Wild Cards Season 1 Episode 4 Review: Strangers on a Wave

Wild Cards Season 1 Episode 4, “Strangers on a Wave,” makes a splash when Ellis goes undercover and Max asks the tough questions.

Written by Noelle Carbone and directed by Lee Roseand, this episode disrupts the current of this consultant procedural in the best way — by putting the characters in unexpected environments (Max in the vents!) and situations (Ellis as a surfer!).

“Strangers on a Wave” makes a mixed bag of Cran-Way, surfers, and murder work.

Sincerely, those three moving parts shouldn’t work together, but Wild Cards ties them together with wet suits, board chalk, and drug smuggling. 

Even when the case veers into pretty strange territory, the show’s tone keeps it all surprisingly light and zany. It’s a delightful pattern that “Strangers on a Wave” continues from Wild Cards Season 1 Episode 3, “Howl to Get Away with Murder.” 

Keeping the show breezy helps the more serious beats create waves.

Vanessa Morgan and Giacomo Gianniotti’s chemistry helps, too. They make that tonal trade-off work through their dialogue when Max helps Ellis settle on his story for his undercover operation as Jesse. They’re so quick with each other, but they both settle when Ellis details his relationship with his brother.

Gianniotti’s performance supports the heartfelt look under Ellis’s hard exterior.

But Wild Cards doesn’t dig much further or dwell, leaving more to explore later. Instead, Max makes the conversation pop again by describing “baiting a mark” as “like dating” and adding the quip about her nine driver’s licenses.

Even so, “Strangers on a Wave” reveals so much about Max through how she teaches Ellis to pull a con. Her assertion that a con is only successful by not telling the truth but a slightly different version of it encourages the viewer to pay close attention to what Max says when she’s undercover.

But it’s equally important to pay attention to what Max does.

She doesn’t have to go to karaoke with the Cran-Way staff because she, Ellis, and Simmons don’t suspect Kathy at that point. Still, Max shows up because she knows a good time — and she’s a people person.

She likes to be with others, even when she’s not being entirely herself.

That understanding makes it increasingly imperative that Wild Cards reveals more about Ricky. The character who means enough to Max to move around with her and help her whenever and wherever she needs it (He only appears when Max needs tech help!) is more of a mystery than Simmons or Li at this point.

“Strangers on a Wave” is such a clever (and punny, of course) title because it could describe the characters in the case, Ellis & Max, or Ellis, Simmons, & Li. Wild Cards‘s exploration into the latter dynamic is the best aspect of the episode. 

There’s a wealth of story and history between those three characters.

It’s almost jarring that Wild Cards starts to unravel all that during the fourth episode, but how “Stranges on a Wave” approaches the delicate situations bodes well for the show’s longevity. 

Ellis and Simmons’s partnership includes the case that resulted in Ellis’s demotion. Therefore, Simmons can tell Max his perspective, but that’s one side of one story. There are years of them between the two men.

It’s why — to their surprise — Ellis and Simmons still work well together in the field. Their shared and strained history makes Simmons’s compliment of Ellis’s work by the end of “Strangers on a Wave” all the more meaningful. 

Retroactively, their being partners and clicking (until they didn’t, of course) could also be why Simmons and Yates aren’t the best match. They’re too similar, or at least, that’s what “Strangers on a Wave” posits.

Like Ricky, Wild Cards really needs to dive into Yates’s characterization more. 

Nevertheless, this episode reveals just enough that it doesn’t back itself into a corner with Ellis’s history — with or without Simmons. It doesn’t with Li, either.

In a great set-up, Li tells Max more (or at least a slightly different version) of the truth about Ellis’s demotion. Ellis and Li still haven’t had that conversation. Ellis can’t see how hard it was for Li to make the tough decision for Ellis while he grieved his brother. There’s so much believable tension there to explore. 

Likewise, it’s an excellent con for Max. She already knows about Ellis because of her dad’s connections. So, even though she goes undercover as the Southern belle, Marcy (Vanessa Morgan is having the time of her life!), her other alias on “Strangers on a Wave” is a detective pretending to know less than she does.

Ultimately, the push-pull of whether the viewers — let alone the other characters — can believe Ellis or Max makes for such a dynamic viewing experience.

Wild Cards is a slick consultant drama starring leads with deep-seated reasons to distrust each other. Still, like all the episodes before it, “Strangers on a Wave” ends with Ellis and Max (and Marc) seemingly growing closer on the houseboat.

Those tags always create a safe place to fall after everything (Max and Ellis give each other the opportunity to open up and talk about anything), but they also inspire so many questions that will drive the characters for the rest of the season. Wild Cards is contained yet propulsive. It’s great TV that you don’t want to miss!

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Wild Cards airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.

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