‘Reacher’ Episode 6 Leaves Reacher Facing Death — What’s Really in That Photo?

Last week on Reacher, Reacher (Alan Ritchson) learned the hard way that Lila (Agnez Mo) and Amisha (Anggun) aren’t the helpless women they claimed to be. After being framed for their bloody hotel-room massacre, Reacher went on the run, only to uncover an even bigger mystery: Anna Merrick’s stolen drive contains a 25-year-old photo of U.S. Congressman John Sampson (Marc Blucas), Sampson’s chief of staff Nolan Cahill (Chris Owens), Indonesian military leader General Putra (Rodger Edralin), and an unidentified scientist in Indonesia. But before Reacher could figure out why so many people are willing to kill for the photo, Lila and Amisha took Jacob (Chris Marquette) hostage and demanded the drive. Warning: Spoilers ahead for Reacher Episode 6 “Plum Out of Luck.”

Things pick up right where they left off at the restaurant, where Lila and Amisha are holding Jacob hostage and demanding the drive. It’s a tense standoff, at least until Russell Plum (Kevin Weisman) and his impeccable timing destroy the moment.

Unfortunately, Russell isn’t the only unexpected guest. As the feds break in, Russell is suddenly shot in the chest while smoke bombs come crashing through the windows, and a group of heavily armed men storms the abandoned restaurant.

Chaos breaks out. Amisha and Lila slice and dice their way through the attackers while Jacob desperately tries to keep Russell alive. Reacher and Tamara (Sydelle Noel) eventually run out of bullets and make a break for the basement, hoping to catch Lila and Amisha before they escape. They’re too late. The women get away with the drive.

Credit: Courtesy of Prime

With Russell bleeding out, Jacob insists on getting him to a hospital. But before he goes, Russell manages to identify the chemist from the photo: Leo Ahlquist (Shawn Doyle).

Jacob takes Russell to the hospital, while Reacher and Tamara go on the run. And hiding isn’t going to be easy. By the time they reach the center of Philadelphia, their faces are plastered everywhere. The authorities are looking for them, and pretty much everyone knows what they look like.

Meanwhile, Sampson is back at the hotel and seriously upset about the situation. There’s now a photo circulating of him with Reacher that was taken at the photo op with the press where he called the man “his friend.” Between Reacher, the recently deceased Nolan Cahill (Chris Owens), and everything in Sampson’s past, he needs some resolution if he wants a political future. And fast.

He also realizes Reacher is probably searching for the mystery man in the photo. Sampson’s plan is simple: Find the man, find Reacher, then “handle Reacher.”

At the hospital, things aren’t going much better for Jacob. After bringing Russell inside, Jacob is identified as one of the four people on the run with Reacher and has to make a run for it through the hospital. At one point, he manages to hide from the cops by using what can only be described as pure upper-body strength and one hell of a core (he lifts himself to use a bed to conceal himself and motivate audiences not to skip arm day).

Reacher and Tamara find an alley where they can clean themselves up, where a shirtless Reacher demonstrates how a steady diet of cheesesteaks and running from the authorities can do a body good. They look up Leo Ahlquist and discover he’s the CEO of Plutus Chemical. With the authorities searching for them, Reacher and Tamara sneak onto a bus headed in Leo’s direction by hiding in the cargo compartment.

Safely away from the hospital, Jacob, meanwhile, gets his hands on Russell’s phone and calls his Uncle Monty (Nick Searcy). He’s terrified, telling Monty that the CIA, the Feds, and the cops are all after him, and begs his uncle for help. Skeptical, Monty is already on his way to Philly and tells Jacob he needs to speak to a lawyer.

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Back on the bus, Tamara is struggling with being trapped inside the cargo compartment because she’s claustrophobic. Reacher distracts her with multiplication tables, which works well enough that she eventually opens up about why she stopped being a “good cop”: Tamara once caught a case involving a drunk and spoiled college kid who hit a waitress. The kid was connected, and people wanted the charges dropped. Instead, Tamara had the snot publicly arrested to embarrass him. As a result, she was punished.

But working this case with Reacher has changed something. It’s gotten her to “give a sh*t again.”

Elsewhere, Lila and Amisha are preparing for whatever comes next. Men are unloading boxes and setting up a lab, while Amisha reveals that buyers are already lined up and eager to bid on their mystery product. Once the auction is over, everyone involved stands to become very rich.

They also have a computer expert running AI on the background of the photo of Sampson, Cahill, and Putra, while they ask another very nervous man about how long it will take to create what they need. It seems time is of the essence.

We also learn more about Lila and Amisha’s relationship. Lila loves Amisha, who found her on the street and trained her like a daughter, and whatever they’re planning now is tied to promises they’ve already made.

Jacob eventually meets Uncle Monty at a baseball diamond, only to discover that his uncle has betrayed him. Monty puts him in the squad car and stalls until Shaun Docherty (Kevin Corrigan) arrives. Monty called the cops on his own nephew. And Docherty is more than happy to make the arrest. And perhaps more. “I personally want to perp walk this son of a b*tch and then throw him in lockup,” he threatens.

Jacob realizes something is very wrong. Believing Docherty plans to deliver him to the people who want him dead, He begins to plead for his life.

Reacher and Tamara finally make it to Plutus Chemical and confront Leo, who appears to be in the middle of destroying evidence. Leo asks to see his lawyer, Vance (James Coupland), and reveals that Nolan Cahill called him a few days earlier about the data leak.

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Reacher and Tamara want to know what’s on the servers and how it’s connected to the photo, but there’s one major problem: Vance isn’t really there to provide legal advice. He is the leader of mercenaries, who, according to Leo, are “quite expensive.”

“This all could have been avoided, you know. You should have just walked out of the police station three days ago, got yourself a cheesesteak, and left Philly. But you didn’t. And now you’re going to die for it, and you’ll never even know why,” says Leo. “You have no idea what that photo really contains, do you?”

The armed men storm in, Leo makes a run for it, and Reacher and Tamara make mincemeat out of most of them. Eventually, however, two of the mercenaries manage to bring Reacher down with several stun guns.

At a warehouse, Amisha and Lila meet with a mysterious man (Talijah Levene) and thank him for his help. They tell him they’ll be in his debt and that they’re there to serve him. We don’t know who he is, but we know he is about to perform a big task on their behalf.

As the episode races toward its end, Reacher and Tamara wake up handcuffed in the back of a van. They’re being taken somewhere to be executed, and in less than 30 minutes, they’ll both be dead.

Reacher has only one piece of advice for Tamara: Look those a**holes in the eye and die properly, with no fear.

Then the van doors open, guns are drawn, and it looks like Tamara and Reacher are at the end of their rope.

Reacher, Season 4, Wednesdays, Prime Video