Reacher Season 3 Episode 7 Gets Brutally Honest About Reacher’s Vengeance

This article contains spoilers for “Reacher” season 3, episode 7.

“Reacher” season 3 differs from the previous two seasons in many ways. This is the first time we’ve seen Alan Ritchson’s hero undercover, sleuthing his way around a mansion just as his literary counterpart does in Lee Child’s book, “Persuader,” on which this season of “Reacher” is based. It’s also a big change from season 2, which saw the titular ex-Army man joined by members of his 110th Special Investigations unit. But there’s one big theme that has characterized all three seasons of the streaming series thus far: Revenge.

Season 1 saw Reacher gain revenge for the death of his brother, season 2 followed him and his former Army colleagues as they sought vengeance for the death of erstwhile 110th unit members, and season 3 sees Reacher once again seeking revenge, this time for the death of his former protégé and Army sergeant Dominique Kohl (Mariah Robinson). As revealed in episode 4 of this season, Sergeant First Class Kohl joined Reacher for a short time in his military police days and the pair tracked down Xavier Quinn (Brian Tee), an Army intelligence officer selling secrets to the enemy. After Quinn captured, tortured, and killed Kohl, Reacher seemingly killed him, only for the villain to reappear as arms dealer Julius McCabe, the central antagonist of season 3. Naturally, Reacher is intent upon finishing what he started all those years ago, and the central narrative of season 3 thereby becomes about Ritchson’s hero taking down Quinn once and for all.

For all its differences from previous installments, then, season 3 of “Reacher” is yet another revenge story. But this particular story feels different. Season 3 of “Reacher” unveils a new and terrifying side of Jack Reacherwho has never seemed so hellbent on vengeance as he has this time around. This is crystallized in episode 7 of the season, where the character is more brutally honest about his motivations than ever before.

There’s a reason why Jack Reacher has become such a popular character. Lee Child’s book series was hugely successful even before Tom Cruise played the former military police officer in two Jack Reacher movies, and long before Alan Ritchson stepped in to bring the character to streaming audiences. The formula isn’t exactly a complicated one. Reacher combines elements of every archetypal American hero to deliver one hulking, superpowered badass who simply can’t be bested. His itinerant lifestyle allows him to embody the trope of the mysterious stranger who wanders into small towns and causes chaos, which defined so many classic Westerns. His impressive physique recalls the muscular, uber-macho action heroes of the 1980s, and his impressive intellect gives him a more subtle, James Bond-esque aura. He is an amalgamation of everything that’s ever proven popular in the action sphere, so it’s no surprise Jack Reacher has become as popular as he has.

But there’s another aspect of the character that I think has allowed his streaming series to break Prime Video records and become one of the platform’s most watched shows. With his military past, Reacher embodies a kind of patriotic, even jingoistic sentiment that appeals to large swaths of the audience who watch the show for some good old American ass-kickery. But with his more free-flowing, self-determined present, Reacher also embodies the increasingly popular notion of flouting official guidelines and rules in order to get things done — an ethos that has become all the more pertinent in the U.S. of late. In that respect, he’s Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry, tearing down red tape and getting the bad guy at any cost. He’s John Rambo, using his military past to inform his own quest for justice entirely separate from any governing body or authority. As such, he sits in this sweet spot between celebrating military force and embracing a highly specific form of anti-authoritarianism — the kind of hero who salutes the flag the entire time he’s flouting the rules for which it stands.

Episode 7 of season 3, however, contains a moment of uncharacteristic candor from Reacher, in which he embraces just one side of this odd and contradictory divide.

Jack Reacher is defined in large part by his commitment to justice. He simply can’t countenance wrongdoing and will stick up for the little guy whenever possible, raining hellfire on those who dare commit even the most negligibly immoral act. But season 3 has shown us a Reacher much more driven by a selfish desire for vengeance. From the very moment he first kills Xavier Quinn in episode 4 and lies about it to his military superiors, we see a side of the character that doesn’t really have anything to do with justice in the traditional sense. At that point, he’d taken justice into his own hands, embodying the “eye for an eye” principle that is so anathema to the more measured form of justice that society is supposed to apply.

It’s that attitude that leads to a big clash between Reacher and Sonya Cassidy’s DEA agent Susan Duffy (one of the best things to happen to “Reacher” in a long time). In episode 7, the pair come to blows after Duffy implores Reacher to let the ATF take control of the operation to arrest Xavier Quinn at a meeting with his Russian buyers. Duffy’s fellow agent, Guillermo Villanueva (Roberto Montesinos), urges that Quinn will face justice, but Reacher drops all pretense and replies with, “Justice? He strung Kohl up like a piece of meat and bled her out like livestock. I don’t want justice, I want vengeance.”

Thus far this season, it’s been clear Reacher wants to avenge Dominique Kohl, but he’s also maintained the appearance that he cares about rescuing Duffy’s captured CI, Teresa. This moment, however, sees the ex-military man being more honest than he’s ever been throughout the entire season, letting his personal quest for revenge overcome everything else.

“Reacher” has been consistently popular since its first season dropped on Prime Video, reliably becoming the platform’s most-watched series whenever a new run of episodes drops. It’s given fans a book-accurate Jack Reacher in the form of Alan Ritchson and his taciturn bruiser of a hero after so many loyal followers of the character felt let down by Tom Cruise’s comparatively miniature iteration. There are clearly many reasons why the series has resonated in the way it has, and part of it surely has something to do with its ability to appeal to both right and left-leaning audiences. To the latter, it’s mindless pulpy action, and to the former, it epitomizes the very sentiments that have led to police forces embracing the logo of the Marvel anti-hero The Punisher — a chilling development which the recent “Daredevil: Born Again” comments on directly. Reacher is a military man who fought for his country but who also, somehow, determines justice for himself, and today that’s seemingly a very potent concept that resonates with multiple demographics.

With season 3 of the streaming series, we’ve seen Reacher kill without hesitation, much to the dismay of the characters who actually represent the authorities. DEA agent Guillermo Villanueva can’t believe it when Reacher reveals he killed one of Quinn’s men in episode 4, and the show seems to be reckoning with this idea of Reacher as the lone vigilante, capable of defining right and wrong for himself. Now, with episode 7, it’s as if the writers are interrogating the idea of this character as being some shining beacon of morality and justice. His candid confession about wanting vengeance over justice shows he can be just as ruthless and perhaps flawed as anyone else, and we see this clearer than ever in his confrontation with Susan Duffy and Villanueva. In this moment, he’s not some badass who skirts the line between authority and vigilante justice. He’s just a guy who selfishly wants revenge, and it’s a striking, almost chilling line that seems to affirm that Reacher is little more than a cold-blooded killer, in a much more serious moment than we’re used to from this action series.