When he returns from meeting the drug addict's wife and the subsequent fight. She's whining about how she could have handled it and he just lets it go!
Perhaps he should have said, "Hey idiot, if you had gone the four men who were watching and that I had to engage in mortal combat with would have shot you on sight had you been there! So how about a little shut the f*ck up and engage your brain before moaning about how you're not being taken seriously! K?"
I did wonder how she'd planned to deal with those four heavies, but I'd presume, to hold Reacher's old post and have his respect, she must be smart enough to handle them differently.
Reacher led them into an enclosed area knowing he'd likely have an edge and could goad them into attacking him hand-to-hand instead of just shooting him like they should've. He was exploiting his own advantages.
Presumably, Turner would've used a very different strategy.
I'm a little rusty as I haven't seen it for a while, but isn't the reason they were following him because they were looking for her to kill her? So if she'd been the one to go to the meeting, they'd have simply shot her as soon as they saw her.
share
They were also going to kill Reacher; they just wanted him to suffer first.
You're right, though, that they wanted Turner. But by that point, they wanted bot Turner and Reacher to tie up all the loose ends. Either one of them would be used as leverage to find the other.
It does reveal something of his character that he doesn't hit her with it. I thought this was one of the more interesting choices in an otherwise dull movie. He had chastised the child earlier, and overruled her when it came to venturing out. Could she have defeated the guys in combat? No. Not even the Reacher described in the books could have done it. The four-against-one thing is pure fantasy, but being strong and secure enough to take on her half-justified stream of abuse speaks to a strong, silent type. Moreover, since the audience knows what went down, it's boring to have him faithfully recount what happened.
shareI understand why he didn't because it would have been 'mean' and as you say superfluous to the audience. It just annoyed me when she was so arrogant and clueless just to salve her own bruised ego.