‘Poker Face’ Season 2 Finale: The Best for Last

This message is brought to you by Apple Pay.

No matter where you're going this summer, odds are you'll need to pay for a few things, like a ride share, a souvenir, or dinner at that spot on your bucket list.

Instead of digging for your wallet every time, just use Apple Pay.

It's accepted anywhere you see the contact list symbol, and all it takes is a tap with iPhone or Apple Watch.

The best part is, you'll still earn the card rewards, points, and cash back you love.

Easy setup now.

Easier travels later with Apple Pay.

Terms apply.

This episode is brought to you by the Home Depot.

Labor Labor Day savings are happening right now at the Home Depot, so you can get more out of your outdoor space this fall.

The Home Depot has a wide selection of cordless outdoor power equipment that makes it easy to clear your lawn starting at just $79.

You got to love a power tool.

Then why not make those colors pop with string lights and mums that bloom all season long?

Shop Labor Day savings now through September 3rd only at the Home Depot.

Hello, welcome back to Prestige TV Podcast Speed.

I'm Joanna Robinson.

I'm Rob Mahoney.

And we're here to talk to you about the last, the final four episodes of season two of Pokerface.

Also, Rob, I feel like it's been a minute.

Has it been a minute since we did a Prestige episode together?

It feels like it.

It's been more than a minute.

It's been lifetimes, frankly.

A lot has come and gone.

I feel like a new new man now that the NBA playoffs are over.

And I'm delighted to be back here with you, Joe.

We are back here to talk to you about Poker Face.

Also, we're not officially announcing it, but I will just tease that we've got a really fun project in the works for the rest of the summer.

So

I'm really excited about it.

I mean, I'm thrilled to be talking to you about Poker Face, but I'm really excited about this thing that we're cooking up for the rest of the summer.

So,

Rob Mahoney, Joanna Robinson.

Anything you want to say

to our listeners before before we get into poker breaks?

I think that our listeners, one, you know what, we've been soliciting recommendations for shows that we should cover here on the Prestige TV feed.

I would suggest that your non-announcement of the project we have upcoming is, you know, a condemnation of a sort, not of those recommendations, but of the TV slate on the horizon, which is not.

the best we've ever seen, not the most exciting summer TV-wise.

It's a dry summer overall, I would say.

True.

Yeah.

But don't take that personally.

If you've been emailing us at prestigev at spotify.com, I have been taking your recommendations to heart personally.

I'm going to be checking out some of these shows people have been listening, emailing in about.

And to be fair, like we've already covered one of them, right?

Like Department Q, we already hit one right off the bat.

And we have a lot more coming.

But mostly, I just want to hear what people are watching, what they're excited about.

And as we get into this new as to be yet announced series that we are definitely not talking about right now, definitely want all the feedback at prestige TV at spotify.com.

It's going to be like a TV club experience for us this summer, and that's always fun.

Quick question, Ramahoni, for you.

Do you want to give us like your one-sentence reaction to the latest season of the bear?

Still?

Question mark?

We're still doing that.

I guess my one-sentence description would be: this is now two consecutive seasons of the bear in which I care less about the characters by the end of it as a result of the experience of watching it.

And I salute very much the emotional complexity that the bear is reaching for and the kind of truth and progress that clearly it's trying to portray on screen.

Did it do it in the most exciting way or way that serviced best the characters?

I would argue very, very much not.

It's interesting.

Something that you and I were talking about when we were planning this other project that we're not talking about yet.

But yesterday, you and I were talking about sort of the reactive nature of television, how television is a reactive medium that you can put out some episodes, see how people feel about it, especially like back in the day when you had 20 episode seasons.

But even now,

when you do a 10-episode season of television, then you see what people react to, and then you can sort of pivot around that.

sometimes for better or for worse

in future seasons.

The Bears seasons three and four were shot back to back.

So there was no chance to see how people felt about season three and maybe zag in a different direction for season four.

You and I have talked about the bear a little bit off-pod.

I liked it more than you did, but we still had a lot of similar problems with it.

I'm still all in on the

Richie storyline.

And one day you and I will find an excuse to talk about Richie as a character.

But

that is where we are on the bear.

And then also, Rob Mahoney, do you want to give the folks, I know this isn't House of R, but it's fine.

