Chap­ter 88 of We Solve Mur­ders begins with Max High­field strik­ing a dra­mat­ic pose on a sheep­skin rug, his chest adorned with dia­monds. A pho­tog­ra­ph­er directs him through var­i­ous expres­sions, from stern and mean to flir­ta­tious­ly sexy, cap­tur­ing the essence of his role. Mean­while, Rosie sits on a yoga ball, adding a laid-back vibe to the atmos­phere as she smokes a joint and assists with the cre­ative process. Max, prepar­ing for his role as Blake Scott, seeks Rosie’s input on his char­ac­ter, ask­ing for name sug­ges­tions and how Blake should be por­trayed. Rosie sug­gests that Blake should resem­ble Max, lead­ing them to dis­cuss poten­tial fea­tures like a mus­tache to enhance the character’s per­sona. The col­lab­o­ra­tive spir­it in the room con­tin­ues to grow, as both Rosie and Max brain­storm ways to bring the char­ac­ter to life, fur­ther­ing the cre­ative ten­sion between their per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al exchanges.

As Max pre­pares for the next scene, he and Abby, his body­guard, dis­cuss the artis­tic aspects of the project, as well as Max’s pas­sion for writ­ing. Max express­es his dis­dain for tra­di­tion­al lit­er­a­ture, instead favor­ing stream-of-con­scious­ness poet­ry, which reflects his unique approach to cre­ative expres­sion. Despite his usu­al rejec­tion of con­ven­tion­al sto­ry­telling, Max is intrigued by the plot of Blake Scott’s sto­ry, although he remains hes­i­tant about por­tray­ing a vil­lain. Rosie pitch­es the con­cept: a syn­di­cate that pays influ­encers to smug­gle mon­ey, with Blake Scott posi­tioned as the mas­ter­mind behind the oper­a­tion. Max reacts with skep­ti­cism, ques­tion­ing the legal­i­ty of such actions, prompt­ing light-heart­ed ban­ter between him, Rosie, and the pro­duc­er, Steve. Their play­ful exchange high­lights the blend of pro­fes­sion­al ten­sion and casu­al humor as they pre­pare for the unfold­ing scenes, while also reveal­ing the under­ly­ing com­plex­i­ties of the project.

The dynam­ics shift unex­pect­ed­ly when Abby sur­pris­es Max by pro­vid­ing live footage of his dogs at a res­i­den­tial facil­i­ty, evok­ing a deep emo­tion­al reac­tion from him. This moment of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty con­trasts sharply with Max’s oth­er­wise com­posed demeanor, offer­ing a glimpse into his per­son­al side. As the con­ver­sa­tion drifts back to the plot of the movie, it is revealed that the influ­encers involved in the syndicate’s oper­a­tions begin to meet dead­ly fates. Max shares a sto­ry about a friend who expe­ri­enced some­thing sim­i­lar, tying the fic­tion­al events to his own life in a poignant way. This con­nec­tion between his per­son­al expe­ri­ences and the nar­ra­tive adds an emo­tion­al lay­er to the unfold­ing dra­ma, blur­ring the lines between Max’s real and fic­tion­al lives. The casu­al, almost detached atmos­phere is replaced with a deep­er reflec­tion on the con­se­quences of the char­ac­ters’ actions, mark­ing a shift in the tone of the dis­cus­sion.

Max’s excite­ment about the logis­ti­cal aspects of the film­ing process leads him to con­firm his par­tic­i­pa­tion in the project, but with one con­di­tion: his char­ac­ter must retain a hero­ic aspect. He insists that Blake Scott can­not be pure­ly a vil­lain, sug­gest­ing that anoth­er char­ac­ter be assigned that role. In a moment of enthu­si­asm, Max pro­pos­es involv­ing his friend, Tim­o­th­ée Cha­la­met, in the project, fur­ther adding to the sense of col­lab­o­ra­tion. As he heads to the stage, Rosie and Steve exchange thoughts on Max’s true lev­el of involve­ment in the plot, spec­u­lat­ing on how much he is actu­al­ly invest­ed in the project beyond his role as an actor. The chap­ter ends with an air of ambi­gu­i­ty sur­round­ing the moral com­pass of the char­ac­ters, par­tic­u­lar­ly as they lis­ten to Max deliv­er his speech, leav­ing the read­er eager to explore how the moral com­plex­i­ties of the char­ac­ters will play out in future chap­ters. The intri­cate mix of per­son­al moti­va­tions and pro­fes­sion­al ambi­tions cre­ates a lay­ered nar­ra­tive, one that con­tin­ues to chal­lenge the char­ac­ters’ integri­ty and sets the stage for the next dra­mat­ic devel­op­ments.