Wild Cards Season 2 Episode 1 Review: ElliMax’s Angsty Slowburn is Smoking Hot & More Delicious Than Ever

Critic’s Rating: 4.4 / 5.0

4.4

You guys, ElliMax is BACK, and I’m in my happy place with the return of one of the most delightful escapist series currently airing.

While the incredible High Potential has been holding it down for most of the season, it’s a delight to have Wild Cards racing back into our lives and doing some heavy lifting in carrying on the new era of Blue Sky television.

Fortunately, Wild Cards Season 2 Episode 1 leaned heavily into everything we love about this series: ElliMax goodness, pop culture references, and so much conning!

Betrayal is Best Served in the Form of a Vertically-Challenged Spitfire Who Loves You, You Idiot!

Ellis is not a happy man these days, and if he even took a moment to consider why, his beautifully wavy-haired head may spin from the realization that Max has become his person.

The hour picking up right where the season finale left off is the perfect move to compound the hurt and angst between these two. Now we’ll work from the ground floor to get this dynamic back on track.

As invaluable as the intel Max gave him is to Ellis, he still can’t get past the fact that she betrayed him. He begrudgingly let down his guard and became vulnerable with someone he didn’t anticipate. Then came the Pikachu face when he realized this endearing con-woman was conning.

Sadly, Ellis can’t get beyond that tidbit of information, and the betrayal stings too much for him. But he shouldn’t have to just yet. I get it, and I feel for the guy.

What he’s not willing to consider just yet is that for Max to sacrifice the egg, a payout, and flee the country with her father, it has to be because of more than just a moral compass that mostly skews good.

It’s because she deeply cares about Ellis, and there was no way she could skip town without telling him what she found on that tape. Zippo, as we’ve learned to call him, is the man who killed Ellis’ brother.

Naturally, this new information sets up a primary goal for the season and focuses on Ellis and how Max can assist him.

If the season premiere doesn’t do anything, it firmly establishes these two characters as equals. Ellis’ stakes this season are much higher and more personal and emotional than simply getting his job back and no longer being the boat cop.

And he’s unable to go anywhere without Max and all that she brings with her by his side.

Max and Ellis Are Intricately Tied and Intertwined

Wild Cards knows why we’re here. ElliMax’s chemistry has gotten even better. Seriously, the things Morgan and Gianniotti can do with their eyes, facial expressions, and no words can make any romantic giggle.

It’s as if their entire world conspired to get them back to each other, and no matter how hard one of them may attempt to stall that, their partnership is an inevitability.

Ellis wouldn’t turn Max in because it would affect his job moving forward, and even then, it felt like a stretch. Ellis refused because he cared about Max enough that he didn’t want to blow her in.

But it wouldn’t have mattered anyway when the future mayor views them as the hottest dynamic duo who gets the job done and is willing to put her foot down however she deems fit to handcuff these two to one another. Bless her heart; she has to be a closet shipper, too!

Ellis’ job and his ability to keep it still hinges on working with Max, and while you don’t have to twist her hand to get her to stick around for Ellis, she can negotiate some time off her father’s sentence.

As chaotic as these two are, everyone knows they get results, so it didn’t take much for everyone to get on board, with Max becoming a more permanent squad member again.

But on a personal front, sticking them close forces the two to rely on one another and work through the betrayal. Max is beyond eager to do this anyway and assist with finding Cole’s murderer, but working with the cops also gives her some advantages and opportunities to pull even bigger heists.

Max always comes out on top in the end. But will she be on top of Ellis anytime soon? Probably not, but that’s okay!

Too Fast, Too Furious, Just the Right Amount of Fun

Their big heist case was an interesting one to delve into, and they knew how to cater to the audience with fast cars, sleeveless muscle tanks, and WWE’s Tony D as a cocky villain named Jaws.

The street racing case was fun enough for Max to race through the streets of Vancouver in a blue sportscar and make quips about Ellis being her “Sandy Dee.”

