Kaila Estrada’s Max Alvero on ‘Incognito’ is slowly becoming a fan-favorite action hero—and with very good reason.
Related: 5 Reasons Why Kaila Estrada Is On Our It-Girl Radar
Incognito is shaping up to be a promising action-packed series with interesting characters, fun dynamics, great performances, and engaging plot lines. Each character is a familiar archetype, brought to life by the star-studded cast of actors portraying them. One such character, one of the only two women on the main team of seven, has stood out as a true BAMF and endeared audiences to her story and personality.
Max Alvero, played by Kaila Estrada, is a young cyber ops specialist and former military who was dishonorably discharged for insubordination and desertion. She’s quickly become an icon, strong, independent, and helpful, but she’s also a softie at heart. With a set of specialized skills, a painful past, a dead fiancé, but also two loving moms (a welcome touch for a series that airs nationwide), a chance at redemption, and a connection with team leader JB (Richard Gutierrez), Max’s story is a fascinating one.
Kaila Estrada’s found her niche playing stoic, fiesty characters that aren’t complete kontrabidas. She plays tough-but-sensitive very well. Her portrayal of Max Alvero is one of the reasons the character’s a standout BAMF in an action-packed series—but here are the rest!
NO-NONSENSE GIRLBOSS
Max, right from the get-go, clearly doesn’t take any nonsense from anyone. Not even from her team, especially the ever-comedic Tomas (Anthony Jennings). From unwanted advances to unnecessary actions, Max Alvero shuts any kind of possible nuisance down, taking her work seriously—knowing how dangerous missions could get.
During a mission, she went against orders to abort and went back into gunfire to save her fellow soldier and fiancé Sevi (Victor Silayan), who in turn took bullets to save her life. Max is skilled, tough, brave, and noble, definitely no damsel in distress nor unlikable antagonist, and that puts her in icon category.
NONCHALANT HACKER ICON
Deemed the “best hacker money can buy,” Max has cemented herself as an integral part of the team, able to hack systems and acquire the necessary data and information without so much as a bang moving out of place. She also takes down scammers in her spare time, natch. An expert at deception, she can hack and act her way into any site or system, and she’s as maangas carrying a rifle as she is when she’s typing away on a keyboard.
SHE CAN TAKE CARE OF HERSELF, FR
We love a woman who can hold her own—against a gaggle of creeps, too. Incognito wasted no time in truly showing off what Max (and Kaila) can do as an action hero, taking down a whole bunch of henchmen in one of her earliest scenes.
Though the young-woman-has-to-fight-off-creeps story beat has been done to death, trust that we’ll be cheering when bad guys get their butts handed to them.
When faced with unwanted advances from a bunch of men in Cerdova, Max tries to brush them off in a way that won’t bring any attention to her and the team. But of course, the men just got more aggressive, so she took them down—with some assist from Andres (Daniel Padilla) and her team, but she’s proven that she can take care of business just fine.
GOT SHOT? WALK IT OFF
Max was the first of the Incognito team to take considerable damage, getting wounded during a shootout in Cerdova. Though she encouraged them to go and save themselves, her team wasn’t going to leave her behind—and she was ready to go down fighting. It’s par for the course for characters like theirs to get injured, but she’s still very much a badass for powering through it and putting the mission first.
UNIMAGINABLE STRENGTH
Physical prowess and fighting skill aren’t the only determinants of strength. Back when she was serving, Max witnessed her fellow soldier and fiancé Sevi get shot right in front of her, and watched as he died in her arms. She still keeps wedding planning appointments, listening to Sevi’s old messages. We also see how vulnerable she gets talking to him and reminiscing.
It’s a tragic love story, and while we’d love to see a female action hero whose life is not tethered to or defined by a man in any way, persevering and returning to a life that not only is physically and mentally demanding, but also for sure always reminds her of the darkest moment of her life, takes incredible inner strength. And no one on Earth can say Max Alvero isn’t strong.
Continue Reading: 6 Things You Need To Know About Gen Z Artist And New Girl On Campus Ashtine Olviga
