Is Russo Really Dead in Reacher?

Spoilers follow for Season 2, Episode 6 of Reacher on Prime Video.

The second season of Reacher, Amazon’s hit action show based on the bestselling books by Lee Child, has been even more explosive and packed with twists than the first. And in Episode 6, “New York’s Finest,” the stakes were raised ahead of the final two episodes being released.

When Jack Reacher (Alan Ritchson) first began investigating the murder of Calvin Franz (Luke Bilyk), it wasn’t long before he butted heads with Guy Russo (Domenick Lombardozzi), the NYPD detective who was officially assigned to the case. However, it soon became clear that the real threat was Shane Langston (Robert Patrick), a retired cop who now runs the shady security detail at the New Age tech company.

In Episode 5, “Burial,” Reacher and Russo join forces. And in Episode 6, Russo proves himself to be a man of bravery and honor by helping the team locate Marlo Burns, and agreeing to protect her daughter Jane. When Langston’s assassins track them down, Russo defends Jane with his life.

Is Russo really dead?

The final moments of “New York’s Finest” leave the question of Russo’s fate open-ended, so it is technically possible that the character will make a recovery when the next episode drops on January 12. However, comments from members of the cast do indicate that this was Russo’s final episode.

In particular, actress Maria Sten, who plays Frances Neagley, has stated that the knowledge that Russo was being killed off helped to inform her performance. Throughout the series so far, Neagley has been portrayed as touch-averse, and in Lee Child’s novels she uses the official term haptephobia—a fear of being touched. When Neagley, Dixon and O’Donnell arrive on the scene to find Russo bleeding out, Neagley overcomes her discomfort at being touched in order to sit with Russo and hold his hand in what appear to be his dying moments.

“It’s a moment where she knows this person is going to leave this Earth, and he needs that in this moment, he needs connection,” Sten told TVLine. “When she sees this man give up his life to save this child, there’s a moment where she feels the need to give whatever he needs, in this moment of closeness. Also, I think Neagley doesn’t every truly feel safe, which is why she doesn’t let people close… So, in this moment she feels safe because she sees Russo in a real, vulnerable way.”