The finale begins with BETRAYAL. The “good” FBI agent who set up the safehouse- Picard was in on it THE WHOLE TIME!!! DUN DUN DUN. KJ is there being a psychopath and for some reason they aren’t just killing everyone. WHY? I mean they were all pew pew pew throughout the miniseries, but now it’s chit chat time??? KJ killed EVERYONE! He killed his Dad, Morrison, Deputy Deadmeat and Mrs. Deadmeat, Reacher’s brother, and the Last Unicorn. I’m not a huge unicorn fan; so, that one I’m fine with that one. AHHH, KJ wants Reacher to find Hubble and if he does it, he’ll release Hubble’s wife and kids. I doubt it, but ok – let’s see where this goes.
Reacher is being forced to track Hubble down and Picard is on him, but why just him? There seems to be no shortage of thugs in this town. Anyway, manages to kill Picard and find Hubble. Ok, why not? Finley is the jail with the crooked cop who’s beating him A LOT, but Reacher busts in the jail with a trick because of course he does!!!
AWESOME! They are grabbing all the guns from the jail. ARMORED UP!!!
Reacher goes to the counterfeiting hideout and there’s fire and killing. It’s awesome.
The episode begins with the one good cop in Margrave – I believe his name is Deputy Deadmeat with his pregnant wife, who knows too much, and is just a few days from retirement. These two people couldn’t be more about to be killed in this show if they jumped into “The Beyond” (shoutout to Lisa). Uh Oh, the dudes in the white garbage bags are heading into Deadmeat’s house.
We have another Reacher flashback. They are forced to move to Germany because they wouldn’t cave to apologizing to the bully in the neighborhood. I’m not sure how I feel about all these flashbacks. They’re good, but we’re in the last two episode’s now; so, as the philosopher Elvis would say- A little less talk and a little more action.
Aaaaand, we’re back.
Deputy Deadmeat and his wife are very very murdered, but at least they didn’t make him eat his own balls; so,….. yay?
This episode is fun because he goes full Rambo!!! Reacher talks to a dirty cop and surreptitiously tells him that he will be at Hubble’s house that night! He leaves the Mercedes outside so that the murderers know he’s there! It’s AWESOME!!! Power chords are workin’ for him as he puts on the camo paint. So many dudes show up in the white garbage bags and it gets Total Recall with the violence! LOVE IT!!!!
The room clear to look for Reacher who has laid a trap, but most are using handguns and only one has a shotgun. Handguns aren’t great for house fighting. The shotgun is a much preferred weapon. Why? Projectiles fly VERY fast and you can miss easily; whereas, a shotgun spreads the pain.
The male shirtlessness after the fight is a bit unnecessary. He neatly figures everything out at once that the paper is 1 dollar bills that they bleach and reprint as 100s. I think this could’ve been teased out better if we didn’t have SO MANY FLASHBACKS.
Meanwhile, Finley is trapped in a crappy motel with dudes trying to kill him. I had a similar experience when I was almost murdered in Spain.
I was at bar and an older lady came up to me and just started kissing me right away and then said- this is my cheating husband’s favorite bar and I told him I was going to sleep with the first guy I met. I’ll show him when gets here in five minutes! I threw some bills at the bar and ran out. Why Barcelona, Why???! As I got out onto those damn slippery cobblestones, I saw very large angry man looking around everywhere.
Yes, life comes at you pretty fast: one minute you’re eating shitty paella and getting loaded on Sangria and the next you’re running out of the back door of a bar to get to your penzione, get your shit, and take the first train out of Spain to ANYWHERE. The next morning, I was in Holland.
I hope you enjoyed this recap/review and stay out of Barcelona! I don’t care how many museums they have- it is actually a lot and they are nice, but for me, it will always be Murderville!
Sorry for the hiatus. I love Reacher, but I also love C8H18 and have to study it ALL THE TIME! Not a lot actually happens in this particular episode- lot of reading, talking, fishing. Yeah, there’s some fishing. We learn that Roscoe’s old boss and mentor knew something was rotten in Margrave, but did not quite know what it was. There’s a river that’s poisoned and we meet Reacher’s old buddy Frances. It does end with a little scare in that Kilner Sr has his throat slit. He was probably a workaholic; so, he was probably going to die at the office anyway.
Episode 6 Papier
The episode begins with the finer points of Venezuelan throat cutting. Charlene is still in a safe house and we learn that Finley’s wife passed away. Charlene’s safehouse is NOT so safe because there’s assassins on trying to kill Charlene and her kids. The question I have is: who isn’t being pursued by murderers in this craphole? Margave is giving Chicago a run for its money! However, we do get to see an assassin killed by his own grenade!
