This article has spoilers for Reacher Season 3, Episode 7, “L.A. Story”
When you reach the last episode before a show’s season finale, it’s usually more of a connect-the-dots kind of script to get us ready to wrap the season up rather than a lot of big revelations. Reacher Season 3, Episode 7, “L.A. Story” is just that kind of episode, giving us a little more than expected but also some cringe-worthy scenes and moments that just don’t work. However, it still made for an entertaining and chaotic fifty minutes of TV.
On the way to L.A. to put Reacher’s plan in motion, Duffy (Sonya Cassidy) and Reacher (Alan Ritchson) make a pit stop to see Teresa’s (Storm Steenson) grandmother and update her on what’s going on. Initially, this looked like the proverbial plot time waster to get us from point A to point B. However, the conversations between these three over lunch paved the way later for some good moments for Reacher and gave his goals a moment of a pause, or at the very least, moments to consider the bigger picture here.
Over in Chicago, Neagley (Maria Sten) confronts the man who hired the two thugs to take her out and, in the process, gets some much-needed info on Quinn (Brian Tee) and how he’s been operating. This helps Reacher immensely, as his plan involves himself and Duffy in L.A. to blackmail one of Quinn and Beck’s (Anthony Michael Hall) key dealers of money and guns. He arranges a fake meet with Beck, and as it turns out, Neagley, who is masquerading as a go-between, passes messages from Reacher to Beck. It’s a bit convoluted at times, but it works. Beck reveals a little more info and is warned Quinn is getting ready to jump ship but is planning to kill him and his son Richard (Johnny Berchtold).
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This leads to a meeting between Neagley, Reacher, Duffy, and Villanueva (Roberto Montesinos) to bring all the info together and hatch a plan to get Quinn while saving Beck, his son, and Teresa. It’s no small ask, as many moving parts create some story issues. Things bounce around at such a fast pace that it’s easy to lose track of all the players and what needs to happen.
To that end, Duffy and Villanueva tell Reacher it’s time to involve the ATF in this as there is too much firepower for them to deal with on their own. The meeting with the big bosses at the ATF goes about as you would think, with everyone being put to the sidelines as observers while they handle taking down Quinn at the weapons buy (info courtesy of Beck).
The final act of “L.A. Story” sees Reacher, through contact with Neagley, following the real vehicles with weapons, realizing Quinn isn’t at the supposed meet, and it’s a trap. The real deal is going down at the Beck estate under the cover of Zachary Beck’s birthday party. It was not hard to figure out, watching Quinn’s way of doing things and the fact that, with one episode left, there was no way any confrontation with Quinn was coming here. Unfortunately, it makes the end of the episode a little less exciting, but they did enough from start to finish that the finale should be quite a ride.
What surprised me the most about this episode was the number of touching moments the show managed to cram in. From scenes between Duffy and Reacher, now in a lover/friend/professional situation, to the long and heartfelt moment between Beck and his son Richard, Reacher and Neagley also have a tender moment, a spoken yet unspoken realization of the bond they share.
The episode weaved this all in well, but Ritchson had the most telling moments. Returning to the chat with Teresa’s grandmother, the actor did more emoting via facial movements than he had in a while, realizing throughout the episode that perhaps he was losing sight of an innocent person like Teresa on his path to kill Quinn. It’s not easy to do, especially with a character like Reacher; Ritchson was quite convincing.
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There were some clunker moments along the way, however. While the episode struggled to keep things together through all the fast-moving storylines, the pacing sometimes struggled, and the dialogue along with it. Also, Neagley watching the buyers land at the private airport was a bit laughable. She was so close; there was no way they would have missed her, let alone proceed to drive right by her. It was a strange gaffe that usually doesn’t happen on the show and looked wrong visually.
“L.A. Story” did what it needed to do and emotionally went a step further, but the clunky story pacing with so much going on made the episode a bit hard to focus on at times. Still, it was a good outing, and hopefully, all the boxes are now crossed off so that they will find a way to tie this season together in an entertaining season three finale next week.