You just started watching Andor.

What's your log line reaction to your Andor experience so far?

Season two of Andor.

You had already watched season one.

Extremely high marks.

Early.

It's very early yet for me and my season two experience.

So let's let's circle back to it.

I would look, dare I say it will pop up at some kind of superlative podcast that we do in the future, like year-end kinds of stuff.

Like it feels impossible based on the early returns for me that it will not be on those kinds of lists.

So we're going to come back to it.

Stay tuned.

Stay tuned.

Okay.

Poker Face, final four episodes.

So that means we are talking today about episode nine, A New Lease on Death.

Episode 10, The Big Pump.

There's a double meaning in that.

Episode 11, The Day of the Iguana.

And episode 12, The End of of the Row, the finale of season two.

You know, Joe, a little bit of serendipity for us.

We kind of broke these up almost just as a matter of like geometric convenience based on the length of the season.

But this turned into kind of like a little four-episode arc here.

It's funny.

By episode two

of this, you know, it's

we have Charlie plants in New York.

and meets Alex.

It's like the Alex episode, the Alex arc, essentially, this final four episodes.

And

by episode two, I was like, are we just doing Only Murders in the Building now?

Like, is this poker face just only?

She's moved into this apartment building.

The neighbors are becoming, you know, like the woman out front of the apartment is like a recurring character, her tap dancing firefighter neighbor, like all this sort of stuff like that.

But then episodes,

you know, 11 and 12 were, of course,

much different.

We're out of the building and at a wedding and then back on the road again.

What was, how did you feel about this sort of,

you know, we had talked earlier in the season about how when Rhea Perman's character,

Rest in Peace is Beatrix Hasp, when

she was put into Witsack, essentially, we were like, okay, they stopped doing this sort of serialize.

They're going to go back to sort of episode of the week kind of ideas.

And then they, I feel like they zagged real hard back

in a different direction for these Final Four episodes.

So how did you feel about our thoughts about where Poker Face was going versus where it actually wound up going?

I'll say, like, I kind of felt like I got to have my cake and eat it too in that regard because it still felt episodic until the exact moment when it wasn't.

And I think not having that, like, Charlie looking over her shoulder waiting for the mobster around every corner kind of feeling was still gone because we thought we weren't in a serialized version of poker face, but then it turned out we were.

And so, I thought that rug pull moment was actually really exciting.

And it turned the like how catch them, why done it formula into something that felt like totally different by the end of of the season.

I will say, did you figure out the twist before the reveal?

And if so, where did you figure it out?

This is where I was.

Like, the show had convinced me enough of its Mission Impossible mask hijinks that I was like, is this Justin Thoreau?

Or the so I can't remember who the source actor was.

Like, is this someone playing Patty Harrison like in this scene?

Like, is that what's happening?

100%.

Well, in the reveal or in an earlier scene, in an earlier scene, like as they're kind of in the car on the way to Beatrix's house.

And there's like, it's starting to be like a little fishy.

There's something like a little bit off in the dynamic.

And it's like, huh, we're talking about this guy as a master of disguise.

We're looking at every person sideways.

What if it's, you know, the woman in the car with Charlie?

I, uh, because of my, I think, Game of Thrones faceless man training, where it's like, is the years of being like, is that Aria?

Is that Aria?

Is that Aria?

I was also, I was on high alert.

I was like, anyone could be, if they're establishing Mission Impossible rules,

anyone could be

the person.

So, yeah, I was like, is that just Justin Thoreau,

you know, allegedly in a latex mask?

And then, but she was lying.

And so I was like, how I was like paying such close attention to the way she was phrasing things.

I was like, is she sneakily phrasing things in ways in which it wasn't a lie?

And then the, so the reveal in the end that she could out

wit or outbeat Charlie's lie detector.

And then, of course, it was not a like when there was the reveal, I was like, Didn't we see both of them in the same place during the wedding episode?

And then I was like, Oh, okay, it's just bearing.

That's fine, phone hanging up, and then you're in the room.

Well, here's a question about that.

Joe, as we got the reveal of you know what Alex has been doing this whole time to suppress her lies, I could not help but think of our years-old conversation about whether

Charlie is a superhero because of her preternatural ability to detect lies.

And so, I put it to you.

If you are just like picking up on sub-subtle physiological cues, does that make you a superhero?

