The Incredibly Satisfying Ending of Prime Video’s ‘Cross’ Revealed

Literally the first thing my teenager asked me this morning was: “Why are there so many mystery shows on TV all of a sudden?” I replied: Actually, this is the case used to be. Television was once dominated by cops and lawyers, and it feels like we’re returning to that, not just with the usual CBS procedurals, but also with new entries like the one below. High Potential, ElsbethAnd matlock.

However, I think the best product in this genre is Michael Connelly’s series: Lincoln’s Lawyer And Bosch’s universe – television adaptations of above-average airplane novels. As Jen wrote earlier this week, the first season To go past it’s definitely part of the conversation now. Based on James Patterson’s character, the Prime Video series delivers meat-and-potatoes credibility. Bosch’s And Lincoln’s Lawyerwith some social policy to give it weight. Aldis Hodge and Isaiah Mustafa shine and often lift up mediocre writing.

This mediocrity is most evident in the season’s main villain, Ed Ramsay (New AmsterdamRyan Eggold does a bad blonde dye job). Ramsay is a cartoonish antagonist: a “fan” serial killer obsessed with other killers. His whole prank consists of kidnapping people who look like his heroes, altering their appearance through plastic surgery, and recreating their deaths down to their last meal. Naturally, his final victim, Shannon (Eloise Mumford), was kidnapped and turned into Aileen Wuornos because serial killer programming can’t stand torturing women.

Eggold’s screen time in the first six episodes mostly involves Ramsay torturing Shannon, having her teeth cut out for reconstruction. To add insult to injury, Ramsay even stages a bizarre re-enactment of Wuornos’ botched execution, unbeknownst to Shannon.

Two key clues – the plastic surgeon who helped Shannon change and a detective mole who helped Ramsay – eventually lead Cross and his partner Sampson to Ramsay just in time. Ramsay’s overlong villain monologue gives them the time they need to save Shannon (who eventually falls into a coma). Ramsay looks set to take his own life via injection before Cross can arrest him.

But as of the paperback mystery playbook, Ramsay’s injection only slows his heart. When he wakes up in the morgue, he kills the medical examiner and later the police officer guarding Shannon’s hospital room. Suspecting that “suicide” is too easy, Cross is there to stop Ramsay just as he tries to kill Shannon.

In a final twist, Cross denies Ramsay the disgrace he desires. During the interrogation, Cross burns the book detailing Ramsay’s crimes and charges him with only one murder and one kidnapping, securing a life sentence but erasing Ramsay’s dream of being remembered as a notorious serial killer.

The Ramsey case concludes in the penultimate episode, with the finale focusing on a second villain: the one who killed Cross’s wife, Maria, a year earlier. This mysterious stalker had been tormenting Cross throughout the season and was determined to ruin his life. Unfortunately, the explanation fails. It turns out that the person who has infiltrated Cross’s life under the guise of charity is the children’s kindly piano teacher, Miss Nancy (Karen Robinson).

When Cross needs a safe place for his children (and his girlfriend), Miss Nancy offers her remote cabin in the woods. Cross eventually realizes that he is the stalker and arrives at the cabin with Sampson just in time to save his children.

Miss Nancy’s backstory includes her role as a “street mother” of two children named Peter (a Black man) and Dierdre (a white woman). Years ago, Miss Nancy persuaded Dierdre to take the blame for a murder committed by Peter, believing that Dierdre’s whiteness would secure leniency. Instead, Cross testified that Dierdre was a psychopath and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Dierdre later committed suicide in prison and blamed Miss Nancy Cross, but her reaction – killing his wife and trying to kill his children – was wildly disproportionate. But James Patterson’s villains rarely worry about proportion.

Ultimately, both villains are admittedly flawed, but that’s part of the appeal of short crime novel adaptations. Viewers know exactly what they’re signing up for; It’s just enough intrigue to scratch the puzzle-solving part of our brains without requiring us to think about it. more more. With incredibly satisfying endings, To go past fits the bill perfectly.