At least, there’s more action than the last episode. I do love the show, but I do think a couple of the episodes were filler and put the bulk of the narrative import at the last 3 minutes. Typically, the show is very tight, but could’ve benefitted from nixing 1 episode.
Reacher decides that he needs to find the people who were helping his murdered brother Joe. Two of them were professors, one is dead. He connects with professor and she explains that Joe was hunting down a counterfeiting ring. It’s all about the paper!!!! They were making the paper for counterfeiting US Dollars in Margrave, shipping them to Venezuela, and poisoning the river to do it!!! DUN DUN DUN! We also learn how Paul Hubbard got pulled into the mob. It’s a lot of…… accounting. So, we’re not going into that.
It does end with A LOT of Reacher- breakin a dude’s leg and stranglin him!!!
Now, with these episodes out of the way, the plot gets goin again!!!
I hope that you missed me! I have been knee-deep in differential equations and a back injury, but like Reacher, I’m continuing on- It got picked up! Also, I have been reading the first book and I can confirm that this show is very true to the book. I think that’s why I like it so much- it’s throwback to the mini-series of the 80’s, 90’s, and 00’s- Shogun, North and South, Jesse Stone, and The Stand. These were book adaptions that strove to be true to the source material. Today, we are used to craptacular adaptations like “It” an ok film, but had nothing to do with the source material and openly rejected it.
Reacher episodes, like the mini-series of yore, continue from the moment the last episode ends, but unlike the mini-series of yesteryear they use different directors for each episode. Luckily, they pick old hands at familiar with the action/mystery genre. This episode is directed by Christine Moore – if it’s an action packed mystery show- she has directed it. Period. She can direct the Hell out of a fight scene.
Reacher is rummaging through the assassin vehicle and putting everyone in the truck who he killed. To fit them all in, he breaks their dead legs. YEECH! Keep in mind, this is not just a mystery for Reacher- it’s a revenge story. They killed his brother- his only family and he would kill the whole town if they were all in on it.
They find Joe’s car and there’s a great bit of dark comedy when Reacher jokes to Finley how he killed two more people and they’re in the car a few feet from them. There’s a total understanding that the rules have been broken. Society itself died in Margrave. They are the only law and vengeance is the only punishment, which explains why the backdrop of Iraq is always present. Yes, Reacher has terrible PTSD, but Margrave typifies Iraq after the fall.
After Iraq fell, events happened that should not have. I was not there, but things happened just the same. Society is a mile long and an inch deep. We are always one sustained power blackout from tribal conflict and feudalism. Reacher reveals to Roscoe that he caught three pedophiles abusing local boys. He gave them a choice to turn themselves in or answer to him. They chose Reacher and he executed them. She rapidly gets on board with dumping bodies at the airport parking garage. Wow. COLD BLOODED!
Roscoe and Reacher check into an airport Hotel and get a call from Joe’s former partner, but she doesn’t even give them a hint as to what the investigation is about. She will meet them at the airport, but I got to write that it was WEIRD that she didn’t give a hint about what his brother was investigating. Shortly after the call, the building sexual tension between Roscoe and Reacher releases in a fairly long scene.
Meanwhile, the mayor pulls Finley off of investigating the case and threatens his career. Reacher and Roscoe find the motel where Joe was staying and get his his hidden notes. Reacher and Roscoe get pursued by killers….again. When they are all together to meet Joe’s former partner at the airport, they see her, and then she vanishes. Reacher searches for her and finds her bleeding out. Back to square one.
We need to create a list of people in this show who don’t want to kill Jack Reacher. I can think of three people… Oscar, Roscoe, and maybe….Jasper. Jasper could snap. How many times can you dig testicles out of a dead man’s stomach before you go homicidal… twice… three times?! Not many more (see below).
Jasper desperately groping for his mental Happy Place.
We learn from BRIEF exposition that Jack’s estranged brother Joe was in the Secret Service and high up boss: Director of special investigations – anti-counterfeiting. Somehow Margrave is involved in counterfeiting?! What’s special about Reacher is that at its heart it’s a Whodunnit. It’s a mystery with so much action, but it’s a mystery show like if Sherlock Holmes traded in his opium for LOTS of freeweights. Jasper identifies the latest murder victim as a trucker who worked for Kliner. This trucker got into a jam and got a high priced lawyer somehow to get him out of it.
They develop a plan: Oscar will search a crooked prison guard’s home and Reacher goes to the lawyer posing as a prospective client. Both end with severe beatings. Oscar gets beaten and arrested by redneck cops who mistake him for a burglar and Reacher just plain beats up the lawyer until he gives up information. Obviously, they are planning on taking this case to court.
