LEFTOVER NINE
Margrave, Georgia. Nighttime, with a man running through a field under an overpass. Someone, arm and head obscured by clothing, raises a silenced pistol and shoots the man. This person’s hand, wearing latex gloves, picks the shell casings from the grass. The foot is covered in cloth booties. They, or another person wearing full hazmat clothing, violently and repeatedly kicks the downed man. Dissolve to black, and then someone drapes the body with a flattened cardboard box, dirty and weathered. Dissolve again to black, and roll credits.
This is the well-received Amazon original, Reacher, based on the Lee Child book. I’ve seen the series once and really enjoyed it. I thought it might be fun to break it down. As always, my Story Enneagram will contain detailed spoilers. Go away, watch for yourself, and come back!
ONE
A lovely over of Howlin’ Wolf, and we see a boot step from a transit bus in the rain. It’s a deserted crossroads surrounded by open land. The man begins to walk the road, the angle close on his work boots. He passes the Margrave town sign, and approaches a diner. So far we’ve only seen him from a distance or from the back, but it’s obvious he’s a big guy.
Before he can enter the diner, a young couple exits. In the parking lot, the man, a weasley fellow, abuses the woman. Our big man takes a step in their direction. The camera comes around and we finally see his face. Handsome, strong jaw — your basic Clark Kent in road clothes.
Hahaha! The camera lingers on his silent face, and then Weasel starts apologizing and backing away.
Cut to inside, where the waitress sets down a black coffee and peach pie slice. He sits alone at a corner booth. This is basically our introduction to how his biceps move in a polo shirt, lol.
TWO
Just as he’s about to eat that first delicious bite, sirens blare outside. Two police cars roar up. In the diner are only very innocent-looking customers. The big guy lays a ten next to his uneaten pie and places his hands on the table where they can be seen clearly by the officer busting into the diner, shotgun drawn.
The cop is an intense, Dennis Hopper lookalike. Definitely threatening. The big guy moves very slowly and carefully, following orders. He’s arrested for murder.
Cut to the police station. Behind the intake desk is a small woman. She’s feisty, calm, and immediately likable. Dennis Hopper Dude gives her the big guy’s passport. Finally we hear his name, Jack Reacher. (No surprise, but it’s always fun to watch these reveals play out.)
The officers check in the contents of Reacher’s pockets: $200 cash and some kind of foreign military medal. We meet the entire police force. Besides the two officers who arrested Reacher, and the intake woman, there’s a belligerent sheriff and a bespectacled Black man who reminds everyone of the rules and takes over the case.
He’s Chief Detective Finlay. So far, Reacher has said nothing. Moving on, Finlay lists the details of the murder we saw at the opening of the episode. The police have no I.D. of the victim yet because his fingertips were swollen. When Reacher finally speaks, he says he doesn’t need a lawyer. He didn’t kill anybody . . . at least, not recently.
THREE
Now the precinct starts looking into Reacher’s background. He has no online presence. Retired army, commanded a special investigation unit with the military police. Finlay speculates that Reacher would know how to commit a murder and cover it up. Reacher agrees, but then lays out the facts of the case, deducing from the information he’s just heard. Pushing, he lights into Finlay’s personal life, too, regardless of whether he should poke at the detective who determines his immediate future.
FOUR
End result, Reacher winds up in the holding cell. Finlay will check on that Greyhound bus alibi.
Flashback. A French-voiced woman chides a boy Reacher. 1998, and packing boxes spread over the lawn. This is a Marine family, just transferring in. Reacher and his older brother are sent out to meet the neighborhood kids. Four hooligans stop them on the way to the beach. As the brothers turn to leave and avoid trouble, Big Bully pushes Reacher down. The boys remove their jackets, ready to fight as a team.
Back to Reacher in jail. The woman officer (Roscoe) brings Reacher a cup of coffee. He still has zip ties on his wrists (the handcuffs didn’t fit, lol). She and Finlay are off, though, to pursue a lead.
They arrive at a nice house with a man whose cell number was found at the murder scene. As Finlay talks, we see the man (Hubble) notice a black sedan parked in front of his house. Blanching, he immediately confesses to murder. Finlay, disbelieving, trips Hubble up with false details about the crime scene. He takes him in, though. Hubble swaps with Reacher in the holding cell. When Reacher insists he needs the zip ties removed, and Finlay agrees, Reacher just Hulks them off. (Haha, his size is a constant running bit.)
