Why That Wild Penultimate 'Reacher' Season 3 Twist Changes Everything

For most fans, watching the next-to-last episode of Reacher Season 3 was probably an exercise in validation. While Episode 7 featured many new developments, almost all of those events are somewhat unsurprising. Several dominos have fallen, and by the last five minutes, it seems that only one possible ending was in store. But then, you remember that there's one more episode left. And that's when the seventh episode of Reacher Season 3, "L.A. Story" hits us with its biggest twist yet — a cliffhanger ending that sets up an uncertain finale. 

Here's what happened in Reacher Season 3, Episode 7, and why the last-minute twist changes everything. Spoilers ahead.

Because it's titled "L.A. Story," it might be tempting to think of this episode as a kind of sidequest in which Reacher (Alan Ritchson) and Duffy (Sonya Cassidy) pop over to Cali for a bit to shake out a bit of legitimate evidence to make their case airtight. Fans of the book Persuader (upon which Reacher Season 3 is based) know that this detour never happened in the original Lee Child novel and that everybody stayed pretty close to the Beck house just outside of Portland, Maine for the big finale. But, the TV series needed Reacher and Duffy to hook up in an L.A. hotel room rather than a Maine hotel room, for, well, reasons.

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Reacher's cover with the Beck household has been long blown, but that's okay because he's sent in his pal Neagley (Maria Sten) to deal with things in Maine while he's gone. But, once Reacher and Duffy return, they have to come clean with the ATF about the fact that Duffy's DEA operation was off the books. This leads to Duffy, Reacher, and Villanueva (Robert Montesinos) all getting sidelined legally, which Reacher doesn't like at all. Instead, in true Reachery fashion, he's decided that he's just going to go it alone. So, gets himself a sniper rifle from a pawn shop, and tells Duffy he's going kill Quinn (Brian Tee) himself, the rules be damned.

While this move pisses off Duffy big time and will certainly land Reacher in a lot of trouble, it seems like he's going to go through with it. That is until, he realizes that the ATF, Duffy, Villanueva, and everyone are in the wrong spot. 

Related: Watch Neagley Lay Down the Law in This Exclusive 'Reacher' Clip

Thanks to a quick check-in with Neagley—to warn her that he's going to go rogue—Reacher learns that the intel they've all been given about Quinn's location and the buyers for the illegal weapons is totally wrong. Reacher can sit in that junkyard all day and wait for Quinn and his buyers to show up, but it won't happen. And that's because Neagley tells Reacher that she's tailing the buyers in a totally different location; headed to Beck's house.

And so, Reacher realizes that the whole thing is a set-up and that he, Duffy, the DEA, and the ATF have walked into a trap. Roll credits.

This is a huge game-changer for a few reasons. First, for book readers, we're in a totally new plot scenario here. In the novel, Reacher wasn't going rogue like this, and there was no trap like this laid by the bad guys. So, even the most hardcore Reacher fan won't know what's going to happen next.

But, more broadly, this twist changes everything for the finale, because it suggests that Quinn knows more about what Reacher is up to than we previously realized. Does that mean Quinn has allies working with the DEA or the ATF? Have Reacher and Duffy been played? Is Beck really trying to help them to save his son?

After next week, when the Reacher Season 3 finale airs, we'll have all the answers. But, it's going to feel like a long wait until then.

Reacher Season 3 streams on Amazon Prime Video.

Related: When Does the 'Reacher' Season 3 Finale Start Streaming?