This article contains spoilers for Reacher season 2 episode 1, "ATM".
Reacher season 2 sees the high-octane Prime Video thriller series returning for another case. After solving the case in Margrave in Reacher's first season, our retired Military Police officer finds his travels interrupted by a distress call from a friend.
In episode one, Jack Reacher is summoned to New York City by a distress call from Frances Neagley. One of the members of the 110th, a Special Investigators unit assembled by Reacher, has been found dead.
The duo isn't willing to let the cops handle the case, so begin trying to figure out what led to Calvin Franz's death. But as they begin the investigation, they soon realize that more lives could be at risk...
But without further ado, here's our full breakdown of what happened in Reacher season 2 episode 1.
A distress signal
Following an action-packed recap of Reacher's first season, we see a body being dumped in the wilderness near the Catskill Mountains, before being reunited with Jack Reacher on the road in Murfreesboro, Arkansas.
Our resident rambler is shopping for a replacement outfit; since he's short a few bucks, he heads outside to use an ATM, where he finds himself queuing behind a distressed woman. Reacher reasons that she's been a victim of a carjacking; after reassuring her he's going to help, he strides up to her minivan, winding his new jacket around his fist so he can punch through the window.
After disarming and subduing the criminal in style, Reacher tells the woman to call the police, and checks the receipt from the ATM, noting a hidden distress call (in the form of a surprise deposit into his bank account) from a fellow Special Investigator, Frances Neagley.
Borrowing the store clerk's phone, he reaches out to Neagley. She tells him he has to come to New York City ASAP, as Franz, another Special Investigator, has been murdered. Alarmed, Reacher says he'll let her know when he gets off a plane.
Forming the 110th
We then jump back in time to Rock Creek, Virgina, several years in the past. Reacher takes Calvin Franz into a room with a collection of other soldiers, many of whom have little to no Military Police experience. This is the beginning of the Special Investigators unit... though they struggle to gel as a team.
Back in the present, Reacher and Neagley meet in a diner to discuss the case. Going over the evidence Neagley — who now works as a PI — has gathered, he works out that "Franzy" wasn't just murdered, he'd been cruelly tortured first, either for revenge or for information. Together, they resolve to track down Franz's killer and decide to speak to Franz's wife, Angela first. As they leave the diner, we see that there are other people keeping tabs on Neagley and Reacher's movements...
Distraught, Angela walks them through the timeline of Franz's disappearance and hands them the keys to Franz's office. After saying goodbye, they leave for the office; on the way out, Reacher notes that a car halfway down the road was also down the road, but Neagley plays down his paranoia.
The duo find the office as it had been left; in complete disarray. Reacher guesses that whoever tossed the premises didn't find what they were looking for. Neagley, in turn, notes that Franz would have hidden whatever info was such a risk to him in plain sight, and recognizes a key on the keyring is a PO box key, and since there's a USPS office across the street, they guess he kept things locked up there. Unfortunately, the office is closed for the day, so they head back to a hotel for the night and catch up.
Cue another flashback, which shows the Special Investigators at a bar, out for a very awkward drink. A patron from the 91st approaches and tells them this is an officers-only bar; Reacher promptly tells warns him to leave them in peace. When they don't, the two units clash in a bar fight, which the 110th wins. They then celebrate with some drinks around a campfire, and Franz susses that Reacher knew the evening would play out just like it did... proving the team could work together.
More manpower
We cut back to the present with a new figure going through customs to enter the US; he promptly burns his passport in a stall on the other side. We're then reunited with Neagley and Reacher as they try to suss out which PO box was Franz's.
Whilst Neagley distracts the postal worker, Reacher tries the key on every box he thinks is relevant. And, despite an intervention from an elderly woman who almost gets the pair in trouble, they find the right box and it contains a hard drive.
Since this info got Franz killed, Reacher decides he needs to tool up for the case. He asks a priest if there are any drug dealers in town; after following his directions, Reacher subdues them, takes their money and a gun, and throws their drugs down the drain. As he heads back to Neagley, he donates the cash to the church's outreach program, for the tip-off. Elsewhere, the man from the airport picks up several fake IDs and promptly executes the people who made them.
The duo reunite at their hotel room to find the room has been trashed, and they end up crossing paths with O'Donnell, another 110th member, hiding inside. He says he found the room like that when he arrived, but quickly wants in on the case to find who killed Franz.
Neagley plugs the hard drive in to find its encrypted, and they've only got a limited amount of time to guess the password. Eventually, O'Donnell susses out the password must be "Reacher", since Franz respected him more than anyone else in the world.
We then briefly see the mystery traveler from the airport embarking on a flight to Denver under the pseudonym "Mr. McBride"... and Adam McBride just so happens to be the first name on a list on Franz's hard drive, which Reacher assumes is a list of aliases.
With just that list and a collection of numbers, the trio decides they need more manpower to crack the case. Neagley says the rest of the 110th can't be reached, but O'Donnell is in touch with Swan, so they head over to his house.
When the team gets no answer, they break into the house. With the smell of death in the air, they sweep the house and find Swan's dog has died of dehydration. Reacher knows that Swan wouldn't have let his dog die, so he assumes that Swan must also have been killed. With two deaths accounted for, Reacher knows someone must be coming after the rest of the unit, too.
Reacher season 2 is now streaming on Prime Video. New episodes arrive on Fridays.
