The third season finale of Prime Video ‘Reacher’ is a doozy where the hero faces off against his greatest foe. In the last episode, Reacher, Duffy, and the ATF attempted to set a trap for Quinn, but what they didn’t realize was that he had pulled one over on them and led them into an ambush. At the moment when Reacher becomes aware of what occurred, he attempts to take charge of the situation and rescue people, but nearly all ATF agents are murdered by Quinn’s men. As a reciprocal action, Reacher, Duffy, and Villanueva murder nearly all of Quinn’s men apart from one. They use him to infiltrate the Beck residence by stealing Quinn’s merchandise trucks back. But a big problem awaits them at the door in the shape of Paulie. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Reacher and Paulie Battle to the Death
One of the biggest challenges in Reacher’s way this season has been Paulie. Usually, Reacher is a big guy, but standing before Paulie, his brawn is overshadowed. Nevertheless, Reacher is aware that where he is short in height and strength, he is compensated by his intelligence. He gives Paulie a flavour of this soon after he is employed by Beck when he makes the big guy hit himself in the face. Nevertheless, the man’s raw power has no equal, and Reacher finds out when he is given a firm slap that knocks him off. The actual confrontation of their powers occurs in the last episode, where both attempt to kill each other but appear to fail despite their efforts. After the discovery that the real thing is taking place at the party in Beck’s residence, Reacher and the team arrive at that location, but when Paulie opens the door and greets them, even Neagley wonders how they might pull it off. Reacher instructs the rest to go into the house, start with the rescue of Richard and Teresa, and leave Paulie to him. He begins by leaping on an element of surprise to strangle Paulie behind, but the man is too powerful to be dispatched this way. This results in a vicious battle between the two, taking them through every kind of location in the house.
Initially, Reacher gets hit a lot of times, and all of them appear to erode him. They make their way to the barn, where they toss items at each other and attempt to hit one another with whatever comes to their hands. Ultimately, the roof collapses and holds both of them under it. Paulie is the first to emerge from it, and he takes advantage of the situation to hang Reacher on a chain, letting him choke. But the man refuses to be defeated and succeeds in freeing himself. And then their struggle takes them to the cliff, down which they tumble into the gloopy waters that were Harley’s dump for corpses since once something fell into them, it could never return. When both Paulie and Reacher tumble into them, they attempt not only to save themselves but also drown the other guy. Once again, Paulie appears to have Reacher in a stranglehold, but the latter strikes him in the throat, and for an instant, it seems as if Paulie is drowning. Reacher emerges from the water and heads back towards the house, only to see Paulie approaching him. Eventually, they find themselves back at the gate, where they had begun, and the large machine gun is what they both aim at. Once more, Paulie’s sheer strength appears to favor him, but Reacher is fast on his feet, and he manipulates the weapon so that when Paulie shoots it at him, he himself is the one to get shot, demonstrating that brain trumps brawn.
Reacher Seeks Revenge on Quinn
Reacher’s path this season begins with him encountering an old foe he believed he had murdered many years ago. His hunger for vengeance sets him on what would likely be the most perilous predicament of his life, in which he himself embraces the chance of not surviving it. By the end of it, though, he has his revenge on Quinn, albeit after sustaining a lot of bruises. After the revelation that Quinn’s deal is taking place at Beck’s residence, Reacher, Duffy, Neagley, and Villanueva head to the address. Before they could keep it as lowkey as they wanted, Quinn catches up with the drama and attempts to escape with the money he owes the Russians.
Accompanied by Reacher, he manages to escape the house by a hair when the Russians arrive. By then, he had already lost the bag of money, meaning he is unable to pay them. Thus, they resolve to bring him along and teach him what becomes of one who doesn’t fulfill their bargain. But Reacher insists on Quinn for himself and is willing to engage them in battle single-handedly if that is what is required. And when the Russians remind him that he is outnumbered, Villanueva, Duffy, and Neagley arrive in support of him. Neagley attempts to negotiate with the Russians by offering them their money for Quinn. When they say they will take both, she removes the pin from a grenade and threatens to detonate it and kill everyone. The Russians see no reason to die for Quinn’s, and so they take their money and go, which is when Neagley tells them that the bomb was already defused and she had bluffed everyone. Then Villanueva, Duffy, and Neagley leave to allow Reacher to exact his revenge. Quinn is still lost as to why Reacher wants to kill him, and he attempts to find a point at which they can strike a bargain. It is not until Reacher mentions Dominique that Quinn recalls everything, from torturing her to death to attempting to escape and getting shot in the head by Reacher. With a shocked and fearful look on his face, Reacher is delighted to see that his nemesis at last recalls who he is. Only then does he kill Quinn in the head, and this time there is no river or little bullet to provide him with any hope of survival. This time, he dies for good.
