Diksha Sundriyal
The third season of Prime Video’s ‘Reacher’ ends with a banger of a finale where the protagonist comes face to face with his biggest enemy. In the previous episode, Reacher, Duffy, and the ATF tried to lay a trap for Quinn, but it turned out that he had done one over on them and sent them into an ambush. The moment Reacher realizes what has happened, he tries to control the situation and save people, but almost all ATF agents are killed by Quinn’s men. In return, Reacher, Duffy, and Villanueva kill almost all of Quinn’s men except one. They use him to get into the Beck residence by taking the trucks of Quinn’s merchandise back. But a huge problem waits for them at the door in the form of Paulie. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Reacher and Paulie Fight to the Death
One of the biggest hurdles in Reacher’s path this season has been Paulie. Generally, Reacher is considered a huge guy, but in front of Paulie, his physical power is dwarfed. Still, Reacher knows that what he lacks in stature and strength, he makes up for in wit. He gives Paulie a taste of this shortly after he is hired by Beck when he makes the big guy punch himself in the face. Still, the man’s brute strength has no match, and Reacher discovers it when he receives a tight slap that throws him off. The true clash of their powers happens in the final episode, where each tries to kill the other but seems to fail no matter how hard they try.
Following the revelation that the real deal is happening at the party in Beck’s house, Reacher and the team end up there, but when Paulie greets them at the door, even Neagley questions how they will get away with it. Reacher tells the others to get inside the house, begin with the rescue of Richard and Teresa, and leave Paulie to him. He starts by jumping on an element of surprise to choke Paulie from behind, but the man is too strong to be killed this way. This leads to a brutal fight between the two, which takes them through all sorts of places in the house.
At first, Reacher takes a lot of blows, all of whom seem to chip away at him. They end up at the barn, where they throw stuff at each other and try to hit each other with anything that comes into their hands. In the end, the ceiling falls down and pins both of them under it. Paulie is the first one to come out of it, and he uses this opportunity to hang Reacher by a chain, leaving him to choke. But the man does not give up and manages to free himself. Then their fight leads them to the cliff, from which they fall into the murky waters that Harley used as a dumping ground for bodies because once a thing fell into it, it could never come back.
When both Paulie and Reacher fall into it, they try not just to save themselves but also drown the other one. Once again, Paulie seems to have Reacher in a chokehold, but the latter punches him in the throat, and for a moment, it looks like Paulie has drowned. Reacher comes out of the water and makes his way back to the house, only to find Paulie coming after him. Eventually, they are back at the gate, where they’d started, and the big machine gun is what they both target. Again, Paulie’s brute force seems to work in his favor, but Reacher is quick on his feet, and he uses the gun in such a way that when Paulie fires it at him, he himself takes the shot, proving that brain wins over brawn.
Reacher Gets His Revenge on Quinn
Reacher’s journey in this season starts with him crossing paths with an old enemy he thought he had killed long ago. His desire for revenge leads him into what would perhaps be the most life-threatening situation of his life, where he himself accepts the possibility of not coming out of it alive. By the end, however, he gets his revenge on Quinn, though it takes a lot of bruises to get there. Following the discovery that Quinn’s deal is going to happen at Beck’s house, Reacher, Duffy, Neagley, and Villanueva make their way to the location. Despite their efforts to keep it as lowkey as possible, Quinn catches up to the chaos and tries to get away with the money that he owes the Russians.
With Reacher in tow, he barely makes it out of the house when the Russians show up. By this time, he has already lost the bag of money, which means he cannot pay them. So, they decide to take him instead and show him what happens when someone doesn’t hold up their end of the deal. However, Reacher is adamant about having Quinn for himself and is ready to fight them alone if that’s what it takes. When the Russians point out that he is outnumbered, Villanueva, Duffy, and Neagley show up to support him. Neagley tries to deal with the Russians by giving them their money in return for Quinn. When they threaten to take both, she pulls off the pin of a grenade, threatening to blow up everyone.
Seeing no value in losing their lives for Quinn’s, the Russians take their money and leave, which is when Neagley reveals that the bomb was defused and she had bluffed the whole thing. Then Villanueva, Duffy, and Neagley walk away to let Reacher have his revenge. Quinn is still confused about why Reacher wants to kill him, and he tries to find a common ground where they can make a deal. It is only when Reacher talks about Dominique that Quinn remembers everything, right from torturing her to death to trying to escape and being shot in the head by Reacher. With a look of shock and fear on his face, Reacher is happy to discover that his enemy finally remembers who he is. Only then does he shoot Quinn in the head, and this time, there is no river or small bullet to give him a chance for survival. This time, he goes down for good.
What Happens to Richard? Where Does He Go?
