How high is Jack Reacher’s season 4 kill count so far?

If you've kept up with Reacher at all, you know the bloke's not strictly evil, just monumentally dangerous if you cross him. The distinction is crucial: yes, he leaves a trail of bodies, but he doesn't kick down doors and start flattening folk on a whim. The latest season, though – Season 4, for anyone counting – wastes no time escalating the violence, and by the time you're through Episode 3, the death toll's enough to make you double-check whether you just watched the protagonist or the villain.

This outing once again leans on Lee Child – specifically the 2009 novel Gone Tomorrow – for its plot, putting Alan Ritchson's brick-outhouse antihero back in the path of more trouble than most men see in a lifetime. There's classic Reacher: plenty of digging, a fair bit of action, and – it must be stressed – an all-time streak for self-defence violently gone off the chain. Here’s where things get wild: Season 4 opens with a hat-trick of episodes, and the pace at which Reacher racks up kills is nothing short of ruthless. For a show this comfortable with bodies on the floor, even I was surprised at how far they took it right out the gate.

Reacher Season 4 opens with its main character taking out four people in just the first three episodes – not including the one bloke who does it himself.

The Early Body Count

• Library Basement Carnage (Episode 1): Reacher's first outing for Season 4 sees him down in a not-so-charming Philadelphia library, searching for army records and, surprise, getting jumped by some chancer with a knife. The whole thing ends with the would-be attacker crushed to death between a pair of mobile shelves. It's not a subtle scene; floors probably needed a proper scrubbing after that. Points to Reacher, though, for at least hiding the body in a coal bin. Respect the staff, I suppose.
• The Chopstick Incident (Episode 3): You read that right. After a supposed safehouse goes to hell, Reacher channels his inner free climber, drops down the building like he's been moonlighting as Nathan Drake, and interrupts some heavily armed goons heading up the stairs. First target cops it via a pair of chopsticks jammed into his eye. Not quite enough to kill him, but then he's shoved in front of a mate's gunfire and that finishes it. Grim, improvisational, and possibly the weirdest thing you'll see all episode.
• Staircase Fatality (Episode 3): With the first casualty now a human shield, Reacher moves on to the next. This one's actually armed, but it doesn’t help. He gets his face smashed into the bannister with a punch that’s...well, if that wasn’t fatal, the NHS has their work cut out for them. Not much sympathy, as anyone left to help is lying in a similar state.
• The Unlucky Interrogation (Episode 3): Technically, this could go on Tamara's list, but let's call it joint custody. During the stairway shoot-out, Tamara drops one of the attackers – or so she thinks. Turns out he's just stunned. Reacher drags him – literally face first down every single step – trying to squeeze some answers out, but the poor sod dies before giving any useful info. They do at least find enough on him to move the story forward. Small mercy.
• Nolan Cahill’s Tragic Exit (Episode 3): This one’s a bit of a grey area. Cahill, who turns up as Sampson's top aide, takes one look at Reacher’s brand of relentless ‘negotiation’ and opts to leap off a rooftop rather than spill his secrets. Strictly speaking, Reacher doesn’t lay a hand on him, but his presence is what tips Cahill over the edge – quite literally. You can’t not count it in the show’s rolling tally of consequences, which is starting to look a bit silly at this point.

That’s your lot for the opens. If this is bloody table-setting, I can't imagine how the season plans to wrap up without Reacher running out of opponents entirely.