The third episode of season four, One Small Step, delivers exactly what the series does best while growing the season’s conspiracy into something denser and more personal. After the three-episode drop that opened the season, this chapter acts as both payoff and setup, confirming that the mystery surrounding Anna Merrick’s death on a Philadelphia subway is far larger than a simple missing flash drive.
The episode opens with the kind of chaotic, resourceful violence that has become Reacher’s trademark. At Russell Plum’s rundown loft, another wave of armed men arrives, they are unknown and different from the earlier CIA team, forcing Reacher into a desperate defence that relies on whatever is at hand. Bug spray, improvised weapons, and pure physical dominance turn the confined space into a brutal arena. The scene is efficient and brutal, underscoring how quickly the threats multiply once Reacher inserts himself into the investigation. One man survives Reacher’s one man army and give the next clue. Meanwhile, Tamara Green, Jacob Merrick, and Plum continue their own part of the investigation, discovering Anna’s trashed car and evidence of an earlier trip that complicates the timeline of her final day. Giving these characters time to breathe prevents the episode from becoming a pure Reacher showcase and gives them real skin in the game, especially Jacob, who remains the most relatable entry point into this escalating conspiracy.
The episode really gets going when when Reacher confronts Lila Hoth at a bowling alley. He has already grown suspicious of her story about searching for a biological father and needing a bone-marrow transplant. Lila finally drops the pretense. She is a journalist, not a desperate daughter. The woman she introduced as her mother is a political dissident whose husband was tortured and killed by Indonesian general. Lila believes a Delta Force team, lead by Congressman John Sampson, were present or involved in the support and training of this General. The revelation changes everything: Anna Merrick was not simply chasing personal information; she had unearthed something sensitive enough that multiple parties are willing to kill for the flash drive she carried.
Alan Ritchson continues to inhabit the role with physical authority and dry understatement. His Reacher remains a man of few words and decisive action, yet the episode allows small cracks of curiosity and even mild protectiveness toward Lila. Their dynamic carries an undercurrent of mutual assessment, Reacher testing her honesty, Lila weighing how much to trust the giant who keeps saving her life. Agnez Mo does a good job as Lila and you buy the shift from vulnerable seeker to determined reporter. Marc Blucas as Sampson has the practiced sincerity of a politician who may or may not be telling the full truth. When Reacher later presents Lila’s allegations over breakfast, Sampson’s denials are convincing enough to leave you genuinely uncertain whether he is clean, complicit, or carefully insulated.
This episodes action centerpiece is at the bowling alley. As KC and the Sunshine Band’s “Boogie Shoes” kicks in, a team of attackers moves on Lila and Reacher. What follows is exactly what you’d expect: Reacher weaponising the environment. He disarms one man, hurls a bowling ball into another, and turns a trophy into an improvised club. The fight is kinetic, slightly absurd, and scored against cheerful seventies funk, a tonal juxtaposition the show has used before but still executes with confidence. Lila’s last-second intervention, clubbing the last attacker from behind, makes her more than just the damsel in distress and prevents the sequence from becoming pure solo spectacle. The scene is messy, crowded, and fun in the way only Reacher fights can be, reinforcing that this is a man who treats ordinary objects as deadly weapons.
The episode juggles Reacher’s confrontation with Lila, the supporting team’s discoveries in Philadelphia, and the political orbit around Sampson cohesively. We learn that Anna possessed a level of security clearance that suggests deeper access than a Pentagon clerk might normally hold. The flash drive’s contents remain a mystery, but the mounting bodies and competing factions make its value unmistakable.
The closing sequence is the episode’s biggest punch. Reacher and Sampson track down Nolan Cahill, the congressman’s chief of staff and a man Reacher recognised as a witness on the subway the night Anna died. Cahill is already deep into a bottle on a rooftop bar. Confronted, he offers no explanation, only an apology to Sampson and a quiet line “You would’ve made a good President” before stepping off the edge. The moment lands with genuine shock, it’s sudden, irreversible, and heavy with implication. Cahill’s final words suggest knowledge that would destroy Sampson’s future, whether Sampson is aware of it or not. The act raises the stakes dramatically and leaves the investigation more complicated.
Any issues with the episode are now just part of Reacher‘s formula. Reacher’s willingness to accept new information from Lila after she has already lied is consistent with his character’s pragmatic side, yet it occasionally strains credibility when the body count is climbing. The supporting investigation can feel slightly under-served compared to the central action and confrontations. The fight-and-reveal structure keeps on recurring, even when the specific details are fresh, but it all works due to the level of execution.
What the episode handles well is the balance spectacle with consequence. The bowling-alley brawl satisfies the appetite for Reacher dismantling opponents in inventive ways, while Cahill’s death and Lila’s revelations ensure the story cannot simply reset like your standard procedurals. Small revelations and the one small step of the title shift the entire direction of the season. The flash drive remains elusive, multiple factions are still hunting, and Reacher has more questions than answers about the conspiracy and journalist he is increasingly aligned with.
Season 4 continues to adapt Gone Tomorrow with a confident sense of scale, moving the action into denser political and international territory while preserving the series’ core pleasures. The remaining episodes have a solid foundation to build off, and the promise of further escalation suggests this is only the tip of the iceberg.
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Where to watch Reacher – Season 4, Episode 3: One Small Step: