‘Reacher’ Episode 5 Recap: “No Apologies” 

“Margrave PD is dirty. Who’s to say Atlanta or Georgia State Police aren’t on Kliner’s payroll, too?” Roscoe, Finlay, and Reacher are driving away from the scene of Molly Beth’s death, largely stunned to silence. They were just forced to leave their ally’s body in an Atlanta metro tunnel without so much as an anonymous 911 call, because nobody knows how far Kliner’s crooked fingers reach. He’s always one step ahead of them, and despite all of the violence there’s no hard evidence against him. The trio return to Margrave, frustrated and wary. 

There’s a grim tone to the proceedings of Reacher Episode 5, entitled “No Apologies.” The counterfeit ring’s ability to strike anywhere is maddening, and it’s getting more and more dangerous for Finlay and Roscoe to be operating their investigation right under the nose and walking stick of their stand-in police chief, Mayor Teale. When KJ, Kliner’s sociopathic rich kid son, scrawls “whore” on the side of Roscoe’s trusty Chevy pickup, Reacher’s training kicks in. When attacked, he moves forward, doesn’t retreat. No apologies. “What kind of man are you?” he asks KJ, approaching him in the downtown restaurant where he’s holding court with two no-account pals. “Trying to intimidate a woman who, by the way, is beyond intimidation?” It’s a confrontation that simmers with insinuation and dick measuring. When KJ insults his brief tenure as a college football player, Reacher tells him Army kicked him off the team for being too violent, and proceeds to whaling on Kliner and his pals. The fight features at least two of Reacher’s trademark forearm smashes … and one tasty open hand slap.

Back at the Margrave station house, Teale fires Roscoe from the force. It’s retaliation, plain and simple, and when she goes ham on the mayor’s noggin – “You son of bitch! You fucking stupid fucker!” – Finlay has no choice but to corral his only honest cop before Teale and Kliner have her arrested, or worse. With Reacher’s help, Roscoe also discovers a key left for her by Gray, her mentor and Margrave’s police chief until he committed suicide. It was in a secret compartment built into the storage box for the Desert Eagle, and it leads to a cache of files Gray kept on Kliner’s financial activities. He hid them with Mosley (Wille C. Carpenter), the town barber and a friend, who had instructions to show them to nobody but Roscoe. The files reveal that Kliner has the entire town of Margrave in his pocket, paying out bribes in counterfeit cash to ensure that everyone looks the other way. And things only grow more grim when Roscoe realizes Gray’s death wasn’t a suicide at all, but instead a murder, which of course is another way to ensure compliance.  

Remember Joe’s list of phone numbers? Their resources stretched, Reacher reached out to Neagley (Maria Sten), a trusted friend from his days in the military police’s Special Investigations unit, and she tells him to meet her in Memphis, where she’s been running down the EPA tip. The number connected to a federal investigator named Wilks, who was shot dead in his home. According to the FBI, it was a burglary gone bad. But the deed was done with a small caliber, silenced weapon, and nothing was stolen. (“What kind of burglar uses a silencer?” asks Neagley.) The body was also beaten post-mortem, just as Joe’s was. Neagley and Reacher track the investigation that got Wilks killed to a company called Clarron Chemicals, which was dumping toxic goo into the Mississippi River. And who owned Clarron before the whole thing was quietly dissolved? You guessed it. Kliner Industries. It only gets more nuts. Two Memphis patrolmen say they have a criminal informant who will name names on the EPA investigator hit. But before they can run the information, one cop turns his gun on the other in a claustrophobic, chaotic scene inside a dark squad car. He was coerced by Kliner, too. Reacher and Neagley barely escape with their lives.

As Reacher makes his way back to Margrave, Roscoe is tasked with watching over Charlie Hubble and her kids at the safe house established by Finlay’s FBI pal Picard. And what of the chief investigator? He says he’s kicking things up a notch. Finlay infiltrates the Kliner Industries HQ on a search for files that will incriminate him, once and for all, legal search or not. But ultimately, Kliner’s involvement is corroborated in a different way. Finlay discovers him at his desk, his throat slit open. “I guess you’re not calling the shots after all, huh, Kliner.”

‘Reacher’ Features

• The T-shirt game is strong in “No Apologies.” When Roscoe is fired from the Margrave police force, she’s relegated to street clothes for the search of Gray’s secret file dump on Kliner, and she sports a T emblazoned with the logo of veteran Toronto alternative folk rockers Cowboy Junkies. And when she visits Margrave’s medical examiner for more information about Gray’s supposed suicide, Jasper (Harvey Guillen) is revealed to be a supporter of the Savannah Bananas, who play in the Coastal Plain League, a regional wood bat league made up of collegiate-level players. The Bananas won the CPL championship in 2021.
• With Hubble missing and his wife and daughters tucked away in an FBI safe house, Reacher has been using the family’s fleet of luxury vehicles, and after a gunfight leaves their Jaguar SUV full of conspicuous bullet holes, Reacher stops by the Hubble mansion to pick up a new ride. It’s a Bentley Flying Spur W12, decked out in dark emerald and displaying every inch of its $224,000 MSRP. Reacher nods. “That’ll do.”

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges