Paranoia doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you. On Reacher Season 3 Episode 5, “Smackdown,” Xavier Quinn/Julius McCabe (Brian Tee) is starting to spook. When psychopaths spook, people die. A lot.
RELATED: Catch up with our recap of the previous Reacher episode, “Dominique”
Meanwhile, having learned the emotional weight that drives Reacher (Alan Ritchson) in his need to destroy Dominique Kohl’s killer, this week, we learn what he’s truly up against. There are prices to be paid and reckonings to face.
Reacher, “Smackdown”
Driving to the tubing facility, Reacher calls Agent Eliot (Daniel David Stewart) at the cabin to find out where Duffy (Sonya Cassidy) and Villanueva (Roberto Montesinos) are. He tells Eliot that McCabe has sent men to find Angel Doll’s (Manuel Rodriguez-Saenz) laptop. Duffy and Villanueva aren’t answering their phones. Eliot rushes to find the company’s phone number.
RELATED: TV Review: Reacher Season 3
At the facility, McCabe’s men make their way through with their guns drawn. Harley (Brendan Fletcher), spots Duffy near the office door and signals the other two, Karns (Aury Barnett) and Rusty (Simon Northwood) to move on her. The phone rings. It occurs to Duffy that no one should be calling when the facility is closed. Realizing her phone still has no bars, she answers it on a hunch. Eliot immediately tells her to get out and that Quinn/McCabe’s men are coming for them.
Fire Fight
McCabe’s men open fire. Duffy and Villanueva take cover and return fire. Outside, Reacher arrives. Following the sound of gunshots, he runs into Rusty. Rusty silently uses hand signals to establish a plan of attack. Reacher nods assent and then shoots him in the head when he turns his back. (Reacher body count: 4. Yeah, we’re still playing this game.)
Karns catches sight of Duffy and shoots at her. She drops to the ground and fires a shot into his exposed leg, then rushes to finish him off, leaving her badge on the floor. She spots the Harley and takes aim. Reacher grabs her before she can fire and whispers it’ll look suspicious if Reacher is the only survivor again, so they have to leave him alive.
RELATED: The Wheel of Time: Prime Video Sets Premiere Date and Releases Teaser Trailer for Season 3
Reacher advises that she and Villanueva get away and throw Angel Doll’s laptop out the window as they leave. As she heads out, he recons the area and finds her badge. He pockets it, then climbs up the crates to get a high vantage as Duffy and Villanueva run out the door. Harley hears them and tries to follow, but Reacher slows him down by firing the rest of his bullets in his direction, forcing him to seek cover.
Odds Get Beat
Duffy and Villanueva peel out of the parking lot, chucking the laptop out the window. Harley runs out of the building, shooting at their car. Reacher drives up in one of Beck’s (Anthony Michael Hall) Audis and tells him he’s Duke’s (Donald Sales) replacement and to get in. Once he’s in, Reacher steers into a mud pit, and the Audi spins its wheels. Reacher tells him he’ll have to get out and push. Harley sees the laptop on the ground nearby.
Reporting to McCabe, Harley describes Duffy and Villanueva and their weapons. He asserts that they’re federal agents. McCabe hangs up on him. Harley tells Reacher that the boss is pissed, and that’s never a good thing.
RELATED: NYCC 2024: Secret Level All-Star Voice Cast and Poster Revealed
Outside a restaurant, Villanueva buys a couple beers, gives one to Duffy and toasts their survival. Duffy’s upset that they didn’t find Theresa (Storm Steenson). She goes off about a case of a missing boy who turned up alive long after everyone had given up. She tells Villanueva he needs to believe like she does or shut up. He nods, cowed by her fervor.
Neptune Society
Reacher and Harley arrive at Beck’s gatehouse. Harley tells Paulie (Olivier Richters) that they have a “Neptune Society” thing and asks him to help out. Paulie crosses his arms and spits. Harley takes that as a no. Paulie opens the gate that they drive in.
Reacher pushes a wheelbarrow carrying Karns’s body down to the shoreline, with Harley following, telling tales of other people they’ve disposed of this way. Once they reach the water’s edge, Reacher slings Karns over his shoulder. He and Harley walk up to the top opening of a tidal cove, and Reacher throws Karns into the water to be pulled out to sea by the undertow.
RELATED: Prime Video Premieres Official Trailer for Secret Level
Reacher and Harley head back to the carriage house to get Rusty’s body for a similar disposal. Harley enjoys watching the body disappear. After Rusty’s gone, Harley tells Reacher that Paulie’s going to kill him for the prank in the weight room.
Checking In
Reacher calls Duffy from the carriage house. She’s driving alone, having dropped Villanueva at the cabin to get his car. The plan is to split up and hit some addresses they remembered from Angel Doll’s laptop. One place makes crates, and another sells industrial lubricants. Reacher tells her he has her badge.
Outside, Beck calls for Reacher and tells him two of McCabe’s men, Howatt (Sebastian MacLean) and Tank (Christopher Omari), are in his kitchen. Reacher joins them, and Agnes (Helen Taylor) sets a cup of coffee down in front of him.
RELATED: Read our Secret Level recaps
After he takes a sip, she tells him the coffee is made from beans a cat pooped out. While he’s processing that information, Howatt makes a sexual remark to Annette (Caitlin McNerney), who rebuffs him. When he goes to take it further, Reacher kicks his leg out and smashes his head into the table. Reacher checks to see if Tank feels like taking issue. Tank backs down quickly.
Dangerous Goods
In his room, Reacher hides Duffy’s badge in his pillowcase. There’s a knock at the door. When he opens it, he finds a tray with a slice of pie and a note reading, “Merci.”
At the cabin, Cooper (Ronnie Rowe) begs Agent Eliot for a cigarette. He manages to convince Eliot to let him have that. While Eliot’s back is turned, Cooper sucks in a mouthful of rubbing alcohol. When Eliot flicks the lighter, Cooper blows the alcohol in his face, burning and blinding him. Cooper rushes him, knocking him to the ground, and stomps him to death.
RELATED: Read our Cross recaps
After unlocking his cuffs, Cooper grabs his coat. Before leaving, he puts a cigarette in his mouth and thanks Eliot’s corpse for the smoke. (Talking to dead bodies is a thing this season.)
Duffy’s Rock Bottom
Duffy drives up to the cabin, talking to Villanueva on speaker phone. Noticing the open cabin door, she approaches with caution and finds Eliot’s body. She screams her rage.
Reacher hears his phone buzz as he’s brushing his teeth. Duffy tells him that Eliot’s dead and Cooper’s gone. Since Cooper doesn’t have his phone, Reacher reasons he’s heading for Beck’s now. Using Eliot’s smartwatch to determine time of death, Duffy tells Reacher Cooper escaped 10 minutes ago. Reacher tells her she needs to give him a reason to leave the compound.
RELATED: The Wheel of Time: Prime Video Releases First 11 Minutes of Season 3
Reacher calls Villanueva, who is en route to the cabin. He tells him to drive to the blind turn on the way to Beck’s house, park the car, and empty it, making it as light as possible. Villanueva wants to know what’s going on. Reacher tells him Cooper killed Eliot. Villanueva guns it.
Duffy drives up to a power transformer. Pulling her gun, she fires at it until it blows, knocking out power for Beck’s compound. Paulie comes out of the gatehouse with a flashlight. He finds Beck and Reacher in the house and reports the power’s out all over the property. Reacher suggests it’s a precursor to an attack. He tells Beck he’ll go down the road to stop anyone who tries to make a move on them.
RELATED: Geek Girl Authority Crush of the Week: Frances Neagley
Beck calls McCabe to tell him what’s happening. McCabe orders him to have the entire house and staff searched. Beck passes this on to Harley, Tank and Howatt. The three of them rouse and gather the staff and toss their rooms.
Cooper’s Welcome
Out on the road, Villanueva’s emptied his car. Reacher arrives. He tells Villanueva to move the car into the middle of the road, where they’re going to flip it over. After flipping it, Reacher tells Villanueva to get back in the car, so Cooper has to get out of his car to help him.
In the house, Harley enters Reacher’s room and starts searching it. Close-up on Duffy’s badge, hanging off the side of the bed in the pillowcase.
RELATED: Reacher Spinoff Neagley Adds 5 Cast Members
Lying on his back in the flipped car, Villanueva laughs to himself. Reacher asks what’s so funny. Villanueva explains he’s laughing because he’s living the trope of the retiring cop getting killed within sight of retirement. Reacher runs the math that says Cooper will stop before he hits Villanueva’s car.
