Sonya Cassidy: Duffy's strong moral compass gets tested in 'Reacher' S3

NEW YORK, March 26 (UPI) -- Lodge 49 and Humans alum Sonya Cassidy says Susan Duffy, the Drug Enforcement Agency officer she plays in Reacher Season 3, is surprised to find herself bonding with the show's hulking hero, who famously doesn't play by anyone's rules but his own.

"We're seeing a woman who has a very clear, strong moral compass, who believes in doing the right thing and will work her ass off to get it," Cassidy, 37, told UPI in a recent Zoom interview.

"But she's really being tested," the British actress added. "She is kind of in over her head and Reacher coming into her world -- their worlds colliding to kind of get the bad guys -- is well-timed because she needs a bit of the Reacher touch in order for her to get what she needs. The stakes are really high."

Season 3 of Reacher, which is an adaptation of Lee Child's best-selling novel Persuader, wraps up on Prime Video Thursday.

The season is set in Maine and follows the former U.S. Army military police officer-turned-crime-solving-drifter Jack Reacher (Alan Ritchson) as he joins forces with Duffy to take down Zachary Beck (Anthony Michael Hall), a powerful rug merchant/drug dealer, with an enormous bodyguard named Paulie (Olivier Richters), as well as Quinn (Brian Tee), a mystery man from Reacher's past.

Cassidy described Duffy as a "somewhat seasoned DEA agent."

"She's worked really hard to get where she is under the caring mentorship of Villaneuva (Roberto Montesinos), who is like an uncle to her. He is close to retiring, but, also, she is now responsible for a young rookie called Steven Eliot (Daniel David Stewart), who was working with them off the books on a case," the actress explained.

"When we start the show, it really hits the ground running. It was already complicated and dangerous, but when Reacher comes into the mix, they realize it's even more complicated and dangerous than they could have ever imagined."

Cassidy liked the immediate connection that Duffy has with Reacher.

"She's still sussing him out. She doesn't know whether she can trust him. She also doesn't pander to him," Cassidy said.

"He is very impressive in every way, but Duffy is in such a place that she just kind of cracks on and goes: 'Who are you? What do you want? Why are you here? How can we work together?'" she added.

"This guy could be a good egg, but she's not entirely sure, but she kind of goes, 'OK, let's take a run at this and see where it goes.' And, actually, then, I think we see a really lovely, interesting, respectful bond form between the two of them."

Reacher, who has no family and lives off the grid the best one can in the year 2025, moves from town to town, paying cash for his bus tickets and hotel rooms.

His conscience and law-enforcement background won't let him ignore strangers who are being hurt or oppressed, so he frequently -- but reluctantly -- takes on local bad guys, who end up being linked to larger criminal enterprises.

Reacher is inherently a lone wolf, which means he bristles when he has to share info with or depend on Duffy's team in his pursuit of Quinn.

"Part of what makes the show so entertaining is watching other people come into his world or for him to come into theirs," Cassidy said about Reacher. "I think he fits in really well [with Duffy's team]."

Cassidy worked with a dialect coach and watched movies set in New England to get that notoriously difficult regional accent right for her portrayal of Duffy.

"On YouTube, there's this lovely clip from the 1980s of these Boston longshoremen talking about working on the docks and everything and some lovely Boston Globe articles talking about when [gangster] Whitey Bulger was killed and all this stuff, so that was really helpful," she said.

"It became a kind of warm-up soundtrack to my life each morning but I had some great sessions with a dialect coach, as well, to just kind of turn it down a little," Cassidy added.

"It's really distracting if an accent isn't right, so, I hope I've convinced folks with this one."