Why did Reacher kill Paulie? The fight alone took three weeks to film — and broke real bones

The in-story reason is simple. The production story is the interesting one.

The plot reason

Paulie is Xavier Quinn's enforcer, guarding the Beck estate in coastal Maine. Reacher spends all eight episodes undercover inside that operation, and Paulie never buys the cover for a second — the tension between them is set up long before either throws a punch.

In the finale, Reacher's team moves on the estate to stop Quinn and recover Teresa. Paulie is on guard duty. He isn't a target Reacher goes looking for; he's the obstacle standing between Reacher and the man who killed Dominique Kohl. It ends the only way that setup can.

How the fight actually ends

It runs long. The two go into the water and try to drown each other, and Paulie sinks — then resurfaces on the highway and follows Reacher back to the guardhouse. There they wrestle over a belt-fed machine gun hanging from the ceiling.

Paulie wins that struggle. He gets the barrel on Reacher and fires. What he doesn't know is that Reacher pulled a round from the belt and plugged the barrel, so the gun detonates in his face.

Reacher's exit line: "You might be bigger and stronger. But I'm smarter."

Three weeks, and the injuries were real

Alan Ritchson told The Hollywood Reporter in 2025 that the sequence took three weeks to shoot and described it plainly:

"Those were the three hardest weeks of my life."

Ritchson also said he broke his shins during preparation and added around 12 inches of height to his training to match Richters's reach. Richters, for his part, spent roughly four months building the fight skills before shooting started.

The tally afterward, per Richters's account to CNET in 2025:

• Broken bones — one each, both actors.
• Lost toenails — an unglamorous byproduct of three weeks of night shoots.
• Damaged ligaments — on both sides.
• Seven months of rehab — Richters's recovery time after the shoot wrapped.

Ritchson had already taken an accidental live punch from Richters earlier in the season, which he mentioned to Business Insider with the observation that he wouldn't want to fight the man for real.

Was it worth it?

Richters thinks so — he's called it possibly the best fight sequence ever put on television, which is a large claim from a participant, though the season 3 reception did little to contradict him. Ritchson fought his own team to do the shot where Paulie puts his face through a table, because they wanted a stunt double for it.

For the record: Richters got the audition partly because Ritchson flagged him. The message to production was reportedly a question about whether the giant could act.