Wild Cards – Season 1 Episode 9 “Inside (Con)Man” Recap & Review

Inside (Con)Man

The stage in episode 9 of Wild Cards Season 1 is set ablaze with a bank robbery. As hinted by its title inspired by Spike Lee’s hit film, Inside Man, Max finds herself caught in a precarious situation. Two armed and masked robbers take everyone hostage at Everfield Banks. They lay out everyone on the floor and proceed to destroy their phones. Before they can get to hers, Max calls Ellis, who immediately raises an alarm with Ricky. Max’s keys are tagged, which gives him her current location. 

When triggered, the keys beep, setting in panic among the ranks. One of the robbers, later identified as Derek,  stamps on the keys but Ricky is able to filter Max’s location. Ellis pleads with Chief Li to send a couple of cops to check out the place. Although they do not find anything fishy initially, the cops see the robbers casually strutting out with bags. The two factions engage in a gun shootout and Ellis shortly joins them. The robbers are forced to retreat back into the bank.

The hostages include a pregnant lady, Tracey, a quarrelling couple Karl (who is also the bank manager) and Irma, Mrs Field and Mr Simpson, who know each other from before, and a young runaway teen, Rain. The situation is quite tricky as Karl had an affair with Tracey, who is now carrying his child. Max tries to calm everyone down, reminding them that the bank is insured and they will be safe as long as they don’t act out of turn.

However, when the robbers return after the shootout, Derek screams at the person who triggered the silent alarm to reveal themselves. Not wanting anyone else to get hurt, Max raises her hand. She feels that due to her experience being an outlaw, she is the best equipped to handle the situation. Li acts on the report of a robbery and sets up a perimeter outside.

A tactical team is also sent to the location but Ellis feels it might be too late. He spots Derek pointing his gun at Max through the slits. Even though he is in a testing phase of his career, Ellis risks it all, defying Li’s order and entering the bank through the back door. Ellis sends Li photos of the robbers. He passes them on to the tactical team, helping them identify these criminals.

Derek grew up in a foster home. His foster mother even visited him in prison a few months back. Li sends a unit to her house in order to find out more about Derek’s motives. Li calls the line inside the bank. Max volunteers to pick up on the robbers’ behalf. They are clearly not very good at this. Her confidence in dealing with the situation grows as Li updates her about Ellis’ presence inside.

The two finally see each other in the hallway at a distance. Ellis points toward Rain’s earphone and asks Max to get it. When they get to talking, Rain explains that she was not pulling a card scam earlier. She ran away with her mother’s card to get money for a concert. Max promises to help her and Rain gives her the earphones. Ellis connects his phone to them, patching in Li with Max. Fearing that the police can swarm them anytime, Ben and Derek shift the hostages to a more compact meeting room.

However, Derek notices the back door unlocked, discovers Ellis, and shoots him. Instead of taking cover, Max reacts devotedly toward her partner and rushes to check up on him. There is a scary moment as Ellis is shot but we shortly discover that his bulletproof vest saved him.

Simmons and Yates discover that Derek’s foster mother owns an antique stamp preserved in the bank’s safety deposit worth millions. According to her will, Derek and the other foster kids will be getting the money after she dies.

The robbers take Tracey outside with a gun pointed at her head. They want the police to give them a car to escape the situation. However, before Tracey leaves, Max advises her to duck down and allow the snipers to take out the robbers. The plan is successful as they are minorly injured and arrested. There is a twist in the story as Ellis and Max arrest Tracey. It is revealed that she was in cahoots with the robbers. At the foster mother’s house, Simmons saw her in a picture, later discovering that she is Tracey’s real mother.

Tracey was not happy with her decision to split the inheritance equally with the foster kids. So, she made a plan to distract everyone using the two robbers and steal the stamp from the deposit box. Tracey deceived Karl to learn about the bank’s security systems. She saw the final move as the perfect opportunity to take all the money for herself but the robbers escaped with their lives. Ellis and Max detected various instances which gave Tracey away.

The episode ends on an explosive note. Max and Ellis exchange an intimate moment after all the mess is over. Both were ready to risk their lives for the other person, making them realize that they have romantic feelings. As they are about to kiss, we learn that Max has a husband.

The Episode Review

Max’s husband was the surprise package waiting for us in the shadows. Throughout the season, we saw Max and Ricky connive with each other on many occasions to accomplish this. It might be valuable ammunition to win Wild Cards a renewal and breathe a new purpose into the story. Coming to the specific subplot, there aren’t a lot of surprises. The title and the inadvertent focus on Tracey gave her away as the “inside man” in the big con.

Beyond Max and Ellis’ chemistry, the execution of the rest of the episode is very generic. I wish the makers put a little more effort into the writing and making the heist situation more believable. This feeling has emerged on many occasions in the past as well but it is high time that cable network TV shows adopt a more proactive approach.

However, the chemistry of the two main characters is so strong that one can overlook those deficiencies. I wasn’t sure of Gianniotti’s capability to match up Morgan’s charm. They looked an odd pairing at the beginning. But over time, he has grown on me as Ellis and this episode is his crowing moment. A lot of hope for the finale, which airs next week!