WILD CARDS – Episode 108 – Eternal Sunshine of the Therapized Mind – (limited spoilers) ⁓

Dr. Sophie Fernwood, renowned therapist and self-help guru, is found floating face down in her swimming pool, dead. Cole (Giacomo Gianniotti) and Max (Vanessa Morgan) are, much to their displeasure, assigned to the case. Max has a low opinion of therapists. “Therapists are the lowest of the low on the con-artist ladder,” she tells Cole. “They burrow into your mind and toy with your thoughts, all for the purpose of making a profit” When Cole suggests therapists are sometimes helpful, Max continues: “According to Bruce Lee, in order to have a strong mind, it has to be like water…Put water into a teapot, it turns into a teapot.”

Max has likely read “Be Water, Be My Friend, The Teachings of Bruce Lee” by Bruce’s daughter Shannon Lee. The actual quote to which she refers is: “Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”

On the wy to the crime scene, Max and Cole discuss Dr. Fernwood’s book “The Lighthouse Inside” and right after that we get a brief glimpse of the Brocton Point Lighthouse at the northeast corner of Vancouver’s Stanley Park.

When the detectives arrive, they find a large amount of paper money floating in the pool along with Dr. Fernwood. Cole calculates that there is around $500,000 in the pool, a calculaton he could make quickly because of the colourful money. Fernwood appears in the episode in photographs and as a corpse, and is played by Leanne Buchanan, who was Katie McGrath‘s stunt double in ten episodes of SUPERGIRL.

The case seems to close itself quickly when local news anchor Wendell Collins (Scott Fee) abruptly confesses to the killing. Max deduces that Wendell was hypnotized into confessing, and the focus shifts to the other therapists with whom Dr. Fernwood worked. The detectives pose as a married couple with compatibility issues and in the course of their investigations we learn some things.

Max’s mother married her father over the objections of her wealthy family. They threatened to disown her if she went through with the marriage, and we are not told if they actually did that.

Cole discusses his father at length. “He took all that work ethic he had and poured all his energy into Daniel,” the detective tells Dr. Carlos (Kwesi Ameyaw). “He was really different with him than he was with me. He was always around; he was never stressed out; he didn’t push Daniel like he did with me. But you know, Danny was a different kid. He was gentle and sensitive. He was the kind of kid who brought home birds with broken wings.” Dr. Cole says, “It sounds like you and Daniel experienced very different fathers.”

It comes to mind that Daniel and Cole might have had different biological fathers. Where was Cole’s mother during all this? She was a teacher, and, though it is never actually stated, one gets the impression that she died. Cole doesn’t talk about her.

Near the end of the episode, Detective Simmons (Michael Xavier) tells Cole he’s been in therapy ever since Daniel died. “I wanted to help you,” he tells his former partner. “I didn’t know how, and you didn’t want to talk about it, so it made me realize that I didn’t know what I was doing as far as managing my feelings and emotions and all that stuff.”

Simmons’ current partner, Detective Yates (Amy Goodmurphy), reveals that her mother is a psychoanalyst, and when everyone is surprised to learn this, Yates complains that no one ever asks her about her personal life. She may have a point, because we still don’t know her first name. Yates goes out for drinks with Max, so the two of them might become friends.

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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