Summary
Cross Season 2 gets off to a bleak start in “Harrow”, with plenty of violence and grim themes. But the stage is capably set for another engaging investigation.
The first season of Cross was pretty dark, granted, but it wasn’t “burning alive and cutting the fingers off of rich child predators” dark, so there’s a feeling of Season 2 very much setting its stall out here in Episode 1. “Harrow” is about the obligatory introductions and reintroductions that come with a second season, checking in on how Cross, Sampson, and Elle are doing now, giving us the outline of a new case, and introducing the new villainous contingent, hence the cold open. It’s a nice way to set the tone, although perhaps “nice” isn’t the right word.
Either way, we’re establishing the particulars. There are a few threads to pick up on from Season 1, mostly involving Cross and Elle, but things are largely pretty new. Let’s break it all down.
Wrong Thing, Right Reasons
The eerie cold open of “Harrow” introduces Rebecca and Donnie, who are technically villains insofar as being murderers, but also on the right side of things morally, given that they’re murdering billionaire pedophiles and liberating their sex slaves. Anyone who takes as much pleasure as Rebecca takes in offing this guy, though, is probably not entirely even keel.
Pick up on the clues. Rebecca is out for revenge for something that happened to her mother; I’m guessing this is the primary motive, and freeing the innocent is just a bonus. She also removes three fingers from her victim for initially mysterious purposes, but we’ll circle back to that. There’s a slightly culty religious element to all this that, again, we’ll return to later.
Initially, it isn’t clear how Rebecca and Donnie really fit into what the broader plot of Cross Season 2 is going to be. They’re positioned as liberators, avengers, though also as creepy maniacs. It’s a difficult balance to achieve, but “Harrow” manages it.
Cross Section
Allow me to provide a brief rundown of where Cross is at now. After the events of the first season, he’s kind of a big deal, enough that he’s asked to give an inspiring speech to a group of new cadets. He has patched up his differences with Sampson, and things – at least in his mind – are looking up with Elle.
That’s a little bit more complicated than he’s letting on. Elle has technically forgiven him and is regularly hanging out around the house because she continues to have a good relationship with his kids, but she’s dating someone else and isn’t ready to return to Cross romantically. He thinks she is, though, which I’m sure will result in some confusion down the line.
Billionaire Boys’ Club
Before long, Cross is assigned to a new case, which helps tie the cold open to the main plot. Kayla Craig has been instructed by the FBI to investigate some threats being made to billionaire Lance Durand, and the director of the Bureau wants her to work with Alex to help keep the press out of it. Durand is a big deal thanks to some philanthropic feed-the-world initiative, and he doesn’t want the big launch of his new product to be sullied by negative coverage.
For this reason, Durand has been investigating the matter internally for the last 18 months with his head of security, Nat, who he insists works the case alongside Kayla and Cross. But things have taken a more serious turn since the latest note came accompanied by three severed fingers, clearly meant as a warning if the “you’re next” note is anything to go by.
Of course, we have a pretty good idea of where those fingers came from, but we don’t know what connection Durand has to the man those fingers previously belonged to.
Sounds like a job for Cross.
Subplot Corner
While this is going on, we get an introduction to two character-driven subplots that are clearly going to be playing out in the background.
The first involves Kayla, whose career is being threatened by a case she worked earlier in her career codenamed Operation: Bad Religion. Whatever went on here – it’s implied to be an illegal off-the-books kind of thing – is threatening to come to the surface in the form of a “ghost gun”, without any serial number, having turned up in another case. Luckily, now that Kayla is working with Metro PD, she can attempt to derail the investigation and keep her name clear.
The second involves Sampson, who is asked for specifically by a woman named LaDonna Duvernay, who has been accused of murder in what seems like a pretty open-and-shut case. Sampson is reluctant, since he’s helping Cross and Kayla out, but when he eventually visits the interview room, LaDonna tells him that she’s innocent and that she’s his mother.
Quite the turn. We’ll have more on this as we go, I’m sure.
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