‘Reacher’ Episode 1 Recap: “Welcome to Margrave”

The first time Reacher has to put a guy in his place, it’s with a raised eyebrow instead of a fist. The imposing, solitary former military police officer has just strode into Margrave, Georgia when he encounters a yokel threatening a woman outside the local diner. The jawing escalates, but it only takes a frown and furrowed brow for the guy to start fumbling for an apology. The matter settled, Reacher enters the diner, settles his large frame into a corner booth, and orders a slice of peach pie. And that’s when he’s arrested for murder.

The Amazon Prime Video original Reacher adapts Lee Child’s 1997 novel Killing Floor, which introduced the Jack Reacher character and has since grown into a series 27 books deep. The author also serves as an executive producer for Prime’s eight-episode first season, which has Nick Santora (Prison Break) on board as writer and showrunner. This is a good point to mention that this isn’t the first time Jack Reacher has stalked onto the screen. Tom Cruise played the character twice, in 2012 and 2015, in films that raked in some serious cash and also included Werner Herzog playing a villain. But they’re not a part of this small screen version, which is dominated by the physicality of Smallville veteran Alan Ritchson as the titular roaming protagonist.

Ritchson played Aquaman/Arthur Curry in the CW universe, and he’s someone who looks like he might just have superpowers all of the time. But that’s not Reacher’s style. He’s a giant who thinks, a former member of the law enforcement community who served more justice with sound investigative work than he did with the business end of a gun. (Though that happened, too.) In Reacher, we learn early on that trouble just seems to find him. But we also quickly understand that he has more than one way to solve it, whatever it is that’s coming at him.

Anyway, back to that murder rap. The Margrave PD is on edge after the shooting deaths of two men on the outskirts of town, out by the highway in the tall reeds under the overpass. And Reacher, a stranger newly arrived on the bus from Tampa, is quickly tapped as the prime suspect. He carries no baggage, just a passport, travel toothbrush, petty cash, and a medal of French military issue. The Margrave cops can’t figure him. He’s also stood mute during the entirety of his quickie arrest and booking into headquarters. Basically, Reacher’s whole thing makes Chief Detective Oscar Finlay (Malcom Goodwin) wary while it intrigues Officer Roscoe Conklin (Willa Fitzgerald). Reacher says only what’s necessary under questioning; he also reads Finlay like a book, and has reasoned out the MO of the killings based on facts overheard and background information. “In an investigation,” Reacher tells Finley, “details matter.” But that’s just it – the details of these murders are in disarray. While there was a precision shooter who wore protective gear and picked up his spent shell casings, the body was beaten to a pulp postmortem. A stone-cold professional working alongside a sloppy amateur? That doesn’t add up. Finlay still wants to pin it on Reacher, but he’s had enough. “I didn’t kill anybody. At least not recently. And not in this town…”

Frustrated, the chief detective finally tosses Reacher into stir with another suspect, a rich local currency manager named Hubble (Marc Bendavid) who also confessed to the murders but is clearly hiding something. And that’s where Reacher’s formidable skill set is forced into action, during a bonkers four-on-one prison fight that features eye gouges, forearm shivers, foreheads bounced off bathroom fixtures, and ankles righteously snapped. Reacher’s arrival in Margrave certainly bothered the cops. But it’s got the local criminality all bugaboo, too. Hubble says he was forced into helping with an underworld financial scheme. Reacher, resting after the beatdowns, just frowns in thought. “I’m more curious why whoever you work for wants me dead.”

Cleared for the moment of any involvement in the recent murders, Reacher takes a stroll in town accompanied by Roscoe, who’s curious about his rootless wanderer’s life. For too long, the military dictated his every action, Reacher says. “Now, I see my country on my own terms.” It’s a good motto, but for a guy who trouble just seems to find, it’s also a means to an end. And once the local corporate heavies hear about him, a shady outfit called the Kliner Foundation that’s in cahoots with Margrave’s mayor, Reacher’s innocent stroll through town becomes a minefield. Cagey Kliner scion KJ (Chris Webster) has eyes on him, and pretty soon there’s another murder in town, which puts Reacher right back in the sights of Detective Finlay. 

Not quite a suspect, not quite a lawman, but nevertheless smack dab at the nexus of violence and justice, Reacher’s stay in Margrave has been extended indefinitely.

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges