Warning! This article contains spoilers for Reacher season 3's episode 6.After gradually unraveling the tapestry around its central villains' operation, Lee Child's Persuader, Reacher season 3 closely follows the original story by showing how the titular character has personal stakes involved in his new undercover mission. He has a long history with the main villain, Xavier Quinn, who ruthlessly murdered his military police partner, Dominique Kohl. Along with Quinn, Reacher season 3 also introduces many secondary antagonistic players, like Paulie, Duke, and Zachary Beck.

While Quinn is clearly established as the leader of the pack, all other Reacher season 3 villains adopt specific roles in his unethical operation. Reacher season 3 takes its time to fully unfold the complex web of Quinn's criminal network. However, a little beyond the season's midpoint, it becomes evident where each villain stands in the overarching narrative and how Quinn has built his criminal empire on manipulation, fear, and brutality.

Quinn Is The Head Of The Arms Smuggling Operation In Reacher Season 3

After Being Presumed Dead, He Adopted A New Identity

Quinn's Reacher backstory reveals that he has been a criminal for quite some time. Even in the military, he secretly sold confidential information to external sources to earn a quick buck before Reacher and Kohl uncovered the truth about his practices and tried to stop him. After Quinn murdered Kohl, Reacher attempted to avenge her death by shooting Quinn off a cliff. However, Quinn somehow survived the gunshot and the fall after the bullet got lodged in his skull. The series does not delve too deep into how he survived or what happened to him in the years that followed.

However, given how Quinn does not identify Reacher after he meets him in season 3's episode 6, it seems like he got amnesia after being shot in the head and does not recall Jack Reacher at all. Despite getting a second shot at life, Quinn seemingly did not give up on his criminal ways. He adopted a new identity, Julius McCabe, and set out to build his own arms smuggling empire by targeting a huge dealer like Zachary Beck. Instead of making a formal deal with Beck, Quinn merely threatened to hurt him and his family before Beck surrendered and gave him full control over his arms smuggling network.

Quinn Owes Money To The Russian Mob (& Needs To Make A Big Sale)

The Loan Financed His Gun-Running Business

Quinn grows increasingly infuriated after he learns that the maid in Zachary Beck's home was an ATF agent. The revelation and a major shipment delay hold him back from making his "big sale" on time, which prevents him from paying the Russian mob. As Reacher season 3's episode 6 suggests, Quinn took a black market loan from a dangerous Russian mafia, Taktarov, to run his Northeast gun-smuggling business. By leveraging Beck's business network, he hoped to pull off a massive deal that would eventually help him pay off his debt.

Xavier Quinn is portrayed by Brian Tee in Reacher season 3.

However, to his dismay, things did not go as planned. When the Russian mob finally arrives at his doorstep, he is only able to provide them with a partial payment to keep them away for a while. Before leaving, though, Taktarov warns him that he will have to worry about himself if he does not pay up. With this, Quinn grows even more desperate and paranoid about the people he is working with and asks his men to increase security by looking into anyone who might be betraying him. He realizes that if he does not make his next sale on time, the Russian mob will not spare him.

Quinn Overtook Beck's Arms Smuggling Operation Before Reacher Season 3

Quinn Took Over Beck's Gun-Running Business Through Force

In Reacher season 3's episode 6, the titular character finally connects all the dots and realizes that long before Quinn even came into the picture, Zachary Beck was independently running a successful gun-running operation. He kept his unethical business hidden by disguising it under the cover of a rug-selling business called the Bizarre Bazaar. However, as Reacher deduces, Quinn "absorbed" both Beck and his business by threatening to hurt him and his family.

Beck adds that Quinn's life depends on a big sale, which has been significantly delayed because of bad weather on the Red Sea.

Quinn resorted to extreme methods by kidnapping Beck's son, Richard, and even cutting off his ear to send Beck a warning. Quinn's viciousness forced Beck to surrender, and he eventually gave up control of his gun-running operation to protect his son. When Reacher talks to Beck about Quinn in season 3's episode 6, Beck reveals that the Russian mob has Quinn by his throat and there is nothing he can do to stop them. Beck adds that Quinn's life depends on a big sale, which has been significantly delayed because of bad weather on the Red Sea.

Beck tells Reacher that owing to the delays in shipment, the buyers were even on the verge of pulling out of the deal. However, since Quinn's life depended on it, he barely held things together. Fearing his own life, Quinn takes out his frustration on Zachary Beck and his son, blaming them for the delays and the precarious position he finds himself in. Since Beck knows what Quinn is capable of doing to him and his son, he feels helpless and struggles to find a way out of the situation.

Which Villains Work For Quinn & Which Ones Work For Beck

Most Men Involved In The Operation Work For Quinn

Even though Quinn cares little about Beck's opinion, Beck seems to have some power over who gets to work in the business and his mansion. For instance, Beck apologizes for allowing the undercover maid, Annette, to work at his home, suggesting that he had hired her. Many of Beck's henchmen and truckers, including Angel, also continue to work for him after Quinn takes over his business. However, to ensure Beck stays under his thumb and does not attempt to outsmart him, Quinn makes some of his men keep a close eye on Beck at all times.

Beck's former head of security, John Chapman Duke, was seemingly recruited by Quinn to protect the entire gun-smuggling operation. Olivier Richter's Paulie, too, seems to serve as Zachary Beck's bodyguard but works under Quinn's command. Owing to this, when Quinn tortures Beck and his son, Paulie stands back and forces them to comply with Quinn. Even when it comes to Reacher, Beck only suggests that he could replace Duke, but Quinn gets to call the final shots on whether Reacher is capable of becoming his head of security. All in all, Quinn maintains a tight grip on everything from Beck's operations to the men working under him.

Quinn Hires A Separate Outfit To Assassinate Neagley

He Seems To Have Outsourced The Gunmen

Soon after Quinn announces a crackdown on all outsiders who have tried to take his operation down, two gunmen capture the Special Investigation Unit member who previously helped Reacher run Quinn's plates. Since Reacher also took Neagley's help, a few gunmen also arrive at Neagley's private detective services office in season 3's episode 6. Neagley puts her military experience and tactical intelligence on full display by taking down all three men at once.

Although Reacher season 3's episode 6 does not reveal in what capacity the gunmen work for Quinn, Quinn seems to have outsourced them from a reliable contractor. The gunmen do not appear anywhere near Beck's gun smuggling operation, suggesting that they were solely hired to kill anyone who posed a threat to Quinn and his business. As Reacher season 3's episode 6 suggests, Quinn and the hired gunmen seem to underestimate Neagley and do not realize how capable she truly is until it is too late.