Attention all units! Be on the lookout for a vigilante colossus blocking out the sun. With Episode 5 of Reacher Season 4 on Prime Video, you can add the entire police force of Philadelphia to the list of what can’t hold the Big XL. Right from the jump, when he throws a lamp at the heavily-armed SWAT guys who catch him in a room with multiple dead bodies, dances artfully between their shotgun blasts, and avoids a whole army of cops in the hallways by cramming his huge self down the building’s trash chute, this episode of Reacher is having whole a lot of fun being completely and totally ridiculous.

While Reacher crushes police cruisers in Philly, pals Jacob, Tamara, and Russell Plum have their own business to see to. With the reveal of Lila Hoth and Amisha as karambit killers from Indonesia, they head to Jake’s house outside Hackensack, where they recover the missing flash drive. Anna mailed it to her brother when she realized all hope was lost, that she had missed Lila’s deadline, and they were gonna murder her son. Anna was also smart to send Jake her entire phone, complete with its unlock code. They’ll have access to all her communications with Lila, in addition to finally seeing what’s on the drive people keep dying to find. But before they can look at anything, Lila and Amisha themselves appear and start spraying bullets all over suburban New Jersey. 

As Episode 5 reaches utterly egregious levels of Not Hitting Anything, we can at least say Anggun looks to be having a blast as Amisha the mysterious unhinged killer? She fires clip after full-auto clip at Jake’s car, but only breaks a few side mirrors. Lila’s driving, and their vehicle goes on two wheels through a cul-de-sac before the chase leads out of town along the Hackensack River. This creates a bridge standoff, where even more of the team’s vehicle is chewed up by bullets. The two psychopathic killers, wielding submachine guns, advance on the unarmed small-town cop, his blogger conspiracist ally, and a rogue police detective with only seven rounds in her gun. Are they goners? Not in Reacher. A big speech from Jake about wanting justice for his sister and nephew at any cost compels them to stay in the line of fire. Ridiculous! But would you like to know more? Jake’s hometown cop contingent arrives, who proceed to fire even more bullets that don’t hit anything, and Lila and Amisha have plenty of time to leap hundreds of feet into a rushing river and disappear.

Back in Philly, Reacher is engaging with a little on-brand ridiculosity of his own. He has been detained on suspicion of multiple homicides, but is somehow left to stew alone and unmonitored in a basement holding cell. This makes possible a personal visit from the leader of Better Suits & Cages, who sports a fresh set of bruises from their last encounter, and has infiltrated the building dressed as a Philadelphia beat cop. He’s preparing another tranquilizer dart when he says, “You lose, Reacher.” Which would be a cool line, in some other television world. In this one, that phrase always translates as “Kick my ass, Reacher.” Our huge unstoppable son yanks on Better Suit’s police uniform necktie until the guy’s entire head protrudes between the bars and into the cell. His ear peels off like a slice of Stock’s Pound Cake.   

“I got out.” If you’re Reacher, you can just leave a CIA imposter dangling bleeding from the bars of a holding cell, take his keys, and depart the police department via an unlocked, unmonitored side door. There are no consequences for this, except that there is now a massive man hunt for the massive man, who seems unbothered and quickly reunites with Tamara, Jacob and Russell. He then bribes a hotel maid for the use of a room — Alan Ritchson speaking Spanish alert! — and the team gets a look at the flash drive, which contains…not much. It’s just a grainy old photo of Congressman Sampson from his Delta Force days, posing with a general. Why are mercenaries, federal agents, the CIA, and two killers from Indonesia all clamoring for a photo from 25 years ago?

On the phone with Sampson, Reacher tells him that the photo, where the future congressman grins alongside an Indonesian general who became a war criminal, isn’t enough for blackmail. It’s not even enough to derail a political career. “I already told you,” Reacher says. “Bin Laden and Hussein were our allies once.” Instead, Reacher asks if Sampson recognizes a man in the background, an Indonesian scientist who was conducting research into Malaria. Maybe he is the connection, the reason why Lila and Amisha keep killing to find the photo. Russell Plum is tasked with digging up research into the real details of Lila’s life.

Reacher’s face is plastered all over local news, and Philadelphians are reporting seeing an eclipse on a city bus. Another army of cops soon advance on Reacher’s position. But wait, this building has no trash chute. What Reacher-diculousness will occur? Wait for it. He and Tamara hit the roof, he gets into a rappelling harness for window washers, and she climbs on his back as they bound over the side. A few more hails of bullets that hit nothing, Reacher and Tamara crash through a skylight, and they elude more cops who are still technically her coworkers. If there is an Emmy for ridiculousness, Reacher is winning every damn time.

Receiving Anna’s phone has become more valuable than recovering the flash drive. It contains texts that reveal the scope of Lila’s depravity, and videos of Ben’s killing that Tamara and Russell plead with Jacob not to watch. But there is also an address for an old building in Philadelphia with a closed-down restaurant on the first floor. After losing the cops for good, Reacher and Tamara find the place and make their way inside. But they’ve only begun reconstructing the scene of Ben’s struggle and ultimate slaying when Lila appears, her karambit knife twirling. “Gimme the drive, Reacher.” And if he doesn’t, she’ll be happy to have Amisha hack into their leverage. Lila has taken Jacob hostage.    

Pocket Items for Reacher Season 4 Episode 5 (“Bridge”):

• Who’s ready for a slider with cheese and onions? The legendary White Manna Diner of Hackensack, NJ gets a shoutout in Episode 5.

• Who are you, Tomas Waberi from Djoubouti? The name surfaces on plane tickets to the US purchased by Lila Hoth, and Russell Plum is using his dark web knowledge to track Waberi’s whereabouts.

• There is a beauty to Reacher’s ridiculousness, of course, and not just in the satisfaction of watching him rearrange prison bars with an adversary’s face. At one point during Reacher’s chase through Philadelphia, he is reflected in the millions of mosaic pieces that glitter inside the city’s Magic Garden.   

Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a Chicago-based writer. A veteran of the alternative weekly trenches, his work has also appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.