Wild Cards Season 3 Episode 10 Review: Now You Steal Me

Despite Max being kidnapped, Wild Cards Season 3 Episode 10, “Now You Steal Me,” brings the Varga con to a less-than-urgent conclusion.

The season finale, written by Michael Konyves and directed by Shawn Piller, follows the consultant procedural’s formula. It pulls back the curtain on this season’s serialized con. As far as that’s concerned, “Now You Steal Me” succeeds.

It’s always entertaining to see more of the scenes the season only gives glimpses of beforehand. For example, Vivienne’s mug from Wild Cards Season 3 Episode 5, “Hot Tub Death Machine,” being the key to the disappearing plane is a fun reveal. 

In practice, the plane doesn’t disappear as well as Wild Cards intends.

Regardless, as with the two prior seasons, the clues add up to create a more intricate con than it initially appears. 

Therefore, it’s a fantastic choice to pull Max out of the plan and insert Ellis in her place. Not only does that give Ellis a chance to work undercover, which he doesn’t get to do nearly enough, but it also aligns him with Max’s family.

To that point, it’s odd that Vivienne knows that turning to Ellis for assistance is the right choice, and George is the resistant one.

On the one hand, Vivienne uses that situation as a test of Ellis’s feelings for her daughter. Wild Cards pays that off in the episode’s final minutes. 

On the other hand, if anyone should know that Ellis is trustworthy, especially when it comes to Max, it’s George. Then again, “Now You Steal Me” highlights the weaker elements of George’s presence — or lack thereof — this season.

The reveal that the “Diamond” is Artie Diamond, Gideon Varga’s brother, is a nice twist on paper. Likewise, George’s parole officer, Howard, being revealed as Varga isn’t all that shocking. The gum wrapper from Wild Cards Season 3 Episode 7, “Yurt So Vain,” was always going somewhere, after all.

It’s also a delight to watch Tom Scholte come on screen with a different energy.

However, that very distinction in his performances emphasizes how little time Wild Cards Season 3 spends with Scholte as Howard.

Howard has only appeared in two episodes of a 10-episode season. Artie, who is meant to have a tumultuous relationship with his brother, has only appeared in three. In that time, both characters’ connections to George have been rather thin.

So, when George gives Artie a pep talk in “Now You Steal Me,” it doesn’t land with as big an emotional impact as it could with more time.

George delivers excellent advice (“You’re stronger than the story he wrote for you”), but it has so little foundation to work with between him and Artie. Likewise, Wild Cards has to do all the heavy lifting of Varga and Artie’s dynamic in one scene because Artie hasn’t discussed his brother that much before now.

So, while it’s fun to watch Tom Scholte play Varga with his Howard-shaped mask off, it also comes as a reminder of where the season misses the mark. 

That sentiment also rings true when Chief Li intercepts Varga (and Artie). That scene would have been the perfect opportunity for Li, Ellis, Yates, Simmons, and Max to work together one last time before Simmons leaves the precinct.

Alternatively, that scene folds nicely into Li’s chief complaint with Ellis.

Ellis falls right into the story that Max and George sell to Li, but Li is also smart enough — and knows Ellis well enough — to know that there’s another narrative under the paramount one. Ellis is bending the rules for Max.

Even though the threat to Max’s life never feels all that pressing, Ellis’s desperation to find and save her feels very real. It’s no wonder that Vivienne knows right away that Ellis is in love with Max.

That’s what makes Wild Cards work — everyone can see how much Ellis and Max care about each other, but Ellis and Max. Then, when those feelings are brought to their attention, they aren’t on the same page.

Ellis says yes to Jessica’s proposal on the heels of Li telling him to remember where he stands, after all. That relationship development also feels a bit out of left field, given how new it is and how little the show has actually shown of it.

Regardless, it’s yet another obstacle standing in the way of Ellis and Max’s eventual endgame. (Come on, everyone knows that’s where this is going.) That is, if Ellis and Max can admit the truth before Jessica walks down the aisle. 

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

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