The biggest surprise from Cross Season 2 Episode 8 was its ability to wrap everything up.
If there was a fear that Cross wouldn’t give us closure, the finale dispels that within the first half hour, as the overly ambitious season takes a similar approach in wrapping up as many loose ends as it presents.
It results in an overstuffed hour. And now, we have a cliffhanger that leaves Alex Cross at a crossroads.
Surprisingly, the season finale wraps up the Luz portion of the arc quicker than one would’ve expected.
Before the halfway mark of the episode, she finds out the truth about her aunt’s involvement in her mother’s murder, confronts her about it, and jumps to her “demise.”
It happens so quickly that it’s hard to even process how we got to that point.
But it did start with her finally attacking Nat, who was next up on the list.
The allergic reaction to the peppers was awful, but then it led Nat to the healthcare facility that was conveniently created in honor of Gabriela, Luz’s mother, and Luz and Nat brawled it out before Luz had some fun with that knife of hers and watched Nat bleed out.
There’s so much throat slitting! But no fingers cut off, right?
Naturally, Luz went after Lance next, hoping to finally make him answer for his sins, but after Alex and John caught up to her, resulting in that shootout, instead, we had Luz almost burying Lance alive but him living to see another day.
Evil doesn’t die easily, don’t you know.
But then we whipped to the US/Canadian bridge, and by then the logistics were confusing me a bit because weren’t they in Iowa?
Nevertheless, I was eager to see the showdown between Luz and her aunt after Alex shared the recording of that message that Clare thought she had buried and killed Donnie over.
Clare sold her own sister out, led her to her death for a few grand. Not even enough to buy a house. It’s unfathomable.
And her only defense was that they were going to kill Gabriela anyway, so it was better that she got something out of it, basically. What?!! Ma’am!
Clare spent Luz’s entire life grooming her, shaping her into a weapon, and as Luz astutely noted, making her kill and erase all of her softness, her innocence, and everything.
She fashioned a weapon out of a child to get revenge against the same people she worked alongside, and she robbed Luz of her life in the process. It’s unthinkable!
And then she essentially robbed Luz of her only real, meaningful connections, too, with Lincoln and Donnie.
Plus, after all of that, she opted for death by suicide, so she even took herself out of the equation and left Luz alone. It was infuriating, to say the least.
It wasn’t the least bit surprising that Luz opted to jump off the bridge, and Alex, who had some real connection building with her, couldn’t get her to stop.
But with his promise to take down Lance, Luz didn’t have much to live for, and at the very least, she needed an exit strategy because of all the murders she had committed, including innocents.
I am glad that she acknowledged that, whereas before she hadn’t realized she sounded a bit like Lance, suggesting that they were casualties and sacrifices for a cause.
But Cross didn’t let Luz become a full-on martyr; instead, they showed us that she somehow survived that ordeal.
She’s back in México, burying the bones of the many children they dug up on Lance’s property and getting a sense of closure as well as getting to be immersed in her mother’s homeland and presumably coming into her own with an identity that she felt was robbed from her — that was robbed from her.
The remainder of the hour devotes its time to actually taking Lance down.
Goodness knows it seemed only Alex and his crew wanted that to happen. The annoying thing about billionaires is that they can have entire agencies in their pockets.
The head of the FBI was prattling on about Lance’s company and getting to feed people globally, when we all know he didn’t give a shit about that; it was just about the money.
And I actually snorted laughing when he suggested America was moving forward with this so as not to start some kind of World War III.
As if America wouldn’t light the fuse for said war. Hell, just watch the news, well… some of it.
The idea that they’d just look past all the trafficking, child labor, and dead children just to let Lance do his thing was so irritating in its realism.
And Kayla was right there, just lapping up the fact that she got a promotion and trying to play both sides, or whatever she thought she was doing.
No disrespect to Alona Tal, who kills it as this character and basically in any role she plays, but if I never have to see Kayla again on Cross, it’ll be too soon. I’m tired.
Although watching her and Elle go at it was amusing, if only because I love watching Elle see through all the antics Kayla pulled out of the playbook: Fake nice. Pretend friend. Appealing to trying to save and help Alex. Weaponized tears. Threats.
