Wild Cards starts with a compelling premise and continues to serve with the best kind of romantic journey. In Season 2, Episode 6, “Seance and Sensibility,” it also finally gives viewers a real Max and Ellis first kiss. Sure, they’re drugged, but everything about the moment is raw, honest, and vulnerable.
What we’re essentially watching at this moment are two people operating on the feelings that the sober versions of themselves are still too afraid to touch on. In fact, here in this low-lit room, they’re giving each other the promise of something bigger than a relationship. When Ellis opens up about how he and his late brother were always there for each other, Max promises that she’ll now be his cricket—the reminder of everything he’s lost, all that he’s gained, and tangible proof that he isn’t alone. It’s an expansion of their partnership to a whole new level, and even if they hadn’t kissed, this juncture would’ve still been a huge turning point for them. However, when he kisses her, he agrees to it. He acknowledges her promise, and he acknowledges her.
Alone together in a (maybe) haunted mansion and sitting by the fire, what we’re also seeing is an external manifestation of everything that’s been torching between them. The chemistry has been there from day one, even while they’ve actively tried to fight it. Yet, all the quiet choices they continue to make throughout to protect one another are a direct result of the partnership they’re cementing and the adoration that’s growing between them.
Max and Ellis’ first kiss is tender, soft, and brimming with unsaid words. We knew as soon as it happened that they’d later either deny it or maneuver around it, but it still doesn’t change the fact that we’re watching two people give in to everything that’s kindling inside of them. We’re watching two people choose one another, even if they’re a bit off in the process, because it’s something they’ve been wanting to do for a while now. In every unspoken exchange and long moment where they’ve held each other’s gaze, this is what they were thinking of—this is what they’ve been wanting. Wanting each other.
In many ways, it’s obvious that Max and Ellis will have multiple firsts. This technically isn’t their first kiss because that occurs undercover in the Pilot. This is, however, their first real kiss while they’re fortified as partners, and that alone means something in what it reveals. It gives us the knowledge necessary to understand that their partnership isn’t fleeting, but it’s something they both value.
Not to mention that Max promising Ellis that she’ll be his cricket is the most important thing she can say to him. It’s the most important thing anyone can say to him, but it doubles in meaning because it’s her. Because she’s the one who came to him when he needed her most, like an invisible string, driving him a little crazy every time despite the fact that he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Promising to be his cricket is also a deeper way of declaring adoration because what Max is telling Ellis is that he can lean on her no matter what. Again, she’s high, yes, but neither of them are withholding the truth from each other here. He’s telling her a real story from his past, and she’s accepting it by giving him something in return—a promise she intends to keep. Even if a kiss didn’t follow this moment, it’d still be one of the most significant changes in their relationship. She might’ve joined the force to get her father out of prison, but Max is now staying for and because of Ellis.
She’s choosing more honorable approaches because she herself wants to keep what they have. In the next episode, he makes a promise to her, too. He does the one thing he once told her no one should do, and he promises that he’ll get her out. Like the fire burning in the unlit room, Max and Ellis give each other their word about being the light they can always find in the darkness.
They promise each other a safe space, and that’s exactly what we see spark during Max and Ellis’ first kiss.
Wild Cards Season 2 is currently airing on The CW.
First Featured Image Credit: ©The CW