Can you remind me where I went?

Was I like,

she's a superhero?

We've gone around this Ben so many times.

I honestly don't remember.

I believe my argument was that she is not a superhero.

Yeah, it seems a brand for me to, in my house of our way, to say she's a superhero.

I had the exact same thought.

And even more painfully, I was like, this is proving Rob right, which is bothering me more than anything else.

But yeah, I mean,

she could detect heartbeat.

I mean, that's, you know, that's a little superheroy.

Like, you know, daredevil adjacent.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Great point.

But, but at the same time, I was like, if there's an alleged scientific explanation for all of this, the sort of physiological explanation for all of this, then I think the, she's not a superhero, aka, I think the Rob Mahoney side of the argument is the correct side of the argument.

Well, this is a huge day for me.

Case close.

Season two ends with the definitive Rob Mahoney win.

Thank you, Joe, for announcing it in front of all of our closest friends.

You win another one, Mahoney.

Okay,

so

I wanted to return to a quote that we were...

discussing earlier this season.

This quote, quote, poker face is so beautiful because it's an adult concept of we lose interest in ourselves and gain interest in our fellows in a way she, Charlie, is sort of on the case of anybody but herself um and I wanted to return to that after Alex in her you know villain monologuing style is sort of reading Charlie to filth like just sort of exposing everything that she's observed about Charlie and who Charlie is and sort of uh asking Charlie to confront her uh her own nature and stuff like that.

What did you think about that element of the final episode?

Oh, I loved it.

The idea of turning Charlie's empathy against her.

And in a weird, twisted way, I know that that character, Alex, is like clearly sociopathic on some level, but is also like such a keen observer of Charlie's condition and Charlie's tendencies that she's picking up on something that no other character has, even the characters who have kind of hung around Charlie for a couple episodes or kind of popped up throughout the two seasons.

And so the idea of preying upon Charlie's empathy and her want to do well and to help the people around her.

But in order to do so, having to observe that tendency in the first place and thus being kind of empathetic yourself, I thought was like kind of a weird and interesting twist on this idea.

Right.

This idea, she's presenting herself as a sociopath, but like there has to be, yeah, that's so interesting.

I will say on a on a casting front, Patty Harrison,

who I sort of first got to know in the film Together Together, but who has cropped up in a bunch of stuff, is someone I really enjoy.

Oh, yeah.

And so when she showed up just to buy Charlie a cup of of coffee, I was like, is this how we're using Patty Harrison on poker face?

And then she showed up in the next episode.

I was like, oh, you know,

to some of her ranting point in the finale, I was like, oh, they, they gave Charlie a Watson.

That's kind of fun.

Okay.

And then as it begins, I was like, oh, no, this is sick.

They gave Charlie a nemesis.

Oh, they gave Charlie a Moriarty.

And

it's actually very, it's very, yeah, they've, they mentioned Sherlock and Watson and Moriarty Moriarty and all that sort of stuff like that.

But it is also, with love and respect

to Prestige Television Everywhere, very psych-coded.

And Psych is a show that I have watched

an absurd amount of.

Basically, Poker Face is a great show that we like, is obviously like pulling from Colombo, all this sort of stuff like that.

But if you strip a lot of the starry guest stars away, it has a lot of DNA in common with Psych, which is not a problem I have personally.

Tell me about this part.

I've I've never seen a single episode of Psych.

And so what is the comparison point that you're seeing?

Well, I will just say that, like, you know, Sean,

the main character in Psych,

the titular psych,

claims to be psychic, is not psychic, is just extremely observant.

And so is like pretending to be a psychic for the Santa Barbara Police Department or whatever, but is solving cases just because he is incredibly observant.

So definitely not a superhero.

Not a superhero, but preternaturally observant.

you know they have they have like these interesting sort of reveals but partway through he gets um a nemesis in the form of jimmy simpson's character on that show and so like this is very like

this kind of relationship is yeah sure moriarty and homes if you want to talk about andrew scott you love any uh excuse to talk about andrew scott um you're you're welcome to

But it's, it's, it's also very psychotic to me.

So, and Psych is also a show that would have thematic episodes, you know, like they did a a Twin Peaks episode.

They did, you know, like, and then they would have guest stars.

