The driving storyline of season 2 is Reacher being reunited with his old army buddies. More specifically, he’s reuniting with the members of the 110th MP Special Investigations Unit, a division run by Reacher that investigated matters of corruption throughout the whole military. As Reacher himself put it, if potential corruption was reported “about any army base, anywhere in the world, no matter how minor the infraction, we’re copied on it.”
All of the Special Investigators we meet throughout the season, especially Officer Dixon (Serinda Swan) and Officer O’Donnell (Shaun Sipos), are described as the best of the best. It makes sense; one of the closest real-life equivalents to this unit is the Army’s Field Investigative Unit, which originally began as a task force in 1984 before being “redesignated” as the FIU in 1996. “The special agents assigned to the FIU are of the highest caliber and have extensive investigative experience,” the Army’s website reads. “Nominees go through a board review that looks over their entire service record, as well as their overall suitability for the position.”
We don’t see any such board review in the show, but it’s established early on that Reacher put a ton of thought into each member he picked. Reacher’s explanation for picking Calvin Franz (Luke Bilyk) was because he saw him de-escalate a petty fight among his peers, but it’s likely the decision to add him went far more in-depth than that. This added context also sheds more light on Reacher’s relationship with Neagley (Maria Sten), who was the only member not promoted to the rank of Officer before joining the unit. Reacher must’ve really seen something special in her, considering her resume alone wouldn’t typically be enough to grab his attention.
