The penultimate episode of Sullivan’s Crossing Season 3 delivered an emotionally harrowing, fantastically acted hour of tv that pulled no punches. With Edna’s life hanging within the steadiness, the present stripped again its small-town appeal to disclose a deeply human drama about worry, religion, and the delicate threads that bind a group collectively.
The episode begins with a medical bombshell: Edna has a mind tumor—possible malignant—and it’s urgent dangerously near her carotid artery. Maggie’s clarification of the situation is medical, however the emotional gravity hits instantly. There’s hope in the event that they transfer rapidly, however with out surgical procedure, Edna’s imaginative and prescient loss will probably be everlasting. And in the event that they proceed, the dangers embody cognitive harm, paralysis, or worse. It’s a stark and terrifying crossroads that ignites the hour’s central pressure: what does bravery actually seem like within the face of mortality?
What follows is a masterclass in restrained, character-driven storytelling. As Maggie breaks the information to Sully, Jacob, and Lola, the gravity of Edna’s situation spreads by means of the Crossing like ripples in nonetheless water. Every character processes the second differently- some with tears, some with denial, others with fierce optimism. Maggie, ever the protector and doctor, shifts into “physician mode,” shielding herself emotionally at the same time as she advocates fiercely for Edna’s finest likelihood.
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| “First Lower is the Deepest” – SULLIVAN’S CROSSING. Pictured: Tom Jackson as Frank and Andrea Menard as Edna. Picture: Bell Media ©2025. All Rights Reserved. |
But regardless of the burden of the medical storyline, the episode by no means loses sight of its emotional middle: the relationships. The bond between Edna and Frank is rendered with aching tenderness. Frank’s quiet moments- his disbelief, his fear, his efforts to remain robust, are profoundly affecting. When he tells Sully the story of how he met Edna, there’s a purity in it that reminds us what’s at stake. Later, in a heart-wrenching scene, Edna tells Frank she’s determined in opposition to surgical procedure. Not as a result of she fears for herself, however as a result of she doesn’t imagine Frank might bear it if one thing goes fallacious. It’s a second stuffed with uncooked vulnerability and devastating love.
Sully, Cal, and Maggie every strive in their very own methods to persuade her in any other case. Cal’s speech to Edna is especially transferring—grateful, heartfelt, and completely true to character. He reminds her that she gave him a purpose to remain, to dwell, and to belong. After which there’s Sully, whose personal battle with abandonment and loss provides deep emotional resonance to his plea. These aren’t grand declarations, they’re quiet, sincere reminders that Edna issues. That she is the guts of the Crossing.
Maggie’s last attraction to Edna is what lastly breaks by means of. It is each skilled and private, an emotional excessive level that doesn’t manipulate however earns its tears. Maggie reminds her that some dangers are price taking. That preventing for a future with Frank is price greater than surrendering to worry. When Edna lastly agrees, on the situation that Maggie performs the surgical procedure, the second is quietly triumphant.
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| “First Lower is the Deepest” – SULLIVAN’S CROSSING. Pictured: Chad Michael Murray as Cal and Morgan Kohan as Maggie. Picture: Bell Media ©2025. All Rights Reserved. |
However Maggie’s inside doubts don’t merely fade. In one of many episode’s most poignant turns, we see the emotional toll of bearing the burden of somebody’s life. Overwhelmed and not sure if she’s too emotionally invested to remain goal, Maggie does one thing that prices her greater than most would understand, she calls Walter. Their relationship, lengthy fractured by betrayal, makes this second quietly monumental. It’s not simply skilled vulnerability; it’s private danger. Her voice trembles, not simply from the strain of the surgical procedure, however from the act of reaching out to somebody she as soon as trusted and not does. Walter’s calm, regular confidence in her isn’t simply obtained, nevertheless it’s precisely what she wants. His phrases, reassuring, nearly fatherly, don’t erase the previous, however they provide her simply sufficient energy to imagine in herself once more.
In the meantime, in smaller however impactful facet plots, Sullivan’s Crossing reminds us that life doesn’t pause for grief. Rafe and Sydney’s unresolved relationship pressure bubbles up once more, sophisticated by clashing views on marriage. Cooper’s phrases of knowledge to Rafe are surprisingly sage. Rob and Jane’s candy, awkward second of “going regular” provides levity. And Jacob and Lola’s budding romance deepens with a quiet dinner and a brand new secret- Jacob’s request to finish his program remotely was denied and he should return to Alberta. It’s a ticking clock that can possible explode subsequent week.
The episode crescendos with the working room sequence. Edna, prepped for surgical procedure, says goodbye to everybody, every second layered with love and anxiousness. Her last scene with Frank is the episode’s emotional peak. Their change in Cree, her last thanks for an exquisite life, and the advance directive she asks him to honor- it’s devastating in its intimacy. You are feeling the complete weight of a life lived collectively, and the terrifying unknown of what comes subsequent.
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| “First Lower is the Deepest” – SULLIVAN’S CROSSING. Pictured: Dakota Taylor as Rafe and Lindura as Sydney. Picture: Bell Media ©2025. All Rights Reserved. |
As the ultimate moments unfold in a haunting montage: Maggie scrubbing in, Frank and Sully ready, Edna being wheeled away— the emotional pressure is insufferable. Then the unthinkable: Edna begins hemorrhaging on the desk. Maggie freezes, the OR workers calls out for steerage, and we’re left staring into probably the most intense cliffhanger this sequence has ever delivered.
Sullivan’s Crossing has at all times been a present about group, household, and emotional therapeutic, however this episode reminds us that none of that comes with out danger. This was not only a penultimate episode, it was a end result. Each storyline, each bond, each piece of emotional groundwork laid over three seasons comes into focus right here.
It’s tender. It’s terrifying. And it’s rattling good TV. That is Sullivan’s Crossing at its most interesting: intimate, sincere, and fully unafraid to interrupt your coronary heart.