The next plan is to confront KIiner at his office. Why? This did not make sense, but it enabled Oscar to show some more emotions. With their hand tipped, EVERYONE has to go into quasi-hiding. This town really sucks. Roscoe has a run-in with the world’s most obvious sociopath- KJ- Kliner’s horrible kid. KJ tries to drive a wedge in Roscoe and Reacher’s relationship by accusing him of being a war criminal. We all hate KJ. Oscar goes to Atlanta to find some intel on Hubble the accountant. Hubble stopped coming to the Atlanta office for work a year ago. What was he doing? Well, money laundering. So…. Ok, I guess Oscar just really wanted to hangout in Atlanta. Yes, there’s a lot going on.
Reacher goes back to crooked prison guard’s bar to find him. He doesn’t, but he does get to beat the Hell out of several people. The crooked prison guard skipped town. Once again, Reacher is tailed by two South American Hitmen who try really really hard to kill him, but Reacher beats them to the punch and shoots them dead. Reacher discovers the crooked prison guard is dead in their trunk. I really need to get a body count on this show; we have to be edging into Total Recall territory.
This is a fun episode and it really forces all the heroes to understand that there will be no arrests. This is the wild west and it’s murder and vengeance every single day.
The cold opens in this show are awesome; the end of the last episode feeds right into the opening of the following episode. It is literally a long movie. Reacher needs to follow up his next lead with Paul’s wife (Kristen Kreuk) and sneaks around the house and finds a vegetation clue- Really. Reacher is Sherlock Holmes/Shane/Batman. This small clue leads him to where his brother’s killer lied in wait. I know that I’m throwing a lot at you, but you have to understand that this show does not let up- There is no exhaling. You are like Reacher; you can’t stop. Then, he beats A LOT of people who try to mess with him. Why? Just why? Messing with Reacher…. ohhhh… bad idea. Side note: he’s got a soft spot for animals. I can relate to this man… so well, except he’s a bit taller.
The people killing off these Margrave residents are rough; I didn’t know you could mix crucifixion and castration, but here we are. I need a counter-clicker like they have a sporting events to keep track of all of the murders.
The writer and director establish that the town officials are as crooked as a mountain road. The killers see Charlie, Paul’s wife, as a loose end so she has to run her for her life with her children and go into hiding. Venezuelan special forces are trying to kill Reacher…and well everyone who connected to this unknown criminal enterprise.
Side note: Reacher never wears a shirt. I’m assuming it’s because of an allergy fabric sensitivity.
Roscoe is assigned to keep tabs on Reacher and it leads to dancing and partial nudity. I know that reads as contrived, but it did seem to work. There is real chemistry between Reacher and Roscoe. Sam Hill, the director, is not just great setting up tension, but he knows how to pace a story. However, they all seem to be anti-shirt. You see more shirt-wearing at a pool.
The episode ends with Roscoe seeing that her house was raided and she is targeted by the killers as well. Who isn’t marked for death?! How do they even get the mail in this town?
I thoroughly enjoyed this episode. Watch this show!
Reacher is the greatest show in ten-years! In fairness, I’m a fan of Alan Ritchson (Titans) and Malcolm Goodwin (iZombie). These men have deserved a series for A WHILE!!! It’s great to see talented people have success. It’s how it should be. It reaffirms the power of great art; it can’t be stopped. Thomas Vincent, the director, appears to be on the arthouse side. I was stunned to find out that an arthouse director pulled me into this action packed show by my proverbials. Nick Santora wrote this pilot perfectly. I was pulled deeper into every scene. We need to work on new adjectives to describe how good this show is.
What makes a great Pilot? It has to establish all of the characters, immediate danger/conflict, a mythology, and show not tell. This show had barely any exposition at all. I haven’t seen that done in years. In a time, when lazy writing is the norm, this show tosses all of that aside. Alan was born to play this part. I will get into this deeper later on, but he has the most believable portrayal of a Veteran since Battlestar Galactica. Someone helped Alan act like us and he did a great job of it.
“Welcome to Margrave” opens with Jack Reacher walking toward a diner with no obvious possessions. Reacher is rapidly arrested for a crime he didn’t commit and he’s pulled into this town’s intrigue and bodies are dropping. He walks with some discomfort, which is clear in the pilot until the last scene. Why was this important? Veterans always kind of feel a little naked because we’re permanently out of uniform. We never really get over it. We’re always just a little fish out of water.
