Wild Cards Season 2 Episode 3 Review: The Lorne Identity

Wild Cards Season 2 Episode 3, “The Lorne Identity,” highlights the importance of hearing and seeing people when they need it most.

This episode, written by K. Slaney and directed by Shawn Pillar, finds perfect framing with Ellis’s late brother Daniel’s birthday. 

While other Wild Cards episodes usually use their case of the week to connect to the character, “The Lorne Identity” doesn’t need to do that extra work. Lorne — or Edgar Peplow — comes to Ellis with a preexisting connection.

Edgar just can’t remember what draws him to Ellis, but that doesn’t prevent Ellis from wanting to help him. Instead, Ellis puts extra effort into the investigation and Edgar’s overall well-being, which speaks volumes about his character.

It’s moving every time Ellis encourages Edgar to take account of three things around him — a classic coping mechanism for anxiety. It’s also perfectly in Wild Cards‘s tone to utilize the rule of three with Max saying, “Killer, killer, killer.” 

Even so, Max is willing to follow Edgar through his alien theories and coded words. “The Lorne Identity” implements a bit of pushback with Li, but even that comes from a character-driven place based on Daniel’s birthday.

After the explosion at Jerry’s place, it’s understandable that Li puts his guard up about Ellis’s involvement with the case because it could put him in danger. Wild Cards continues to tug on that dynamic organically. 

Nevertheless, it’s refreshing that the main duo never turns their back on Edgar. 

Then again, Max and Ellis have always been people who root for the “little guys” against “big-time corruption.” It’s only that one character does so as a detective and the other as a con artist. Accordingly, “The Lorne Identity” finds a great source for Ellis and Max’s banter in their Occam’s razor versus Bernie’s razor debate.

Max and Ellis also never turn their backs on each other during the episode.

Wild Cards has an excellent payoff between them by the end because “The Lorne Identity” spends so much of its time exploring what it means to show up for another person. This show never falters in that regard with Max and Ellis. 

In a delightful surprise, this episode excels with Yates and Simmons.

Usually, Li ropes Yates and Simmons into Ellis and Max’s cases. That still occurs on “The Lorne Identity,” but Wild Cards doesn’t stop there. Instead, the consultant procedural drama gives the dynamic duo their own B-story. 

“The Lorne Identity” gives Simmons and Yates’s partnership more weight by testing a trust they presumably built off-screen. Every secret phone call makes Yates doubt their personal and professional relationship. Watching that escalate throughout the episode exemplifies the importance of Simmons to Yates.  

Wild Cards flips that by the episode’s end to reveal Simmons’s kind — and a bit selfishly-motivated — parking spot gesture. Simmons hears what Yates needs and goes out of his way to get that for her — and himself, of course. 

That story infuses a bit of levity into an episode that grapples with heavier topics, like losing loved ones and companies putting money ahead of lives. It also draws an extra bold line under Max and Ellis’s trust issues.

“The Lorne Identity” makes plenty of good-faith progress between them. Ellis (and Li) gives Max plenty of outs, and she never takes them. Instead, she sticks to Ellis’s side and inaugurates him into the “no man left behind” club. 

Wild Cards finds such a poignant and propulsive note to end on — Max bringing Ellis a pizza with a candle to celebrate Daniel’s birthday. Vanessa Morgan and Giacomo Gianniotti are incredible scene partners; the scene plays out with resounding authenticity. It’s one of the show’s most emotional scenes so far. 

After that scene, imagining this episode as anything other than a massive step forward for Ellis and Max is incredibly challenging.

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

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