Wild Cards episode 4 preview and spoilers: Ellis goes undercover

It's surf's up on Wild Cards come Wednesday, Feb. 7 on The CW. At 8 p.m. ET, we'll be settling into a mystery that involves yet another road trip for Max and Ellis. Last episode, their investigation took place in the township of Stanford where a missing person's case became a homicide after the victim, Lucas, was found dead in a wolf sanctuary. He'd been murdered because he stumbled across a scheme the winery owner, Harlan, concocted involving box wine and prohibition era bottles.

In episode 4, "Strangers on a Wave," the victim is a surfer who's been shot and washes up on shore. It's a case that will see Ellis going undercover for the first time on the show and since he'd been put on maritime unit. In the premiere, "The Infinity Thief," Max's father, George, had done some digging on Ellis and had found out he had been "in deep" on a case that he was told to drop before the authorities found a kilo of drugs in his car. George didn't define "in deep" but if Ellis was undercover, perhaps that's a specialty of his that we're about to see first hand.

Judging by one of the released pictures for the episode, Ellis will be posing as a surfer to get in good with the tight knit community that doesn't trust cops. Max, of course, will don her own persona to get down to the bottom of what happened but a good part of her role in episode 4 will be in a detective capacity as well. The crime storyline is described as being "worthy of Hitchcock" so expect suspense, thrills, and dangerous situations.

Max also looks to be working with Chief Li and possibly Yates and Simmons in "Strangers on a Wave." It'll be interesting to see how she interacts with them, if she does so solo, since their scenes up until this point have been centered on Li's exasperation with her and Ellis because he doesn't want to work with them. And, as for her scenes with Yates and Simmons, they're built around her defending Ellis against them or him sticking up for her as the two detectives, who seemingly do nothing, make sarcastic and often snide comments. Perhaps, we'll get more depth from them and Max can learn more about what their issue is with Ellis.

In the trailer for episode 4, Simmons and Ellis get into it on the beach. Punches are thrown, but it's for the undercover work. Though that's not to say personal feelings aren't mixed into that exchange, too. It also appears that Max may have gotten herself into some trouble while in disguise. She falls out of a vent which is not good and certainly not stealthy. I wonder who she's spying on. Can't wait for Wednesday, Feb. 7 to find out!

Wild Cards airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on The CW. Next day streaming is available on cwtv.com and the CW App. If you're looking for podcasts that follow the show, check out The CW Spiral, a weekly pod over on Youtube that reviews the network's shows and keeps you up to date on CW news.