Finlay (Malcolm Goodwin) the chief detective has no idea where to begin to solve these murders. The town is just 1700 people in there are two people dead by the end of the pilot. Finlay discerns that a local business accountant Paul Hubble is involved and tries to get him to talk to Reacher by locking them both up at the local prison. However, unknown to Finlay, someone wants Reacher and Paul dead. Let’s take just a moment to offer some respect to the writer and director for opting for the hard road of storytelling. They’ve set all of this conflict up without an exposition fest -that takes talent and discipline. It also leads to the greatest fight scene I’ve ever seen. Not since the Titans “Pilot” did I see a fight scene of this caliber. It topped it.
This show has heart, violence, mystery and intensity. Reacher discovers that the second body is his brother Joe. His physicality changes; he’s more relaxed in both speech and walking. Why? Because now Reacher has a mission: Revenge. Alan Ritchson pulled this transformation off brilliantly.
I have to also discuss Malcolm Goodwin as Finlay. His marriage is failed and now his career is a mess because this town is confronted with two murders in two days. His performance is like a pressure cooker; he’s trying desperately not to explode. I loved it.
I highly recommend this show. It should be picked up immediately!
Titans really is Dick’s show. Dick, like Batman, is a detective. In this episode, Dick is trying to track down Deathstroke, but it’s also a journey for Dick to resolve the demons of his past. The rot is insidious and destroys everything. This episode is about facing demons and the rot that grows when they are ignored. Sadly, I’m personally familiar with this. This episode is so realistic with the depiction of pain, loss, and redemption- you might need therapy afterwards.
The title “Bruce Wayne” is a misnomer in the title because it’s actually the psychic break of Dick seeing his mentor Bruce Wayne (Iain Glen) mock him. This is pretty awesome. Iain Glen approaches role with no boundaries. He inserts himself as the greatest foil to mock Dick at every turn, which is nice because Dick is so rigid, seeing this side of his psyche makes him 3-Dimensional. The true test of a leader isn’t just accomplishing the mission; it’s have the team accomplish it together, utilizing all of their strength because that creates a pattern of victory. If you think I’m not correct, how many bands stay together after they get really famous?
Bruce is rebuking Dick’s leadership especially with Jason that he led all of these kids into Deathstoke’s hands- “right into their bloodfeud”. We’re learning the depth of Dick’s culpability in creating the feud is unknown even to the other original Titans members. It’d be hypocritical of me to claim that I’ve never taken revenge or wanted it, BUT it ALWAYS leaves collateral damage and we learn more about this feud the collateral damage was EPIC.
The show is great about keeping the subplots going without distracting the A-Story. Eve is trying to find Conner; she frees Crypto to do it. Conner is sick from the kryptonite bullets etc etc and gets all better. Rose is trying to (AND SUCCESSFULLY) seducing Jason and they have CHEMISTRY!!!! We see just how deep Rose’s infiltration has worked. Jason is seeing things. Alcohol is being left for Hawk, orange soda is left for Wondergirl (it’s a thing), photos appearing for Dawn, records are appearing, crosses are all over Raven’s room, and Colonel Mustard is in the parlor with a candle stick. JUST MAYHEM!
I love the detective parts of the story. Dick works the case to find Deathstroke by going to ex-girlfriends and known associates. It’s fun because ACTUALLY how cops investigations. I’ve personally done many investigations and they are always fun! Bonus, you get to see Bruce Wayne dance in burlesque….it’s better than it sounds.
Rose drives a deeper wedge by revealing Dick’s secret to Jason by using her brother Jericho the boy Deathstroke was stalking to get to her dad. Now, if Jason were less infatuated, he might realize that he’s being played by Rose.
Sidenote: Wow! The acting talent of both Chelsea Zhang and Curran Walters is palpable. They play off each other perfectly. It’s Emmy-worthy performances. The cast as whole is like a supergroup. Without even a near-second, this greatest show on tv in 20 years.
We learn that they think Doctor Light killed Jericho. Not so. Dick has blood on his hands- they will drip drip drip the details until the suspense is ratcheted like a suspension wire on the Golden Gate.
Just when Dick realizes that the enemy is in the house, we see just how bad Jason blames himself. He climbs up to the top of the Tower to end his life. It’s almost too believable. It hurts to watch. Right when we think it’s about to end with Jason’s death, we learn brutally as Dick metaphorically undresses himself, revealing that he killed Deathstroke’s son. He is the poison and the rot at the center of the team.
This episode is so great that it should be in a masterclass for acting, writing, and directing. It is so riveting and Breton Thwaites confession is so believable – it hurts.
