Aldis Hodge, Alona Tal on Kayla Craig-Cross Season 2 Romance

[This story contains spoilers from season two, episode five of Cross, “Climb.”]

For those who have read the more than 30 James Patterson books on homicide detective and forensic psychologist Alex Cross, Cross aficionados will know that one of the protagonist’s best friends — and eventual greatest enemy — was an FBI agent name Kyle Craig.

But in the Prime Video series Cross starring Aldis Hodge as the titular Cross, the Kyle Craig character is reimagined. Instead of a male archenemy, Kyle is gender-flipped into a competitive law enforcement agent named Kayla Craig, who is played by Alona Tal. She is still an FBI agent, but much has changed and for Tal, she wouldn’t have it any other way.

“When we first meet Kayla in season one, she’s there in the capacity of an assistant in the main storyline,” Tal tells The Hollywood Reporter of this new iteration of Craig (who first appeared in season one). “She’s someone who Cross finds as a good confidante and good part of the team to help support him in his journey to figure out who the killer is in season one. She provides invaluable help, access to information they don’t have and the ability to help him solve certain things because she has a lot of the same abilities that he does in the profiling world.

“Then in season two,” she continues, “I get a lot more runway to explore who Kayla was in her past, and a little bit more into the question of who she is now. She is extremely ambitious, extremely successful in her field. She is a woman who is very driven who very much understands that in order to achieve what she wants with her career, she has to put herself first. And she talks about it. She’s not in a relationship. She tried and it didn’t work. She understands sacrifices and is learning to understand the meaning of repercussions of choices.”

In season one, Craig did not want a relationship. She found her sexual release from being an FBI field agent by getting into bed with Cross’ pal, Det. John Sampson (Isaiah Mustafa). But in the third episode of season two, “Feed,” Cross and Craig, who have been longtime associates, begin seeing each other differently. In the episode, Cross, Sampson and Craig discovered a truckload of children being trafficked in Texas, while tracking the movements of a disciple-like follower of serial killer Luz (Jeanine Mason). Lincoln Esteban (Rene Moran) traveled down there to take photos at the rendezvous location when he was captured by Cross and his team.

After the arrest, Cross and Craig decided to go out to a local Western bar to have some “stress shots.” That’s when the two law enforcement officers drink and dance up a storm, and the tune of a slow country song strips away their inhibitions. The two passionately kiss on the dance floor, and end up drunk at Craig’s motel room door. She tells Cross goodnight, but leaves the door open. He accepts the unspoken invitation. 

If you ask Hodge who has caught more feelings, he will wager on Alex Cross.

“Cross, even if he is not fully aware, presumably is about to lose the love of his life,” Hodge told THR about the breakup with season one love interest Elle (Samantha Walkes). “He has to deal with that. He’s in a stage of grief. And with Kayla, there is obviously some familiarity and history. I think based off of the friendship, he felt safe enough to engage. It was a safe place for him to grieve and deal with what he was going through at the time. But, in the interim, his true love still rested with Elle.”

Cross creator, showrunner and writer Ben Watkins breaks down those heated moments between Cross and Kayla.

“From the writing perspective, we looked at it like we intentionally set up a chemistry between them, but a chemistry that was built out of appreciation of a shared obsession with getting inside the minds of killers and hunting down people,” says Watkins, who also plays FBI Assistant Director Roy McElhannon. “They have a shared appreciation of each other’s brilliance. And what we did in season two was set a situation up where that chemistry turns into something physical, and we were very specific about how that happens.”

Watkins points out that Cross is struggling about being on the outs with Elle, and also in the midst of a “high-stakes, very emotional and pressurized case, and a hunt for a killer,” he says. “In the aftermath of a chase and a shootout and rescuing some kids, that’s when they actually cross the line into something physical. We thought that was really important because it asked these questions about what happens when you’re in different emotional states, and what do you need and what do you cling to? And when it happens, is it real or is it something of the moment? It’s like a war-zone relationship.”

The new relationship, or fling, between Cross and Craig gets even messier as the season progresses. In this week’s fifth episode, viewers learned more of Craig’s backstory. Earlier in the season, Craig was tasked with discovering a person known as Mastermind who holds dark secrets about her that could derail her career and potentially send her to prison. This week, Craig’s serial killer C.I., Bobby Trey (Johnny Ray Gill), discovers video footage from years back of a lab experiment with a U.S. military soldier who was drugged and ends up killing himself. When the technician in the lab coat turns around to face the camera after the soldier dies, it appears to be Craig. Bobby Trey is about to end Craig’s life over the video footage, but she convinces him that the image is not her, and a deep fake created to frame her.

“That was so horrendous — that she knew about those experiments,” Tal adds. “She was involved, but she wasn’t involved, like the deepfakes are trying to make it seem. That’s them trying to frame her. And that’s what she’s trying to prove. There’s a bigger story here. There’s a bigger reveal later.”

Craig is in a precarious situation trying to uncover who is trying to frame her while these new feeling are developing between her and Cross. She’s just as strong-willed as Cross and wants to be in control, and have the lead on the case they are working on. But she can’t lean on Cross and tell him about her side issues.

In episode five, “Climb,” when Cross decides to meet with Luz privately against Craig’s wishes, Craig has a feeling that her new lover may be putting his life in danger. Her instincts are right, as Donnie tries to kill Cross. Yet Craig has Bobby Trey trail the detective and ultimately saves his life in the episode. But meeting with an alleged serial killer by himself without her is also grating on Craig’s nerves.

“It’s not safe, she doesn’t know enough,” says Tal. “And he is going around to take the lead, after she warned him not to do it. He can’t help himself, and she gets annoyed with that. She’s also conflicted because she trusts Alex, but doesn’t want to give him full rein because that goes against his ego.”

If Cross gets a third season, Tal believes there will be questions that need answering after the forthcoming finale.

“I was told by one of the writers [initially for this season], ‘You have no idea. Whatever you think you’re doing, you have no idea,’” Tal recalls. “What I hope to see is that there will be a reckoning and repercussions to what happens at the end of our season. When alliances change and choices are made, I would like to see that there has to be a series of consequences. I would like to know more about my character, and what this means in the world we live in.”

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Cross is now streaming the first five episodes of season two on Prime Video.