{"id":27898,"date":"2025-02-21T12:26:53","date_gmt":"2025-02-21T17:26:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/areathirtythree.com\/blog\/?p=27898"},"modified":"2026-01-31T16:56:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T21:56:19","slug":"gimme-the-honky-tonk-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/areathirtythree.com\/blog\/gimme-the-honky-tonk-blues\/","title":{"rendered":"Gimme the Honky-Tonk Blues"},"content":{"rendered":"

WILD CARDS – Season 2 Episode 2 – (limited spoilers) ⁓<\/h4>\n
\"Vanessa<\/a>

Max<\/strong> and Cole<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

Cole<\/strong> (Giacomo Gianniotti<\/a>) is having breakfast with his cat when a woman he doesn’t know (Naomi Simpson<\/a>) tells him his scuppers need cleaning. He assures her that the boat never leaves the marina and that it’s not necessary, but she continues: “I used to do it for your brother Daniel,”<\/em> she tells him. “Now it’s your home. Need to take care of it. Show it some love or it’ll rot from the inside. I’ll be by this weekend.”<\/em> Then Cole gets a call from Chief Li<\/strong> (Terry Chen<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\"Naomi<\/a>

Naomi Simpson as Daria<\/strong>, whose warning of clogged scuppers might foretell disaster.<\/p><\/div>\n

Across town, Max<\/strong> (Vanessa Morgan<\/a>) is visiting her dad (Jason Priestley<\/a>) in prison. Both he and her sidekick Ricky<\/strong> (Fletcher Donovan<\/a>) are upset at her for “going soft”, citing her return of the $33 million egg (see previous episode<\/a>). Her father loans her a book called “The Art of the Grift” by Jonathan Ashford (a book Max studied when she was younger). <\/p>\n

Ashford’s book is fictional, but might be a reference to an actual book — either “The Art of the Grift<\/a>” by Dr. Diana Monea (a serious discussion of grifter techniques designed to help people figure out when someone they know might be being conned) or a novel of the same title<\/a> by Jordan TD Plum<\/em> about dueling master con men.<\/p>\n

\"Ally<\/a>

Rose Pruitt<\/strong> and her horse, Paul<\/p><\/div>\n

The Police Commissioner’s mayoral campaign needs the endorsement of a prominent local family, so Max and Cole’s new case involves the attempted murder of the Pruitt’s very expensive horse. Rose Pruitt<\/strong> (Ally Sheedy<\/a>) her son Shane<\/strong> (Dylan Sloane<\/a>), and her daughter Callie<\/strong> (Miranda MacDougall<\/a>), live on a large ranch that borders on the ranch of Mike Wyatt<\/strong> (Donnie Lucas<\/a>) and his family. Once there was peace in the valley, but years ago a feud began. None of these people get along with any of the others, and they are all suspects.<\/p>\n

\"Katie<\/a>

Katie B<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

We are given clues to the solution of the mystery, and the first is the episode’s title, a variation on Sergio Leone<\/a>‘s 1968 western “Once Upon a Time in the Old West<\/a>“. Looking for someone with a scorpion carved into his or her boot heel, Max and Cole don fancy cowpoke attire and locate the ranch hands’ watering hole. Max gets everybody line-dancing, but after they find the guy with the scorpion heel things get much more complex. <\/p>\n

The songs we hear at the honky-tonk are clues. First, the band plays Any Man of Mine<\/a> by Shania Twain<\/em>. (A reference to a different Twain happens when, after Cole loses sight of Max during a struggle, Max says: “Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”<\/em>) The next song is Drive<\/a> by The Cars<\/em>. Both songs are performed by Katie B<\/a>. The other four band members are not credited.<\/p>\n

The case is resolved satisfactorily. At the end, Max is watching the video diary of the guy who wrote that book her father suggested she re-read. (Ricky has obtained this by unknown means.) <\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The Unknown Fiddler<\/p><\/div>\n

Jonathan Ashford<\/strong> (Martin Sheen<\/a>) begins by saying: “I have accomplished what many say is the impossible. I got out while I was still ahead, and believe me, that sounds a lot easier than it was. It takes a great deal to trust your instinct and walk away from a sure thing when you know it’s too risky, or to turn your back on a person or a relationship, because that’s even riskier. Bottom line: I never got caught. My name is still a mystery, my whereabouts unknown, and I’ve managed to hang on to most of the wealth I’ve acquired over the years. I made it to the finish line, so to speak. I won the game. So how did I get here?…why am i here alone? Because if you’re as fortunate as I was to make your living in this business, there will be no Rosencrantz to your Guildenstern; no Holmes to your Watson. In the end, the only person you can count on is you, yourself, alone.”<\/em> <\/p>\n

Max stops watching the video at that point, making one wonder what Mr. Ashford’s name might actually be. Across town at the marina, Cole is reading a boat maintenance manual and eating the same kind of Chinese food Max is snacking on. They each consider phoning the other, and both decide not to. <\/p>\n

\n

All episodes of WILD CARDS can be streamed on CBC Gem<\/a> in Canada and on The CW website<\/a> in the US.<\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WILD CARDS – Season 2 Episode 2 – (limited spoilers) ⁓ Cole (Giacomo Gianniotti) is having breakfast with his cat when a woman he doesn’t know (Naomi Simpson) tells him his scuppers need cleaning. He assures her that the boat …<\/span> <\/p>\n

+<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27925,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1505],"tags":[1769,1773,1774,1486,1483,1487,1775,1768,1770,1772,134,1482],"class_list":["post-27898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wild-cards","tag-ally-sheedy","tag-donny-lucas","tag-dylan-sloane","tag-fletcher-donovan","tag-giacomo-gianniotti","tag-jason-priestley","tag-katie-b","tag-martin-sheen","tag-miranda-macdougall","tag-naomi-simpson","tag-terry-chen","tag-vanessa-morgan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/areathirtythree.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/areathirtythree.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/areathirtythree.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/areathirtythree.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/areathirtythree.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27898"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/areathirtythree.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28342,"href":"https:\/\/areathirtythree.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27898\/revisions\/28342"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/areathirtythree.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/areathirtythree.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/areathirtythree.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/areathirtythree.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}