The sad reality is that if Alex didn’t know he could appeal to Senator Ashford, who was probably the only politician in existence dedicated to trying to make right and amend the sins of the past and the blood on his family’s hands, Lance would just be roaming free, doing whatever.
And they actively had people trying to stop Alex, even if it meant treating him like a fugitive.
All of that was fun and exciting, albeit random. I wish we had more of that communal feeling throughout the entire season. I’ll never tire of the neighborhood coming through for Alex or Two John kicking ass.
High-speed chases in mustangs through DC make for great action, even if it didn’t necessarily make sense. And I know residents probably have whiplash when it comes to Alex.
One minute, he’s on the news as a hero, the next, a suspect, the next, a hero again, and so forth. He feels like their very own superhero, which is often what the show aims for; sometimes it’s just a bit too extra.
Ashford taking down Lance publicly because of all of this was satisfying enough.
And Alex getting his usual warm welcome by everyone later on, after things wrapped up, and he was no longer on the run, was fun.
But then we got to the end, and a full season of grappling with what justice even looks like caught up with him.
I can’t say I blame him. He spent that entire case dealing with people like Lincoln and Luz, reminding him that he was just a lapdog for “The Establishment” and doing a rich man’s bidding rather than actual justice.
Lance almost quite literally got away with murder for the sake of optics, money, power, and more. Everywhere he turned, justice, the thing he strives for and fights for and tries to instill, was just an illusion shattered.
None of it meant anything. I could relate a bit to that sentiment. It’s something that got to me during law school. And that was well before everything went to hell and the law really did stop meaning anything.
Alex turning in his badge is two seasons in the making, so it’s not a surprise. But he’s not long for this state. He can’t NOT be a cop. I don’t think he knows how to navigate the world without attempting to balance the scales.
And at the end of the day, the system is indeed broken, but it’s people like him that keep the bits of it that aren’t together.
How can he fix or at least combat a broken system when he’s no longer within it, holding the line? It leaves Alex in an interesting place to set up the third season.
Cross can’t be Cross without the badge, to some degree.
And it bummed me out that he left like he did and didn’t seem to talk to Two John about it, which has been a frustrating issue all season with the lack of those two sharing the screen and working together.
The finale reminds us that Cross isn’t alone, but he still does that thing where he’s going at it alone, which undermines things a bit.
But I’m curious to see where he’ll end up after this — he’s rattled by his idea of justice not aligning with the painful reality of it.
His disillusionment here is in a way that’s raw and relatable. It opens the doors up for some really interesting evolution and exploration… we just need to see where the show goes with it.
Thoughts and Things:
- Jeanine Mason absolutely BODIED this role of Luz. She was so fun to watch the entire time, and I loved rooting for a villainess with a cause that made you relate.
- I missed my guy Bobby Trey. So, he killed Felicia and just went back to prison?
- Everything with LaDonna was weak, and the showdown between Nanna Mama and LaDonna was anticlimactic. Same with Nanna Mama talking with John again. And now we have his father’s name. Hopefully, this arc will go better.
- Cross wasted Two John during most of this season, and they deprived us of the great dynamic between him and Cross, and I’ll forever be upset about that.
- Matthew Lillard had so much fun playing Lance, and I loved watching him in this mode, even though Lance is appalling.
- The beauty of Cross is that you get to see more justice for what’s happening onscreen than in our reality because the way this entire season feels all too relevant and yet… we’re left hanging in real life? It’s sobering.
- I’m glad the kids got their reunion, but it was ultimately a storyline we didn’t actually need since we didn’t spend nearly enough time at Cross’ home or watching them navigate having a traumatized child who doesn’t speak English living with them.
- Alex almost telling Elle he loved her after this entire season of bullcrap with trifling Kayla had me rolling my eyes. I don’t know what they intend to do with those two, but good grief.
Over to you, Cross Fanatics.
How did you feel about this finale? What do you think about the cliffhanger? What are your hopes for a third season? Let’s discuss it all!
You can stream the entire season on Prime Video.
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