (Finlay pretends to not know any details about the crime scene.)
THREE
As Finlay prepares to head out, Kliner Jr. comes into the station swinging for him. Finlay sidesteps and locks his arm. KJ, furious that Finlay suspected his father, calls him a carpetbagger and spits at his feet. Teale sends KJ into his office, then tells Finlay that he should stand down from the case. “Hit the bench and I’ll call you back in the game soon enough.”
FOUR
Cut to Reacher pulling up to a small auto shop. He wants the windows on (Hubble’s) Bentley tinted. During the three days it will take, Reacher’s going to need a loaner. The owner doesn’t have extra cars, but, with a little cash incentive, he offers his own minivan with the oxidized paint job, lol. A beat on Reacher before he smiles. “It’s perfect.”
Close on Mosley’s hands as he folds clean barber towels. Finlay brings him a plastic bag of tomatoes. They’re unripe beefsteaks, when Mosley prefers roma. (For someone so health conscious, Finlay doesn’t know much about vegetables.) Looking out the front window, Finlay sees the statue on the town square. He asks, “How did you do it? Stay here?” His family’s been here forever, Mosley answers, as long as Roscoe’s. Why should he be pushed out? When he asks Finlay why he came to Margrave, Finlay gently responds that it’s none of his business. Reacher pulls up in the POS minivan.
Agent Picard knocks rhythmically on the cabin door, and Charlie Hubble opens it. With him is Roscoe, and he’s passing the watch over to her. The cabin has reinforced doors and an alarm system, but if there’s trouble, take the Hubbles and leave. As Picard says goodbye to Charlie, Roscoe tucks her pistol into a table drawer.
The minivan inches down a wooded lane until the stakeout has a good view of Kliner’s. We get some of our fun buddy cop schtick as Reacher eats beef jerky and Finlay rolls down the window to avoid the smell. Spinning his ring on the dash, Finlay gives Reacher a hard time for losing touch with Neagley and his other military friends. Reacher rips Finlay for not moving on from his divorce. Here’s where Finlay admits, to Reacher and all of us, that he’s a widower. Reacher feels bad and asks why Finlay never corrected him. Finlay — aw — says that everyone assumes his wife left him because of how he is. Grumpy, set in his ways, a pain in the butt. He pays her mobile phone bill each month just to hear her voicemail message. (Great subtext and emotion. Well done.)
SWITCH
Team-building is interrupted by activity at Kliner’s. The bug cousin (what’s his name?) drives a delivery truck away from the loading bay. Reacher follows.
Over to the Hubble safe house. Night, and the girls are getting ready for bed. As the women clean up and talk, something outside the window catches Roscoe’s eye. She grabs her gun and tells Charlie to hide in the basement with the girls and be prepared to run for it.
FIVE
Back to the men following the Kliner truck on the freeway. Of course, they must argue about if they’re tailing too close, and whether Finlay can stand another moment of blues music on the radio. (Oh, God, lol, he finds a Kansas CD in the glove box and starts to air drum.)
Meanwhile, Roscoe investigates the woods around the cabin. She spies two men in a black sedan, and then accidentally snaps a twig. Out they come with flashlights. They spot her and give chase. Flying toward the cabin, Roscoe screams at the Hubbles to run. It’s a very dark scene of the women grabbing up the girls and fleeing, villains on their heels. In the brush, Roscoe sends the others on as she prepares to lure the men away. She shoots and runs off. Whoa, she manages to nail one of them in the leg. The other one blows himself up when Roscoe shoots tree bark near his head, blinding him.
And now the stakeout duo are at a motel, watching bug cousin take a room. When the light goes out, Reacher and Finlay approach the truck. Reacher climbs up and cuts a hole through the thin roof. Motel light comes on and Dawson (aha!) steps out, checks around the vehicle, and goes back inside. Reacher climbs down and announces, to their surprise, that the truck is empty.
They don’t know what’s going on, but Joe did. Now they’ll contact the people who have been out of town. The first professor was killed that morning. Reacher calls the second professor and wakes her. He’s on his way, and he advises her how to stay alive until he arrives.
Dawn glints through the woods as Roscoe looks for the Hubbles. There they are, just as planned. Piggy-backing one of the girls, Roscoe leads them toward town.
At the airport Finlay drops off Reacher.
Back to the women at a diner. As the girls rest, Roscoe tells Charlie that her husband lied about having his bank job for the past year. Charlie admits that she knew. She tells Roscoe the story of how Paul became entangled. Kliner offered him an “exciting” job: Come down to Venezuela and see how things work. He goes, is impressed, and successfully moves money about, legally, within hours. Four times your current pay, Kliner offers, excited to land Paul. Let’s walk out to the horse farm and meet the client. In a beautiful barn, Kliner lays out a metaphor about these racing thoroughbreds that are locked in stalls. They rebel for a while, then accept their fate. And now Paul is caged by an international counterfeiting business he’s unwittingly joined. Kliner is unsympathetic, threatening, and manipulative. He locks Paul in the barn.
SIX
Later at night thugs bring in a man they’re torturing and make Paul watch. We see the nailing to the wall, and then we’re back with Charlie. Paul had no choice but to comply. Roscoe, who knows the whole story now, is supportive. Honking, Picard drives up and takes them away from the diner.
SEVEN
In NYC, Reacher goes into a tailoring shop to find a suit. (Jokes about his size ensue.) His cab then delivers him . . . somewhere. A theater? Across the street a man, watching, calls it in. Oh, it’s a police station. Reacher eyes each cop. One guy spills his burrito down his front, another has his leg on the desk. Finally he sees a clean cut young man with shiny shoes. Reacher approaches and asks to see his client. (Ah, the suit makes sense now.)
EIGHT
He meets with Professor Castillo in a side room. She speaks of MUC — mass undetectable counterfeiting on a global scale. The American hundred dollar bill is the currency of choice for worldwide crime. The key to a successful fake C-note is the paper, and Joe made sure only one company produced it. However, the “super bills” are still being made somewhere in Georgia.
Reacher is struck speechless as the whole scheme becomes clear to him. He’s up and ready to leave. Find the paper, he will find the operation. On the way out, he talks to Sergeant Diaz, establishing that they’re both former military. Giving him the whole story, he asks for Diaz to watch over Castillo until only Reacher calls with the all-clear.
NINE
On the street, Reacher tosses his suit coat in a garbage can. In the window reflection, he sees the man following him. He runs down an alley, catches the tail by surprise, and starts beating on him. The man, trained, slashes him with a knife. The fight has some nifty stunts, including Reacher using his necktie to strangle the man. The camera holds on the dead guy as Reacher walks away. Roll credits.
CRITICAL NOTES
Why is this episode named after the French word for paper? Obviously, “paper” is the big reveal, but I missed the connection to the language. Well, they couldn’t name it in English, it might give away the secret.
Sorry, lol. It’s the little questions that drive me the craziest.
This is more or less a stable Story Enneagram. The Three and Six mirror as violence, followed by retreat. The visuals don’t resonate, but the idea is satisfying enough. What I really like are the Seven and Nine. Reacher decides to pretend he’s a lawyer in order to safely visit with Castillo. That’s a very mundane and uneventful Seven. However, he also chooses Diaz as the cop he can trust, reading the investigative clues about who is reliable. The scene rolls out smoothly. It’s true to character and interesting.
The Nine kind of blows me away. Usually the world resolves at the end, yet here we have a huge stunt piece. It’s almost Eight-like in its action. The idea that this episode can only wind down into violence — the thug organization against Reacher — is artful. It’s a bit of a cliffhanger and a solid launch point for the next episode.