Warning! This article contains potential spoilers for Reacher season 2.
The real identity of the main villains in Reacher season 2 is not as evident as it initially seems, leaving audiences curious about who they are and what they want. Based on Lee Child’s Bad Luck and Trouble, Reacher season 2 skips nine books from the original novel series. However, as strange as this creative decision may seem, it seems like a logical move, given how it makes room for adding more depth to Reacher’s military backstory, introducing new players from his military past, and raising the stakes for the titular character.
In addition, jumping ahead to Lee Child’s 11th book also allows Reacher season 2 to significantly change the antagonists the titular character has to face. Season 1 already established how Jack Reacher would stand against the elite criminal forces of a small town like Margrave. To up the ante of the level of threats Reacher has to face, Reacher season 2 introduces a dangerous set of villains who show what else the badass Alan Ritchson character is capable of doing when the bad guys kill the former members of his U.S. Army 110th MP Special Investigations Unit.
Who Reacher Season 2’s Main Villains Are
Reacher season 2 adapts Lee Child’s 11th book from the Jack Reacher series, Bad Luck and Trouble. The primary antagonists in the Lee Child story secretly run a corrupt private military company called New Age that is involved in several unethical activities, including the illegal selling of weapons to terrorists. The company produces state-of-the-art missiles and pretends to destroy its weapon prototypes. However, these prototypes are later sold to foreign terrorist organizations. The leading force behind the company is a powerful man named Allen Lamaison, who even gets many of Reacher’s former team members from the military killed in the opening moments of the Lee Child story.
Allen Lamaison was a policeman before he took over New Age, and a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department detective named Curtis Mauney was his partner. Although Mauney initially comes off as a regular detective doing his job, he turns out to be Lamaison’s ally in the terrorist arms trade. As Reacher and his surviving team members set out to get to the bottom of New Age’s malicious activities, they also face other threats, including a deadly assassin. Towards the final arc of the Lee Child story, Reacher also encounters the terrorist Allen Lamaison was selling the weapon to.
Why Reacher’s Old Team Are Being Targeted In Season 2
A former member of Reacher’s U.S. Army 110th MP Special Investigations Unit, Tony Swan, was working as a defense contractor in New Age. After learning about the death of one of their team members and the mysterious disappearance of several others, Reacher and Neagley go to Swan’s workplace to investigate. However, the HR manager at New Age sends them away, claiming that Swan was fired from the company three weeks before their visit. The story later implies that Swan had become a potential threat to New Age’s criminal activities, because of which Allen Lamaison got him killed.
During their investigation, Reacher and Neagley also get access to the flash memory sticks of another murdered former team member, Calvin Franz. The flash drive contains crucial confidential information surrounding New Age’s behind-the-scenes terrorist connections, hinting that Franz, too, got involved in the conspiracy and tried to get to the bottom of what New Age was trying to do. Reacher, Neagley, David O’Donnell, and Karla Dixon ultimately become targets because New Age’s Allen Lamaison starts perceiving them as threats after they set out to investigate the murders of their former military team members.
How Reacher Season 2’s Villains Compare To Season 1’s Kliner Family
Both seasons of Reacher feature formidable villains who are involved in criminal activities. However, the scale and scope of Reacher’s operation of taking them down differs significantly. The Kilner family in Reacher season 1 is only involved in a local counterfeiting operation in Margrave. In Reacher season 2, on the other hand, the stakes are higher because he and his team get embroiled in an international terrorist conspiracy.
Unlike the Kilners in Reacher season 1, who are primarily motivated by financial gains, the villains from the New Age company in Reacher season 2 have geopolitical interests in mind and threaten national security. Owing to this difference in scale between the mission and criminal activities of the two villains, Reacher is able to handle things with Roscoe and Finlay’s help in season 1 even though they are ordinary police officer. However, he needs a team of former military investigators by his side in Reacher season 2 because he is dealing with bigger and more powerful criminals.
