Wild Cards (Ep. 1x7) ⁞⁞ Episode Spotlight

The CW series Wild Cards is a crime drama that sees charismatic con woman on parole Max (Vanessa Morgan) teaming up with demoted detective Cole Ellis (Giacomo Gianniotti) to gain redemption by working together to solve crimes. Episode 7 saw things getting personal for Ellis, as he was informed that recently arrested teen J.J. (Chance Hurstfield) was asking for him. The teen had been assigned to Ellis' social worker brother Daniel before his death. J.J. sought Ellis' help, swearing that he had not done the crime he had been arrested for. Accused of breaking and entering at multiple mansions, J.J. explained to Ellis that he wasn't guilty, despite having no alibi and witnesses having seen him sneaking out of his posh Academy's dormitory. Believing J.J. to be telling the truth, Ellis spoke to his chief about giving him time to investigate before escalating the charges, revealing to his boss that J.J. was a good kid fighting to stay out of trouble, given his life as an orphan. Ellis explained his brother's role in J.J.'s life and that Daniel had been the first person that J.J. came out to. Ellis felt an obligation to J.J. to prove his innocence. This led Ellis & Max to Preswood Academy. Max went undercover as a substitute teacher and began questioning students, including Vince (Jude Wilson), who appeared to be the only student to come to J.J.'s defense as many of his fellow students believed he didn't belong in the school due to his poor background. J.J's drone was believed to have been used to disable security cameras on the victims' properties and it was found on his laptop that he had hacked the school's security cameras and deleted footage at one of the exits. When J.J. refused to explain where he had spent those nights and why he hacked the security cameras, Ellis began to second-guess the gay teen's innocence.

However, it wasn't long before Max and her con man father had other suspects, a trio of students including Vince, that they got to confess to the crimes, explaining that they had received invitations to an elite secret society that secured high-powered futures for chosen Academy students, if they passed their initiation tests. For this trio, their initiation involved the three robberies that had been committed. Vince further confessed to having taken J.J.'s drone to use in the robberies. The impassioned Vince told Ellis & Max that J.J. had nothing to do with the robberies and he didn't even know the drone had been taken. This led to J.J.'s release, but Ellis still had a nagging mystery to solve, as he questioned J.J. about hacking the school cameras. When he mentioned Vince and two of his other classmates had done the robberies, J.J. showed concern and still refused to tell Ellis why he hacked the cameras. Ellis told him that if he didn't explain, he could still be expelled from school. J.J. refused to budge. Ellis & Max recruited the trio of thieves to help them set a trap for the culprit behind their invitations after discovering they were forged and not from the secret society they claimed to be. While working together, Ellis listened to Vince show further concern for J.J. still being in potential trouble. After catching the mastermind, who turned out to be one of the Academy teachers, J.J. was exonerated. Ellis & J.J. spent some bonding time on the pier where Vince joined them, looking to apologize to J.J. Their conversation revealed to Ellis that J.J. hacked the cameras to delete footage of the two of them sneaking out together. Vince took J.J.'s hand, thanking him for risking things for him while he wasn't ready to come out to his parents or tell them about their secret relationship. J.J. then told Vince that their relationship was over, after what he had done. Ellis assured J.J. that he had a good heart, protecting his closeted boyfriend even though he ended things.

Despite their youth, Chance Hurstfield and Jude Wilson are both veterans when it comes to playing gay characters. Jude recently played gay teen Jerome on Fellow Travelers and Chance recently wrapped up his five-year stint as Danny Dixon, whose coming out was a major storyline on the ABC drama A Million Little Things.