Three episodes into Reacher Season 4, Jack Reacher has been shot at, drugged, imprisoned, lied to repeatedly and dragged into a conspiracy involving a dead government employee, a missing flash drive, mysterious operatives and a congressman with secrets buried in his military past.
Naturally, he keeps digging.
Reacher Season 4 Episode 3, “One Small Step,” brings the show’s three-episode premiere event to a strong conclusion by complicating nearly everything we thought we understood about Anna Merrick’s death. Lila finally admits that the story she originally told Reacher wasn’t true, Nolan Cahill becomes increasingly important to the investigation, and a final confrontation with Congressman John Sampson produces the season’s biggest shock yet.
Along the way, Reacher also finds time to turn a stairwell and a cosmic bowling alley into exceptionally dangerous places to pick a fight.
It’s another entertaining hour that continues shifting Season 4 toward political espionage without forgetting that sometimes the most satisfying solution to a complicated problem is still Alan Ritchson throwing someone into something.
Alan Ritchson continues carrying the season with Reacher’s familiar mixture of intelligence, confidence and overwhelming physical force, but Season 4’s expanding ensemble is becoming increasingly important. Sydelle Noel’s Tamara Green continues challenging Reacher rather than simply following him, while Lila Hoth remains one of the season’s biggest question marks as Reacher discovers just how much of her story has been fabricated.
REACHER’S TEAM STARTS TO FRACTURE
“One Small Step” begins with Jacob Merrick reaching his breaking point.
His sister Anna is dead, and his inability to reach his nephew has left him fearing that another member of his family may be gone as well. His grief erupts into anger, prompting Reacher to tell Green that Jacob has become a liability.
It’s classic Reacher: logical, unsentimental and not necessarily wrong.
Green sees it differently.
She understands that Jacob isn’t approaching this investigation as a detached professional. He’s a brother trying to understand why his sister died and what happened to the people she loved.
That disagreement gives Green and Reacher’s relationship another welcome layer. Reacher is accustomed to evaluating people according to whether they’ll help or hinder the mission. Green keeps reminding him that human beings aren’t always that simple.
ANOTHER ATTACK BRINGS ANOTHER REACHER FIGHT
There’s little time for debate before the group finds itself under attack again.
Gunmen descend on their location, forcing Reacher and the others into a brutal stairwell confrontation.
The sequence is pure Reacher: violent, efficient and just exaggerated enough to remain entertaining. At one point, even a pair of chopsticks becomes a perfectly acceptable weapon.
Season 4 may be considerably more interested in political conspiracies and intelligence operations than previous seasons, but Episode 3 provides some reassurance for anyone worried the series might become too cerebral.
Jack Reacher still solves plenty of problems the old-fashioned way.
LILA FINALLY TELLS REACHER THE “TRUTH”
Reacher eventually tracks down Lila, determined to confront her about the inconsistencies in her story.
And there are plenty.
Her earlier claim that Congressman John Sampson was her biological father no longer holds up. Now Lila offers Reacher a different explanation: she’s actually a journalist investigating alleged war crimes connected to Sampson’s Delta Force past, including the torture suffered by her mother.
In other words, the personal story Reacher was originally given was supposedly a cover for a much larger investigation.
Maybe.
That’s the problem.
Lila has already lied to Reacher once.
Now she’s asking him to believe that this version is the truth.
Reacher doesn’t simply walk away, though. Part of that is because her explanation potentially connects several pieces of the mystery. Part of it is also because his relationship with Lila has become considerably more complicated.
REACHER AND LILA CROSS A LINE
The attraction between Reacher and Lila has been present from the beginning, and “One Small Step” finally stops dancing around it.
After surviving yet another violent encounter — this time at a cosmic bowling alley — the two become intimate.
It’s a significant development for more than the obvious reason.
Reacher is usually remarkably good at keeping emotional complications separate from an investigation. Lila is now both a potential source of information and someone he personally wants to believe.
That creates a vulnerability we don’t often see with him.
Reacher can analyze evidence.
He can detect inconsistencies.
He can dismantle a room full of attackers.
But determining whether someone he cares about is manipulating him is a different kind of challenge.
And Season 4 increasingly seems interested in testing that weakness.
COSMIC BOWLING BECOMES A BATTLEFIELD
Only Reacher could turn a cosmic bowling alley into one of the coolest action settings of the season.
The meeting with Lila is interrupted by another attack, forcing Reacher into a violent fight surrounded by neon lights, bowling lanes and arcade-like surroundings.
It’s absurd.
It also works.
The sequence is a good example of how Season 4 is finding a slightly more playful visual identity without turning Reacher himself into a joke. He remains completely serious while the environment around him becomes increasingly ridiculous.
That contrast makes the violence even more entertaining.
More importantly, the repeated attacks reinforce just how badly someone wants the investigation stopped.
Reacher still doesn’t fully understand what Anna uncovered.
But people keep trying to kill him for asking.
That’s usually a pretty good indication he’s asking the right questions.
ALL ROADS LEAD BACK TO SAMPSON
The investigation ultimately returns to Congressman John Sampson.
Lila’s new story puts Sampson’s military history under scrutiny, specifically allegations involving his Delta Force service and events that may have occurred overseas.
Reacher confronts Sampson directly.
