TV-MA | 13 episodes | Thriller | 2026
In real life, Jack Reacher (Alan Ritchson) could never maintain his imposing physique with his chosen lifestyle. He never works out because he is a drifter. He also eats all kinds of fatty junk foods.
In this season of “Reacher,” his appetite inadvertently leads to his latest batch of trouble. The former U.S. Army investigator was about to leave Philadelphia, but he had to have one last cheesesteak.
As a result, he caught a later train, on which he helplessly watched a desperate woman commit suicide, unable to allay her panic and despair. Of course, the not-so-gentle giant refuses to let her tragedy go uninvestigated and unavenged in Season 4 of creator-showrunner Nick Santora’s popular series, adapted from Lee Child’s novel “Gone Tomorrow.”
Reacher lives by a code, but it is a morally flexible one. He believes in protecting the innocent, but those who prey on the vulnerable should expect little mercy from him. Consequently, bodies have a way of piling up during the course of a season.
Mysterious Death
Anna Merrick (Karen Kwong-Chip) does not have the sort of death that Reacher willingly accepts. He approaches the distraught woman because she fits the behavior patterns of a suicide bomber. Instead, she shoots herself.
The case appears, sadly, open-and-shut to demoted Philadelphia police detective Tamara Green (Sydelle Noel) and her on-the-verge-of-retirement partner, Shaun Docherty (Kevin Corrigan). They agree to hold Reacher until a trio of unidentified Feds he dubs “Snap, Crackle, and Pop” (Jason Diaz, Kerby Darius, and Michael Gaty) can interrogate him regarding a mysterious missing thumb drive they believe Merrick had on her person.
Reacher does not have or know anything, but it stirs up his curiosity and his anger when a group of thugs subsequently ambushes him as he leaves the station, hoping to recover the same drive. He quickly buttonholes Merrick’s grieving adopted brother Jacob (Christopher Rodriguez-Marquette) in a small town in New Jersey, who is equally baffled.
Despite her intention to keep her head down and mind her own business, Green soon finds herself rudely pulled into the case by other parties forcefully seeking that strangely valuable drive.
Together, Green and the surviving Merrick form the core of Reacher’s team for this season. Reacher also tries to look out for Lila Hoth (Agnez Mo) and her mother, Amisha (Anggun). The Indonesian woman had contacted Anna Merrick. Lila hoped the government file clerk could provide documentation to support her paternity case against U.S. Congressman John Sampson (Marc Blucas).
She’s particularly interested in the dates he was stationed in Indonesia with the Delta Force. Hoth is not looking for money or scandal. She just seeks a blood relative for a bone marrow transplant. This time around, Blucas really stands out as the stand-up Sampson, one of the few politicians to ever earn Reacher’s respect.
When Reacher confronts the ambitious politician, he is surprisingly impressed by Sampson’s candor and his willingness to supply a DNA sample. Reacher quickly concludes that the congressman is not a villain. But the conspiracy afoot might somehow relate to the Indonesian missions his Delta team performed back in the late 1990s.
Lots of Action
Like prior seasons, the latest round of “Reacher” episodes supplies plenty of two-fisted action. While they never aspire to the ballet-like flair of the “John Wick” films, they excel in grit, brawn, and pure testosterone.
Over the course of its four seasons, “Reacher” featured increasingly unforgettable bad guys. In Season 3, Brian Tee is memorably sinister as Francis Xavier Quinn, Reacher’s former nemesis, who may or may not suffer from amnesia. Season 4 boasts an even more ruthless cabal, but the revelation of their identity is one of the big mid-season twists that should not be spoiled.
Seasons 3 and 4 also benefit from a significant and largely sympathetic character outside Reacher’s trusted circle, with whom Reacher allies. In the previous story arc, Anthony Michael Hall portrayed Zachary Beck, perhaps his best on-screen work since the underdistributed 2014 thriller “Aftermath.” Once a legitimate businessman, Beck reluctantly uses his import firm as a front for Quinn’s criminal enterprises.
Ritchson remains the big, charismatic, swaggering presence that has made the series such a success, right from the start. He also has nice rapport with Noel and Rodriguez-Marquette, his improvised teammates.
Yet the standout supporting performances come from Blucas as Rep. Sampson and Kathleen Robertson as his politically astute wife, Elspeth. Despite the murkiness of the Delta Force’s deployment in Indonesia, Sampson emerges as a refreshingly positive depiction of an American military veteran.
Conversely, Foster (Dean Armstrong), the CIA officer also chasing Reacher, is a decidedly negative character of the American intelligence services.
Regardless, the pace never relents. Sam Hill and Gary Fleder, who collectively helmed the entire third season, return to direct five and three episodes, respectively. They both clearly understand why the character is so popular with thriller readers, so they shrewdly let Reacher be Reacher.
The resulting fight scenes in each episode will make some viewers howl and cheer, while many of the gunplay sequences could compare favorably to vintage John Woo films.
For those who enjoyed previous seasons, the adaptation of “Gone Tomorrow” offers the same core elements, but with the nastiest villains yet. It is an addictively bingeable series, with a tough-as-nails, blue-collar sensibility. Very highly recommended for thriller fans.
“Reacher: Season 4” streams on Prime Video Aug. 12; Season 3 releases on Aug. 25 on DVD and Blu-ray.
‘Reacher: Season 4’
Directors: Sam Hill (1, 2, 3, 7, 8), Gary Fleder (4, 5, 6)
Starring: Alan Ritchson, Sydelle Noel, Christopher Rodriguez-Marquette, Marc Blucas, Agnez Mo
Rating: TV-MA
Running Time: 8 episodes (approximately 50 minutes each)
Release Date: Aug. 12, 2026
Rated: 4 1/2 stars out of 5
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