Willa Fitzgerald’s Roscoe Conklin was a breakout favorite in Reacher Season 1, thanks to her no-nonsense charisma and genuine chemistry with Alan Ritchson’s Don't Call Me Jack Reacher. But despite viewers holding out hope that she’d return, especially after Reacher Season 2 gave us a Finlay cameo and even name-dropped Roscoe, all signs now point to her absence being permanent — and this time, the confirmation comes straight from the top. We are disappointed.

Speaking to Forbes, Lee Child, the author behind the Jack Reacher novels, admitted that while he becomes emotionally attached to many of the women he writes — “I fall hopelessly in love with them,” he said — the structure of the books demands that they rarely stick around. “It’s always bittersweet,” Child explained, “but it works.” That logic, while understandable, might be frustrating for fans who saw potential in a deeper, long-term arc between Reacher and Roscoe.