Reacher Episode 3: How The First Big Change From Novel Will 'Create Tension' Among The Team
The following contains spoilers for Season 2, Episode 3 of Reacher, now streaming on Prime Video.
The third episode of Reacher Season 2 served up the Prime Video adaptation's first major, plot-related* deviation from the source material, in a way that will create drama amongst the 110th members who are investigating the brutal murder of former colleague Calvin Franz.
* As previously reported by TVLine, the TV series changed the geographical setting from L.A. to NYC.
In Bad Luck and Trouble, the 11th book in the Jack Reacher series written by Lee Child, Reacher and Neagley first wind up on defense contractor New Age's corporate doorstep because they know that Tony Swan, one of their MIA former team members, works there.
'Bad Luck and Trouble' Paperback
But in Season 2, Episode 3 of the Prime Video series, Reacher & Co. don't have that information; instead, they are led to New Age's big glass box of an HQ by a parking pass found in the car of a grunt who tried to kill them (but they dispatched with him and his henchmen first, leaving them in a cement-y grave).
When Reacher, Dixon, O'Donnell and Neagley proceed to storm New Age in the middle of the night, crashing into the lobby with the SVU of another baddie Reacher had just removed from the equation, they hurriedly gather all files and laptops that might give them a clue as to why New Age HR boss Marlo led them into a near-deadly ambush. But on his way out, Reacher clocks a New Age company portrait — and then later reveals to the team that Swan in is said photo, standing next to Marlo (and Langston).
The idea that Swan works for the very defense contractor that has been siccing hit men on his former 110th pals will not sit well with some of the those trying to find him. (And it goes without saying that NYPD detective Russo will have his own thoughts on Swan's eyebrow-raising ties to New Age....)
Shaun Sipos' O'Donnell is among the team members not quick to give Swan the benefit of a doubt — upcoming flashbacks will reveal why that is — whereas Reacher can barely bring himself to ponder the possibility that one of the 110th would turn on his own.
"O'Donnell is somebody that challenges Reacher," Sipos tells TVLine. "Reacher has such a loyalty about him towards the members of the 110th, so he has a really hard time even entertaining the thought that [Swan] could be working for the bad guys, and certainly not on something that involves killing [the special investigations unit's] members."
That clash of opinions "does create some tension" between Reacher and others throughout much of the next five episodes, Sipos previews. "[Dixon and Neagley] kind of watch and are like, 'Ohhhh, this is going to go off.' But it's a nice bit of tension."
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