Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Reacher Season 3.The Prime Video juggernaut Reacher just wrapped up its third season in a hard-hitting and exciting fashion. Reacher fits perfectly alongside the streamers’ other hyper-violent and mature adaptations, such as The Boys, Invincible, and Fallout, delivering on some blood-soaked action, paired with a certain air of subtle comedy, showcasing that the series don’t need to take themselves entirely too seriously. Alan Ritchson stands tall as the titular character, bringing a no-nonsense tone to the series overall, and has been touted as the perfect man to step in the shoes of Jack Reacher by his creator, Lee Child. As with any adaptation, changes must be made when taking a story from the page to the screen, and Reacher is no exception.
Reacher Season 3 is an adaptation of Child’s seventh novel in the acclaimed Jack Reacher series, Persuader, one of the most beloved novels in the entire series. While the overall undercover plot is the same as the novel, there is a glaring omission in the series: Zachary Beck’s (Anthony Michael Hall) wife, Elizabeth Beck. Beck’s son, Richard (Johnny Berchtold), reveals to Reacher that she died when he was very young, while in the novel, she was around during all the shady business goings-on as Reacher climbs the ranks of Beck’s security detail to get to his ultimate goal, Xavier Quinn (Brian Tee).
What Was Elizabeth Beck’s Role in the ‘Reacher’ Novel?
Elizabeth Beck does not have a major role in Persuader, but her presence is felt throughout the book since she too is a prisoner in her own home along with the rest of the Beck family. As Reacher infiltrates Beck’s criminal operation, he gets to know Elizabeth, learning about her life of being a forced recluse and even being abused by her husband’s bodyguard, Paulie, who in Reacher Season 3 is portrayed by the seven-foot-two behemoth Olivier Richters. With Elizabeth being absent from the series, it definitely allowed a reprieve from the depiction of gratuitous manhandling of a female character on screen. Taking Elizabeth out of the equation discards another blooming relationship Reacher could have had within the series, but the writers had an apt replacement for it that enhanced the narrative of the Beck family from a more nuanced perspective.
In Persuader, Elizabeth takes on the role Richard has in Season 3 of Reacher. Except she is more of a cliché damsel-in-distress-type role, fully aware of the danger that has engulfed her family, but has no power to help get her family out of this precarious position. In the novel, she is the one who discovers Reacher is undercover. Instead of selling him out to Beck, she begs Reacher to help dig her family out of the deep hole her husband has dug for all of them. They even work together in a few instances to help Reacher advance his standing in the ongoing case to get to Quinn, and hopefully free their family.
Cutting Elizabeth Beck Actually Enhanced ‘Reacher’ Season 3
Elizabeth’s omission from the series eliminates what would have likely been an unnecessary subplot and instead enhances Richard’s role, giving the audience a truly sympathetic throughline for the season. Elizabeth and Reacher shared frequent shopping trips into town, which were replaced with Richard in the series, allowing ample bonding time for the two, making their relationship one of the essential building blocks of this season. The shopping trip the two take, where Richard purchases a vintage cap gun for his father’s birthday, results in a beautiful scene between Beck and Richard, seeing the two on the same page probably for the first time in years. The little shopping spree also features some comedic quips from Reacher, claiming any ice cream flavor other than chocolate or vanilla is nonsense, exemplifying the biggest difference in Ritchson’s version of Reacher from the novels — that he is funny. While Reacher isn’t laugh-out-loud funny, the series features dry, self-deprecating humor, one of the reasons the series has had such continued success.
The novel also has Beck coming off as more unlikable and his coming to terms with ultimately accepting Reacher’s help would have fallen flat within the series if the character was a neglectful husband, rather than a father who was trying to protect his son, even if it was in a misguided way. Using Beck’s grief over losing his wife as a device to further the distance between the father and son added a real depth of understanding to the character, one that is sorely missing from the novel. There are a few moments in Persuader that depict Beck explaining to Richard that he wants to be a better man, but the series gets to put the father-son dynamic at the forefront, becoming a key dynamic of the season, and frankly the most emotionally resonate aspect as well. Reacher’s bond with Richard throughout Season 3 also helped mend the fracture between him and his father, with Reacher offering a new perspective on Beck’s business situation.
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Alan Ritchson Lets ‘Reacher’ Off The Chain — Literally — In Season 3 Finale Sneak Peek [Exclusive]
Season 3 wrapped up today on Prime Video.
There Are Other Changes From the ‘Reacher’ Novel in Season 3
The Beck family aren’t the only changes from the pages of Persuader featured in Reacher Season 3. Paulie’s character in the novel is actually Paul Masserella, compared to Paulie van Hoeven, and his role is more streamlined to be a worthy adversary to Reacher from a size and strength aspect. The inclusion of Frances Neagley (Maria Stern) is also absent from the book. Of course, her inclusion in Reacher Season 3 is to help usher in her spin-off show on Prime Video, but her role in this season adds to the theme of mentee figures to Reacher himself. The entire narrative of Season 3 is based around the tragic murder of Reacher’s former protégé Dominique Kohl (Mariah Robinson), a relationship that has plagued Reacher with guilt, and a mistake he does not plan on repeating. Not to mention Reacher trying to give Richard a few pointers to help defend himself, proving the lone wolf can be a good teacher when he wants to be. Adaptations will always undergo changes from the source material, and sometimes, when the right creative team is involved, said adaptation can improve on the work it was inspired by. Reacher Season 3 is a prime example of that.
All episodes of Reacher are available to stream in the U.S. on Prime Video.
- Release Date
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February 3, 2022
- Network
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Prime Video
- Showrunner
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Nick Santora
- Directors
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Omar Madha, Carol Banker, Julian Holmes, Lin Oeding, M.J. Bassett, Norberto Barba, Stephen Surjik, Thomas Vincent
- Writers
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Cait Duffy
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