Cooper rounds the corner, hits the brakes and stops before hitting Villanueva. He gets out and approaches the flipped vehicle. Crouching down, he looks at Villanueva lying there with his eyes closed. Villanueva opens his eyes and says, “This is for Eliot,” just before Reacher shoots Cooper in the head. (Reacher body count: 5)
Post Mortem
Reacher phones Duffy just after she’s told Eliot’s father his son is dead. Reacher reports that Cooper’s dead, too. She’s spun a story for Mr. Eliot that she’ll use to keep the DEA off their backs. Once they’ve found Theresa, she plans to come clean and face the consequences.
RELATED: Jack Meets His Match in Reacher Season 3 Official Trailer
Reacher arrives at Beck’s and cruises by the unmanned gatehouse. A machine gun dangles from the ceiling, hanging from chains. The main house is strangely quiet when he enters. When he hears voices, he follows the sound to Beck’s study, where Beck, Paulie and Harley are waiting.
Reacher reports that a drunk hitting a power transformer caused the outage. Beck tells him that McCabe ordered the house searched while Reacher was out. Reacher asks if they found anything, and Beck launches into a speech about how someone in his household is a traitor working with the feds. Reacher reaches for a metal alarm clock behind him, expecting to be attacked at any minute. Beck opens his desk drawer and pulls out a tiny phone similar to Reacher’s. It was found in Annette’s room. She’d been texting intel to the ATF every two weeks.
Au Revoir
Reacher offers to interrogate Annette for them. Harley informs him she’s already dead. Paulie killed her. Reacher gets in his face and punches him in the gut to zero effect. Paulie swings a fist, connecting with Reacher’s face and sending him to the ground. Paulie walks out. Richard (Johnny Berchtold) steps into the doorway and sees Reacher struggling to get up from the hit.
RELATED: On Location: Ben’s Chili Bowl on Prime Video’s Cross
Harley talks Reacher’s ear off on the way out to the carriage house to collect Annette’s body. As Reacher lifts her into the wheelbarrow, Harley complains loudly that he’d planned to spend the weekend on his boat, the Sweet Marie, but now he’ll have to pick up the slack left by Angel Doll’s absence instead. Reacher punches him in the stomach hard enough to make him vomit, which shuts him up.
Richard checks in on Reacher in his room. He tells him he knows Reacher and Harley dumped Annette’s body in the ocean. Reacher admits he has to do what he’s told, or he’ll be the next body to go. Richard accuses him of being afraid of Paulie. Reacher replies that he isn’t afraid but hasn’t solved Paulie yet.
It All Comes Clear
Reacher calls Duffy to tell her about Annette being ATF. That means Beck and McCabe are running guns, not drugs. The pieces fall into place. The full-time mechanic. The industrial lubricant supplier. Beck met with an international drugrunner because his organization needs untraceable firearms. McCabe/Quinn’s big sale is coming up. His client could be any one of many criminal enterprises.
RELATED: Madeleine Madden Teases Egwene’s Journey in The Wheel of Time Season 3
In the morning, Beck finds Reacher sitting on his bed, having not slept at all. McCabe has summoned them to the warehouse. Beck’s concerned that he still has Annette’s blood on his hands and suggests he clean up first.
The Warehouse
Duffy and Villanueva come out of Dinky’s Joe and Go with coffees and take-out bags. Reacher calls Duffy to tell her about being summoned to the warehouse. She concludes he’ll be meeting Quinn/McCabe. She advises him to keep the phone on in his pocket so she and Villanueva can provide backup. They go back and forth a bit. Reacher tells Duffy that Theresa’s already dead. Duffy doesn’t respond to that. He tells her he’ll leave his phone on and heads out.
RELATED: Read our Reacher recaps
On the way to the warehouse, Reacher and Beck discuss how this meeting might go. Duffy and Villanueva are in place, watching the warehouse, before they get there.
They enter the warehouse where crates of weapons are being opened and checked. Beck asks Reacher if he’s ready to meet the boss. Reacher reaches for the gun in his waistband. “Yes,” he says, “I’ve been waiting for this moment for some time now.”
Reacher streams on Prime Video. New episodes drop on Thursdays until March 27.
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER Adds 2 New Faces to Season 3 Cast
