Reacher – Season 2 Episode 4 “A Night at the Symphony” Recap & Review

A Night at the Symphony

Reacher Season 2 Episode 4 begins with Reacher, Neagley, Dixon and O’Donnell going through all the information they obtained from the robbery at New Age Technologies. They discuss the possibility of Swan being dirty due to his involvement at New Age. It turns out he’s the assistant director of security at the company. Shane Langston’s name comes up, and Reacher thinks this could be the guy he has been speaking to on the phone who tried to have them killed. Reacher says they should go through every employee one by one to find out what’s going on. 

Elsewhere, Gus Russo is being shouted at by his boss for allowing the 110th to break into New Age Technologies and cause chaos.

The group is having a conversation about the music playing at the diner they are in. It’s “Road to Nowhere” by Talking Heads, which Reacher objects to, as it sums up their case. The conversation turns to the revelation that Swan and Marlo Burns would talk about music as code in their emails. Reacher deciphers the email to figure out it’s a reference to a program New Age is working on for the Department of Defence, called Little Wing. 

Reacher notes there’s a senator called Malcolm Lavoy who wants to give the go-ahead for Little Wing. Dixon makes a connection between the corrupt officials at New Age Technologies and the Little Wing-related bill that Malcolm is pushing for. She concludes that they need to get to the senator and find answers. O’Donnell thinks getting to a senator will be near on impossible, but getting to the legislative director might be the next best thing, as they know about the laws being passed. Reacher gives O’Donnell the go-ahead to use his dodgy methods to get the name of Senator Malcolm’s legislative director.

Flashback to the 110th seizing a massive amount of heroin during a drug bust, and one of the bags of heroin couldn’t be accounted for, and it looked very much like Dixon had stolen it. Back in the present day, Reacher still insists Swan isn’t dirty and not involved in whatever is going on at New Age. 

A.M. visits Dr. Elzogby to steal his identity and kills him by stabbing him in the neck. The group discovers more about a man called Daniel Boyd, who is Senator Malcolm Lavoy’s legislative director. O’Donnell discovers that Boyd will be attending the symphony in Boston, giving the group the opportunity to question him about the Little Wing project. Reacher answers Russo’s call, plays dumb about the New Age break-in, and then proceeds to assign him a task to run background checks on all of the people working with Shane Langston. He then tells him he’s off to the Boston Symphony and hangs up. 

Neagley and Dixon check in on Marlo Burns at her home, but nobody is there, and it appears she left in a hurry. It’s revealed she has a daughter called Jane. There is a big bag of money left behind, which makes them question what kind of person goes on the lam without taking a pile of money. 

Reacher and O’Donnell attack a drug dealer and take his drugs and a gun. The reason for this will be discovered later on. The group get dressed up smart to attend the opera, and banter naturally ensues between them for their less-than-regular attire. At the theatre, Dixon acts confused about her seats to get an “in” with Boyd, who suggests she sit with him for the performance. 

Reacher and O’Donnell sit in a diner outside the theatre going through the data they got from Franz’s flash drive. Reacher figures out the numbers in the documents are actually a tally of some mystery material. If the ratio is 13 out of 14, then that means that 13 out of 14 units of a certain object have been acquired, etc. Reacher says the number of “missing” units or unsuccessful attempts at acquiring something actually adds up to 650. Franz’s last words to his girlfriend were, “650, $100k each.” Franz was pointing at 650 items, each of which was worth $100k. 

Dixon and Boyd head to a car, and inside the car, she offers him drugs, which he gladly accepts. There is a knock on the window of the car. Oscar Finlay is back, and he arrests Boyd for drug possession. He lets Reacher and O’Donnell into the interview room, and they pretend to be special agents and question Boyd about Little Wing. He refuses to comply, but when O’Donnell threatens him with the drug charges, it causes Boyd to break. He tells them Little Wing is a codename for anti-missile software. It was originally meant to protect commercial aircraft from attacks, but New Age Technologies got hold of it and made some modifications to it, making it portable and paving the way for anyone to become a surface-to-air missile launcher.

Boyd assures them that this technology is in safe hands because New Age is a reputable company. Reacher and Finlay part ways with the promise to help each other in the future and keep in touch. Reacher tells Dixon and Neagley to head to Denver and look into New Age Technologies’ other office, which Boyd told them about. Reacher and O’Donnell knock on Homeland Security’s door and use Reacher’s dead brother Joe’s connections to get more information on the Department of Defence’s connection to New Age Technologies.

The episode ends with the group stopping off at a local diner to change out of their smart clothes, but they are attacked by a biker gang, and a fight ensues. The group overpowers the much larger biker gang, and Reacher retrieves a phone from one of the bikers’ bodies and calls up Shane to inform him he’s coming for him. Langston offers to give him whatever it is he wants to back off, to which Reacher says, “I want to throw you out of a helicopter.”

The Episode Review

This is another top-quality episode of Reacher Season 2, with a fun trip to Boston, and the welcome return of Oscar Finlay, who was one of the best characters in Season 1. It’s a good cameo that links the two seasons together nicely.

There is more fantastic action, with some interesting flashbacks to when the group was part of the 110th Special Investigations unit. These flashbacks never feel like they get in the way as they always link in with what’s going on in the present timeline. Television doesn’t get much better than this!