Neagley Delivers The Cameo Everyone Was Hoping For In Its Premiere

This article contains spoilers for "Neagley" Episode 1.

Now that Alan Ritchson's hero has faced his biggest threat yet in "Reacher" Season 4, it's time for Maria Sten's Frances Neagley to graduate from sidekick to standalone hero. "Reacher" Season 3 demonstrated that a Neagley spin-off could work, and now we have just that in "Neagley." The show finds Reacher's former military police colleague working as a private investigator in her native Chicago. Based on what we've seen from previous "Reacher" episodes, she's definitely up to the task of leading her own show. But Prime Video was always going to use Alan Ritchson's Jack Reacher to help get "Neagley" off the ground. The writers haven't wasted any time in that respect, as Ritchson's hero shows up within the first five minutes of the series premiere.

After appearing in every season of "Reacher" so far, Sten was absent from Season 4, presumably due to the fact she was filming her spin-off. With Season 4 now having come to a close, it's been a little while since we've seen these two ex-military police officers handing out tandem beatdowns. Thankfully, the "Neagely" premiere remedies that immediately.

Not that Ritchson's involvement was some big secret. Ahead of the show's debut, fans spotted Ritchson and Sten filming scenes together and Entertainment Weekly officially broke the news of Ritchson's cameo a week before the "Neagley" premiere. But that doesn't mean it's not a thrill to see the man himself show up to lend his former Army colleague a hand — which he does in appropriately spectacular fashion.

Over three seasons of "Reacher," Frances Neagley proved she's every bit as formidable as Jack Reacher. Season 3, especially, demonstrated her skills as a lone badass in scenes that were clearly designed to set up her spin-off series. Now that Alan Ritchson has played the hits with another solid "Reacher" season, Neagley's solo outing is here. While Reacher himself isn't a necessary part of the equation, he does help get the new show off to a thrilling start by doing what he does best: taking down faceless goons in a needlessly over-the-top but hugely entertaining way.

The "Neagley" premiere opens with the title character running through an almost deserted downtown Chicago. A voice on her cellphone directs her through the streets, ensuring she's as far away from a parking garage as possible. When she's finally at a good distance, the unnamed villains retrieve a bag of money from her car before attempting a swift exit from the parking structure.

When they get to the exit and hand their ticket to the booth attendant, we see that it's our old pal Jack Reacher. He calmly takes the ticket and raises the exit gate. Just as the villains think they're about to make a clean getaway, however, Reacher leaves the booth and attaches a large chain to the rear of their car. It's not entirely clear why he needs to do that. There are clearly less ostentatious ways of taking these guys out. But this is Jack Reacher, and if he's not ripping the entire rear axle clean off a car, then what are we even doing here? "Neagley" might be a new show, but this is the same Reacher we know and love.

After Jack Reacher hitches a chain to the back of the bad guys' car, they attempt to speed off — only for the rear axle to go flying. Reacher and Frances Neagely then make short work of their dazed victims and rescue a little girl from the trunk of a nearby car. It's not entirely clear what's going on here, but who cares? "Reacher" fans will be here for the action and "Neagley" wants to prove it can deliver.

Having saved the day, Neagley and Reacher attend a Chicago Cubs game, where they chat about where they might end up once the whole "ripping cars apart and beating guys senseless" stuff is behind them. Clearly Neagley is thinking about quieter existence, but she's a long way from that now, as evidenced by the rest of the premiere in which she's pulled into solving the suspicious death of her high school friend. We don't see Reacher after this, but he may pop up again to lend a hand as Neagley has done so many times for him.

Not that he needs to. "Neagley" is an intriguing "Reacher" offshoot because it allows showrunner Nick Santora (who's also responsible for "Reacher") to focus on a character with a personal life who mostly stays put. That's a completely different character than Alan Ritchson's wandering loner, and it'll be interesting to see how the writers approach the rest of "Neagley" Season 1. That said, nobody's going to complain if Reacher does reappear. "Reacher" Season 3 broke a Prime Video viewership record, and there's no doubt most of the audience for "Neagley" will be coming from the mothership series. Neagley might not need Reacher, but having him crop up now and then wouldn't be a bad idea.