Well. So, how are we all feeling about that shocker of a betrayal? It feels like a classic James Patterson move but since someone more familiar with the Alex Cross-verse will have to confirm. As Cross Season 1 Episode 7, “Happy Birthday,” unfolds, we learn the method to Ed’s (Ryan Eggold) madness. Cross (Aldis Hodge) must find a way to close out the case without Sampson (Isaiah Mustafa) at his side or a badge in hand.
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Ed preps the lethal injection trio — sodium pentothal, pancuronium bromide, and potassium chloride — while playing a video on the death penalty. Finally, he unpacks a lethal injection administration cupboard, an identical replica to the one shown in the video.
Cross, “Happy Birthday”
Damon (Caleb Elijah) asks if he can wear Maria’s (Chaunteé Schuler Irving) watch for his recital. Cross recommends Damon wear it during the rehearsal that evening. When Damon goes up to hurry Janelle (Melody Hurd), Nana Mama (Juanita Jennings) tells Cross about talking to Susan Kowaleski (Shannon DeVido). She tells him Deidre Nolan’s (Jessica Clement) accomplice was Peter Lenox (Ryan Allen).
Cross’s phone rings. It’s Vega (Mercedes de la Zerda) calling to tell him about Mike Grisham’s (Dylan Trowbridge) murder. He races to the scene but the officer on duty bars him from entering since he’s not on the force at the moment. She comments that you’d have to be a ghost to get in and out of a safe house without being seen. This twigs Cross’s memory of seeing Senator Caitlin Goldman (Marion Adler) the night of Ramsey’s party.
Sampson visits Massey (Sharon Taylor) at home. They discuss Grisham’s murder. Massey asks him to be her baby’s godfather, as she wants Chance to grow up with a good male role model. He’s surprised by the honor but accepts it.
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To close the Ramsey case, Sampson recommends keeping their plans among only the trustworthy, suggesting they keep Anderson (Jennifer Wigmore) out of the loop. Massey agrees. She cautions him to be careful and keep her apprised of everything he learns.
Haunted
Cross waits for Caitlin to get into her car and jumps into the seat next to her, locking her security out. He tells her he wants to talk to her about Ramsey. After getting Cross’s assurance that he won’t bring her name into the investigation, she tells him what she saw at Ramsey’s party, describing how Shannon (Eloise Mumford) sliced her face open.
In his lair, Ramsey shows Shannon the brown contact lenses she will wear to transform into Aileen. She’s defiant until he offers to let her make a phone call to her parents to say goodbye. He takes a picture and wishes Aileen a happy birthday. But when Shannon demands her phone call, he changes the subject and pours her a cup of coffee. Aileen Wuornos’s last meal was a single cup of coffee. Shannon takes a sip and spits it in Ed’s face.
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Calmly, he cleans his face and puts on a suit jacket as she struggles to get free. He rolls her chair into the studio adjacent to where he’s been keeping her. The walls are lined with enormous blown-up portraits of the killers he’s modeled his victims after.
A Circle of Trust
Sampson calls a meeting at Ben’s Chili Bowl with Kayla (Alona Tal), De Lackner (Stacie Greenwell), and Vega. Cross arrives next. He shares what Caitlin told him and explains that Shannon cutting her face will have set Ramsey’s plan back because he needs her to be perfect as Wuornos. Sampson has De Lackner and Vega tail Ramsey so they can find where he’s keeping Shannon. Kayla leaves with them.
Sampson stops Cross from leaving and hands him an envelope so he can “do his thing.” Cross asks where he’s off to. Sampson admits Cross was right about there being a mole in the department. He thinks it’s Anderson. Cross suggests that it isn’t. He’s enigmatic and Sampson’s done waiting for answers.
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Cross reminds him what their boxing coach told them about how the hits you don’t see coming hurt the most. Realizing Ramsey’s mole was the same person as leaked the video of Cross beating the man up, he leaves it to Sampson to deduce the mole is Massey.
