WILD CARDS – Season 2 Episode 1 (limited spoilers) ⁓

Max (Vanessa Morgan) and her sidekick Ricky (Fletcher Donovan) were on their way out of town with a 33 million dollar Fabergé Egg until Ricky, in the course of transcribing taped conversations involving local mobsters, hears someone say: “The kid was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Tough luck for him but I had to take him out. Well, I heard the kid had a brother who’s a cop. The name is Cole Ellis. Nah, I don’t need to worry. Ain’t got no connection to me.” (see “Romancing the Egg“, Episode 1.10)

Max abandons her departure plans and personally delivers the recording to Cole (Giacomo Gianniotti). Instead of being happy to get the information, Cole decides he can’t trust Max and arrests her for withholding the tape from the police. (He reverses this decision after Max points out that he didn’t exactly follow the book in this case either, and offers to give back the egg. Neither of them seem to wonder how the killer knew that his victim’s brother was police.

While Cole discusses things with Chief Li (Terry Chen), Max returns the jewelled egg to the evidence room, where she overhears something interesting. Two John Does came into the morgue the previous day with fake IDs with celebrity names (a common occurrence). These particular two called themselves John Cougar Mellencamp and Uriah Heep. Detective Yates (Amy Goodmurphy) and Officer Toni (Caroline Battista) chose up names likely to be used and Mellencamp was on Toni’s list, but Max is more interested in the other guy.

Cole wants to end his partnership with Max, but Commissioner Russo (Karin Konoval) has other ideas. A series of puzzling robberies needs to be solved quickly because Russo is running for Mayor, and she assigns Max and Cole to the case.

they head for the morgue, where Coroner Olive (Manuela Sosa) explains that the fake Mellencamp was a street racer working as a getaway driver. While Olive is doing that, Max swipes a watch from the personal effects of the other corpse, the one who used the name Uriah Heep, (In Dickens’ novel David Copperfield, Heep was a particularly nasty variety of con artist.) Later, Max will show that watch to her father and explains: “I took this from Uriah Heep. He’s dead, but $33 million is nothing compared to what this can get us.”

Max and Cole role-play as street racers, and their investigations involve them in an armoured truck caper with, as the episode’s title suggests, some impressive stunt driving, and a dramatic rescue like the one at the end of “Gone in 60 Seconds” (Dominic Sena’s 2000 version). The criminal mastermind turns out to be a guy named Jaws (Tony D’Angelo). That could be a reference to the James Bond character, but this one does not have metal teeth and sports a Drake-like beard.

Though banned from any involvement in the investigation of his brother’s death, Cole tells Ricky: “I want you to use everything available to you, whatever you can do to figure out whose voice is on that recording, and once you do, you call me and only me.” Ricky comes through and finds out that the guy Cole wants to find is a mob enforcer called Billy ‘Zippo’ O’Brien. The nickname comes from Billy’s nervous habit of noisily flicking his Zippo lighter. As the case is about to be resolved and they are on their way to where the kidnap victim is being held, Ricky sends Zippo’s location to Cole, who is forced to choose between the rescue and laying hands on his brother’s killer. Cole completes the rescue and the killer gets away.

Back at the station, Commissioner Russo is pleased. “We caught the gang,” she says, “and confiscated six million in cash.” When Max tells her she’ll be staying in town until her dad gets out of jail, Russo is even happier. “Perfect,” she says, smiling. “Then my favourite dynamic duo is here to stay. Or at least until I get elected.”

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Miscellaneous Info

Celebrity names used by Max for metaphorical emphasis: Miley Cyrus, Public Enemy, Lindsay Lohan, and Sandra Dee.

Elite Drive Automotive, the garage run by Ryan and Nadia, is fictional, but there is an Australian company called Elite Drive which specializes in Petrol and Diesel performance products.

Vanessa Morgan’s stunt double in this episode is Milan Tesfagi, who was the mermaid Cami in nineteen episodes oF the Freeform Series SIREN.

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WILD CARDS has been renewed by CBC for seasons three and four. Season three will begin filming in August, and will air in 2026. All episodes can be streamed on CBC Gem in Canada and on The CW in the US.

* Last Updated 5 months ago ago