After some sharp repartee, Reacher and Finlay begin working together. The police officer Stevenson, Hubble’s cousin, was with him at a family party until two a.m. He doesn’t know why Hubble would confess when he obviously didn’t do it.
SWITCH
So, Finlay puts Reacher back in lock up with Hubble, much to Reacher’s disgust, and the two men are bussed to prison.
FIVE
Arriving at night, they’re greeted by Officer Spivey. They’ll be housed separately “away from the animal factory” in the facility. Both men strip down to skivvies. (Hubble, who’s actually a normal-sized guy, looks like a 98-pound weakling next to Reacher.) When Spivey insists on a strip search, Reacher shuts that down by rationally citing the law, followed by a calmly violent threat. Spivey passes them through and bunks the two men in the same cell.
Morning, and the cell doors buzz open for the prisoners. Reacher steps out and returns to tell Hubble they’ve been incarcerated with the lifers. Reacher warns him that the convicts milling about are swapping currency — smokes — for first chance at Hubble.
And then Reacher lies back down on his bunk, lol, relaxed.
Oh, man, I can’t do justice to this scene. When Hubble is threatened with rape, Reacher intervenes. The bully ends up unconscious and Reacher ends up with the minion’s sunglasses.
Out in the yard, Reacher keeps an eye on the basketball action while Hubble confesses his trouble. He’s a “currency manager.” (I think that means he runs the books for a money launderer.) If Hubble breathes a word or causes any trouble, the boss will “nail him to a wall”, literally. They’d “cut his balls off and make him eat them” in front of his family. (Sorry, ew.)
Reacher, who’s been watching a gang of men gather in a corner, leaves for the bathroom. Hubble, who knows he’s a dead man without Reacher, follows.
Still wearing the minion sunglasses, Reacher checks out the lay of the communal bathroom. In comes the gang. The few men in the showers immediately leave.
Ohhh, yeah. Yikes. Reacher throws a mean elbow, and he drives a thumb right into a guy’s eye socket. Man, it’s great fight choreography, shot very well. When the guards arrive, all six gang members are down. One of the guards wonders “what you two are doing down here,” which means in the lifer section. The two men are rushed out and settled in a more spacious, secure cell.
(SIX)
Dissolve to Finlay at his desk, spinning a coin. He finally decides and picks up his phone. Calling Sharon, it says, showing a picture of a smiling woman in a knit cap and scarf. Earlier, Reacher had guessed that Finlay was new in town, had graduated Harvard and worked in Boston, was trying to quit smoking, and was freshly divorced. Finlay had remarked that his wife’s name is Sharon, so this little scene comes together for us with nuance. The call goes to message, and Finlay says he wishes she would call him back. When Roscoe raps on his office door, Finlay slips his wedding ring back on and shakes himself to attention.
(FIVE, CONT.)
Roscoe’s here with the readout on Reacher’s military record, which is heavy with the medals he’s been awarded. Finlay, impressed, wonders what a man like that is doing in Margrave. Roscoe, with only the slightest break in her deadpan, wonders what a man like that is doing in jail.
(SEVEN)
Finlay kicks her out, closes his office blinds, and pulls an envelope marked “Don’t Do It” from the back of his desk drawer. Inside is an opened, slightly crumpled pack of cigarettes. He tosses it back after a beat, and slams the drawer shut.
(FIVE, CONT.)
Back to prison. Reacher awakens to a radio installed in the wall. Hubble waits in vain for a Beatles song to play. He offers Reacher his share of dinner, indicating the trays at the base of the door. While eating, Reacher contemplates their situation. When he’s out, he’s gone. Something bad’s going down.
Cut to the two of them being released. Reacher walks away, only to find Roscoe waiting for him with his personal effects. In the police car Roscoe shows him footage from Greyhound, proving that Reacher boarded the bus. As they chat, she invites him to dinner to make up for his unwelcome experience. He has her take them to a thrift store, though, so he can refresh his clothes. When she asks about his wandering lifestyle and his family, he mentions that his brother Joe is a good guy, but Reacher doesn’t know where he is. And he really truly came to Margrave because Joe mentioned a blues singer who’s buried there.