Bobby’s Back
Pendleton (Richard Waugh) seeks out Ed while he’s setting things up for Shannon’s execution to tell him Bobby Trey (Johnny Ray Gill) is back. The Feds have blocked the account. Ed tells him to tell Bobby to come back later and he’ll get him paid.
Cross has the evidence Sampson gave him laid out on a table and runs through everything he knows about the case in his head. Nana Mama walks through the kitchen singing Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World,” which reminds Cross of the birthday party. He realizes Ed’s victims were all killed on the birthday of the killers which means Shannon will be killed that day, February 29, Wuornos’s birthday.
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At Ben’s Chili Bowl, Cross finds Vega, De Lackner, and Kayla and tells them Ed’s going to kill Shannon that day. He explains about the birthdays and Kayla clues in that because Wuornos was a Leap Year baby, he has to kill Shannon today or he’ll have to wait four years. De Lackner reasons that Shannon’s facial wound should slow him down. Kayla points out he just needs a plastic surgeon. Cross races out of the restaurant.
Hurts the Most
Sampson sits outside Massey’s house for a long while. He goes inside and tells Massey he knows where Ed is holding Shannon. Massey’s amazed and asks where. He stalls and asks how she’ll inform Ed they’re on their way. Massey realizes he knows. She tells him that Ed offered her the opportunity to have a baby. It was a slippery slope from small favors to killing Mike.
She pleads with him to let her get away with it. He refuses and questions why she’d ask him to be Chance’s godfather. She admits she asked him because she knew she wouldn’t be around for the baby and her wife. She knew that if he agreed, he’d keep that promise. He concedes that he plans to keep that promise.
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Sampson escorts Massey to the precinct where she admits to her crimes in front of the whole force. Anderson walks away in disgust and signals a detective to cuff Massey while Akbar (Dwain Murphy) reads her her rights.
Dr. Daine
Cross finds Dr. Daine (Kristin Booth) in her office. He accuses her of helping Ed with Shannon. She tells him she didn’t want to help him. Cross offers to help her if she helps him find and save Shannon. She feigns gratitude and leans in on Cross, injecting him with a paralytic, telling him that Ed inspires her. Ed wants Cross to be alive to witness the exhibition otherwise Daine would’ve given him something lethal. She leaves Cross gasping on the ground.
Ed puppets Shannon’s mouth to recite Aileen’s last words. He then administers the lethal injection trio. She flatlines. Pendleton applauds.
At the precinct, De Lackner and Vega are shocked at the news about Massey. They realize that’s why she wouldn’t let them surveil Daine. They tell Sampson Cross wanted eyes on her. Sampson rushes off, suspecting Cross went to Daine on his own.
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In the studio, Shannon wakes up. Ed and Pendleton are waiting. When Ed says the chemicals didn’t work, Shannon thinks she’s saved. Ed has to explain it’s part of the enactment. The first lethal injection didn’t work on Aileen. Donning the Herb Baumeister mask, he promises they’ll get it right the second time.
Sampson finds Cross on the floor in Daine’s office. He helps Cross to his feet and is about to call for an ambulance but Cross tells him to use the Find Phone app because he stuck his phone in Daine’s purse as she left. They can track her using it. As they follow her using the app, they fill Vega, De Lackner, and Kayla in on their pursuit.
The Big Show
In the lair, Ed addresses a live-stream audience in the mask. The first lethal injection vial, the anaesthetic, deploys into Shannon’s IV. He explains how Herb Baumeister had made an impression on him and inspired his life’s work. Daine takes a seat nearby to enjoy the exhibition. As Ed continues to pontificate, Sampson and Cross pull up outside. Sampson gives Cross (who has barely recovered from the paralytic) a gun. Ed administers the second vial, the paralytic.
Cross and Sampson enter the building, guns drawn. Ed approaches the crescendo of his speech and removes his mask. Reaching his final point — that he will make himself a god like the serial killers he worships — Ed moves to administer the final injection which will kill Shannon. Cross and Sampson enter at that moment. Ed hits the button. Cross shoots the machine. Daine bear sprays them all, allowing Ed, Pendleton, and her a chance to run away. Sampson goes to help Shannon, telling Cross, the doctor who’s still recovering from a paralytic, to go catch Ed.
