SPOILER ALERT AND WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Cross Season 2, Episode 8. It also contains discussion of suicide.

The Cross Season 2 finale is not the major event that Prime Video viewers will be wanting after seven nail-biting episodes. It is the finale that feels most true to Alex Cross and that paves the way for the show to get to Season 3. At times in “Quemar,” these two opposites conflict, but by the end fans will be satisfied with where Cross is.

Ben Watkins and company could have made this a much bigger hour, which is what many other shows would likely have done. Most of the action takes place within the first twenty minutes. In fact, Season 2’s biggest character doesn’t make it out of the first half-hour. It is a huge gamble when Jeanine Mason‘s Luz dies by suicide, just moments after seeing her aunt Claire commit suicide by cop. The stage was set for Luz and Cross to go head-to-head for even one last scene over the false idea that Cross killed Donnie, but there’s no such moment here. There isn’t even Luz getting back at Claire. And most importantly, taking Mason off the board so early also takes a whole lot of air out of the finale because she’s been so good. Luckily, anyone who enjoyed her here can catch her on Chicago Fire in a totally different role.

It’s Jeanine Mason who has the greatest scene in the Cross Season 2 finale. Having gotten a copy of the all-incriminating recording from Cross, Luz tearfully confronts Claire about how basically everything in her life has been a lie. What made Luz fascinating was Mason’s ability to humanize an antagonist—to convey emotion in even the most brutal of scenes—and it all comes spilling out in one final monologue. Luz is despondent as she reminds Claire that “I killed innocent people,” talking about how much she gave up for their false cause. It’s heartbreaking while also being perfect for the character’s arc; she’s still human, even after all of the things she’s done.

Once Luz is gone and all that’s left is to deal with Lance Durand, the Cross finale loses some of its luster. Viewers know there’s a “but” since there’s so much time left in the episode—and the “but” is predictable. The FBI doesn’t want to prosecute Durand since his Prosperity Seed program is such a big deal. Thus, the remainder of “Quemar” is Cross going rogue in order to ensure that Durand is held accountable. And it is entertaining, but Cross leading a bunch of agents on a Fast & Furious-type car chase is not as dynamic as Cross and Luz on that bridge, or Luz trying to bury Durand alive.

There’s even a little bit of eye-rolling when Cross takes a moment too long to catch onto the fact that a phone call from Kayla Craig is quite clearly a setup. He’s smart enough and experienced enough to know that he shouldn’t pick up the phone. Should Cross Season 3 happen, viewers might be pretty well divided on Kayla. The Mastermind arc was important for her (keep in mind what book character she shares a name with), but her ambition shone through on multiple occasions. Elle Monteiro seeing right through her sums the character up at this point. She might be on the side of the good guys, but she’s not someone worth rooting for. In contrast, how wonderful is it to see Elle back at the end?

The swan song moment of the Cross Season 2 finale is when Senator Ashford turns his press conference to endorse the Prosperity Seed into a public excoriation of Lance Durand. Viewers probably did not have Josh Peck down as playing one of the biggest roles in the season. There is also an unintentional bit of comedy in this sequence, because Matthew Lillard’s performance is so understated. Durand is standing right next to Ashford as these grim accusations are made, and yet his reaction is mostly a calm “okay, you got me” instead of the meltdown that audiences might be expecting. Maybe because Lillard already had two monologues—Durand’s ineffective puff piece at the beginning of the episode, and then one more to Luz—the creative team decided not to try for a third.

It’s appreciated that the episode provides justice for Durand and some closure for the murder victims. When a crime involves children, TV viewers especially want to see that justice is done in the end. It would spoil the whole season if Cross had let Durand get away. But there’s less emotional impact in the second half of the finale. The shots of grieving families carrying their kids’ caskets through the street are so poignant, and then there’s the scene of Cross resigning from the police force. Having seen all the corruption that enabled Durand, he now feels the system is broken—and that makes perfect sense. Viewers have seen the same thing over eight episodes, so they have the same point of view that Cross has. They share his outrage. Thus this doesn’t feel like a cliffhanger for the sake of having some cool ending. It would be almost stranger if he hadn’t quit.

This lays the groundwork for a creative overhaul of Cross if there is a Season 3—which as of this writing is not official, but it would be very odd if the show wasn’t renewed given its continued high quality. The audience knows Alex Cross can’t permanently leave town, because then the series would also be leaving behind all the other characters. At the same time, readers of James Patterson’s book series know that the novel version of Cross has gone through different job descriptions over the years. So the TV series has room to move him in a new direction. And a lot of what happens in “Quemar” feels like a cleaning of the slate. One cannot overlook Nana Mama getting to confront LaDonna, but also LaDonna making up with John Sampson and giving him information on his father. The Cross Season 2 finale is not the epic ending that it may have been, but it’s a new beginning, and that’s satisfying too.

Cross Season 2 is now streaming on Prime Video. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Prime Video.

Article content is (c)2020-2026 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.