Reacher's New Episode Has A 'Blink And You'll Miss It' Nod To A Past Season

2 hours ago 10

Reacher with a bloodied face, looking at something ahead of him

Published Aug 28, 2026, 8:00 PM EDT

Faith Roswell is a Senior Writer on Screen Rant's Classic TV team. Since earning her degree in Creative Writing over a decade ago, Faith has written articles on film and TV from a variety of different angles. Faith now combines her knowledge of psychology with her love of monster movies to give more insight into what makes the best ones.

You may have read her Screen Rant lists and features covering horror, sci-fi, and fantasy, or read her Amazon Top 10 book, "Movie Monsters of the Deep."

Faith has had an extensive career as a writer, appearing on BBC live radio, researching true crime for Rotten Mango podcast, and writing for publications including Mental Floss, Atlas Obscura, and The Daily Jaws before beginning here at Screen Rant.

The Jack Reacher in Lee Child's Reacher novel series might be a man of few words, but his TV counterpart is usually quick with a one-liner, and one of his best just referenced a past season. Callbacks like this do not often happen in Reacher, making these fan-service moments even better. One of the factors that has made Reacher into Prime Video's best action TV series is the fact that the seasons can be watched in any order, but this short moment has revealed an exciting trend that Reacher should continue.

Reacher regularly finds himself in a police cell, with most seasons demonstrating that he is more than capable of getting himself out. This time, he is facing CIA Agent Foster, who makes it clear that he intends to kill him and make it look like a suicide. Reacher pulls his head through the bars by his necktie, with enough force to rip off Foster's ear, then quips, "you'll be fine. I knew a kid in Maine who was missing one. He turned out okay." This is a reference to season 3's Richard Beck, one of Reacher's best supporting characters.

Reacher and Richard were not immediate allies, with Reacher using the young man as a way to infiltrate his father, Zachary Beck's business empire. However, despite wildly different backgrounds and differences of opinion when it came to ice cream flavors, Reacher grew to respect the gentle and artistic Richard, who had his ear cut off by Quinn. Still, each season of Reacher shows the titular character moving on, and it was debatable if he even remembered Richard. The fact that he does is an interesting development for the series.

Reacher Referencing Past Seasons Is A Rare Event For Prime Video's Series

By nature, Reacher is a man who does not display sentimentality and who looks ahead rather than behind. Moving on with only the clothes on his back and a toothbrush as his only long-running attachment, the TV show makes this clear both explicitly and implied through his actions. Even so, these traits have been softened for the screen. TV's Jack Reacher is different from the book version, and this is revealed through these rare callbacks to previous seasons and characters.

While Reacher has a best friend in the form of Frances Neagley, she is an exception to his usual rule in which he leaves everyone behind. That said, not only did season 2 bring back the fan favorite Oscar Finlay, but Reacher gave him the highest possible praise. When asked about Finlay, Reacher replied that if he had been in the Army, he would have asked him to join the 110th Special Investigators. The show has occasionally been criticized for its "macho" approach and lead character's lack of complexity, and these moments counteract this criticism.

Reacher describing Richard Beck as turning out "okay" is greater praise than it might seem in this context, given the fact that Richard appeared so defenseless, with qualities that the series is not generally thought to prize. When defeating Foster, Reacher not only remembered Richard at that moment but praised him, and this could have implications for later episodes. Of all the characters in Reacher season 4, Jacob is gentle and out of his depth. The Reacher of earlier seasons might have underestimated him, but it is possible, even likely, that he will now recognize Jacob as an asset.

Reacher Season 4 Might Just Be The Most Brutal Yet

Reacher is hardly a peaceful TV series, but season 4 is the show's most brutal yet, and the action is only escalating, with one Reacher scene beating John Wick in the violence stakes. Previous seasons have included gunfights, gritty beatdowns, and Reacher's long-awaited battle with Paulie in season 3, which is easily one of the show's best scenes. Still, the violence in season 4 is on another level, feeling more intimate and personal due to the greater focus on close combat with knives than guns.

However, there is another aspect to season 4's violence, and that is the emotional toll. From the first scene in which Anna Merrick takes her own life and the torture of Ben, the show has emphasized the resulting pain through characters like Jacob. The season has been criticized for Reacher seeming weaker than in past seasons, but while his strength can border on superhuman, witnessing two people taking their lives, seeing Jacob's torment afterward, and then being betrayed by a romantic interest for the first time in the TV show is bound to have an effect.

Season 4 of Reacher is based on Lee Child's book Gone Tomorrow.

We can assume that Reacher will easily survive the events of this season, no matter how farfetched the brutality gets. That said, season 4 shows that pain and horror can be more than just physical injury. This is a perfect lead-up to Reacher season 5, which will deal with its darkest subject matter yet, so fans may find themselves glad for the lessons Reacher is showing now, and for the reminder that gentle characters like Richard Beck are as worthy of being remembered as any fight scene.