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Vega and De Lackner nab Daine and Pendleton before they get very far. Cross tracks Ed into a cluttered warehouse space. Footsteps run towards him but it’s Kayla. Elsewhere in the warehouse, Ed finds his getaway car and uncovers it. He gets in the car and drives it through the garage door to get away.
The Curtain Falls
Kayla is furious that Ed got away but Cross realizes he’s not going anywhere. They race to his house and Cross finds him sitting behind his desk in his study. Ed has a syringe in his hand. Explaining that this is the perfect setting, Ed injects himself and collapses.
What Does Justice Feel Like?
Ed’s body is loaded into an ambulance out front. At a distance, Bobby Trey watches from his car, looking grim.
Cross, Sampson, and Kayla are back at Ben’s Chili Bowl where the manager buys their meal to celebrate them finding Shannon alive. Cross is deeply depressed. He doesn’t think it felt like justice. Sampson tells him to stop using the case to distract himself from working through his own trauma. He leaves, exasperated at Cross’s refusal to face reality.
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Kayla pulls out a folder and slides it across the table to Cross. She’s compiled everything the FBI has on Peter Lenox.
At home, Nana Mama lets Elle (Samatha Walkes) in, thanking her for rushing over on short notice. Elle’s taking the kids to Damon’s rehearsal.
A Shrine To Hate
Cross drives up to Lenox’s last-known address. The basement is devoted to stalking Cross. He realizes Peter delivered the flowers to his house in Cross Season 1 Episode 1, “Hero Complex.” Peter was also in the crowd of protestors outside the precinct after the video was leaked, standing behind Malika (Ashley Rios).
At one end of the room is a shrine to Deirdre Nolan. Cross finds a pile of letters from Deirdre in prison. In a flashback, Peter visits Deirdre in prison. Deirdre has a black eye and Peter swears he’ll make Brenda Leeland (Kiran Friesen) pay. Deirdre tells him to go live his life. Later, she’s on the phone saying she feels hopeless. Peter tells her he’ll get her out of prison and make Cross pay.
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Janelle and Elle sit in the audience of the rehearsal. Further back in the seats, Peter sits, watching them as Damon plays.
In the house, Cross is on the phone with Kayla. Kayla reasons that Peter’s carrying immense guilt, creating a temple of hate for Cross. Cross realizes that a man who has spent so much time on an obsession is never going to give up. He runs out of the room.
In the auditorium, Damon finishes playing and takes a bow. Peter gets up and leaves.
Will Never Give Up
In the hospital, Shannon’s mother, Becky (Ann Hamilton), brings the officer outside Shannon’s room a hot chocolate and a snack. She’s grateful that Shannon was returned to them alive.
In the coroner’s officer, Ed reanimates under the sheet behind the medical examiner who doesn’t notice due to his Airpods. He grabs the doctor from behind in a sleeper hold. Once he’s unconscious on the floor, Ed checks the time. It’s almost 8:30 pm.
Dressed as a doctor (IYKYK), Ed rolls a gurney past Shannon’s room. He chats with the officer on guard, stabs him with a scalpel, and leaves him propped by the door. Walking into the room, he finds Becky talking to Shannon. Becky tells him she’s still not talking or moving. Asking Becky for a moment to examine Shannon, he pulls the curtain. He prepares to inject her with something lethal. Behind him, a gun cocks and Cross tells him it’s over. Ed sighs and says, “I wanted it to be you, Alex.” Cross replies, “I did too.”
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Nana Mama returns from her show. She hears someone moving around and picks up a baseball bat as she moves cautiously through the house. Peter comes down the stairs. Nana Mama readies herself with the bat. Peter grins and rushes at her. Black-out but we hear the sounds of their fight. Then silence.
Cross is currently streaming on Prime Video.
