Thu Feb 20 21:47:48 UTC 2025: ## Reacher Season 3 Premiere: A Confusing Cold Open and a Curious Case of Kidnapping
**Abbottsville, Maine –** The premiere episode of Amazon’s *Reacher* season 3, “Persuader,” opens with a perplexing scenario: Jack Reacher, a man known for his minimalist lifestyle, is selling vinyl records in a quaint college town record store. This unlikely setup kicks off a convoluted plot involving a kidnapped boy, a seemingly accidental police killing, and a wealthy family with a dark secret.
The episode’s cold open features a series of seemingly unconnected events. Reacher foils a kidnapping attempt, unintentionally killing an undercover police officer in the process. He then finds himself protecting the kidnapped boy, Richard Beck, whose father, a wealthy “rug merchant,” offers Reacher a deal: protection in exchange for saving his son. Richard’s home is a lavish seaside mansion guarded by the imposing Paulie, a Guinness World Record-holding bodybuilder.
The story then flashes back to earlier events, revealing that the “accidental” killing was a carefully orchestrated ruse by DEA agents investigating the Beck family. Reacher, initially reluctant, agrees to help after learning the agents are looking for a missing informant, Teresa Daniel, who worked undercover for them.
The plot thickens as Reacher discovers a connection between the Beck family and Francis Xavier Quinn, a former lieutenant colonel he suspected of treason. To infiltrate the Beck family’s operations, Reacher, along with the DEA agents, stages a fake kidnapping, culminating in a tense Russian roulette scene with Richard’s father.
The episode concludes with Reacher successfully gaining the Beck family’s trust, setting the stage for the larger mystery to unfold. However, the convoluted plot and the somewhat unbelievable scenarios, including Reacher’s unlikely employment selling vinyl records and the unconvincing nature of the initial “accidental” killing, leave viewers with a sense of bemusement. The episode’s pacing and narrative choices have been criticized as being jarring and somewhat nonsensical, even for the typically action-packed Reacher series.
First Piper 