“Conner” (Dir Alex Kalymnios) is not a flashback as much as a flash-lateral. The previous episode had Jason Todd, a principle, falling to his death. Then, this episode dives right into a muscular naked guy with a dog. Yep, he’s Superboy and the Dog- Krypto and yes, if you talk to the dog he’ll go on and on about The Blockchain. It can be worse than if people do CrossFit and are vegan.
“Conner” introduces Superboy (Joshua Orpin). We get to relax and see some tragic comedy with him and Dr Eve Watson (Genevieve Angelson) play off one another for about an hour. We learn that Eve created Superboy- see what they did there?! Also, that he has the emotional maturity of child, strength of Superman, much of the knowledge and memories of Lex Luthor and Superman because is cloned from both of their DNA strands. As you do.
He ends up saving Jason Todd because why not? Joshua Orpin played well as Superboy and he is a new principal; so, we needed an origin story. I think it could’ve had some more action scenes. Orpin is very good at those and I’m looking forward to seeing him in more of the series. However, he did get hit by some kryptonite bullets; so, it might be short-lived.
Jason Todd has been captured, but why? Why is there a feud between Deathstroke and the Titans? What happened? Why didn’t Dick tell the new recruits any of the details before joining up?
“Aqualad” (Dir. Glen Winter – Dir. of Smallville and Arrow) opens FIVE YEARS AGO with Deathstroke doing a ritual before a mission, not with a sacrifice, but a ritual nonetheless. For him, he showers and trims his facial hair perfectly. Why? Because that’s his ritual. Next, in a series of shots, he is sniping target after target. Lawyer, prisoners who turned State’s evidence, a Judge- everyone connected to his mission.
Esai Morales plays this perfectly calm and that’s how these Men actually are. The ones who I knew who did this sort of work were matter of fact Salt of the Earth types. His character doesn’t say a lot of words because why should he?
We get a hint as to what drives him. We see that he is outside of home with a teenager and mom. The teenager is mute and you wonder why are they targets? They aren’t because if they were, they’d be dust. Obviously, it is his son. Deathstroke had a son and Rose had a brother.
We learn about the unrequited romance between Aqualad and Wondergirl. They’ve wanted each other since they were 12 years old. He wants her, but she has a destiny to return to Themyscira and shoot arrows or something. Side question: what’s the point of Themyscira? Primitive weapons, feta everywhere, and lamb after lamb – doesn’t it get old? So they go there and train, buy why? Is it just The Olympics everyday? The pizza is the worst! Move on.
He wants her to stay and she secretly plans to leave before his fish charms get to her.
Since Doctor Light has been bothering everyone, we get his backstory. He was a physicist turned evil blah blah blah lightning hands. They need to stop Doctor Light because he’s getting a super weapon. All the while, Deathstroke is getting closer to his target.
The night of battle occurs and they wreck Doctor Light. Post battle, Aqualad and Wondergirl consummate, but she leaves without a word that very night!!!! Aqualad pursues and is accidentally killed by Deathstroke.
Dick uses the Bat-surveillance to determine the shooter is Deathstroke, which sets in motion their plan. They decide to get Dick to know the boy that was surveilled by Deathstroke.
This episode serves as half of the bridge. We know why the Titans hate Deathstroke, but not why he hates them. What makes these flashback episodes fun is that they keep their focus. We learn their side of the revenge, but Deathstroke’s revenge is a totally different story and can’t be rushed.
The following episode “Deathstroke” doesn’t reveal his motive, BUT it does show his magnificent bastardness! Esai is so Stone Cold! We can see Curran Walters really embody Jason Todd.
The entire episode is about how Deathstroke is setting up the pieces for maximum revenge against Dick Grayson. Rose is constantly pitting them against one another with perfect psy-ops. Deathstroke furthers that rift by offering a trade of Rose for Jason. Why? Because he wants the team to be constantly conflicted. This is from his military training: Infiltrate, Alienate, Isolate, and Destroy. Rose infiltrated, she is working to alienate them from one another, once isolated- attack.
Dick tries to offer himself in return for Jason. This is NOT going to work for Deathstroke. He wants Dick to suffer. The dead no pain; it is the survivor that lives with remorse and pain. Deathstroke wants Dick to be helpless as sees everyone he cares about die.
Deathstroke goes full Bond villain by having Jason on a scaffolding that will blow up and cause him to fall with Dick watching into a pit of alligators and maybe a shark. Why? Because THAT’S DRAMA!!!! He does get Jason to fall and have Dick helplessly watch. Then, CUT TO BLACK?! WHAT?!
This episode is great not just because the performances are great, but because it makes you desperate to know WHY is Deathstroke going to all this trouble? Thank you again and sorry for the wait.
Through the Shattered Lens 