WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Reacher, streaming now on Prime Video.
True to its literary source material, Prime Video's adaptation of Lee Child's bestselling Jack Reacher novels does not pull its punches with its depiction of unflinching, graphic violence. Virtually every episode of Reacher Season 1 contains at least one hard-hitting fight sequence, with Reacher (played by Titans actor Alan Ritchson) reminding audiences why he's such a formidable figure as he investigates his brother's murder in the small Georgia town of Margrave. However, the bloodiest kill in Season 1 isn't done by its no-nonsense protagonist -- but by the bookish chief police detective Oscar Finlay when he joins in on the action.
The violent lengths Reacher goes to are evident right from its opening and only escalate as the series continues. Imprisoned under suspicion that he murdered his older brother Joe, Reacher is assaulted in a bathroom by a group of racist inmates and single-handedly dispatches all of his attackers. This early action scene is punctuated by Reacher gouging the eyes of one of the convicts with his bare hands, quickly establishing that the stoic hero is willing to achieve a decisive victory by any gory means necessary. It's a character trait that also sees Reacher shooting enemies in the back and engaging in other less than noble tactics to defeat his foes.
Finlay tops Reacher's gruesome tactics in the season finale after learning that his old friend and colleague Picard is secretly working for a counterfeiting ring operating out of Margrave. Picard captures Reacher only for the musclebound protagonist to escape, shooting Picard in the shoulder and leaving him for dead. Picard resurfaces in Reacher Season 1's climactic battle, having survived his gunshot wound to confront Finlay. While the wounded Picard initially has the advantage, Finlay pushes two of his fingers into Picard's bullet wound and forces him under a hydraulic presser where he crushes his traitorous friend, spilling blood and viscera everywhere.
This bloody end to Picard feels like something straight from a horror movie and is a change from Picard's death in the novel Killing Floor, which serves as the primary source material for Reacher Season 1. In the novel, Picard is shot multiple times in the torso, surviving due to his size and endurance, before he ultimately has his head blown off by Reacher himself. Comparatively, Finlay being the one to graphically kill Picard in the television adaptation not only demonstrates that he isn't afraid of getting his hands dirty to dispense lethal justice, but pays back Picard for betraying him in the first place.
Reacher certainly comes out of the first season with a higher body count and a well-earned reputation as the story's biggest hero -- "biggest" in every sense of the word -- but Finlay proves that he's more than a desk jockey dressed from head to toe in tweed. The entire counterfeiting ring is brutally wiped out and Reacher's Season 1 finale makes sure there's no doubt that all of its ringleaders are dead. And though Reacher may have left Margrave behind, Finlay is more than suited to defend the Georgia town by showing that he can similarly go to any lengths to deliver justice.
Developed for television by Nick Santora, Reacher is available to stream now on Prime Video.
Source: Trendz OH
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