Awesome / Reacher

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Season 1

1.1 Welcome to Margrave

• Before walking into a diner, Reacher happens upon a man verbally abusing his girlfriend. Reacher gives an intimidating stare, and the guy goes from being pissed off to being cowed into apologizing in less than a minute. The first awesome moment Reacher has and he doesn't even need to say a word or lay a finger on someone.
• Reacher's Sherlock Scan on Finlay, effectively establishing him as a Genius Bruiser.
• Reacher snapping the zip ties the police put him in.
• An inmate walks into Reacher and Hubble's cell with the intent of raping and humiliating Hubble. Reacher gives the inmate to the count of 3 to get out and then viciously kicks the inmate's ass on the 2 count. He then makes a member of the man's posse hand over his glasses in exchange for the ones belonging to Hubble that the leader broke.
• Reacher beating down the goons in the shower.

1.2 First Dance

• Four drunks show up at Reacher's motel room to beat him up and make him leave town. He warns them that this isn't the day to get on his bad side. When they don't listen, he breaks the hands of three of them and then makes the fourth one drive them to the hospital.
  • And the time it takes to go from "four drunks harassing Reacher" to "three guys with broken wrists, fourth one backing off" after the first punch is thrown? Literally eight seconds.

1.3 Spoonful

• Reacher and Finlay's new lead takes them to KJ Kliner who tries to intimidate Finlay into backing off. Finlay plainly lets Kliner know that he is not so easily cowed.
  Finlay: Horatio Finlay.
  Kliner: Excuse me?
  Finlay: My father's name. Horatio Finlay. You might think you're everybody's daddy in this town, but you're not mine. You don't tell me what leads to chase and how to chase them. So if I may give you some friendly advice: if you keep talking to the cops on my force, hinder this investigation in any way, I will put my fucking foot up your fucking ass until your heart fucking stops.
  • Although Reacher mocks Finlay for going against his personal philosophy of never cursing, he still respects Finlay for refusing to be bullied by Kliner.

1.5 No Apologies

• For the third time in the series, Reacher is nice to a dog that is being abused by its owner. Having had enough of the man mistreating the animal, Reacher punches him out, wraps him in the very chain he used to restrain the dog and then drops it off at an animal shelter.

1.6 Papier

• Roscoe shows tactical thinking worthy of Reacher to protect Charlie and the girls from the two hitmen sent after them. First she draws them away from Hubble using her own gun fire and succeeds in shooting one of them in the leg. But the best moment is how she takes out the second one: when his head is out of her line of sight, Roscoe shoots the tree next to him, causing him to drop the detonator he was going to use on her, killing him.
• Reacher kills the assassin sent after him using his tie. For his part, the assassin puts up a decent fight and even uses an effective headbutt against Reacher.

1.7 Reacher Said Nothing

• Reacher takes out Dawson's team with brutal efficiency:
  • First, he goes after the driver, the most vulnerable member of the group.
  • Reacher then flashes the car's lights which draws attention from another assassin who goes outside to see what the commotion is about. He barely has time to comprehend the now dead driver before Reacher snaps his neck.
  • Reacher eliminates the third man by sneaking up on him and fatally stabbing him with a knife, an impressive feat for someone of Reacher's size.
  • The fourth man follows a trail of wet footprints leading to a closet. He opens it to only find Reacher's boots and is ambushed by him.
• In a case of Villainous Valor, Dawson gives Reacher probably the closest one-on-one fight that anyone manages in the whole season, using Combat Pragmatism, a crowbar and sheer anger to counter his disadvantage in strength and reach. He still loses, but goes down fighting.

