WILD CARDS – Episode 302 – Quit Playing Games (with my life) – (some spoilers) ⁓

Vivienne (Tamara Taylor) re-institutes the family tradition of French Toast Friday. Max (Vanessa Morgan), is happy to have her mother back and doesn’t want to think of anything else. Ricky (Fletcher Donovan) is happy Viv is alive but wonders aloud if she must do that living in his kitchen. Viv asks why George (Jason Priestley) isn’t there, and Ricky suggests “Resentment, anguish, the seething rage of betrayal” as possibilities.

Across town, Jessica (Kaylah Zander), the other mysterious new arrival, makes herself a breakfast burrito, feeds Marc (Jonsey the Cat) tinned tuna for breakfast, and heads to work, explaining that it’s her first day back and she needs to, among other things, brush her teeth. Then Chief Li (Terry Chen) phones with Cole’s next assignment.

On their way to investigate a dead body in a warehouse, Max probes for information about Cole’s new girlfriend, and Cole apologizes to Max for the second time this season. “Listen,” he says, “I’m sorry I didn’t bring her up earlier. I should have, and I didn’t, and-and I’m sorry. I know that was a little bit awkward at the boat, but, uh, thank you for just being cool about that.” (Last episode he apologized for asking Max to join him on vacation.)

Like Scully and Mulder, or perhaps more like Brennan and Booth, Max and Cole bury themselves in their work, sublimating their attraction to one another.

MAX: “No, it’s fine. Don’t even worry about it. So, how did you two meet?”
COLE: “Well, when I first got down to Mexico, we were on the beach, and I guess we ordered the same drink. So, when the bartender put it down, we both reached for it at the same time, and…Yeah, and we got to talking and figured out we had a lot in common. She’s a journalist. She just finished this intense years-long investigation and I just, um…”
MAX: [finishing his sentence] “Solved Daniel’s case.”
COLE: “We communicate really well, we get along great, and honestly, more than anything, it’s just been really…Easy. You know? Sorry. Is this weird that we’re talking about this? ‘Cause we do not need to talk about it at all.”
MAX: “Why would it be weird? We’re co-workers. Co-workers tell each other about their cool new girlfriend.”
COLE: [sounding disappointed] “Co-workers?”

The episode’s title is a variant of “Quit Playing Games With My Heart” by The Backstreet Boys, and Max is thrilled to be investigating her favourite boy band, Too Good 2B True, who are reuniting after many years apart, and whose manager has been killed by an errant pyrotechnic display at rehearsal. The quartet’s lead singer Theo (Clifton MaCabe Murray) is not the band’s best singer, but according to Max he’s the cutest and “cute trumps pipes in a boy band”. Noah (Matt Ellis) is the band’s best vocalist and isn’t entirely happy taking a backseat to Theo.

The other two band members are Rusty (Nathan Witte), who has vocal fold nodules, and Kody (David Haydn-Jones), who grew up in the same neighbourhood as Detective Simmons (Michael Xavier) and has a bit of a drinking problem. All four are suspects, as are special effects engineer Pyro Poppy (Jill Teed) and Wallace Marvevitch (Diego Stredel) who sings at children’s parties for a living and was auditioning as a replacement for one of the band members.

Theo recently auditioned for an unnamed Scorsese project, and (according to Max) once dated a Kardashian. The latter could be a reference to Kourtney Kardashian’s marriage to drummer Travis Barker (though Blink 182 is no boy band).

After closing the case, Cole, who earlier demonstrated an unexpected awareness of rock bands Queen and Journey, relaxes on his boat with Jessica. They watch a film about whales.

Vivienne suggests that she and Max go to a Too Good 2B True concert together. Max is startled by this because she and her mom were supposed to do exactly that on the night Vivienne “died”. Viv apologizes, says she forgot that entirely, and admits she doesn’t even like that sort of music. Max is surprised to learn that her mother’s favourite music is Ska.

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All episodes of WILD CARDS can be streamed on CBC Gem in Canada and on The CW website in the US.