'Cross' Season 1 Ending Explained: Who killed the wife of Alex Cross, and what does real life serial killer Aileen Wuornos have to do with it? (2024)

Crossis one of the most-watched programs on Prime Video since its debut on November 14, but many fans are still scratching their heads at how the puzzle pieces all came together.

**Spoiler alert: This article contains details from Cross Season 1**

After eight episodes of mystery and mayhem, the freshman season came to a close with Alex Cross (Aldis Hodge) handcuffing the Fanboy Killer, a.k.a Ed Ramsey (Ryan Eggold), and solving the murder of his wife, Maria (Chaunteé Schuler Irving), who the audience saw die in Alex’s arms in the first moments of Episode 1.

It was a long and winding road (Alexa, play The Beatles), that finally provided answers to the most burning questions out there, including whether or not Alex and his team would reach Shannon (Eloise Mumford) who Ramsey was attempting to transform into Aileen Wuornos, a real-life serial killer. (Charlize Theron won an Oscar for portraying Wuornos in the 2004 movie, Monster.)

Keep reading to find out about how the season’s biggest storylines wrapped up and be sure to check out some of our other coverage on Cross.

How Did Alex Cross Catch the FanBoy Killer? And What Does Aileen Wuornos Have To Do With It?

In Episode 7, “Happy Birthday,” Alex — who has suspected Ramsey of being the Fanboy Killer since the start of the season — finally earns his vindication as he and partner John Sampson (Isaiah Mustafa) track down Ed with just enough time to save Shannon.

Throughout the six episodes, we watched as Ramsey slowly turned Shannon into Aileen Wuornos, with the intent to kill her by lethal injection (the same way Aileen was executed) on Aileen’s birthday, February 29. The first attempt at injection fails — just like it did with Aileen — giving Alex and his partner just enough time to arrive at the secure location where Ramsey has been keeping Shannon. Luckily for the titular character, Ramsey’s commitment to going down in history for his crimes leads him to deliver a monologue that gives Alex and John just enough time to stop the murder.

Unluckily, Ramsey is able to get away and retreat to his office where he procures a needle that he injects himself with before he can be brought to justice. So that’s it, right? Well, not so fast. We hate to sound too infomercial-y, but wait, there’s more.

Ramsey didn’t quite take his own life. It would be more accurate to say that he borrowed it because while he is carried out in a body bag, the medication only stopped his heart briefly. Moments after watching Ramsey die (and Alex attempt to resuscitate him) we see the deliciously devious villain resurrect in a morgue, with the medication now having fully worn off.

After choking out a medical examiner and stealing some scrubs, Ramsey makes his way from the hospital basement to the room where Shannon — intubated and still fighting for her life after enduring the abuse from Ramsey — is being held. He manages to stab a police officer seated outside of her door and give himself one more chance to finish the job with just minutes left in the day. As the show explains, it’s important to Ramsey that his victims die on the birthday of the killer he modeled them after, in this case, February 29.

Making it all the way to her bedside (with Shannon’s mom in the room and unaware of his intent, nonetheless!) Ramsey pulls out a needle and goes to inject his victim when he hears the click of a gun behind him. Surprise, Alex has outsmarted him once again and foiled his plan.

You see, our protagonist knew that Ramsey’s ending was too neat and that he would truly stop at nothing to complete his mission of wrapping up Shannon’s story in the way he always envisioned. With that in mind, Alex rushed to Shannon’s hospital room, arriving in the knick of time, and stopping Ramsey once and for all.

Even better, after his arrest, Ramsey takes comfort in the fact that even if he didn’t get to complete Shannon’s murder, he would go down in infamy as one of the most artistic serial killers of all time. To that point, we say, “Wait, there’s more!”

Knowing that his real mission was to gain recognition for his crimes, Alex and John burn Ramsey’s manifesto and inform him that the world will never know what he did. Foiled yet again! Truly a chef’s kiss ending for a bad guy we love to hate.

Who Killed Alex’s Wife, Maria Cross, And Why?

Sadly, Maria was collateral damage for Alex doing his job. While the murder took place roughly a year before the show is set, the first moments of Episode 1, “Hero Complex,” do show Maria’s tragic death while out at lunch with Alex and their friends.

The killing, and the disappearance of Maria’s beloved Washington Redskins scarf which was taken from her at the time of her shooting, leaves Alex a widower and single father to two children, Damon (Caleb Elijah) and Janelle (Melody Hurd).

In Episode 8, “You Had Me at Motherfucker,” not only is it finally revealed who is responsible for Maria’s slaying, but why. In the end, it was Damon’s piano teacher, Miss Nancy (Karen Robinson), who wanted to exact revenge on Alex for causing the death of someone close to her. Stick with us here, it’s going to get a bit messy.

In reality, before Miss Nancy became Damon’s music teacher, Prior to cozying up to the Cross family as Damon’s music teacher, she was a “street mother” to several people in the community, including a man named Peter and a woman named Dierdre. What we come to learn via the finale is that Alex helped to put Dierdre in prison years ago after she took the fall for a crime that Peter committed.

Miss Nancy believed that Dierdre be granted more leniency as a white woman than Peter, a Black man, would. That did not end up happening, however, because Alex testified that Dierdre had a “psychopathic personality” for the ruthless murder that she confessed to. In the end, Dierdre receives a life sentence but ultimately kills herself from inside a jail cell, leaving Peter and Miss Nancy devastated.

As an act of revenge, Miss Nancy and Peter decided to seek retribution by killing Maria. Miss Nancy also decides to insert herself into the lives of the Cross family, cozying up with them and even taking them away to her remote cabin in the final episode as an act of “protection.”

After making the realization of who Miss Nancy really is and what she intends to do, Alex and John once again must jump into action and stop a murder from being committed. Before they can take her into custody, though, she takes her own life by setting herself on fire.

The season ends with Alex coming face to face with the innocent man who he believed to have been responsible for Maria’s death. The two reconcile and provide Alex with the closure he has been so desperately seeking, setting up an unfettered protagonist for Season 2.

What an ending.

Will There Be A Cross Season 2 on Prime Video?

The series also answered the most important question on fans’ minds: Will there be a Cross Season 2? We won’t make you wait on that one, the answer is yes! Prime Video has already given the go-ahead for Hodge and the other cast members to get back to work and bring more of James Patterson’s stories to life for the small screen.

As for all of the other questions you may have about the show, we’re here to provide answers to some of your most burning questions about Prime Video’s latest hit series.

All eight episodes of Cross Season 1 are currently streaming on Prime Video.