Richard Beck’s life had already been hellish before Reacher walked into town. His father had landed himself in a trap of some very bad people, and the bullies at his school didn’t help the cause. While his father loved him, Richard still felt that Zachary didn’t show him enough love and was always more involved with his business, whatever that was. Then Reacher tells him all the bad things that his father has been involved in and where the whole thing is going now that Quinn is involved.
The final battle at his house completely throws up Richard’s life and whatever semblance of stability he has enjoyed so far. The only comfort he seeks is in the fact that his father finally shows up for him. In trying to save him from Quinn, Zachary takes the bullets on himself. Richard wishes that he had seen this side of his father more when he was still alive, but now that he is dead and all the other bad guys around him are also killed or arrested, there is nothing much left for him to ponder upon. Reacher gives him the only sane option that is left for him so far.
Earlier, Richard had expressed his desire to get in a car and drive away as far as possible from all the mess that he was caught up in. He didn’t like his life there, and Reacher sympathized with him for it. So, when things finally settle down, Reacher tells him to get in a car and drive away as far as possible. He warns him that the authorities will seize his father’s assets and all his accounts will be frozen. The only thing that Richard can salvage is the cash that Zachary has hidden inside the house. He advises Richard to take as much of that cash as possible and never look back. This is his only chance to start a new life somewhere, and despite the tragic circumstances, he must seize this opportunity. In the end, Richard does exactly that, and as he drives away, so does Reacher after borrowing the bike from Beck’s garage.
Does Duffy Leave the DEA?
When Duffy sent her CI into the Beck residence, she did it with the hopes of getting her hands on the big fish that could elevate her career. But when her CI went missing, the priorities changed completely, which led her to make even more controversial decisions. One of those decisions was to keep working the case on her own. More importantly, when she found out that the ATF had a CI in there who was killed, she did not pass on the info to them per protocol. When she finally went to the ATF, she was told that while they would help her take down the bad guys, they would report her actions to her superiors.
In the end, with Teresa safe, Duffy is ready to move on from the DEA. It is this confirmation of leaving the agency that allows her to turn a blind eye and let Reacher have his revenge on Quinn. Under different circumstances, she might have wanted to stop Reacher and arrest Quinn so the agency could question him and find out more about his operation. But now that she knows that there is no point to it, and also considering how much Reacher has helped her, especially by putting his strong desire for revenge on hold to save Teresa, it is only fair for her to return the favor and give him a chance to kill Quinn for good this time.
The next morning, when the cavalry arrives to find the whole place in disarray and all the bad guys dead and gone, Duffy reveals that she will not wait around to be fired. She tells Reacher that she has decided to quit and will be taking some time off to focus on herself. He offers to hook her up with a private detective or security agency if she’d be interested in that, but she makes it clear that she does not want to be involved in anything for a while. She also tells him that the blame for Quinn’s death has been put on the Russians, to whom he owed money. So, Reacher is also completely clear and does not have to worry about the Feds coming after him.
The goodbye between the duo is sealed by a kiss after Duffy confesses that she is not the kind of person to get held up by a person. She does not care for the usual rigmarole of relationships and does not want Reacher to harbor any such feelings himself. He is lost for words because it seems that she has stolen the words out of his mouth. This ends their conversation and any prospect of them ending up together as both of them have decided to embark on their own separate journeys, and happily so.
What Happens to Teresa?
The most important thing for Duffy was to find Teresa. She’d sent the girl to work as a CI under false pretenses. So, when she went missing, Duffy decided to get her back at all costs. She didn’t care about the bad guys and what happened to them. Her first priority was to get Teresa back and then see what to do next with Beck and Quinn or any other villain that crosses her path. Her mission to find Teresa succeeds when she arrives at Beck’s house. While Reacher goes to fight Paulie and Villanueva goes to find Richard, Duffy scours the house to find the room where Teresa has been kept. Zachary Beck confirmed that she was in the house because Quinn meant to give her as a gift to appease his client, who has a thing for redheads. But the problem is that she is too drugged up and might need some help.
When Duffy finds Teresa, she is happy to see her alive, but as Beck mentioned, the problem of getting her out of the house is pretty big. Then Quinn’s client arrives, and Duffy sees her window. She points a gun at him, and when he starts to threaten her, she decides to shoot him in his nether regions right after she hears Reacher starting to shoot his way around the place. Duffy is quick to kill the client and his bodyguard and escorts Teresa out of the house so she is not in harm’s way. Later, she takes the girl home and is happy to see her reunited with her grandma. This is what she had wanted all along. Now that she has fulfilled her promise and Teresa is back home safe and sound, Duffy can rest easy and move on.
Read More: Reacher Season 3: Is It a True Story? Are Zachary and Richard Beck Based on Real People?
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