Summary
Cross wraps up its Season 2 plot satisfyingly enough, but the ballsy part of the ending is how disillusioned it leaves its title character.
The ending of Cross Season 2 is, in a way, at war with itself. On the one hand, it has to resolve the plot as satisfyingly as possible, which means, at a bare minimum, bringing Lance Durand to justice and collapsing his operation for the sake of the children whose buried bones it was built atop of. But on the other hand, it has to do this in a way that thoroughly alters Cross’s worldview, that causes him to reject the system that he’s a trigger-happy arm of. And that means Episode 8 can’t be too satisfying, lest it undermine the point it’s trying to make.
As far as finales go, then, this is an impressive one, since it accomplishes both objectives about as well as can be reasonably expected. Cross has always been a bit anti-establishment at his core, of course, but the thoroughness of the moral bankruptcy here is a whole new level. And it has the added bonus of recontextualising who is on Cross’s side and who isn’t; who will put what’s right above what’s best for them and their careers. If there’s a third season – and I do suspect there might be – it won’t look very much like this one.
Luz’s Final Victims
After the efforts to protect the remaining billionaires on Luz’s hit list miserably failed, only Lance and Nat remain. And safeguarding them for long enough that Lance can launch his media-darling altruistic feed-the-world project is more important to the FBI than apprehending Rebecca (everyone calls her Luz in this, but I’ve been referring to her as Rebecca the whole time, so we might as well stick with it.) Luckily, Rebecca isn’t dissuaded by a bit of additional security.
After luring Nat away from dinner to an urgent care by triggering a bell pepper allergy, Luz kills her at the hospital. I thought we might have had a redemption arc for Nat at some point, but she doubled down, so good riddance. As for Durand, his driver is secretly conspiring with Rebecca, so instead of taking Durand to safety, he returns him to his Iowa family farm, where Rebecca plans to bury him along with Nat.
Annoyingly, Cross and Sampson arrive in the nick of time to prevent his execution. Rebecca is able to get away by tossing Durand into the grave and beginning the process of burying him alive, leaving Cross and Sampson to reluctantly dig him up before he asphyxiates.
Border Crossing
Rebecca’s end is pretty ignoble. Using the secret recording that Griff made, which clarifies that it was actually Rebecca’s aunt, Clare, who sold out her mother, Cross is able to set a trap. He leaves Clare to go free, but plays the recording for Rebecca. At the U.S./Canadian border, Rebecca catches up with Clare for a final confrontation.
It’s depressing, this. Rebecca always thought her quest was righteous, that she was only ever killing people who truly deserved it, but the fact that the genesis of her quest was her own aunt setting up her own mother for chump change kind of undermines it. Clare turned Rebecca into a weapon to cover her own tracks, and she killed Donnie, the last person whom Rebecca might have considered to be family, to once again obscure her own involvement. That isn’t as noble as Rebecca has been led to believe.
Cross arrives with convenient timing again, giving Clare a chance to commit suicide-by-cop. As for Rebecca, she has reached the end of the road and casts herself off the dam at the border before Cross can stop her.
The System Is Broken
This all happens pretty early into the Cross Season 2 finale, but that’s because the ending is about how Rebecca’s brand of justice will die with her if the system has anything to say about it. Before her death, Rebecca sent Cross incontrovertible proof of Durand’s various crimes, and with Kayla now the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI, he’s confident that he’ll be able to fulfil Rebecca’s dying wish by bringing Durand to justice.
But not quite. The FBI considers Durand’s Prosperity Seed project of more importance than the truth. It has to go ahead, which means that no charges will be brought against Durand. His company will be forced to clean itself up behind closed doors, but that’s the only way in which he’ll suffer. Needless to say, this isn’t good enough for Cross, who lays Roy out – deservedly – and absconds with the evidence.
Justice Prevails
Cross uses all of his remaining allies to evade capture for long enough to get the evidence to Senator Ashford, who is still feeling guilty about his mother’s own complicity in Durand’s schemes. Cross is arrested, but Ashford does the right thing and exposes everything Durand did at the press conference meant to introduce the bill supporting the Prosperity Seed project. He also directly praises Cross for bringing the whole thing to light, creating a situation where Cross can’t be punished for going rogue.
On the contrary, Cross is looking at a promotion and maybe another medal. He rejects both, handing in his gun and his badge, refusing to perpetuate the kind of self-serving corruption that underpins the system. Sampson, Elle, Nana Mama, and a few others all took his side and helped him in his time of need, but Kayla, crucially, didn’t. She remains a cog in the whirring machine of so-called law and order, presumably setting up that Mastermind twist down the line, though there isn’t any indication of that here.
But it’s a ballsy ending. It raises lots of big, legitimate questions about right and wrong and leaves Cross’s position uncertain. A third season will require some thinking outside the box to fit the broken pieces back together, but there’s a good chance the show will be up to the task.