What Happens to Richard? Where Does He Go?
Richard Beck’s life had already been hellish prior to the arrival of Reacher. His father had gotten himself into a trap of some very nasty individuals, and his school bullies didn’t make things any easier. Though his father adored him, Richard still felt that Zachary didn’t love him enough and was always busier with his business, whatever it was. Then Reacher informs him of all the terrible things his father has done and where the entire situation is headed since Quinn got involved.
The final confrontation at his home utterly upends Richard’s life and whatever stability he has hitherto known. The only solace he finds is that his father now shows up for him. In attempting to rescue him from Quinn, Zachary absorbs the bullets. Richard wishes he had observed this side of his father while he was alive but now that he is already dead and all the other villains surrounding him are also dead or arrested, there is nothing much left for him to think about. Reacher offers him the only rational thing left for him to do so far. Richard had wished earlier for himself to get into a car and just drive as far away from all the chaos that he was entangled in. He didn’t enjoy his life there, and Reacher understood him for it. Then, once things settle down a bit, Reacher instructs him to take a car and drive as far away as he can. He cautions him that the authorities will confiscate his father’s assets and all his accounts will be frozen. All that Richard can save is the money that Zachary has stashed within the house. He tells Richard to grab as much of that money as he can and never come back. This is his only opportunity to begin anew in some other place, and he must take it despite the tragic nature of things. Eventually, Richard does just that, and while he drives away, so does Reacher after he borrows the bike from Beck’s garage.
Does Duffy Leave the DEA?
When Duffy sent her CI into the Beck home, she did so hoping to get her hands on the big fish that would make her career. But when her CI vanished, priorities changed overnight, which caused her to make even more questionable choices. One of them was to continue working the case on her own. Most importantly, when she learned that the ATF had an informant in there who was murdered, she did not turn over the information to them according to policy. When she finally reported to the ATF, she was informed that while they would assist her in taking down the bad guys, they would turn her in to her superiors.
Ultimately, once Teresa is secure, Duffy is prepared to move on from the DEA. It is this assurance of leaving the agency that enables her to look the other way and allow Reacher to exact revenge from Quinn. In a different situation, she may have felt the need to apprehend Reacher and take Quinn into custody so the agency could interrogate him and learn more about his operation. But now that she has realized there is no use to it, and also keeping in mind how much Reacher has helped her, particularly by keeping his intense desire for revenge aside to rescue Teresa, it is only right for her to reciprocate the favor and let him have his chance to kill Quinn once and for all this time. The following morning, when the cavalry comes and discovers the entire facility in shambles and all the villains dead and gone, Duffy discloses that she is not going to wait to get fired. She informs Reacher that she is quitting and will be taking some time out to care for herself. He suggests introducing her to a private investigator or security firm if she’d be willing to go for that, but she lets him know she does not wish to get herself involved for a while. She also informs him that the Russians are blamed for Quinn’s death since he had owed them money. So, Reacher is also totally in the clear and does not need to fear the Feds being on his tail. The goodbye of the pair is marked by a kiss upon Duffy admitting that she is not the type of woman to get hung up on someone. She does not like the usual niceties of relationships and does not want Reacher to feel any such thing either. He is speechless because it appears that she has robbed him of his words. This brings an end to their conversation and the possibility of them being together because both of them have resolved to go their separate ways, and for which they are happy.
What Happens to Teresa?
Most important for Duffy was to locate Teresa. She’d hired the girl out as a CI under false pretenses. So, when she disappeared, Duffy resolved to get her back no matter what. She did not care about the bad people and what became of them. First on her agenda was to retrieve Teresa and then figure what to do next with Beck and Quinn or any other evildoer who comes her way. Her quest to locate Teresa is successful when she reaches Beck’s residence. As Reacher heads to battle Paulie and Villanueva heads to locate Richard, Duffy searches the house to locate the place where Teresa was being held. Zachary Beck had affirmed that she was there since Quinn intended to present her as a gift to his client, who has a fascination with redheads. But the issue is that she is too high and may require assistance.
When Duffy goes to retrieve Teresa, she is relieved to find her alive, but as Beck said, the issue of getting her out of the house is quite large. Then Quinn’s client shows up, and Duffy spots her window. She holds him at gunpoint, and when he begins threatening her, she chooses to shoot him in his behind as soon as she hears Reacher begin shooting his way across the property. Duffy kills the client and his bodyguard quickly and ushers Teresa out of the residence so she will not be harmed. Soon after, she brings the girl home and is glad to have her back with her grandma. This is what she wanted from the start. Since she has kept her word and Teresa is home safe and sound, Duffy can finally rest easy and move on. Read More: Reacher Season 3: Is It a True Story? Are Zachary and Richard Beck Based on Real People?
