This article of the Prime Video series Reacher Season 2 Episode 1, “ATM,” contains spoilers.
The season two premiere of “ATM” gets Reacher off to a signature start. For one, the giant titular character meets his match with a teenager working at a military surplus store who doesn’t take her job seriously. This forces Reacher to use an ATM, where he sees a woman crying and suffering facial injuries.
Reacher notices a car parked on the street within view. He deduces that the woman is being carjacked. He tells her to keep looking straight, and she informs him that her son is in the car being held hostage. That’s when Reacher does Jack Reacher things.
The man walks down to the minivan, wraps his jacket around his gigantic fist, and punches the driver’s side windshield into a million pieces. He drags the man out by his shirt collar, administers the type of justice only seen in the movies, and saves the day. God, there’s simply nothing like Reacher on streaming television.
Prime Video’s Reacher Season 2 Episode 1 Recap: Who contact’s Reacher?
When withdrawing money from the ATM, Reacher (Alan Ritchson) sees a coded message from Francis Neagley (Maria Sten) on his receipt. For one, there is more money in it than he should have. The news on the ticket is a numerical distress call and first-class airfare to New York. Neagley lets Reacher, a friend of theirs, know he has been murdered.
Calvin Franz is a member of Reacher’s dismantled Special Investigators unit. In a flashback, we see Reacher, Neagley, and Franz and meet the rest of the legendary team. The group’s ladies’ man is David O’Donnell (Shaun Sipos), the old-hat Tony Swan, Jorge Sanchez, Manuel Orozco, Tony Swan, and Karla Dixon (Serinda Swan).
The group initially doesn’t get along, but Reacher instigates a bar fight at an officer’s club, standing up for Neagley, who is only a Master’s Sergeant. This brings them together, and “You don’t mess with the special investigators” was born. They take a picture at a campfire party after the brawl. It’s the one picture everyone in the unit possesses, including Franz, at his office.
How was Franz killed in Reacher?
In the opening scene, we see Franz being dropped from a helicopter. The bird was sitting hundreds of feet in the air in the middle of winter. He hit the ground with a resounding thud and died instantly. Reacher deduces this from the police report. He astutely observes this was done to avoid ballistics if someone was killed with a gun—also, others’ wounds were from being tortured days prior.
They meet at a diner. Neagley called Dixon, O’Donnell, Sanchez, and Orozco but couldn’t get a hold of them. A drunk driver killed Lowery and added that no one has a number for Swan. They decide to investigate and not leave it to the police. When they leave the diner, an ominous-looking man watches them. He has a notepad with all the above names and the circle’s reacher.
When they arrive at Franz’s home, they meet his widow and young son, Mikey. She was told Franz went missing because he was probably on a case or partying with the wrong crowd. Then, in a heartbreaking scene, while coloring, Mikey says, “You do not mess with the special investigators.” Neagley tells the boy how Franz joined that unit. Reacher, for the first time, looks like he’s choked up. The widow gives them the keys to Franz’s office.
Reacher’s Season 2 Episode 1 Ending Explained: How Does Reacher Know Swan is Dead?
Reacher thinks Swan is dead because they found his dog had died of dehydration in his apartment. (They found the pet drank the toilet bowl water dry and died next to it.) Of course, no one would leave their dog to die, meaning Swan must be dead as well. Reacher and Neagley only found Swan’s apartment because of an old friend, O’Donnell.
After finding Franz’s mailbox, they figured he must have sent information there. Reacher broke into it and failed a package with a thumb drive. When they returned to the hotel, they found it ransacked and O’Donnell there, who came over as soon as he got Neagley’s message. Franz encrypted the drive and found that the password was “Reacher,” a man he respected more than anyone.
On the drive is a list of seven names, starting with “A” and ending with an “M.” Reacher thinks it a list of easy-to-remember aliases. The list includes Andrew McBride, Alan Mason, Alejandro Mendez, and Alexander Markopoulos. Also, Adrian Mount, Anthony Mathews, Alfred Mansfield, and Azhari Mahmoud.
Who is Andrew McBride?
Besides being on the list above, we know Andrew McBride is the man who was reading a comic when he booked a plane ticket. He also bought fake identification from two men with bearer bonds. McBride then killed them both. We can assume he is a paid assassin.
Some extra notes: Robert Patrick’s Langston communicates with a man named Saropian, trailing Reacher and Neagley. We don’t know who he is yet, but we can assume he may be the man who ordered Franz’s murder.
What did you think of Reacher Season 2 Episode 1? Comment below.
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