Now It Makes Sense Why Reacher Is So Protective Of The Special Investigators

Warning: spoilers ahead for Reacher season 3, episode 4.

Reacher season 3's Dominique Kohl flashbacks add vital context to the titular character's actions in season 2, particularly when it comes to the Special Investigators. Despite his nomadic lifestyle, icy demeanor, and stubborn reluctance to be contacted, Jack Reacher's life is filled with special people. Said people are typically figures Reacher worked with during his time in the military, and none are closer to his heart than the members of the 110th Special Investigations unit.

Reacher season 2's premise involved a troublesome criminal hunting the Special Investigators down one by one, forcing Alan Ritchson's character to drop the lone wolf act and team up with his ex-colleagues, protecting the survivors while getting revenge for those already killed. At a glance, Reacher's protectiveness over the 110th members needed no explanation. They developed a family-like bond while operating together, and Reacher felt a sense of responsibility as their former boss. Reacher season 3, however, casts his guardian-esque relationship with the Special Investigators in a fresh light.

Kohl's Death Explains Why Reacher Is So Protective Of The Special Investigators

Reacher Won't Get Fooled Again

Reacher and Kohl (Mariah Robinson) toast with beers in Reacher season 3.

As revealed in Reacher season 3, episode 4, Major Jack Reacher suffered two significant losses earlier in his military career, and these deaths helpfully explain why he later became so fiercely protective over the Special Investigators. As an MP, Reacher was assigned to work with subordinates Dominique Kohl and Tony Frasconi. Based on Reacher's reluctant response when the notion of forming a team was suggested, it can be assumed that Kohl and Frasconi represented the first real, close-knit team Reacher ever presided over as a mentor figure within the Military Police.

The 110th gave Reacher a second chance to create what he started building with Kohl and Frasconi.

Kohl and Frasconi seem to have been the first youngsters Reacher made an effort to pass his vast knowledge of deduction and case working onto, the first fledglings taken under his wing and let into his closely-guarded inner circle. Ultimately, the three-person unit was torn apart in an instant by evil Reacher season 3 villain Xavier Quinn. Frasconi died attempting to protect Kohl, then Kohl herself was captured, tortured, and killed by Quinn in the most brutal and inhumane fashion imaginable.

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Losing his two protégés so suddenly and violently - and in a single night, no less - would explain why Reacher bears such a responsibility for protecting the 110th Special Investigators in the present. The 110th gave Reacher a second chance to create what he started building with Kohl and Frasconi, and he was determined to avoid the likes of Neagley, O'Donnell, and Dixon meeting the same cruel fate. While the Quinn incident wasn't exactly his fault, Reacher still learned a hard lesson that cemented his resolve to make absolutely sure he never let the 110th members down in the same way he feels he let down Kohl and Frasconi.

Reacher's Experience With Kohl Explains How He Stays So Focused After Season 2's Special Investigator Deaths

Reacher Wasn't His Usual Self After Finding Kohl Dead

A close-up of Alan Ritchson as Reacher looking upset. — A close-up of Alan Ritchson as Reacher looking upset

Reacher's reaction to Kohl's demise stands in stark contrast to the way Alan Ritchson's character carried himself in season 2 of Prime Video's series. After learning about the deaths of several Special Investigators, Reacher was clearly angry and vengeful, but never lost his composure or calm resolve, remaining steady enough to work the case, sleep with Dixon, and even crack a joke or two along the way. Reacher's reaction in season 3's flashbacks could not be more different.

When the Special Investigators began dropping, quite literally, in season 2, Reacher put whatever upset and sadness he was enduring aside.

Even before finding his teammates dead, Reacher was pacing and panicking when Kohl failed to report back in a timely manner, needing new Reacher season 3 addition Garber to put him straight. After finding Kohl's bloodied body, Reacher was visibly shaken, glassy-eyed, and barely able to think straight. He again relied on Garber's advice just to keep moving forward and chase Quinn down. So emotional was Reacher during these moments, he broke a cardinal rule by assuming his bullet had finished Quinn off without actually seeing the body and confirming so in person.

Comparing the younger Reacher in season 3's flashbacks to the older, wiser character in season 2, lessons have clearly been learned. When the Special Investigators began dropping, quite literally, in season 2, Reacher put whatever upset and sadness he was enduring aside and focused wholly on the job in hand - finding those responsible and putting them down.

In Lee Child's Persuader book, Reacher actually cries after finding Kohl.

Watching Reacher season 2 for the first time, it was surprising just how level-headed Alan Ritchson's version of the hero remained in the face of so many dead friends. The Kohl & Frasconi incident chronicled by season 3 plugs that narrative gap, proving the experience taught Reacher the importance of compartmentalizing emotional responses in favor of logic, reason, and focus. By doing that, Reacher was able to protect the remaining Special Investigators, kill the perpetrators, and resume his endless tour of the United States in season 2.

What Would Have Happened If Kohl & Frasconi Weren't Killed

In an alternate Reacher timeline where Kohl safely arrested Xavier Quinn and didn't die alongside Frasconi on that fateful night, Reacher's life could have played out very differently. It seems inevitable that both Kohl and Frasconi would have become Reacher's first two Special Investigators, joining the likes of Neagley and O'Donnell. Reacher would still have quit the military, and just as he did with the other Special Investigators, left Kohl and Frasconi to enjoy their lives.

Brian Tee as Quinn and Alan Ritchson as Reacher against a Reacher title background

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Without the experience of Kohl and Frasconi dying, however, Jack Reacher would never have learned the pain of losing talented young investigators. Reacher knows what it feels like to watch fellow soldiers die during war operations, of course. Reacher earned a Purple Heart by rescuing others during a bombing in Kandahar. Nevertheless, being an MP in charge of up-and-coming detectives, and having a responsibility for their safety and well-being on U.S. soil, is quite different to the ever-present danger of war.

HadReacher not suffered the losses of Kohl and Frasconi, his Special Investigators might have encountered their own Xavier Quinn, and Neagley and O'Donnell might have been found dead instead. It could be argued that the harrowing experience shown in Reacher season 3's flashbacks provided Reacher with the leadership tools necessary to keep his Special Investigators safe from harm during the course of their own perilous investigations.

New Reacher season 3 episodes release Thursdays on Prime Video.

Similarly, season 2's Reacher may have found himself unequipped to properly deal with Langston and A.M. He could have been overcome by Franz's death the same way he was originally overcome by Kohl's, and rashly led the Special Investigators into making mistakes, just as he did when wrongly assuming Quinn was finished after falling off a cliff. In that scenario, Reacher season 2's ending might have been very different indeed.