Beck And Richard’s Father/Son Relationship, Explained

Spoilers for the first three episodes of “Reacher” season 3 follow.

We’re only three episodes into “Reacher” season 3, and already it seems like the disappointing season 2 was a fluke. The show is back to being just as fun and compelling as it was in its debut season. Some of that’s because the stakes feel high again; for instance, Reacher is no longer surrounded by a team of equally stoic badasses endlessly repeating the same handful of one-liners. (“Did I ever tell you how smart you are, Neagley?”) But mostly, season 3 feels fresh because its big twists are genuinely surprising. 

The big twist in the first episode, “Persuader,” is when Reacher pulls that phone out of his shoe and reveals he’s been pulling a con this whole time. This is then one-upped by another reveal, slow-rolled in “Number 2 with a Bullet,” where we find out the scary bad guy Beck (Anthony Michael Hall) isn’t really scary at all. As his son Richard (Johnny Berchtold) explains to Reacher over ice cream, Beck is merely a mildly corrupt business owner who’s found himself strong-armed into a far more serious level of corruption, one that goes far beyond what he was ever prepared for.

The actual villain of the season, the mysterious Quinn (Brian Tee), is the guy who kidnapped Richard all those years ago. After cutting the kid’s ear off and sending it to Beck, Beck agreed to Quinn’s demands and let him take total control over his rug business operations. Beck may pretend to be a scary mob boss in his initial interactions with Reacher — and to be fair, he still kind of is a scary mob boss — but for the most part he’s just guy trying to keep his family safe. All the gun worship and general tough guy antics in the premiere seems to have been a facade; Beck is in over his head here, and he needs Reacher’s help. 

Perhaps the most interesting moment with Beck this season came in that third episode, where Beck’s right-hand man talks trash about his son Richard right in front of him. He tells Beck that he wishes someone would beat up Richard because he thinks the kid’s a total wuss. Beck doesn’t respond, but it seems clear what he’s thinking. He doesn’t need Richard to be a tough guy like these criminals he’s surrounded by; he just needs Richard to stay alive. 

On the surface, this moment’s simply another opportunity for Reacher to endear himself to Beck and gain his trust. But it also helps to establish a fun character arc for Beck going forward, one where he finds out exactly what Reacher’s up to and decides to keep him around anyway. Reacher might be lying nonstop to Beck throughout these opening three episodes, but he’s still serving as Beck’s best shot at reaching a normal life. 

It’s a fun reversal of a usual trope; on “Reacher” especially, we’re so used to the twist where an ally turns out to be shady, like when Agent Picard (Martin Roach) turned out be a mole in season 1. This time, one of the main bad guys is shaping up to be exactly the sort of surprise ally that Reacher needs. In season 1 the bad guys had the mole as their final trick up their sleeve for taking Reacher down; this time the tables have turned. This season has done a good job establishing Reacher as the proper underdog of this conflict — the bad guys even have their own Reacher this time, who’s even bigger and scarier — so Reacher’s going to need all the help he can get.