Reacher – Season 2 Episode 6 “New York’s Finest” Recap & Review

New York’s Finest

Reacher Season 2 Episode 6 begins with the 110th debating what led to the explosion that killed the sniper, who was the only person linked to Swan. Russo comes by and gives the group a lead on the direction Marlo Burns is heading in. Turns out, she’s going to Portland. Reacher and the rest of the group reach the car that was being tracked and find out it had been dumped near a convenience store.

They go through the CCTV footage to get an idea of where Burns and her daughter might’ve headed next. Neagley notices Burns’ daughter playing on a Nintendo Switch and comes up with a genius plan to figure out her gamer tag in order to locate her. Elsewhere, A.M. kills a police officer for trying to do a background check on him. 

The 110th are in Marlo’s house, and Neagley gets a hold of Jane’s gamer ID because she failed to log out of it on the TV. Neagley just needs to play the games that Jane plays from her own ID until she surfaces online. Reacher decides to get a nap, and Dixon joins him in bed.

Russo goes to his superior, Marsh’s house, and confronts him, telling him he knows he’s the one who sold out the 110th to Shane Langston because he is working for them. Marsh lectures Russo about how he has known Russo and how well he knew Russo’s dad, and reveals he is working for Langston and New Age because it’s the “smart play.” Marsh tries to get Russo to join his side, but Russo refuses and warns him to never bring up his father ever again. 

Reacher and Dixon are in bed, and Reacher is worried that if they find out Swan is guilty, someone has to pull the trigger, and he isn’t sure if he could do that. Dixon assures him that he doesn’t have to do it because if it comes to that, she’ll do it.

Neagley gets a hold of Jane’s location, and Marlo and her daughter are an hour away from their location.

Marlo is at a friend’s house, called Chad. Reacher lures Chad out of the house by setting off his sprinklers and then takes him into the garage. He tells him to call Marlo to the garage without causing any kind of suspicion that something is up. 

Chad refuses, but as soon as Reacher crafts a makeshift silencer for his gun with a water bottle and some duct tape, he agrees. Reacher reveals that it’s a hoax, and a water bottle and some duct tape can’t do the work of a silencer.  Marlo enters the garage, and Reacher tells her they aren’t going to hurt Jane, who is busy playing online with Neagley. They proceed to confront Marlo about everything they’ve been through because of New Age. Marlo says that she didn’t know about the ambush at the house and was told to just give them the address. O’Donnell mentions Swan’s involvement in all this, and Marlo says Swan is innocent. Marlo says Swan was the one trying to take down Shane Langston and New Age by working with her after realising a manufacturing defect in a chip-making process wasn’t actually a manufacturing defect after all. 

Just like the stolen missiles, New Age was showing a false negative for several batches of chips so they could be sent for “repair” and instead fitted into the missiles meant for warfare. Swan brought in Orozco, Sanchez and Franz to investigate. Marlo tells the 110th she doesn’t know where Swan is. Marlo also claims she was forced to take the bag of money to cover everything up.

Reacher tells Marlo to give Langston a call and tell him to meet her somewhere so the 110th can ambush him and kill him. Reacher asks Russo to take care of Jane while they take Marlo to meet with Langston. Russo reluctantly agrees and tells Reacher about Marsh being dirty. He says he is skipping town to stay with his cousin on Staten Island and will take Jane along with him. However, Russo’s car gets attacked by Langston’s henchman after Reacher and the 110th along with Marlo leave for the meet with Langston. 

Marlo botches the mission to box in Shane and his men by revealing the fact that the 110th is there. Reacher orders the 110th to take Marlo out of there and get to Russo, while he hangs back in the bus and truck yard and deals with Langston and his goons. He shoots out the tyres of Langston’s cars meaning he can’t escape that way. He opens the doors of a bus and waits for them. Reacher takes them down in brutal fashion. Reacher confronts Langston but a chopper shows up out of nowhere and rescues him, preventing Reacher from killing him.

The episode ends with Russo and Jane cornered in an alley. He tells Jane to make a run for it, and he manages to take out 2 of the shooters but is shot in the process and drops to the ground. The third shooter gets to Jane, but Neagley turns up in time to take him down. She rushes over to Jane, but the team notices Russo is lying on the road, so they call 911 while Neagley holds onto Russo’s hand as he dies. 

The Episode Review

The final act of this episode is filled with some of the most tense moments ever in a television show as 2 action sequences are merged to create a stunning climax. But it’s not all action and no substance, as it’s all fuelled by the storytelling and the emotion felt by the characters. The episode isn’t without its funny moments either, as Reacher’s makeshift silencer trick is hilarious. 

With 2 episodes left, this season is gearing up for an epic conclusion, which has built throughout the entire season. The sad death of Russo at the end of this episode raises the stakes somewhat, and there is an interesting character moment with Neagley as she has to overcome her dislike of touching to comfort a dying man.