Season 2

2.1 ATM

• Reacher goes to an ATM to withdraw some money and finds a woman already there. By observing her bruises and shaky voice, he instantly deduces that she is being forced to withdraw some money by a gunman in her car with her son. Reacher casually walks up to the car, disarms and beats the man, tells the woman to call the police and leaves without so much as telling her his name.
• Neagley predicts when Reacher will arrive at the café almost to the minute by tracking his flight and calculating traffic speeds. His coffee was only poured 90 seconds ago and his food has been sitting for a mere three minutes.
• When Reacher and O'Donnell mistakenly attack each other in a hotel room, O'Donnell manages to cover Reacher with his knife with one hand while Reacher blocks the other hand before they recognize each other.
• A flashback shows the 110th Special Investigations Unit being harassed y the 91st at an officer's bar for bringing their Master Sergeant, Neagley, in with them. The guy continues to press his luck despite Reacher giving him an opportunity to just walk away and let them drink in peace, even going as far speaking condescendingly to Neagley.
  Soldier: We got twelve, you got nine.
  Reacher: Well that's a shame. You're at least three short.
  • As it turns out, Reacher knew this fight would happen. His real plan was getting the 110th to work together in a situation that required them to defend the honor of one of their own.
• It's mentioned that Franz earned Reacher's respect by deescalating an argument between two large soldiers over a care package. Considering how often Reacher solves his problems with violence, it's quite impressive that Reacher considers a man who uses diplomacy worthy of respect.

2.2 What Happens in Atlantic City

• Reacher swings a cinder block into an opponent's head hard enough to break it on impact.
• Reacher incapacitates a man watching him from a car by kicking the car hard enough to trigger the airbags.

2.3 Picture Says a Thousand Words

• Despite being brutally tortured by the villains, even having his legs broken by a crowbar, Franz refuses to talk. The last thing he says before he dies is taunting the villains about their impending doom once Reacher comes for them.
• The two Made of Iron Mooks who fight Dixon and O'Donnell put up a better fight than some of the Venezuelan Elite Mooks from the last season. One nearly smothers O'Donnell with a shower curtain, and when O'Donnell stabs him in the leg, he pulls O'Donnell's knife out of his leg and nearly kills him with it. Dixon's opponent is also able to move around pretty agilely and knock Dixon off her feet even after being shot through the foot himself and having been shot double-tapped in the chest on two separate occasions in the last couple of minutes. Granted, he's wearing body armor, but the impact from a single bullet (let alone several) would still leave most people wearing a bulletproof vest in too much pain to fight for several seconds or minutes.
• Reacher manages to catch up to an escape vehicle on foot using short cuts in the area and a barbecue grill.
• Reacher, Neagley, Dixon, and O'Donnell don masks and drive a car backward to smash through the door of an office building, grab all kinds of potential evidence and an accelerant to burn their masks, and are out in two minutes.

2.4 A Night At The Symphony

• Oscar Finlay's return to help Reacher and O'Donnell trick Daniel Boyd into telling them about Project "Little Wing".
• Reacher, Neagley, O'Donnell and Dixon vs a gang of bikers sent to kill them by Langston. The bikers make Reacher's team hand over their guns and refrain from using guns themselves so as not to make any noise that will attract attention. The latter choice proves to be a mistake as the protagonists show the bikers just how deadly they are in close quarters combat.
  • One of the bikers charges at Reacher on his bike with a chain. Reacher simply grabs the chain and yanks the biker off his bike.
  • Another biker attacks Reacher with a steel pipe. Reacher wrestles the guy to the ground and uses said pipe to break his leg.
  • Dixon uses one of her heels to stab an opponent in the eye.
  Dixon: (On being asked if she's ok after the fight) It'll heal.
  • After the fight is done and their opponents are dead or unconscious, Reacher takes the leader's phone and calls Langston to let him know his latest attempt on his life has failed. Langston tries another approach which also fails.
  Langston: Okay Reacher, let's make a deal. What is it that you want?
  Reacher: I want to throw you out of a helicopter.

2.6 New York's Finest

• Reacher pulls a Mook Horror Show on Langston's bodyguards, eliminating them one by one using stealth tactics. Reacher then does some uncharacteristic gloating before the terrified Langston escapes due to a villainous Gunship Rescue.
  Reacher: It's just you and me now, Langston. This place is surrounded by a barbed-wire fence, there's only one exit and you got to get past me to reach it. You killed the wrong guy's friends, asshоlе.
• Russo makes his final stand to protect Jane Burns from Langston's hitmen, killing two of them and taking a bullet for the girl. The third hitman is run over by Neagley.

