Reacher Season 3's Susan Duffy Is One Of The Best Things To Happen To The Show

This post contains spoilers for Prime Video's "Reacher."

Jack Reacher (Alan Ritchson) — the self-proclaimed "direct descendant of a wanderer" — is back. While season 2 of "Reacher" is based on Lee Child's engrossing "Bad Luck and Trouble," season 3 closely follows "Persuader," the author's seventh novel in the "Jack Reacher" series. The latest season's three-episode premiere already proves that adapting "Persuader" was a good call, with the story gliding from one dramatic high to the next while showcasing the best of what Reacher is capable of. What's more, season 3 cements the fact that no one can improvise or brute force their way through a dangerous mission like Jack Reacher. But of course, Reacher's high-stakes missions are incomplete without some dependable allies having his back, and this time, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent Susan Duffy (Sonya Cassidy) emerges as Reacher's primary partner and confidant.

Duffy makes her presence felt right from the get-go. Episode 1 opens with a seemingly coincidental kidnapping of a kid named Richard Beck (Johnny Berchtold), which Reacher helps prevent but ends up accidentally shooting a cop in the process. If you're thinking that such carelessness is unlike Reacher, you would be absolutely right. The curtain is pulled back once we learn that Reacher is on an infiltration mission at the behest of the DEA and that Duffy is closely working with him to pinpoint the whereabouts of a missing undercover agent. As you likely know, Reacher is pretty hard to reach on the move due to his wanderer status, but Duffy succeeds in leveraging a phone call he had made and corners him. While Reacher evades her questions with his telltale straight-faced sarcasm, Duffy makes it amply clear that she isn't afraid to call him out on his nonsense.

This satisfying, crackling partnership makes the latest season feel more thrilling than its previous installments, and Susan Duffy is the wild card female lead that "Reacher" desperately needs to up its ante as an evolving series.

Season 1 of "Reacher" (which adapts Child's "Killing Floor") introduces us to Officer Roscoe Conklin (Willa Fitzgerald), whose presence and personal agency are significantly more fleshed-out than her book counterpart. Here, she's at the forefront of investigating a grisly conspiracy and murder, during which her initially uneasy relationship with Reacher blossoms into a romantic bond that feels truly special by the time Reacher chooses to leave Margrave. We must consider the fact that the events at Margrave occur at a particularly difficult point in Reacher's life. At this point, he is grieving his brother's death and prioritizing wilful isolation to shield himself from anything that might potentially anchor him to one place. Roscoe comes very close to becoming that anchor, as Reacher affirms that she might be the only person who can make him give up wandering and stay close to the flame.

Roscoe's steadfast, sincere presence is necessary to balance out Reacher's season 1 mindset, where he navigates loss and ends up connecting with a brilliant, empathetic person whom he cares deeply about. Season 2 shifts gears by placing Reacher in a deeply vulnerable state, as he must reckon with the unspoken regrets that come with his solitary existence. Familiar faces from the Special Investigations Unit return when one of Reacher's friends winds up dead, and an old spark with Karla Dixon (Serinda Swan) is rekindled when the 110th band together to solve a final case. Karla is different from Roscoe in the sense that she is intimately aware of Reacher's idiosyncrasies, as the two have worked closely for years and have felt mutual attraction firsthand (but never acted upon it). Karla nudges Reacher towards dismantling the walls around him, as their deep trust in each other allows him to embrace his vulnerabilities as a man who is ever-ready to fight and protect others.

Enter Susan Duffy, the no-nonsense DEA agent in season 3 who calls Reacher an "a**hole" to his face while matching his energy beat for beat. She's blunt like he is, quick to anger, but level-headed enough to pull her weight in the investigation, no questions asked. Let's have a look at why the character works.

When Reacher tries to talk his way out of Duffy's mission at first, she makes it clear that their collaboration is necessitated by something more than what their respective jobs demand of them. She acknowledges that she messed up after the DEA had managed to gather evidence on the illegal drug business, and reveals that a young undercover agent named Teresa Daniels has gone missing. Since Teresa's infiltration of Zachary Beck's warehouse prompted her disappearance, Duffy requests Reacher to help find her by getting close to Beck. This is an off-the-book investigation that Duffy is pursuing solely because she desperately wants to make sure Teresa is okay, and the drug bust seems to be second on her priority list when compared to finding this girl.

Although our impression of Duffy is limited to only three episodes, it is already a strong one. Sonya Cassidy invests the character with a brash, gutsy determination that doesn't waver even during tight spots, and her empathy for Teresa paints her as someone worth rooting for. What Cassidy does best is convey remarkable subtlety in the way her character's perception of Reacher evolves. By episode 3, Duffy has gradually warmed up to Reacher, who has proven himself perfectly capable of tackling dangerous situations in a kill-or-be-killed environment. There's also a budding attraction between the two that seems to be intensifying with time, and there are moments when she surprises Reacher with her quick thinking and hands-on approach to navigating the Beck mission.

Barring Reacher's closest friend Frances Neagley (Maria Sten), Duffy is the only one (so far) to be able to share the screen with Ritchson's Reacher and emerge as equally electrifying. When two smart, capable individuals work together on a risk-laden mission while matching each other's energy, it helps pave the path for a season that might be the most promising (and thrilling) in the history of the series so far.

The first three episodes of "Reacher" season 3 are now streaming on Prime Video.