Reacher Season 2 Confirms One Book That Won't Get Adapted For The Show
This post contains spoilers for season 2 of "Reacher."
Jack Reacher is back — it even says so on the hilarious season 2 poster – with a new mystery to solve in "Reacher" season 2. And by his calculations, it's been two years, seven months, and 19 days since we last saw him. Season 1 of the popular Prime Video show ended with the military special investigator turned hobo by choice (Alan Ritchson) leaving Margrave, Georgia, where he had just gotten to the bottom of a string of murders that left his brother dead. This time around, Reacher's reuniting with his old squad to figure out who's tossing their colleagues out of planes.
In terms of the source material, season 1 of "Reacher" adapted the first Jack Reacher novel, Lee Child's "Killing Floor," while season 2 zooms ahead to the eleventh book in the series, "Bad Luck and Trouble." Given Reacher's drifter lifestyle and knack for ending up in the middle of bloody situations, it seems possible that future seasons of the show could explore any number of Reacher books from Child's considerable, long-running collection. Yet a quick aside in the second episode of the new season hints that there's one Reacher book that probably won't be getting the TV treatment anytime soon: "One Shot."
Here's what you need to know about One Shot
"One Shot" is the ninth Jack Reacher book out of a whopping 28 installments and counting. The novel kicks off with a shooting in Indiana, one that leads to the arrest of former military sniper James Barr. Only, as is often the case with the scenarios Reacher ends up in, Barr didn't actually do it. He calls Reacher, who has his own history with the man but eventually ends up convinced he's innocent of the crime he's being held for.
If this plot sounds familiar, it's probably because it was used in the 2012 movie that saw Tom Cruise try to step into Reacher's massive shoes. In that film, "Power" actor Joseph Sikora plays Barr, who previously gunned down violent military contractors in Iraq, making Reacher initially confident that he did this shooting as well. Meanwhile, the real culprit for the crime was a Russian mafia man named The Zec (Werner Herzog), because why not? Ultimately, Reacher gets Barr off the hook.
'He owes me now'
Given that "One Shot" has already been adapted for the big screen, it would make sense for "Reacher" to steer clear of rehashing that plot, but the show basically confirmed as much in a quick aside from the titular character himself. In the second episode of season 2, with Reacher's team freshly reunited, David O'Donnell (Shaun Sipos) asks if Barr could be the suspect behind their friend's killing. "What about James Barr?" he asks. "I mean, that guy's got the skills and a screw loose." In response, Reacher says that Barr doesn't seem the type — plus, Reacher helped him out of a mess the year before in Indiana. "He owes me now," Reacher says knowingly, implying that the entire plot of "One Shot" happened offscreen between seasons.
As usual, Reacher's saying everything he needs to say here in just a few words. In this case, it's a message to the audience, particularly Child's fans: yes, the plot of "One Shot" happened in this version of the "Reacher" universe, but it's just another part of the hero's mythology that he'll only bring up when it's relevant. It also lets audiences know we shouldn't expect the show to cover this already familiar story, although it's safe to say that other "Reacher" books could still be adapted out of order. This is a good call: the Cruise movie has already been there and done that, plus a mass shooting plotline would be tough to sync up with this show's dry comedic tone. Sorry Jack Reacher fans, future seasons now only have 25 different novels to choose from.
The first three episodes of "Reacher" season 2 are now available to stream on Prime Video, with new episodes premiering every Friday.