2.7 The Man Goes Through

• The flashback sequence where the Special Investigators break up Operation Kite Runner has highlights like O'Donnell crawling under a car to slash a mook's foot and then shooting him in the head him when he drops, Dixon shooting a man in mid-motion while diving for cover, Sanchez slamming a car door on a guy's head, and Reacher stopping the Smug Snake ringleader's escape by knocking over a chainlink fence he is trying to escape over.
  Drug dealer: You broke my fucking leg.
  Reacher I broke the fence. The fall broke your leg.
• Neagley and one of Langston's assassins fight using a crutch and bonesaw, respectively. Neagley holds off the assassin just long enough for Reacher to arrive and finish him off.

2.8 Fly Boy

• Reacher beats up Langston's men while handcuffed. If not for Langston being armed and Reacher having no weapons, there is no doubt he would have finished the man right there and then.
• Reacher having no reaction to Langston's punches as the man tortures him for information on Neagley's whereabouts. All Langston gets for his effort is bruised knuckles.
• Neagley lures a guard out by playing a song some kids in the previous episode were playing while trespassing near the facility. The guard thinks the kids have returned and steps out to deal with them, only to get shot by Neagley.
• The arrival of Senator Lavoy's security team and their subsequent annihilation of Langston's men. They arrive by parachute and gun down Mooks faster than Reacher and his team did in the drug bust flashback from the last episode.
• The fight in the helicopter is filled with these:
  • Despite being strapped down, O'Donnell manages to knock Langston and keep him from shooting Reacher.
  • Reacher manages to hold onto the gurney Dixon is strapped to just long enough for her to get loose and fatally stab Lennox with the knife he stabbed into Reacher's arm. Even better, Reacher keeps hanging onto the gurney with just one hand for over a minute, getting him a bit of Villain Respect.
  • A terrified Langston tries to bargain for his life by offering to tell Reacher where he was going to make his sale of the weapons. Reacher's response:
  “You assume that’s the information I need, Langston. But in an investigation, assumptions kill.”
  • And then Reacher makes good on his threat from episode four to throw Langston out of a helicopter.
• A.M. shows up at the buy location (the pilot knew where to go) thinking that he can talk his way out of trouble despite his driver being shot dead in front of him. Nope. He gets his pretentious Nothing Personal speech interrupted with a single gunshot wound from Reacher, followed by he and the rest of the team emptying their weapons into A.M. after giving him a few seconds to gape in shock.
  • Followed up by the helicopter pilot and New Age engineer being allowed to leave after giving lame excuses—basically variations of Just Following Orders, the former claiming he just did his job and the other didn't realize he was dealing with terrorists—for being accessories to conspiracy, terrorism, espionage, treason, kidnapping, and murder. Then having their helicopter shot down by the very technology that their boss was going to sell to the middleman they were going to meet.
  • And Reacher anticipating that Senator Lavoy would have his team turn on them after the dust settles. Cue Reacher telling them he already knew this would happen and cue his contact in DHS showing up with S.W.A.T., placing them and Lavoy—whom Reacher taunts over the phone—under arrest.
  • Reacher, Dixon, and O'Donnell are all heavily bruised from these confrontations but laid back about it, while Neagley seems untouched.
  • Finally, Reacher keeping the $65-million from A.M. and giving it to various people who lost loved ones or who got hurt, setting up round-the-clock care for Neagle's father, a fund for Milena, funds for their widows, an education fund for Russo's and O'Donnell's children, a substantial donation to an animal shelter in memory of Swan and his dog, and an LLC for Dixon to setup any business venture she wants. Reacher ends up keeping under $2000 to buy a 1-year Trailways bus pass, with Dixon buying him a toothbrush.

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