Wild Cards episode 2 mysteries explained: Who killed Jake and who stole the mail?

Wild Cards episode 2, "Show Me the Murder," put Max and Ellis on their first official case as partners...well, technically their first two cases. They were assigned to educate the elderly members of an apartment building about "porch piracy" since there were complaints about mail going missing. The soft ball task broke open into a murder investigation when Max decided to follow up on one resident's story about a ghost occupying a neighboring apartment. The woman, named Bonnie, swore she heard noises coming from there.

It turns out, what she was hearing was a Roomba moving around in the place and there was a dead body that it certainly didn't have the ability to clean up. The victim was a sports agent by the name of Jake Boshep who wasn't known for his kindness. He was ruthless when it came to his job which means Max and Ellis had to investigate a roster of people to get to the bottom of who wanted him dead.

They were able to rule out Curtis Moorfield, one of his clients. While Curtis did attack Jake's car in anger over his agent's affair with his wife, he didn't kill him. Neither did his widow, Amy, who had an alibi. She was checked into a wellness center and was on good terms with Jake the last she spoke to him despite their marriage coming to an end.

The pair, however, did arrest Hailey Chen-Lin. She was a former client of Jake's back when she was an equestrian making a name for herself in the sport. Prior to him dropping her, they'd had a good relationship. He'd helped Hailey get emancipated when her parents were trying to live off the earnings she'd made as a rider. It soured once he decided not to represent her anymore.

Hailey was responsible for giving Jake the black eye. He'd tried to make amends with her over the past, but she wasn't willing to listen. She also had a history with violence which is why the police department felt they had the culprit even though neither Max nor Ellis felt that she'd actually committed the crime.

The duo were ultimately right. Even though the bloody knife which had been missing from Jake's apartment was found in her possession, Hailey didn't stab him to death. The real murderer was Bill Flaire, the owner of the sports agency Jake worked for. He'd killed Jake because the agent found out that Bill, along with Dr. Melvin Tadlock, were lying to clients about their health.

The first unfortunate victim of this scheme was a football player named Danny who'd died of complications from Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy, also known as HCM. It's a condition which causes the heart to grow abnormally thick which affects blood flow and could lead to sudden cardiac arrest. Both Bill and Dr. Tadlock knew about his condition, but they lied on his medical results so he could keep playing.

They did the same thing to Summer Lake, an MMA fighter who was about to break the record for the most wins in the ring and close a deal making her the first female fighter with her own video game. She, too, has HCM. When Jake realized she was showing the same symptoms as Danny, he got a second opinion about her heart which confirmed to him what Bill and Dr. Tadlock were up to for the sake of money.

Unwilling to let his gravy train go or deal with the consequences of his actions, Bill killed Jake and then framed Hailey for the murder. He thought he'd get away with it, but Max tricked him into wearing a mic pack with the wires crossed so that he'd accidentally admit to the crime for the entire audience at Summer's MMA fight to hear. He was arrested on the spot.

As for the mail thief, Max figured out that that was Bonnie. She had Ricky pose as a mailman and leave a package with an untraceable phone in it, so that Max could call her later, proving she was the thief, and so they could have a chat later. Max didn't turn her in, but did tell Bonnie she had to give the mail back. She understood that Bonnie just wanted to feel alive but, as Max told her, she still had spark and vibrancy to her, she didn't need to take people's mail to feel it. Not to mention Max planned on returning the packages so she could collect the reward money that had been offered.

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New episodes of Wild Cards air Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on The CW. Next day streaming is available on cwtv.com and the CW App. Stay tuned to Hidden Remote for more news and coverage!