Jack Reacher (Alan Ritchson) has just realized he can trust New York cop Russo (Domenick Lombardozzi), and we have to say goodbye to perhaps the second season’s most interesting character. In the sixth episode, aptly titled “Selfless Sacrifice,” Russo faces the villains alone to buy young Jane Burns (Kate Moyer) enough time to escape. Reacher’s colleagues Frances Neagley (Maria Sten), David O’Donnell (Shaun Sipos) and Karla Dixon (Serinda Swan) arrive late. They are able to save Jane, but Russo, riddled with bullets, bleeds to death before their eyes.
But his death scene requires an explanation. Because if you don’t know the world of ‘Reacher’ very well yet, haven’t watched the series with full attention or have forgotten certain things from the first season, may not even realize how big of a gesture Neagley makes at the end.
Neagley honors Ruso
Frances Neagley is perhaps the biggest fan favorite in Reacher. The titular hero’s closest confidant is also the only permanent returnee from the first season. In the opening season we learned that the private detective suffers from a disease: haphephobia, fear of contact. She has great difficulty touching other people. This wasn’t explained again in the second season, just subtly hinted at several times. Neagley, for example, refuses to shake hands.
When Russo, who knows nothing about her illness and is bleeding to death, reaches out to her with the happy news that his sacrifice was not in vain and that Jane has been saved, she initially cannot do anything. You can see how she struggles… until, after some hesitation, she does it anyway overcomes all resistance within himself, grabs the outstretched hand and signals to the honest officer that he is not alone in the last seconds of his life. She even caresses the officer’s head with her second hand to support him.
The emotional moment is one of the reasons why the sixth episode is one of the best episodes of the second season of ‘Reacher’. Another reason is the excursion into the horror genre in the middle part. Because while Neagley, Dixon and O’Donnell rush to help Russo and Jane, their ex-boss faces off alone against the henchmen of Shane Langston (Robert Patrick).
Reacher as a psycho killer in the best slasher style
After Reacher was described as a “Psycho Killer” in a previous episode and the well-known song by the band Talking Heads with that title also picked up on this in the end credits, he lives up to that description here. Like a killer in a horror slasher à la “HalloweenIn the complete darkness of the rainy night, he lies in wait for one villain after another to brutally kill them.
The sixth episode of “Reacher” also introduces the grand finale. The fronts have been clarified. Now the question remains whether Reacher and Co. Langston and the terrorist intermediary AM (Ferdinand Kingsley) in time before new and particularly dangerous guided missiles fall into the wrong hands. There are two episodes left. These are Available on Amazon Prime Video from January 12 or 19, 2024.