They separate for the day, and Reacher wanders the town square. He seems to notice a black pick-up truck, a new model, cruising around. A barbershop on the square, door open, plays a blues soundtrack. Reacher enters. Mosley the barber recognizes Reacher from the news and chats him up while giving him a shave. With Reacher lathered, Mosley explains that the town is financed by a man named Kliner and his foundation. Looking out at the square, Reacher again sees that black truck stopping right in front of the barbershop. Climbing out of the car is a young blonde man. Kliner Jr., Mosley says, and his bug-house cousin, KJ, a skinhead youth. Reacher rises.
When he confronts the men, Jr. plays it cool. He mentions charges brought in Iraq against a Major Reacher. As he jaw-jaws, the camera pushes in on Reacher’s face. The men finish and leave, and the scene shifts without an explanation.
EIGHT
As he walks up to the precinct house, the cops are on scramble. Roscoe tells him their dinner is canceled. Another body was found near the first one. Finlay, who suspects Reacher knows more about Hubble than he’s saying, threatens him with further lock-up. Or Reacher can accompany him to the morgue and help the investigation.
Finlay, Roscoe, and Reacher meet with the coroner, Jasper. (He’s a young guy with that quirky humor movies always give to those who spend their days with the dead.) This is his first murder autopsy. Finlay asks about the original murder. No I.D. yet because the dental work is inconsistent, performed in many countries. On the coroner’s monitor is the victim’s hand and the swollen fingers. Push in on Reacher while the information is delivered.
Powerful moment as Reacher recognizes the characteristics of his brother, Joe.
Finlay follows him outside, demanding answers. They go toe-to-toe, and Reacher says, “No wonder Sharon left you.” Roscoe has to break them apart.
NINE
As the three of them drive away, Reacher thinks. Joe mentioned the blues singer for a reason. So Reacher will stay, find everyone responsible, and kill every last one of them.
Roll credits.
CRITICAL NOTES
Ah, tricky!
The episode as written is very watchable. Me being me, though, lol, I wish this were more structurally sound. Let’s break it down.
When I’m trying to decipher a convoluted Enneagram, I start at the end. Every story always has a defined Eight. Reacher realizes that the dead man is his brother. This is a powerful climax, told well. Now let’s work backwards.
The swollen fingertips are a clue planted early. That must be the Two, because the mystery is resolved at the Eight. These beats are connected. Two and Eight. Quite a lot of information is conveyed before this, though. It’s a big Two. Because this is the first episode, the series itself needs to establish a One and Two, so this drop of plot and motivation is acceptable and necessary. It’s brisk and enjoyable, and I can chew later on all the backstory I’m hit with.
After the Two is the Three, no matter how unremarkable it seems. This is interesting, though. The beat feels like a character moment: Reacher is an uncanny detective, reasoning out details of Finlay’s life. Only in hindsight did I focus closer. We learn here about Sharon. Reacher is somewhat snarky as he impresses Finlay with his skills. It’s obvious to Reacher that Finlay lives alone; therefore, his wife is gone. She could be dead, but statistics lean toward divorce, so that’s Reacher’s guess. (Spoiler: she’s dead. We’ll learn that in a later episode. For now, we assume what Reacher told us to assume. We believe they’re divorced.)
On a first watch, and even on my rewatch, I didn’t pick this out as the Three. Only when I got to the (misplaced) Six did I realize what structure needed to happen. This is a very subtle, beautiful mirror. Finlay calls Sharon’s phone. On a first watch he looks like he might want to reconcile. On a rewatch, when I know she’s dead, the scene is absolutely heartbreaking.
And immediately after is Finlay’s decision to refrain from smoking. Again, subtle. Reacher, the case, his life without Sharon, his position in this Southern podunk town — all of it is stressing the crap out of him. He wants a cigarette, but he powers through. It’s an important commentary on his character and his strength. Finlay is a major character, and this reinforces his role. If the story order went from this Seven, to Finlay stepping into Reacher in the parking lot, their dynamic would increase. Both men are on edge. We’ve seen it with Reacher in prison. Bring Finlay’s anguish right up against the moment.
At least, that’s how I would’ve played it. As is, it’s still a great episode, very engaging. It’s only my perfectionism that wants that sweet, precious Three/Six mirror to hit with all its power.