‘Cross’ Season 2, Episode 5 Recap – Hero Meets Villain, But What’s the Difference?

Cross Season 2 made a bit of a misstep recently, making its villain look a bit doltish by falling in love with a dude she’d met only five minutes prior. With Lincoln out of the way, Episode 5 is better, though it does take the cop-out route when it comes to last week’s suggestion that Kayla might be a psycho so bonkers that even Bobby Trey was appalled. But other than that, “Climb” is good, solid crime drama business, even indulging in the always-fun trope of the lead detective meeting the Big Bad in person but not being able to arrest them due to a lack of evidence.

This is where Rebecca comes into her own as well, for what it’s worth. She’s an interesting character, and we’ve seen Jeanine Mason cycle through various modes with her already – nutcase serial killer in the premiere, forlorn romantic last time out, but here she’s believably smart and indignant, which is probably the best fit. She and Cross are on the same page about their ultimate objective of justice, just not the best means to go about achieving it.

Rebecca’s Renewal

Something has changed in Rebecca, though. Lincoln’s death has shaken her. In a nattily edited opening, the examination of his corpse is juxtaposed with Rebecca’s cleansing, ritualistic bath, with her receiving a new tattoo, immune to the pain but still feeling the hurt of Lincoln’s passing. Sure, I still don’t buy that grief – she barely knew this guy – but I like the idea of a crisis of conscience in all its forms.

But after the freshening up and a bit of backstory for Donnie exploring the origin of his mental and physical scars, Rebecca is reminded – as is the audience – of why her mission is so important. It’s true that the best villains are the heroes of their own stories, but Rebecca and Donnie are kind of the heroes of this story in general, only taking out people who really and truly deserve it. Rebecca’s faith in the importance of what she’s doing is renewed, and she’s more determined than ever to double down on not playing ball with Alex Cross.

The Kayla Cop-Out

After discovering that incredibly damning video of Kayla, Bobby turns up at her apartment in “Climb” blasting music from a Bose speaker that the camera lingers on in a way that only seems to happen in things streaming on Prime Video, looking for answers. Kayla acts like she’s seeing the video for the very first time, and claims it’s a deep fake, which the rest of the episode goes on to support. Boo! It’d be so much more fun if she really were that much of a villain.

But Kayla needs evidence to support her claims, so she points Bobby in the direction of someone who can help. But that lead turns out to be a dead end since the FBI just raided his whole operation. Suspicious timing of this aside, Kayla instead refers Bobby to Bruce Folsom, an agent who owes her a favour. But Bobby isn’t exactly subtle, so word of him reaching out to an active Fed at Kayla’s behest gets back to Roy pretty much immediately.

Luckily, Kayla has amassed enough kompromat on Roy’s greasy climb to the top of the local ladder that he can’t really tell her what to do, even though he tries. Kayla gets her way, and Folsom is sent to her apartment to comb through the footage and figure out whose face her AI-generated mug has been plastered on top of. Folsom is eventually successful, and the real perpetrator is someone Kayla recognises.

Face to Face

Cross Season 2, Episode 5 finds Kayla and Alex at a bit of a dead end, leads-wise, but it doesn’t take long for some good old detective work to lead them both to Rebecca’s literal doorstep, armed with almost her complete backstory.

But this isn’t the compelling thing. The best idea is that Cross has to try to convince Rebecca to play ball. She knows he’s onto her, and he knows she’s guilty, but they both know she’s in the right, at least morally speaking, so it’s a careful game of how much he’s willing to reveal and how far he’s willing to let Rebecca go, so that they both achieve their desired outcomes. It also has a slight undercurrent of sexual tension to it, but that might be just an accident on account of the attractiveness of Aldis Hodge and Jeanine Mason in general. I don’t think even Cross would cross that line, especially when he’s already crossing a pretty big one HR-wise by constantly bedding Kayla.

Either way, Rebecca gets the upper hand, luring Cross into an ambush by Donnie that almost gets him killed. Luckily, Kayla saves the day, although not in person. Instead, she sends Bobby to bail Cross out, and he manages to wing Donnie so that he flees, and Cross lives to fight another day. Maybe that chemistry didn’t mean much after all.

And Another Thing…

Some other matters to pay attention to in “Climb”:

• Rebecca has moved on to her next target, Senator Ashford, but she isn’t going to kill this one (at least not yet). Instead, his supposedly noble mother’s long-time connections to Crestbook and Lance Durand might unveil a treasure trove of valuable kompromat.
• Sampson is still investigating his mother’s murder case, but this whole thing is really dragging its feet.
• Berto seems to have disappeared from the plot entirely, which is weird since Cross nobly took him on and then just left the state. Who’s looking after him?
• Elle falls out with Janelle because the latter spots Trevor’s name in the former’s planner, and she realizes that things probably aren’t going to work out romantically with Elle and her dad. Turns out using her as an unpaid babysitter all the time wasn’t the smartest idea.