They were sort of lower level,

I'm ready for a USA procedural kind of guest stars.

Characters are welcome.

Yeah.

I think John Cena was on Psych for a little while.

You know what I mean?

Like earlier in his acting career.

So

versus we got Thoreau.

We got Justin Thoreau,

you know, et cetera, et cetera.

We got Method Man,

all of that stuff.

Honestly, pretty dope.

Method Man is a nice batch.

Great.

Method Man was great.

Very, very good.

Okay.

How do you feel about the setup for a new reason for her to be on the road in season three?

This time without the Barracuda, but with a last-minute small dog.

Last minute small dog smuggled in.

And I imagine I was not alone in this, Joe.

Did you think, as I did, that we were going to get a...

good buddy, Steve Bashemi, pulling up in the

big hauler at the end, like in the truck.

Like, I felt like maybe even in the way they shot it, they left it open.

Like, let's see if we can get on Bashemi's schedule and maybe if we can get him.

And if not, here's our second guy.

100%.

I was like, they're going to do it.

We're going to see him in the flesh.

And like that she would recognize his voice and be like, you know, whatever.

But it wasn't.

Yeah.

So how do you feel about this new, this new setup?

We're going to Wichita in a

truck.

I mean, it's classic, like, you know, three seasons in inversion of we got to take one of our heroes and make him a villain, or we got to take one of our villains and make him a hero, or at least put people across purposes.

So the idea of Luca being the person of all people to have to chase after Charlie.

And I imagine this is part of the reason we introduce Taylor Schilling in particular in these episodes as like, you know, I don't know whether they're going to be paired up or kind of divide and conquer, but maybe some of either or both of them in season three could be exciting.

There are the same pitfalls, though, that we were talking about with the mobsters, when you have that sort of propulsive, we have to get from town to town.

And like, I find you just like write yourself into more and more corners when someone is in this kind of trouble with the law, right?

When they're going to be setting off like alarms everywhere they go, you just have to write your way out of that stuff a lot.

And so I hope they can pull that off for season three.

Yeah, I totally agree.

Taylor Schilling and Lily Taylor as sort of, you know, potential.

I would love to see more from them.

I mean, speaking of overqualified, like Lily Taylor just popping up for a couple of gags about sensitivity training.

I'm here for it.

I've never been mad at a Lily Taylor appearance in my entire life, but I'm looking forward to more.

Yeah, we have a category that we do on these episodes that's least, like, least use of a good guest star.

And I definitely wrote, I'm going to have to assume that Taylor Schilling and Lily Taylor are being set up for the future.

Like,

that's fine.

Quick note for Charlie:

if you're on the run and I understand you're discombobulated, you just lost your car and all of your stuff, and you're on the lamb again for different reasons.

I'm not keeping the FBI, the jacket with the giant FBI lettering on it.

Like, nice of Luca to lend it, but I am not keeping it if I am trying to be incognito here at the end of the finale.

So,

who out there is picking up the hitchhiker in the giant FBI jacket who's not only doing the thumb hitch, but I would say also a bit of a kick hitch.

Like, there's just a lot of red flags happening, plus the dog.

Like, there's just a, there's way too much you're asking of a potential.

I kind of, I kind of love that the driver is like, oh, a dog.

Like, I didn't sign up for that one.

Um, R.I.P.

to the Barracuda.

Um,

anything else you want to talk about in a sort of like a big picture structural way before we get into some of our specifics?

Let's get into it because I think some of the bigger picture stuff will kind of naturally crop up a little bit.

I'll start with best use of a guest star.

Uh, and I wrote down, I'm not sure Patty Harrison counts, so without her, I'm going Method Man.

Method Man was great.

I just thought he was fantastic.

I really enjoyed him.

How about you?

Uh, I think for me, it probably is Justin Thoreau, in part because we get kind of the dopey original Justin Thoreau.

We do get international assassin Justin Thoreau.

We get all the variations therein with some Colombo antics, with a screwy eye.

Like, there's just a lot for him to do in a way that, frankly, like some other stars don't always get the chance.

And this is what you do when you get Justin Thoreau on your show.

Comedy Thoreau is pretty fantastic.

Yeah.

Our listener Catherine wrote in to definitely flag, but Rob leftover his lover was already on top of this, this idea that they got Justin Thoreau to play an international assassin.

