Warning: Major spoilers for Reacher season 3, episode 8 “Unfinished Business"Despite all the genre cliches pointing to it, somehow, Roberto Montesinos' Agent Villanueva somehow survivedReacher’sthird season. The latest season ofReacherintroduced a whole new cast of characters, including a DEA team looking to rescue a missing informant. While Agent Duffy (Sonya Cassidy) was essentially the co-lead of the new series, her partner Guillermo Villanueva played a significant role throughout.A veteran agent on the verge of retirement and struggling to maintain a healthy diet, the odds of Guillermo making it to the end looked grimfrom the outset.
In just about every 1980s or 1990s action movie, an older cop or agent mere days away from retirement is all but guaranteed to die before the credits roll.Reacher’swriters kept piling on the clichés too; Villanueva had a worried wife at home, and he constantly advises Duffy to give up on the case before things get too dangerous.Not only does Agent Villanueva make it to the very end, he even gets to unleash his inner John McClane when he dons a bloody vestand storms Beck’s (Anthony Michael Hall) mansion.
Reacher Season 3’s Ending Confirms What We All Thought About Why Reacher Always Gets In Trouble
Reacher season 3 sees Neagley outline what she thinks is driving Reacher’s vigilante ways, and it makes too much sense not to be the right answer.
Villanueva Looked Certain To Die By The End Of Reacher Season 3
Guillermo looked set to die of “Retirony”
Villanueva acted as the voice of reason throughout season 3, and it helped that Roberto Montesinos was incredibly likable in the role. Laying all the ingredients on the table, it felt likeReacher’s"Unfinished Business” was lining him up for a tragic fate. Again, he’s about 20 minutes from retirement, his wife is worried about him, he’s significantly slower and less able than Reacher and Duffy, etc. He’s practically running around with a giant target on his back, but I’m gladReacher’sseason 3 finaletook a different approach.
The entire season might have led up to the destructiveReacher vs Paulie fight, but I’d argue the bathroom fight between Villanueva and one of Quinn’s goons is as effectivefor several reasons. One is that Villanueva feels like an actual human being, and while he holds his own during the battle, he’s clearly struggling against a younger, faster opponent. A careful application of a toilet lid to the goon’s head solves that problem, and he later rescues Richard Beck (Johnny Berchtold) from the mansion.
Try not to get teary-eyed when Villanueva returns home
Maybe Villanueva dying would have madeReacher’sfinale more potent or highlighted that not everyone gets a happy ending, but the show was right to dodge the trope. Throughout the series, Villanueva remained hopelessly loyal to his protégé Duffy (even when her judgment was questionable) and was invaluable to the operation’s success.Killing Villanueva would have been a serious bummer, especially after poor Eliot (Daniel David Stewart) got his head stomped in earlier in the series.
Villanueva’s final scene, where he gets to return home to his wife alive and well and they embrace is one of “Unfinished Business''” most emotional moments.
In hindsight, it seems likeReacher’sshowrunners were coding Villanueva as a walking corpse simply to subvert that expectation. His death would have cast a serious pall over a largely feel-good finale, where the elder Beck is the only real casualty on the good guy’s side. Plus, Villanueva’s final scene where he gets to return home to his wife alive and well (but with a few bruises) and they embrace is one of “Unfinished Business''” most emotional moments.
Reacher Season 3 Subverted An Action Trope, Despite Hinting It Wouldn’t
Reacher previously called out Hollywood cliches
I think a big reasonReacheris successful is that the show is one part compelling murder mystery/thriller and one-half a 1980s action movie. It’s this heightened quality that sets it apart from a sea of bland, self-serious procedurals. It lovingly embraces action tropes too, with Alan Ritchson’s anti-hero always revenging a loved one and every season needing to end with a fight between him and the main villain. The fourth episode of season 3 “Dominique”, even tips its hat to genre clichés when Reacher states:
There’s a reason Hollywood copies some things. They work.
This line felt like a tongue-in-cheek embrace of the show leaning on tropes. Even so, it’s nice that, in Villanueva’s case, it dodges the dead partner on the verge of retirement story. That particular device has already been done to death, plus it’s the kind of thing that usually happens near the beginning of a movie or series.Villanueva was too well-developed by the season finale to pull that move, and if he had died, there likely would have been an audience backlash.
Alan Ritchson is confirmed to return as Reacher for a guest appearance in the upcomingNeagleyspinoff for Prime.
Reacherhas been more open to bringing back characters than the books, but it’s doubtful Villanueva (or, by extension, Duffy) will be coming back. This means he can retire in peace and know that he gave his final case his all. While genre clichés are good and all, it’s always nice when an audiences' awareness of them can be turned against them.
Reacher
Cast
Reacher follows Jack Reacher, a former military police investigator, as he navigates civilian life. Without a phone and carrying minimal belongings, Reacher drifts across the country, experiencing the nation he once served, and encounters intriguing challenges along the way.
Reacher - Season 3
Based on Lee Child’s novel ‘Persuader,’ Season 3 finds Reacher tangled up in a DEA investigation of an import business owned by Zachary Beck. As is often the case, Reacher has a personal stake in the investigation, when he realizes someone he investigated years ago for a crime during his time in the Army has resurfaced in connection to Beck’s operation. To unravel what’s happening in Beck’s business, the DEA collaborates with Reacher and attempts to send him in undercover to help rescue another undercover DEA informant and put a stop to Beck’s business practices.
