It’s a new year, and that means a new season ofReacher. Each season ofReacheradapts one of the novels inLee Childs' book series, with each entry introducing fresh locations, innovative characters, and another mystery for Jack Reacher (Alan Ritchson) to solve. With the latest season, it appears that the writers have set the character Sarah Duffy (Sonya Cassidy) as Reacher’s new love interest in Season 3. Now that the series is established asa global streaming smash-hitfor Prime Video, it’s time to look at its convention of revolving-door love interests — whichReachercould benefit from toning down for a change.
Reacher’s Love Life Is Becoming Repetitive
To be clear, it’s not that we dislike Reacher engaging in romantic relationships. However, each season, the series utilizes a noticeable pattern regardingits romantic subplots. So far, every season shows Reacher forming a makeshift ragtag team over the season-long storyline.One of the team members is inevitably a female character who is unabashedly attracted to Reacherand will inevitably jump into bed with him once or multiple times before the season ends. In Season 1, it was the Margrave sheriff’s deputy, Roscoe Conklin (Willa Fitzgerald), while Season 2 featured one of Reacher’s former colleagues in the 110th Military Police Special Investigations Unit, Karla Dixon (Serinda Swan). Reacher’s designated love interest in Season 3 clearly looks to be Drug Enforcement Agency Special Agent Sarah Duffy.
Jack Reacher is not the settling-down type, and he has made that clear in the previous two seasons. As a drifter,Reacher loves his vagabond lifestyle more than any woman. When Dixon asks Reacher to meet her parents in the Season 2 finale, “Fly Boy,” the idea makes Reacher look like he’s about to suffer a heart attack. And just because Reacher is romantically available does not mean he needs to get romantically involved with every female partner. It would be nice to seethe already confirmed fourth season ofReachershake up the format in the romance department.
‘Reacher’ Spin-Off Casts ‘The Night Agent’ and ‘Mayor of Kingstown’ Alums
The five new additions join ‘Reacher’ alum Maria Sten in ‘Neagley.’
‘Reacher’ Season 4 Should Consider Bringing Back a Previous Love Interest
Reachercould potentially shake up its existing format with the appearance of a previous love interestin the upcoming fourth season. What if Conklin could show up again in Season 4? In the Season 1 finale, “Pie,” although Conklin did want Reacher to remain in Margrave, Reacher did tell Conklin, “If there was anyone who could make me stay close to the flame, it would be you.” That is likely as close as he’ll ever get to confessing his love to a woman other than his mother, but it’s still a very powerful statement from a loner such as Jack Reacher. We’re not campaigning that Reacher needs to settle down and marry Roscoe, but wouldn’t it be interesting to see Roscoe’s progress since she last saw Reacher?
Meanwhile, Frances Neagley (Maria Sten) did suggest reaching out to Conklin for help in Season 2, but Reacher quickly shot that idea down. Fans of the book series who might not like the idea of changing the story with the re-emergence of a previous love interest should note that theReachertelevision series has made many changes from Child’s books to serve its format. Case in point, Neagley appears in stories for the television series, where she did not play a role inthe original book version, to help establish a supporting cast for the show. Season 3 of the series is adapted from the bookPersuader, where Neagley doesn’t make an appearance in its literary format, but she returns to help out her old boss. Oscar Finlay (Malcolm Goodwin), from Season 1, does not materialize in the bookBad Luck and Trouble, but he makesa guest appearance in Season 2.
The point is that the TV show frequently makes changes and alterations from the books, which meansthere is wiggle room for previous characters, including love interests, to appear in a recurring capacity.Reacherhas room to experiment with its supporting cast, and characters can appear again in unexpected places, even if scenes are not completely faithful toChild’s source material. Even if Conklin does not show up again, there are plenty of reasons why Dixon could return. At the end of Season 2, Dixon sought to start up her own business, and Reacher helped grant her the seed money. Dixon is a brilliant forensic accountant and investigator, so those would be credible reasons for Reacher to meet up with her again.Reacher’s writers have already diverged from the novels since the show doesn’t followthe same chronological order, and they have previously made significant character alterations. The series has room for change to utilize a recurring love interest, and Conklin or Dixon’s returns could work similarly to that of Detective Finlay in Season 2, in which Reacher needs help or a favor from an old friend and calls for one of them to step up to help.
The ‘Jack Reacher’ Movies With Tom Cruise Toned Down Their Romantic Angles
Image via Prime Video
Interestingly, although Reacher did have romantic chemistry with his female partners inthe two theatrical moviesstarringTom Cruise,Jack Reacherin 2012, andJack Reacher: Never Go Backin 2016. However, despite the chemistry shared between defense attorney Helen Rodin (Rosamund Pike) in the first movie and Major Susan Turner (Cobie Smulders) in the second, the pairings never displayed any significant romance onscreen. The next season ofReachershould find some balance bytrying something different from the familiar pattern of the first three. It will be interesting to see the angleReachertakes for Season 4, and it’s not necessary for the writers to make the lead character intoAmerica’s equivalent of James Bond.
New episodes ofReacherSeason 3 debut on Thursday on Prime Video, with episodes dropping weekly until the Season 3 finale on Thursday, March 27. The first two seasons ofReacherare also available to stream in full on Prime Video in the U.S.
