Reacher Season 2, Episode 5 recap: A funeral to die for

Things are getting more explosive on Reacher as the team’s hunt for answers led to a new spin on “crashing the funeral.” Find out more of what happened in Season 2, Episode 5.

Caution: This article contains SPOILERS for Reacher Season 2, Episode 5

“Burial” opened with O’Donnell getting his family to safety as Reacher just marveled at how O’Donnell had become a happy family man. Meanwhile, Neagley and Dixon posed as government regulators to investigate New Era Technologies at their distribution warehouse in Denver, Colorado and get a lead on the missiles they were developing.

Good news, the pair found a record for 650 missiles. The bad news was they were already being shipped. The worst news was the truck was hijacked by a pack of guys working for A.M., who killed the driver. 

Speaking of which, Reacher and O’Donnell reached out to some federal agents who told them A.M. was a ghost, always swapping aliases, and no one even knew what nation he was from. All that was known was he was a cold professional and ruthless enough to kill anyone who’d know his face. 

To show how he kept no data trail, A.M. insisted on being paid in bearer bonds, which the Treasury Department hadn’t used since the 1980s. Thus, he could carry millions of dollars in a briefcase. Reacher realized this meant A.M. would only make payments in person, and that was a way in. Sure enough, A.M. was in a small Indiana town while telling Langston he was set to collect the bearer bonds in Denver. 

A shootout leads to more questions on Reacher

Neagley and Dixon came across the hijacked truck and swiftly found themselves in a shootout with the bad guys. They told Reacher that Swan’s name was all over the New Age approval orders. Reacher figured they had to be faked until told that required digital, fingerprint, and eyeball scans, and Swan couldn’t have been forced to do it unless he wanted to.

A flashback showed why Reacher was so adamant about defending Swan. The pair had been pulling an undercover sting on some drug dealers when one guy recognized Swan as a soldier, causing a fight. Swan took a bullet for Reacher, so it’s no wonder Reacher felt indebted and hard to believe Swan could go bad. 

Reacher was met by federal agents who brought him to a zoo to talk to Senator LaVoy, who wasn't happy about Reacher abducting his aide. A few threats were tossed around as LaVoy said he wanted to help Reacher find the missiles.

Reacher could tell LaVoy was just covering himself as if it got out he okayed a missile system that killed civilians, his political career was over. Acknowledging that, LaVoy vowed that if Reacher and his crew stopped the thieves, LaVoy would make sure the team would be untouched.

A nasty funeral is held

The investigation was interrupted by word Franz’s funeral was being held. The team talked on how they had to find a way to track the missiles and it was likely A.M. would be on hand for the deal.

Reacher saw Russo talking to Franz’s wife and son and accused the detective of sucking up to the family to manipulate the investigation. Russo fired back, saying he was a good cop as his father had been killed for refusing to be on the take. He also revealed the New Age Security guys who attacked the team were all corrupt ex-cops from another precinct.

In the middle of the funeral, Reacher saw a reflection and yelled for everyone to duck just before a sniper attacked. The team was on the move, killing one shooter, with Russo proving himself by helping Reacher chase the other guy down. Russo was going to arrest him, but Reacher said if the guy lawyered up, they’d never find the missiles. 

Reacher went to old-school interrogation tactics to make the guy break, but rocked by the news it was Swan who hired the shooters. The guy brought Reacher and Neagley to the warehouse where he was to be paid, only for the place to explode, with Reacher and Neagley watching their only lead literally go up in smoke. 

So it’s looking pretty bad for Swan as the team is racing to stop whatever A.M. and Langley are up to as Reacher Season 2 is heating up.

Reacher Season 2 airs Fridays on Prime Video.