IR TV Review: CROSS - EPISODE 7 (“Winnow”) [Prime-S2]
The aspect of "Cross" is that as it starts to get into the home stretch all the loose ends need to find their apparent end though the instinctual reasoning can lose its luster. With Episode 7: "Winnow", the endgame is coming down since there is only 4 people left on the hit list left. Now that the Feds have gotten involved, those targeted have been moved to a military base. The reasoning makes less sense since most involved know these people are guilty (not that this matters). Matt Lillard plays Durand with a no-one-can-touch-me, holier-than-thow complex as if he doesn't know what he is dealing with. While some of the other billionaires realize that they will have to pay a ransom, there is one in the group that seems like she doesn't have any net worth (which doesn't make sense). And yet she points to Durand, who might have a Gates-like idealism like he is the money bank and she's got nothing. Durand just doesn't want to pay. But how the rest of the episode plays out reflects more on impulse on all sides.
Cross has figured out the MO behind Luz which causes a shift in power dynamics...and yet Kayla (Alona Tai), for all her posturing, seems powerless, though not completely. The power game is chess for her but ultimately across the board it is about who has more of the power in blackmail versus those being altruistic about the cause. That is why Two John (Isaiah Mustafa) gets the short end of the stick, especially with his mom. His story is the most grounded in the series and yet most of the time it is relegated to the background (and yet it is still there). As Rebecca/Luz (Jeanine Mason) keeps moving forward, Donnie (Wes Chatham) always sees what he has to do. The aspect that comes to bear is that what usually collapses all situations is degradation of trust which tends to lead to the wrong impulse. Leading into the season finale, that seems to be what comes to bear...and one that could have been easily corrected...not necessarily on both sides. Durand is a man who trusts no one but himself and he will likely pay for that. Luz and by extension Cross try to rely on those around them but the human condition, despite its best intention, fails more often than it succeeds. B
By Tim Wassberg