And if you listen to our Prestige TV episode, one of our favorite Leftovers episodes is called International Assassin, starring Justin Thoreau as international assassin.

So, opening on him putting on a tux, I would have to think some people in the making of poker face are also international assassins.

I mean, obviously.

Of course, they are.

Before we go, like, I know Patty Harrison doesn't qualify and her role becomes a little too large to be just like a traditional guest star, but I just think she's so great in this.

And I mean, so great consistently in a lot of things that she pops up in varying sizes of role.

And, you know, like it's just asked to do wildly different things based on the project.

And I thought this really leaned into some of what makes her so good on like, I think you should leave, which is she has this register that's like

80% basic, 20% really unsettling.

Yeah.

And having her be just like the girl in New York, like looking for friends, but like coming on a little strong, but also lying through her teeth and like getting to peel back these layers of that character.

I thought it was just like a perfect representation of like that register that Patty Harrison has.

Someone you can believe as like a wholesome, sweet, tells the truth all the time person, but also then when she puts on the like assassin cat suit or is shown like

leaping from the from the ceiling to kill Adam Arkin, like all of that's believable and great too.

So yeah, I agree.

Okay, least best use of a guest star.

I think for me, it's Natasha Legero in the big pump, just because it's another like really cutting, super funny comedian who's just kind of like the breast milk stealing girlfriend for the most part.

Like, now, granted, did I laugh every time she basically nurses Method Man like a baby?

I did.

But I just, you know, I would watch an episode where she is the starring guest star.

Yes.

I agree.

I had,

I felt similarly about David Allen Greer,

who shows up as sort of the super of the building.

And I was expecting him to recur when she stayed in the building, but he didn't.

I know.

um he did get to call someone an old crone which i you know i'm just i'm happy though um and i would say inside of the same episode the uh the pig pump uh jason ritter yeah like jason ritter being the victim not the murderer meant i got to spend not enough time with jason ritter uh uh someone who i love so um yeah i and i had similar notes for melanie litsky uh our our like one of our favorite celebrity couples i was like i would take much more of them on this show.

All right.

Best joke.

These weren't like, you know, we had some like really jokey.

I mean, the big pump is quite a joke episode, but like we had some really jokey episodes

earlier in the season.

And I would say, you know, especially in the final two, the jokes aren't flying as fast and furious as they were early in the season.

But what do you have under this category, Rob Honey?

They're not flying as fast and furious, but they do hit.

And I think some of them are kind of like more conceptual jokes.

Like the overall premise of getting the gym bros hooked on breast milk and then trying to substitute formula, I just found to be really, really funny.

And I, I was, you know, not to mention Ritter's being able to smell breast milk from miles away.

You know, speaking of preternatural senses,

right?

Where's his whole entire TV series?

Great question.

I

love

a pun-based name.

So Yippie Kaye oyster shucker is pretty phenomenal.

Calling her later, calling her the shuck buddy is also like really worked for me.

Have I ever told you about the

name my friend and I came up with for a seafish, a seafood-based food truck that we wanted to create?

You have not, but let's just put it out there.

No one stealed this name.

This is still in the cards for Joe.

No, I mean, it's a great joke, but it's not a good business idea.

So don't worry about it.

You can have this if you want it, but nobody wants it.

That's free.

Vanaphylaxis.

It's not good marketing, you know?

But it lands.

Okay.

I also really loved, I got.

Well, okay, first of all, if you're going to introduce the oyster puns, I don't think you can skirt the, there's a really hot guy who says he's going to shuck my shell and slurp me down raw.

Right.

You know what?

They really went for it.

They really did go for it.

Also, our listener, Eric, wanted to flag that later when Charlie is going around serving oysters without having paid any attention to what they're called, she calls one deep water horizon.

They have a nice oily texture.

So thanks, Eric, for flagging that joke.

One other one from that episode, like Haley Joasman, another guest star who's kind of killed off too soon and doesn't have like a ton to do, but I really enjoyed as like bro trying to hawk his energy drink at his own wedding.

He had a line where he's talking about his mom,

Beatrix Hasp, and he says, she abandoned me when I was a tiny pussy ass baby.

And I laughed a lot.

Again, I don't know why.

There's just an alchemy to having Haley Jwasman say that that worked.

