Cross has returned for its sophomore season, and yet again, the nuances of morality are explored.

This is the first time the character has been explored in a television series. While the Prime Video show’s first season closely followed Alex Cross (Aldis Hodge) and the trauma he’s facing as he attempts to do his job, the second hones in on his right-hand man, John Sampson (Isaiah Mustafa), who discovers within the first episode that his mother is alive.

When asked what influenced the decision to hone in on the absence of Sampson’s mother versus his father, Watkins told Blavity’s Shadow and Act, “We thought about both, and in fact the intention for both is still on the table.”

Getting to know John Sampson

“We wanted to start with the mother, just because we felt like there’s some truth to him being a foster kid, and there’s some part of his backstory that we were developing, the damage that would come from being a foster kid and not really feeling like he had a home,” he continued. “I honestly feel like for us, for most people, the definition of home starts with the mother, and so that was the most fundamental place to go.”

Watkins added, “We wanted to give the audience a chance to get to know Sampson better, not just as this stalwart best friend of Alex Cross, but also this fully dimensional man who comes across as so solid and always there and really lifting up everybody’s spirits. And let’s see this side of him when he has an emotional challenge, and what happens. It did switch the dynamics because that meant Cross, all of a sudden, who was being supported by Sampson and propped up by him so much in Season 1, now he finds himself having to do the propping up.”

Mustafa revealed that all of his character’s emotions in this installment of the show stem from a scene in the show’s debut season.

“Everything, to me, in Season 2, on how Sampson reacts emotionally to Cross, stems from the locker room scene in Season 1 because that was such an emotional point for them,” Mustafa said. “Then, to have to come back from that and mend things, and then to move on, to have something else happen where it’s like, you hit me with a personal thing. This one was different. I’m saying like, ‘You know me from a certain age. You know that information. You know what it could have done for me.’ I feel like the locker  room scene hit harder because it was direct and coming from anger, but this one was neglect.”

Alex Cross trusts no one

Cross is forced to investigate a case with invisible rules throughout the second season of the show, but Hodge said his character’s approach to justice remains the same.

“It changes how he has to maneuver because he’s always looking for accountability, whether that’s the accountability on the side of the person they’re chasing or the people that he’s working with, [because] everybody is a suspect to him,” said Hodge.

He added, “The only person I think is not a suspect is Sampson, and as we see, he starts off with a scrutinizing eye with the person he’s dealing with, and even to the point of the assailant that we’re pursuing, he can understand that person’s motives from a completely different perspective of rationale. So I don’t think it changes his ideals, or that definition of justice. I think he holds onto that and modifies how he engages a situation in order to exact his definition of justice.”

He’s also nothing without his support system

Cross’s estranged love,r, Elle (Samantha Walkes), is back in the spotlight for Season 2, but this time she’s enforced some major boundaries.

When asked what boundary her character must stop neglecting when it comes to her relationship with Cross, Walkes said plainly, “Her safety.”

“Safety can mean a lot of things, but I think also of her heart — it’s just too unsure right now, and she’s not sure how committed he really is because that commitment means sacrifice, and it means coming to the table with more. I think that in her position right now, the way we start, she’s bringing more than him,” Walkes said.

She added, “I do think Elle does force a reckoning. That’s what you’ll see in Season 2. Because there’s certain decisions that Alex makes that make it very apparent that if all of the pillars in Cross’s life — Nana Mama, Sampson, Elle — if these people were to sit back, he wouldn’t be as great. So, I think that there is a push for more for him because we know that there’s more to be given. We see what’s inside of him and inside of ourselves, and so we are each other’s mirrors in that way. I think that’s what you’ll see in season two.”

The second season of Cross is now streaming on Prime Video.