This article contains spoilers for Reacher season 2 episode 2, "What Happens in Atlantic City".
Reacher season 2 is the high-octane Prime Video thriller's second outing, and it's set up another case that's already been packed full of twists. Reacher's first season saw the retired Military Police officer tackling a deadly conspiracy in Margrave, but this time, he's out to track down a killer who is targeting some of his fellow Special Investigators.
In the second episode, Reacher, Neagley and O'Donnell link up with another former colleague, Karla Dixon, and head to Atlantic City to try and track down some other members of the 110th.
But without further ado, here's our full breakdown of what happened in Reacher season 2 episode 2.
On the run
Reacher decides to try and warn the other members of the 110th again. Outside Swan's house, he spots the same black sedan that had been following him and Neagley earlier and heads down to pay the driver a visit.
After knocking him out, the gang realizes that their pursuer is actually an NYPD officer assigned to Franz's case. So, since Reacher knocked him out and he, Neagley, and O'Donnell have been flagged by the police, they decide to get out of town and head to Atlantic City to try and find Sanchez and Orozco, two more members of the 110th.
Whilst looking for a less flashy car, Reacher spots Karla Dixon (also of the 110th) arriving in town. She's keen to help track down the killers and rents a new car for Reacher and everyone to drive around. After this encounter, we see a flashback to the Special Investigator days where Karla uses her skills with numbers to spot a potential case for the team to look into; she also attempts to invite Reacher out for a drink, but he politely rebuffs her.
In the present, Karla tells the rest of the investigators she can't make sense of the numbers on Franz's hard drive whilst en route to Atlantic City. Behind them, Saropian (one of their pursuers) gets a call from Shane Langston, who tells him he wants Reacher and his cohorts dead by tomorrow.
Meeting Milena
The crew arrives at Sanchez and Orozco's office and find it's also been tossed. Whilst there, they find that Sanchez has a framed selfie with a woman (Milena), so they head to the bar in the photo where Reacher and Neagley start asking after their friend.
Milena attempts to flee the bar when they arrive, but Karla spots her fleeing and captures her whilst Reacher and Neagley end up in a fight. with a couple of guys on the premises. Milena later explains that she'd never have run if she knew they were from the 110th, but she was worried for her safety. A man had come looking for Sanchez and asked her if he'd left some sort of storage device anywhere not long back, but she'd not been able to get hold of him for a while now and feared the worst.
She passed on info about the case Sanchez and Orozco were working together - they'd mentioned "650 and a 100k each" as a phrase - but she couldn't make sense of it. The 110th members think this could be some sort of large-scale casino scam, and head to one of the casinos the pair used to do freelance security work to investigate.
There, they speak to the Head of Security, Chief Wright, and ask him to look into the list of names and numbers. As a favor to them, Wright puts the group up in the hotel in a suite whilst they're in town.
That night, the group starts chatting about how life's changed for each of them and they're shocked that Reacher's taken to the drifter life for so long. Later on, Reacher finds Karla downstairs counting cards. When a casino worker intervenes, the pair heads out for a late-night stroll.
During their walk, Karla tells Reacher what she really wants to do as a forensic accountant (tackle government corruption). She also asks why nothing ever happened romantically between them; Reacher says it was because he was Karla's boss, and it wouldn't have been appropriate.
Following that exchange, she asks what they plan to do about the people following them. Reacher supposes they are about to be ambushed by a man in a car, so they formulate a plan to disappear into a nearby building site.
The trail goes (mostly) cold
The pair stealthily subdue their pursuers at the site in a fight that culminates in Reacher drowning Saropian in cement. Then, they take his keys and search Saropian's car, wherein they find a file on each of the Special Investigators and a burner phone, which Reacher uses to taunt Shane Langston. Before leaving, Karla spots a parking lot pass for "New Age Technologies" in the car, and then they dump the bodies of their attackers in wet cement.
Back at the hotel, Reacher stitches himself up, and attends to a shrapnel wound Karla sustained in the fight, shortly before things heat up between the pair and they spend the night together.
Elsewhere, Mr A.M. (our mystery man from the airport in episode one) arrives at a location for a meeting. Another man in a suit approaches, telling him 'all 650 will be in the truck' and handing over a map with 'at least two good ambush points' marked on it. Mr A.M. and his crew are about to get their hands on a whole lot of weapons, it seems. The man in a suit asks for assurance that the truck driver won't be harmed, and that the weapons will only be used overseas; Mr A.M. assures him that this is the case.
Our episode concludes with the surviving members of the 110 waking up at the hotel. O'Donnell and Neagley taunt Reacher and Karla about what they got up to, but their chat is interrupted when Chief Wright drops by.
He passes on the news that the police have found and ID'd two more bodies (which had been decaying for some time) as Sanchez and Orozco. Their wounds matched those of Franz's body, suggesting they were also tortured.
Worse, he says the pair weren't working on anything for any of the Atlantic City casinos actively, and all the casinos in the area say their finances are within acceptable margins, so it doesn't seem like the suspected scam has taken place. Plus, no one had checked into any hotels in the area under any of the aliases they had.
Karla notes that everything points to this being a New York case: all the bodies were found in upstate New York, their pursuers had fake NY license plates, a NY parking pass and so on. The final shot sees Reacher heading for the door, before turning back and saying 'we're gonna need more guns'.
Reacher season 2 is now streaming on Prime Video. New episodes arrive on Fridays.
