Scene 1: Reacher is on a subway, eating a cheese steak (so you know he's in Philadelphia). He cruises a mousy-looking middle-aged man. Into ratboys, Reacher? No, he's using his Sherlock Holmes skills to figure out the home country, job, and psychological profile of the other passengers. For instance, that woman crying and muttering to herself, her hands inside a blue purse: a suicide bomber!
He approaches and tries to talk her down, but she keeps crying and tells him to leave. The train jolts, and she pulls out a gun. Reacher thought it was a bomb.
"I can help. I was a cop before I became a drifter."
"No one can help me now." She shoots herself! Why shoot yourself on a subway?
Scene 2: Reacher is interviewed by two detectives. The Bad Cop claims that they're going to arrest him for murder, but he realizes that they're just stalling. Good Cop: "The feds are coming down from DC to ask you some questions, if you wouldn't mind sticking around."
Scene 3: Three feds arrive. He surmises that they're the B-team, roused from their beds to interview the last person to speak to the dead woman. They won't tell him their agency or their names, so he calls them Snap (Jason Diaz, top photo), Crackle (Michael Gaty, left), and Pop. The mascots of Kellogg's Rice Krispies. Is that still around?
Scene 2: Reacher is interviewed by two detectives. The Bad Cop claims that they're going to arrest him for murder, but he realizes that they're just stalling. Good Cop: "The feds are coming down from DC to ask you some questions, if you wouldn't mind sticking around."
"Ok, if you bring me a cheese steak."
Left: Reacher in his underwear-bulge modeling days.
Another problem; He saw four other passengers in the subway car, but they only found three. What happened to Ratboy?
While he's waiting, we meet the victim's brother Jacob, still in shock.
Scene 3: Three feds arrive. He surmises that they're the B-team, roused from their beds to interview the last person to speak to the dead woman. They won't tell him their agency or their names, so he calls them Snap (Jason Diaz, top photo), Crackle (Michael Gaty, left), and Pop. The mascots of Kellogg's Rice Krispies. Is that still around?
Left: Michael Gaty is gay in real life, but his character doesn't say anything identifiable.
They accuse Reacher of treason, and asked if he received anything from the victim. Nope.
"Are you sure you didn't receive something, and hide it, planning to come back later?"
Nope. "What are you so concerned about/"
They won't say, so he leaves.
But he's not done. Two more guys get out of their car, speaking Indonesian (Armando Alera, nude after the break, and Joe Labelle). They ask if she gave him anything.
"No."
"Did you give the flash drive to the police?" Didn't you hear what he just said?
They attack, so he clobbers them and walks away.
Scene 4: Jacob (Chris Marquette), the victim's brother, is in the coffee shop across the street. Reacher approaches him."My adopted sister couldn't have killed herself, because she was a happy person. She loved her job (Human Resources at an Army base), she loved her son (football star at Temple). Everything was perfect." Hint: the important part is "adopted."
Reach asks if she had any enemies? No -- the father of her son left when she got pregnant, then died in a car crash. "I helped raise Ben."
You don't mention a wife and kids, Jake Baby. For a 40-year old man, that's a clear queer code.
Son Ben doesn't know about his mother yet, since Jacob can't get ahold of him. He's not answering his phone. Well, it's only about 6:00 am. He's probably still asleep.
Ben, played by Denis Wong (the one wearing clothes), will appear in Episodes 2-4. Looks like an ongoing story arc this season.
While they talk, the background song is "Morning, Noon, and Night," by Joe Turner:
Sit down baby, let's have a little drink
Love you, pretty baby, morning, noon, and night.
Love you, pretty baby, morning, noon, and night.
Come on, Reach, the guy just lost his sister. This is not the right time to ask him out.
The Indonesians are back, so Reacher buys the flash drive of a coffee shop patron. "You wait here and try to get in touch with your nephew. I'll be back in 90 minutes.
Left: A random Indonesian guy.
Indonesia is one of the most diverse countries in the world, with over 60 ethnic groups. mostly Austronesian (Javanese, Sundanese). 98% are Muslim. The Indonesian language is a lingua franca formed from a standardized Malay.
English: Get on your knees
Malay: Berlutut
Indonesian: Berlutut-lah
English: I have a big penis
Malay: Saya mem-punyai zakar yang besar
Indonesian: Saya punya zakar yang besar
More after the break
Scene 5: Reacher tells the Indonesians that he has the flash drive, but he needs some money and some answers.
They bring her to two ladies in the park. The young one, Lila, introduces her mother, and apologizes for her cousins crossing a line (by trying to beat him up).
She explains what's going on: she has leukemia, and needs a bone-marrow transplant, but matches are hard to find, especially when you are mixed race. Mom can't donate, so she's trying to find her dad, an American soldier named John who her mother hooked up with.
She called various U.S. government agencies, but hit dead ends until she met Anna Merrick, who worked in Human Resources at the Pentagon -- the dead woman!
Anna was adopted, and understood her frustration, so she sleuthed, and found the dad: Congressman John Sampson, from North Carolina, a Presidential hopeful. He's a Republican, so having a mixed-race illegitimate child would ruin his chances.
"So he won't return your calls," Reacher surmises, "So Anna found some dirt that you can use to blackmail him. That's what's on the flash drive." Pretty shady, Sis.
"Not dirt, just documents proving he was in Indonesia in 1998. If it goes public, it will create enough pressure for him to get a DNA test."
Problem: Stealing those files constitutes espionage, so Anna was naturally upset. So why did she do it?
"But why did she kill herself instead of delivering the flash drive she promised?"
"I don't know. Can I have it? I'll pay you...um..$60." Flirt, flirt, gaze, gaze.
"Sorry, it's fake. I got it from someone at the diner."
"Well, if you find anything, here's my cell phone number and hotel room number. Drop by anytime...anytime." Flirt, flirt.
Scene 6: Back at the diner, Brother Jacob is not eating the omelette he ordered. Reach joins him. Background music: "Stoned," by the Old 97s:
"I must have been stoned when this whole thing started
'Cause I just can't seem to think straight anymore
You're quite a kisser, but I don't want to be your man."
Dang, you chose The Girl. But at least you let him down easy.
Reacher tells him the new intel. So Congressman John Sampson is involved. "Let's go research him, gaze gaze, flirt, flirt."
Why does Jacob assume that Reacher is going to work with him? Because otherwise be lousy story, or because he's totally into the guy?
Meanwhile, Good Cop get angry because Snap, Crackle, and Pop are going through her stuff. "The feds are taking over the Anna Merrick suicide case," Bad Cop explains.
"What's to investigate? It was a suicide."
Left: Chris Marquette pretends to be holding up the Leaning Tower of Pisa with his penis. It's actually his finger, of course. It's not a flattering image, dude.
Scene 7: First stop of our Dynamic Duo: the library. They can't find any dirt on the Congressman.
While Brother Jacob reads the "superficial bs" in newspaper articles, Reacher heads to the baesment archives for military records. And a guy with a knife demands the flash drive!
They fight. Reacher traps him between those moveable stacks to force him to drop the knife, but he ends up dead! Reach drops his body in the old coal chute.
Back in the main library: "We need to go. Lila Hoth, the lady who needs the bone marrow transplant, is in trouble."
On the way, he calls Lila, but she's in the shower and doesn't hear the phone. Who showers at 10:00 am? Oh, the director wanted to see her nude backside., got it. Another knife-wielding assassin sneaks in, but Reacher grabs him just in time, and they fight. He ends up going over the balcony just as Lila enters in a towel, and Brother Jacob with his police gun.
Hey, she doesn't have the bruises that she displayed earlier to demonstrate that she has leukemia. Something's off about this lady's story.
The cops will be coming, with questions about blackmail. The three run out (after Lila gets dressed) and run to an outdoor cafe, where they pretend to be looking at menus.
Reach tells Lila to go buy new clothes, dark colors, so she won't stand out "A woman like you stands out enough as it is." We know that you picked the Girl, but do you have to rub it in, with Jacob right there?
Scene 8: Jacob calls his nephew's frat brothers: a day and a half ago, he left a bar with "some gorgeous woman." Heterosexual identity established before we even see the guy. Oh, and he's obviously been kidnapped.
Next they ask Good Cop, aka Detective Tamara Green, if a flash drive has been turned in today. No. She will appear in five episodes.
Next: We talk to the Congressman. Jacob will take the train into DC, and meet Reacher there tonight.
Reacher heads off by himself, and...you guessed it. A white van full of suits wanting to ask him even more questions. They shoot him with a tranquilizer gun -- it takes several darts before he goes down. The end.
Beefcake: None. This all takes place between 2:00 am and noon.
Left: Reacher's butt.
Heterosexism: Reacher flirts with both Jacob and Lila, but the girl wins.
Gay Characters: Jacob doesn't display any heterosexual interest. The "gorgeous woman" is the frat boy's description, not his.
My Grade: I was disappointed The flirtation with Jacob obviously was just subtext, and wouldn't go anywhere, but I didn't think it would end so soon. But I liked researching Indonesia. C.
Left: Bonus Indonesian guy.
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