ABC’s R.J. Decker is about to add a father to its cast of characters. Beau Bridges joins the show as Reggie Decker, R.J.’s estranged father, starting with the October 6 episode (10/9c). TVLine has the exclusive first look at his debut.
The news comes with a description of Reggie that lands somewhere between charming and unreliable. ABC describes him as “garrulous, charming, and perennially optimistic ‘entrepreneur’ with a fondness for unintentionally empty promises and unreliable behavior.” He has been largely absent from R.J.’s life, promising a “life-changing” score around the corner for years.
Reggie’s Big Debut
Reggie’s arrival changes that absence. In the upcoming episode, he reenters R.J.’s life while R.J. is investigating a murder at a fishing tournament. That investigation becomes deeply personal when a figure from R.J.’s past resurfaces — and that figure is Reggie himself.
The timing is not ideal for either of them. Reggie’s presence is about to be extremely present in R.J.’s life, albeit not the way either of them probably hoped.
What the Showrunners Said
Showrunner Rob Doherty explained why Reggie needed to exist in Season 2. “One of the things we wanted to do in the second season was to look more closely at who R.J. is, aside from the fact that he spent 18 months in prison for something he only sort of did,” he told TVLine.
Doherty said the team had “the tremendous good fortune of bringing Beau Bridges aboard.” He called Bridges “someone I’ve been watching on TV and in films my whole life, someone I look up to, someone Scott [Speedman] looks up to. We were really thrilled to get him to play R.J.’s dad.”
Scott Speedman Agrees
Scott Speedman, who plays R.J., echoed the excitement. He said the introduction of R.J.’s father helps audiences “get to know R.J. a bit more” as Season 2 unfolds, including “his personal life, his history, and how he came to be the man that he is now.”
“We’ll learn a little bit more about what R.J.’s childhood was like, and we’ll explore the path that led him here,” Doherty said. “He’s somebody who went from working for a newspaper, to an 18-month prison stint, to a career as a private eye in Fort Lauderdale. A fair amount of that can be traced back to what it was like growing up with the kind of dad he had.”
Speedman added that Reggie’s arrival puts R.J. “on his back foot a little bit.” He noted that “any time we get to kind of push him off-center, I think it works really well.”
The Strained Relationship
The relationship between R.J. and Reggie is the story’s engine. Doherty said the fans will see the two men test their connection. “They have an estranged relationship, which we test, story-wise, in the season,” Speedman said. “I think the fans are going to really like that aspect of it.”
Reggie’s return could also affect R.J.’s relationship with Emi. Emi knows from troubled dads, so she’ll be a good sounding board as R.J. starts to deal with the fact that his dad has popped up in Fort Lauderdale and is making waves.
What Comes Next
The October 6 episode is the start of a recurring arc. Doherty and Speedman both spoke about the story unfolding over multiple episodes, though neither committed to a specific arc length.
| Character | Role | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Reggie Decker | R.J.’s estranged father | Garrulous, charming entrepreneur with empty promises |
| R.J. Decker | Private investigator | Spent 18 months in prison for something he only sort of did |
| Emi | R.J.’s partner | Knows from troubled dads |
The comparison shows how the show uses Reggie to explain R.J. His father’s optimism and unreliability shaped the man R.J. became, from his newspaper days through his prison sentence to his current career as a private eye in Fort Lauderdale.
Our View
The setup is delightful. A father who is garrulous, charming, and optimistic — yet perpetually unreliable — is a character built to upend his son’s life. Reggie’s description suggests a man who makes grand promises and fails to deliver them, a pattern that has kept him largely absent from R.J.’s life for years.
That description is the key to why this arc works. A father who is charming but unreliable is far more interesting than one who is simply absent. It gives the show a reason for the estrangement beyond simple neglect. Reggie is the kind of dad who means well but consistently fails to show up when it counts.
The show has set itself up for a rich exploration of family, loyalty, and the messy business of forgiving those who let you down. Whether Reggie’s arrival forces R.J. to confront the man who raised him remains to be seen.
It also gives Speedman a chance to push R.J. off-center, which he has said works well for the character. R.J. is a “pretty cool customer,” Speedman said, and putting him under pressure from his father is a natural way to humanize him.
The question of whether R.J. will rebuild his relationship with Emi remains open. Emi’s role as a sounding board suggests the show wants to explore how R.J. deals with his father’s reappearance. Given her background with troubled fathers, she may offer a perspective that R.J. has not considered.
The October 6 episode will give fans their first look at Reggie in action. Reggie’s description is a gift to a writer, and the show has brought in a performer with Bridges’ respected reputation to play it.
The fans will get to see whether Reggie lives up to his description.
Source material: “R.J. Decker First Look: Beau Bridges Debuts As R.J.'s Estranged Father — Can He Be Trusted? (Exclusive),” TVLine.
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