In an exclusive interview with PopCulture.com, Vanessa Morgan, star of The CW's newest series Wild Cards, shared her thoughts on the twist-filled Season 1 finale. Following the Episode 9 cliffhanger, where Max and Ellis nearly kissed but were interrupted by Max's husband, Olivier, the three ended up working a heist together to get back an imperial egg. Max was supposedly working with Olivier, only she ended up double-crossing him to help the cops due to his rep as an international art thief so she could get off probation and get her father's sentence reduced.
While they were successful in retrieving the imperial egg with Max and Ellis getting what they have desired since the first episode, that wasn't the end. Max and her friend Ricky were about to make a clean getaway with the real imperial egg, revealing that the duo had that con planned for a year, and they previously stole the actual egg, replacing it with a fake one. Before leaving town, Ricky played Max a recorded conversation that involved Ellis. Max later revealed to him that she knew who killed his brother.
Take a look at what Morgan had to say about the jaw-dropping season finale and what could happen in a potential second season. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
PopCulture: There was a lot to unpack in this final episode of the season, with many, many twists. What was the biggest surprise to you?
Vanessa Morgan: So the biggest surprise for me was, first of all, that Max found out who killed Ellis' brother and also that she was able to swap the eggs. I thought that was absolutely brilliant. The whole time she was pulling her own con and got away with the several million dollar egg.
PC: Going off of that, what was it like seeing her really take charge? Because she was coming up with this elaborate scheme, not only with her husband but with the police as well, and this whole double-crossing.
Morgan: I loved it. I feel like she tries to do that every episode, but I feel like they actually respect her, which was nice, which they probably shouldn't have in the sense that she conned them, but I think she acted like a boss, and I think she did it perfectly and clearly got away with it.
PC: Throughout the whole con, there is this rising tension between Ellis and Max, especially after their almost kiss. What was it like playing off that dynamic with Giacomo, especially since we've really seen their relationship build throughout the whole season?
Morgan: Obviously, it comes down to us being lucky enough to have a fellow co-star who's so professional, and we get along great as friends. So, it really makes it fun and easy to play those storylines together.
PC: After the whole scheme is a success, Max gets off probation, Ellis is a detective again, and George's sentence gets reduced, but we do find out that Max had originally switched the real imperial egg with the fake one, and Ellis really feels that whole betrayal. What was your initial reaction when you read the script and got to that plot twist towards the end?
Morgan: I thought it was super juicy. I was just impressed with my character that she even thought of that and was bold enough to pull it off. You know what I mean? Because we see her go to jail. And being also able to maneuver an easier sentence on her dad at the same time, whatever that ends up looking like, whatever deal they'll come up with, at least hopefully, after they find out about the egg and Ellis snitches on her, I'll get to find that out, and also able to find out more information on Ellis's brother. I think there was just a bunch of stuff that Max was able to pull in the finale, which I thought was awesome.
PC: Were you expecting something like this to happen, that she would pull off an even bigger scheme at the end?
Morgan: No, I wasn't, actually. I was shocked. I wasn't expecting that turn at all. But I knew they had to do something in the season finale. What was going to be the big twist? Because I don't know if they're going to bring her back in Season 2 in the sense of how do you recover from that? It's a pretty big plot hole. So, will she be on the run? Will she go back to jail? I don't know.
PC: We did see that Max was going to tell Ellis that she found out who killed his brother, but then, of course, it cuts to black. How do you think this will affect their relationship, if it will at all since Max is about to drop this huge news on him?
Morgan: I don't know if it'll affect the relationship in the sense of... I feel like the trust they had was already shattered, so I feel like they would have to start from the beginning as a friendship. But I'm sure he's going to be grateful that Max got this information. But I feel like now his mission is just going to be finding this person who killed his brother. I feel like that will take over everything else in his mind.
PC: Are you hoping that this rebuilds their relationship in a way?
Morgan: I feel like she's hoping that. I think Max is ready to just have her freedom and move on with the money. She's been so used to going, go, go her whole life, so she's ready to cut ties with that friendship. She feels sad and heartbroken about it, but I feel like, knowing this information, she had to go back and tell him.
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