Sampson pushes back against the accusations, but Nolan Cahill’s presence becomes increasingly difficult to explain.
Episode 2 established that Cahill — Sampson’s chief of staff — was the mysterious fourth witness on the subway when Anna died.
That’s no longer something Reacher can dismiss as coincidence.
Anna was investigating something.
Cahill was there when she died.
And Cahill works directly for the man at the center of the allegations.
Reacher wants to know why.
NOLAN CAHILL MAKES A TERRIFYING CHOICE
Then “One Small Step” delivers its biggest moment.
As Reacher presses Sampson about the past and Cahill’s connection to Anna, Cahill essentially confirms that there are secrets involved — secrets powerful enough that they cannot be allowed to surface.
Before Reacher can get the answers he needs, Nolan Cahill kills himself.
It’s a shocking ending because Cahill had just become one of the most important pieces of the investigation.
Episode 2 ended by revealing that he was the missing subway witness.
Episode 3 ends by removing him from the board entirely.
But his death doesn’t eliminate the mystery.
It validates it.
Cahill knew something.
And whatever he knew was important enough that death apparently seemed preferable to revealing it.
SEASON 4’S CONSPIRACY GETS MUCH BIGGER
The first episode asked a relatively straightforward question:
What was on Anna Merrick’s flash drive?
Three episodes later, that almost feels quaint.
Now Reacher is dealing with possible intelligence operations, allegations of military wrongdoing, mysterious armed teams, Lila’s shifting identity, Anna’s secretive work, Congressman Sampson and a chief of staff who would rather die than explain his role in what happened.
The conspiracy is expanding quickly.
That’s potentially dangerous territory for Reacher. The show’s greatest strength has traditionally been its simplicity: Reacher enters a situation, recognizes something is wrong and systematically dismantles everyone responsible.
Season 4 is asking him to navigate something considerably murkier.
So far, it’s working.
Final Verdict
“One Small Step” is the strongest episode of Reacher Season 4’s three-episode premiere.
The action remains terrific, particularly the stairwell confrontation and delightfully excessive cosmic-bowling fight, but it’s the increasingly complicated mystery that gives Episode 3 its momentum.
Lila’s new explanation creates more questions than answers. Her growing relationship with Reacher gives the investigation an unusually personal complication. And Nolan Cahill’s shocking death confirms that Anna stumbled into something much larger than anyone initially understood.
Most importantly, the first three episodes now feel like a complete opening act.
Episode 1 introduced the mystery.
Episode 2 connected Anna to Sampson’s world.
Episode 3 confirms that someone inside that world is willing to die rather than reveal the truth.
Reacher has spent three episodes trying to determine what Anna knew.
Now he knows one thing for certain:
Someone desperately wants that knowledge buried.
Reacher Season 4 Episode 3 Ending Explained
The ending of “One Small Step” turns Nolan Cahill from a suspicious witness into confirmation that Reacher has uncovered something very real.
After discovering in Episode 2 that Cahill was the unidentified fourth witness to Anna Merrick's subway death, Reacher knows Sampson's chief of staff has information he's deliberately withholding.
Episode 3 finally forces the issue.
Reacher confronts Congressman Sampson about the allegations surrounding his military past and the possibility that Anna's investigation was connected to events involving Sampson's Delta Force service.
Cahill's reaction tells Reacher nearly as much as an actual confession would.
He indicates that some secrets simply cannot be allowed to emerge.
Then Cahill kills himself.
His death doesn't tell Reacher exactly what happened, but it fundamentally changes the investigation.
Cahill was present when Anna died.
He deliberately avoided becoming part of the official witness record.
He was intimately connected to Sampson.
And when Reacher finally got close enough to demand answers, Cahill chose death instead.
That makes it increasingly difficult to dismiss Anna's death, the flash drive and Sampson's past as unrelated events.
But there's another important complication.
Lila still can't be trusted.
She admits that her original story about being Sampson's daughter was false and replaces it with a new story about being a journalist investigating alleged war crimes involving her mother.
Reacher accepts enough of that explanation to continue working with her — and their relationship becomes intimate — but the audience now has even more reason to question whether Lila is telling him the complete truth.
That's what makes Cahill's suicide such an effective ending.
Reacher finally gets confirmation that there really is something to uncover.
He just doesn't know whether the woman helping him uncover it is leading him toward the truth or manipulating him toward something else.
How To Watch Reacher
Reacher Season 4 Episode 3, “One Small Step,” streams exclusively on Prime Video. Season 4 consists of eight episodes, with the first three released together on August 12. Episode 4 arrives Wednesday, August 19, followed by new episodes weekly through the September 16 season finale.
Complete Reacher Coverage
Follow all of Seat42F's Reacher Season 4 coverage, including weekly recaps and reviews, ending explained coverage, official photos, promos and the latest Prime Video news.
If you're catching up on the beginning of the new season, read our Reacher Season 4 Episode 1, “City of Brotherly Love,” recap and review, where Anna Merrick's death first pulls Reacher into the mystery.
Then continue with our Reacher Season 4 Episode 2, “Cage Fight,” recap and review, as Reacher discovers the identity of the mysterious fourth witness on Anna's subway car.
Editor-in-Chief | Seat42F, a leading source of entertainment news, information, television and movie resources.
