Review of 'The Crossing' 1.7

On the heels of ABC's announcement that it would not be picking up The Crossing for a second season, it posted a strangely satisfying and important episode. Of course, that's just a coincidence, since the episode was written and produced long before the cancellation, but it somehow seems significant nonetheless.

The most appealing and provocative part of episode 1.7 was the continuing story of Hannah and her locket. The whole locket arc has a quiet elegance about it, and makes The Crossing a much more... sensitive... story. She lost the locket in the water. A beachcomber picks it up and puts it on his table of trinkets and beach-finds for sale. Hannah wants it, but doesn't have the $10 he asks for it. But Roy, who knows how much the locket means to Hannah, later goes back and buys it for $25.

The ingredient that makes this little vignette a kind of parable—and emblematic of the entire series—is Marshall. His image is in the locket. Hannah is attracted to him, and he to her, as they walk the rocks by the shore. But who is he? Someone from our time? But why, then, is his photo in this locket that Hannah presumably acquired in the future? If he's from the future, what's he doing back here?

Hannah tells him she comes from the future, but Marshall acts just as you would expect anyone from our present to act when hearing about it: he can't make much sense of it. Unless he's putting that on, but he didn't seem like that's what he was doing.

I think these quiet stories are more the soul of the story than the battles between Lindauer and Reece and all the super gymnastics. With the series now not up for a second season, we may never know how this parable of the locket turns out. Unless some wise network or streaming service picks it up.