However, it was a pretty clever heist case, too. Jaws scoring a Mint currency machine so he could singlehandedly corner the counterfeiting market was ingenious. I almost wish he had disappeared in the wind so they could revisit that operation in the future.

But the delightful twist was that Ryan and Nadia weren’t working with the street racing operation by choice, as Jaws was holding their child hostage.

Once that happened, the case took convoluted routes requiring Max and Ellis to pivot from taking down this operation and focus primarily on saving this boy while leaving their colleagues in the dark.

The kid case brought all the heart and emotion to everything, but don’t judge a girl for being totally into this one for Max’s speed racing (which took me back to Riverdale) and exciting little nuggets like Ellis and Max ducking down and breathing each other’s air in another charged moment.

After all, the Fast and the Furious franchise has a zillion movies for a reason. The outlandish fun, high-stakes action, emotional drama, and familial tension are comfort-viewing, and it was suitable for Wild Cards to pull from that.

But I’m glad they saved the kid, if only because we got to see Ellis do the hero’s walk outside, clad in that black muscle tank, carrying a bespectacled nine-year-old in his arms. My ovaries flipped a little bit. Max holding a kid is sexy!

Season Two Teases Ellis Pushing His Moral Boundaries (But Without Max’s Influence)

Another exciting element of the season premiere is how they established that Ellis is in a place in his life where he’s testing the waters of his own moral and ethical lines.

The desire to catch his brother’s killer is something that fuels him, and for the first time in a year, it’s within reach. Unfortunately, rules and red tape stand in his way.

For someone who states even within the episode that there are no grey areas within the law, it’s apparent that, while he may not align fully with Max’s view that it’s “all gray area,” he understands the sentiment better.

We’re already seeing him edge closer across that line in the sand he often draws, but interestingly, it’s not at Max’s encouragement. He’s doing it by himself, making it a more compelling evolution for his character.

Ellis’ internal moral conflict is fascinating, and partnering with someone who can enable it in some instances or oppose it in others adds another rich layer to their relationship.

Ellis Has Become Max’s Kryptonite, And She Knows It

The entire hour confirms that Max genuinely cares about Ellis.

Initially, she played flirty and coy with him, and much of the first season felt as if we were witnessing Ellis falling for Max and trying to hold back.

However, this season, we see an aware Max recognizing that her feelings for Ellis drive her to do whatever she can to help him and not hurt him further.

She put her livelihood on the link to her father and Ricky’s chagrin because it was more important to extend this olive branch to Ellis, help him find his brother’s killer, protect his job, and not hurt him.

Max fully embraced any position or assignment that put her back in Ellis’ proximity so she could work on mending what she broke between them. She cares enough to do that, which makes this different from any other con she pulled off and the collateral damage that came from it.

Max isn’t as overt with her feelings as she likes to make others believe. We know how she carries herself is an exaggerated facade to protect herself and keep a guard up.

She spent much of the hour trying to be the usual happy-go-lucky Max who is adventurous and gets under Ellis’ skin, cracking jokes and pushing boundaries.

But it was striking when he finally thanked her for protecting him and his job yet again (not to mention the unacknowledged moment when she stood between him and a gun without a second thought).

She wanted to joke it all away as usual, playful tease, and chat about possible scores and other things, but one quiet “Not yet” said so much with so few words.

Her response, “Okay, we’ll take it slow,” was perfection. She knows she has a lot of ground to cover in making up with him and earning his trust back, but the fascinating and revelatory thing is that she’s willing to do it.

We’re back on the path for the slow burn, and it feels good. They’re still fantastic partners together, and the angst of their personal lives and how intertwined they are will make the rest of this slow burn worthwhile.

They can’t play this out any other way, and I wouldn’t want them to anyway.

Over to you, Wild Cards Fanatics!

Are you here for the Ellimax slow burn?

What are your theories about Max and her father’s Uriah score? Sound off below!

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