Does James Reece Die in The Terminal List? [Spoiler]

James Reece (Chris Pratt) is the main protagonist of Amazon Prime Video’s military action thriller series ‘The Terminal List.’ Reece is the leader of a Navy SEAL platoon. After a mission in Aleppo, Syria, takes a disastrous turn, most of Reece’s men perish. Only Reece himself and Ernest “Boozer” Vickers survive, but the latter apparently commits suicide not long after returning to the US. Reece begins experiencing headaches, hallucinations, and memory issues. Believing that the concussion Reece suffered during the mission is the reason, Reece’s wife, Lauren, convinces her husband to go see a doctor. However, that evening, masked assassins come and kill Lauren and Reece’s daughter Lucy with Reece’s gun. They then try to kill Reece, but he survives, killing one of the assassins instead. With nothing left to lose, Reece embarks on a brutal path of vengeance, killing everyone who has anything to do with the deaths of his family and comrades. If you are wondering whether James Reece dies in ‘The Terminal List,’ we got you covered. SPOILERS AHEAD.

What Happens to James Reece?

No, James Reece doesn’t die in the first season of ‘The Terminal List.’ Initially, even Reece isn’t completely sure whether he is paranoid or he has found himself in the middle of a massive conspiracy. A part of him also fears that he is the one who killed his wife and daughter and that the assassins were part of an elaborate hallucination that his brain made up. However, when he learns that NCIS agent Josh Holder, the man he initially suspected of killing his family, is on the payroll of Saul Agnon, the Vice President of Asset Management at Capstone Industries. Reece thinks his family was killed by people working for Chemical Kahani, the Iranian chemical weapons expert he and his team were hunting in Aleppo. But Kahani is killed by US operatives, and Reece later realizes that the threat he faces is something domestic.

Journalist Katie Buranek (Constance Wu) shows Reece his medical report, which states that he has a brain tumor. Its symptoms include headaches, memory issues, and paranoia — the very things that Reece has experienced since returning from Syria. However, she soon becomes convinced that Reece was right all along after an assassin shoots at them in broad daylight.

Reece uses the back of one of Lucy’s sketches to list down the names of the people responsible for the deaths of his family and comrades. He and Katie learn about RD 4895, a drug that a subsidiary of Capstone developed. The drug was meant to prevent PTSD and was given to Reece and his men without their permission, but it caused the tumors to develop. When several members of Naval Command realized this, they sent Reece’s team on the doomed mission. Unfortunately for them, Reece survived.

Reece kills Horn before going after Commander Bill Cox, JAG Captain Howard, and Admiral Gerald Pillar for the roles they played in the deaths of his comrades. He then sets his eyes on Secretary of Defense Lorraine Hartley. Unlike others, she didn’t receive any money from Horn. Hartley genuinely wanted to find a cure for PTSD because of what happened to her father, and it didn’t matter to her how much unethical her actions became.

After Hartley kills herself, Reece realizes that Ben Edwards, his best friend, was the CIA operative who intentionally supplied the false information. After killing Ben, Reece drops the list into the ocean, implying his revenge is complete. He subsequently decides to travel to Mozambique, which perfectly sets up season 2. ‘The Terminal List’ is based on the 2018 book of the same name by Jack Carr. In Carr’s book, it is revealed toward the end that the tumor that Reece has is benign. Although the series doesn’t show this in the first season, we might get a similar scene in the prospective season 2.

Read More: Why Does James Reece Kill Ben Edwards in The Terminal List?