The following contains major spoilers for “Reacher” season 3.
The third season of “Reacher” is the best the Prime Video show has been so far. Every element comes together to form a phenomenal season of television. The action has been kinetic and gritty, while the humor is on point — whether it’s Alan Ritchson’s Reacher holding a tiny phone, or this perfect Herculian himbo beating the crap out of some bullies before bonding with a kid he’s taking care of over ice cream. The reduced number of locations this season makes for a very tense thriller with high stakes, while the supporting cast is fantastic and worth watching on their own.
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It’s no wonder that “Reacher” season 3 has been a big hit for Prime Video. This is a fantastic adaptation of Lee Child’s novel “Persuader,” telling the story of a big heroic himbo going undercover to rescue a confidential informant while infiltrating a dangerous gang against whom he has a personal vendetta. All this while also featuring an actual giant as an antagonist, and introducing a sympathetic main villain.
That sympathetic villain is Zachary Beck (Anthony Michael Hall), the owner of Bizarre Bazaar, whose enterprise Reacher infiltrates after faking a rescue of Beck’s son, Richard (Johnny Berchtold). The more we see of the relationship between the two Becks, and the more we learn about Zachary’s business and how he’s essentially a hostage.
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This culminates in the big showdown in the season 3 finale, wherein Reacher finally executes Quinn (Brian Tee), but not before he kills Beck, who heroically sacrifices himself to save his son. It’s a touching moment: one that allows Richard to move on with his life, and makes Zachary a more complex antagonist. It is also one of the biggest departures the show makes from the original “Persuader” book. In the original book, Beck is less sympathetic, but he does make it out of the story alive and well — alongside his family.
A different fate for Beck
Much like the “Reacher” season 3 finale, the ending of “Persuader” sees Reacher enter the Beck estate with the singular mission to execute Quinn for revenge, having already tried and failed to kill Quinn earlier. He’s thwarted again — first by Quinn using Beck as a human shield, and then by Richard pointing a gun at Reacher to protect his father — and ends up getting chased into the ocean, where he almost drowns.
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By the time Reacher makes it back to shore the former special investigator is utterly exhausted, but he has the element of surprise since Beck and Quinn’s henchmen think he’s dead. He finds the two of them alone in Beck’s office, with no back-up this time.
Beck had his mouth open. I hit him with a cigarette punch. His mouth slammed shut and his head snapped back and his eyes rolled up and he went straight down on the three-deep rugs on the floor. It was a decent blow, but not my best. His son had saved his life after all. If I hadn’t been so tired from swimming, a better punch would have killed him.
In the book, Beck never teams up with Reacher and they never come to an understanding about Quinn. What’s more, Reacher actually thinks about killing Beck, and the only reason he doesn’t is that he can’t bring himself to shoot Richard as well.
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Reacher’s season 3 finale is a vast improvement over the source material
The changes to Beck’s character work in favor of the TV adaptation of “Reacher.” Though Reacher is not unsympathetic to those who try to do good, it would be weird to have him actively choose to leave a gun trafficker go free just because he has a family and because he was a smaller fish than Quinn. As Neagley (Maria Sten) tells Reacher in the finale, it’s not that he cares to save the little guy, it’s that he hates the big guy. “You hate big smug people who think they can get away with things.” To suddenly look the other way and leave Zachary Beck alive and well would be a tad too far.
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Instead, the show gets to have its cake and eat it, too. Zachary Beck is not an unsympathetic figure. He genuinely cares about his son, and he was caught in an impossible situation. Their relationship is one of the best parts of the season. Still, he needed retribution for his action (not the least of which being responsible for his son losing an ear).
“Reacher” season 3 is a vast improvement over season 2, and more proof that this show deserves to go on for years and years.
