Cross – Season 1 Episode 4 Recap & Review

Masks

Episode 4 of Cross begins with Susan in court during the past, doing her thing as a lawyer. She talks about a victim, Lance Marion, who was brutally beaten and tortured by Deidre Nolan. He was hit 17 times and this dress she’s wearing happens to be the same one at the cemetery hanging up.

In the present, Alex learns that Brenda was working as a CO at the same prison but was fired for abusing her power. Alex was actually one of the witnesses at Diedre’s case and said that she’s not able to be saved. This is against his own message to the kids that there’s always hope of rehabilitation. It also doesn’t seem like there’s any way of getting to her either.

Meanwhile, Ed has Shannon tied up in the closet of his next house, in the basement, and he hires a coupe of workers to make the place soundproof.

At the station, Alex Cross brings up the serial killer book and the connection with everything they’ve uncovered so far. It turns out the serial killers are even being killed with the exact same methods. This book is the key to finding Shannon and appears to be the final puzzle piece, given there are 11 other cases and 12 to complete the whole thing. For now, they’re calling this the ‘Fanboy’ case.

It doesn’t take long for John and Alex to figure out that this is tied in with Shannon and the dating apps. They’re using e-Fling, it would seem, because this lets you match with any gender. Using the profiles on there for both Emir and Shannon – and any crossover for their matches –  Cross tries to find a link.

Well, it seems the Fanboy is actually using names of real serial killers. So in order to trap this guy, John and Alex decide to play him at his own game. Part of this includes sending over to Tania Hightower what they’ve discovered so far. This only works to rile up the protestors more, as they make a big song and dance over the fact Shannon has only been missing a few days and she’s already on the front page.

Alex Cross goes protagonist-mode and after looking over everything, he realizes that Ed wants to be adored. He knows the book is the key, and this is the last opportunity they’re going to get to catch him before he slips away forever.

With time of the essence, John manages to obtain the psych evaluation for Deidre, conducted by Alex Cross himself. This gives them a clue surrounding the motive given it’s linked in to revenge. However, there’s another clue that comes out at the station.

Shannon has Dermatitis, and this explains the rashes on her skin we saw last time out. Now, there are only a few specialist chemists that would fix up the skin to make someone look perfect as it can’t be done with over the counter medication. Long story short, they find that lead in a place called Kugler’s. The customer’s name was Harry Powers, which is another serial killer’s name in a movie. However, given Ed would need a legit prescription and some form of ID for this, then he’s definitely messed up as they can trace it back.

The gang at the station track down that Ed originally lives in Indiana. This scrapbook is his bible and he adores these killers. He’s not just a fanboy, he’s an absolute fanatic and he likens himself to an artist.

That night, Alex Cross and the others do karaoke to let their hair down. However, the system is hacked by an unknown force that blares out the 911 call that Alex made when Maria died. The trouble is, the root can’t be traced back as it’s Bluetooth and “open as wide as a hangar” according to the analysts that show up. So for now, we’re no closer to the truth.

Alex Cross chases after Trey, who gets the book back from Ed, thanks to a botched operation at the warehouse involving Chris Wu. The trouble is, Trey manages to slip away after Alex shoots him, knocking the guy into the water from the bridge they overlook.

When the police show up, alongside Chief Anderson as well, it seems the trail has gone cold. There’s no sign of Trey, and the tracker is gone. Trey is actually an ex-cop, as it turns out, and Chief Anderson has a headache over trying to explain this away to the press. He spins the story with Anderson that this man is their real Fanboy, when in secret, he works with John to find the killer.

Ed notices that Alex is trending on the news following the bridge incident and decides he needs to take the guy more seriously than he has been. As for Alex himself, Kayla shows up to see him in the morning and confirms that the Harry Powers synonym has been used before. Specifically at an auction last March for a photograph. And of course, it’s here he realizes Ed Ramsay is the killer, which we knew 4 episodes back.

The Episode Review

The trouble with a cat and mouse game like is, is that audiences are just waiting for characters within the show to catch up to information we already have. Cross falls right into that trap and even worse, it goes the cheesy route of having the little “think tank” moments where Alex uses his powers of deduction to put everything together, complete with the quick cuts, dreamy segments, and a hypnotic score.

While there’s nothing wrong with that per-se, it all feeds into the feeling of this being a very cliched and perfunctory crime thriller. There’s really nothing here that stands out next to the swarm of other shows in this field, unless you count the chemistry between characters, which is at least one stand-out feature. 

As we move into the second half of this series, lets hope things start to pick up and improve as there are certainly signs that it will!