I also really enjoyed Abdul, who was the sort of bodega owner in the first episode.

Faceblind bodega owner.

Faceblind bodega owner.

When Charlie shows up and she's like, can I get a job here?

And he was just like, I don't know you.

That made me laugh so hard because Charlie, everywhere Charlie has gone and she's like, can I have a job here?

Everyone's like, sure.

And this guy's like, I don't know you.

And then the kicker on that is that when it comes back around for him being face blind and so it being sort of this extra level of I don't know you was pretty phenomenal.

Also

when we meet Justin Thoreau the first time.

Yes.

And he's playing Todd Talachi, a high school teacher.

I think one of the funniest jokes this season is a high school teacher having that house.

That house, that tux.

Yeah.

It's not with love and respect to Mr.

Talachi.

I don't think that's how in this economy, economy, I don't think so.

Well, do you think there was maybe a lawsuit involving the rubber band that apparently poked out his eyes?

Oh, this is HASP money bought him this house.

Maybe so.

Look, somebody paid for something.

Oh, I like to believe it.

Okay, great.

The dollars just aren't adding up.

But while we're in the ballpark of like picking some nits on some of this stuff,

I did appreciate the gag of Luca running through Charlie's credentials and attributes and talking about how she has the temperament of an English bulldog, et cetera, et cetera.

Throw up the shot in the conference room of her in the beer helmet with the Hawaiian shirt.

Played for laughs, enjoyed it, great bit.

How'd they shot the photo?

Well, it's clearly a screenshot from the episode.

Yeah.

So, does poker face exist within the world of poker face?

You know, like, I think the question has to be asked.

And if so, how does that impact her ability, Charlie's ability to hide in a season three?

It's a phenomenal question that needs to be asked.

And I'm glad you asked it.

I do want to shout out in

Mr.

Todd's Talachi, may he rest in, like, I don't know, goo?

Yeah, we're going to come back to the goo.

He had great color-blocked bookshelves, I just want to say his books were organized by color, and that's something that I personally enjoy.

So I just want to

we lost a real one, I think, of Mr.

Talashi.

So yeah, I don't know.

You know, like asthetes though we are, Joe, I'm just, I'm a pragmatist at heart.

I just want to be able to find a book without thinking about what color the book is.

Asthetes though we are.

Are we not?

This is a podcast for the people.

Athletes that we are.

Here's what I'll say.

My books are color blocked in my house, but I spent so long as a bookseller shelving these books that I know my color.

I'm not going to get a photograph memory locked in.

I know it colors.

In the same way that I could draw from memory.

any DVD released between 2002 and 2006 from just shopping prolifically.

You know, it's just, we all have gifts.

This episode is brought to you by Pretty Litter.

If you track your steps, your sleep, even your screen time, why wouldn't you track your cat's health too?

Pretty litter is like smart tech for your litter box.

This color-changing litter actually monitors your cat's health by detecting potential issues in their urine, things like pH changes or blood, so you can catch problems early.

Plus, Pretty Litter ships for free right to your door, so no heavy bags to carry and no last-minute pet store runs.

Right now, save 20% on your first order and get a free cat toy at prettylitter.com slash prestige.

That's prettylitter.com slash prestige to save 20% on your first order and get a free cat toy.

Pretty litter.com slash prestige.

Pretty litter cannot detect every feline health issue or prevent or diagnose diseases.

A diagnosis can only come from a licensed veterinarian.

Terms and conditions apply.

See site for details.

This episode is brought to you by eBay.

We all have that piece.

The one that's so you, you've basically become known for it.

And if you don't yet, Fashionistas, you'll find it on eBay.

That Mew Mew red leather bomber, the Custo Barcelona cowboy top, or that Patagonia fleece in the 2017 Colorway.

All these finds are all on eBay, along with millions of more main character pieces backed by authenticity guarantees.

eBay is the place for pre-loved and vintage fashion.

eBay, things people love.

This episode is brought to you by Bleacher Report.

Football is back and downloading the Bleacher Report app puts you in the middle of the action.

Make Bleacher Report your go-to this season for the fastest-breaking news alerts covering NFL and college football.

And don't miss a moment with highlights, scores, and live reactions in the app.

Get expert analysis on your favorite teams and the news that you want this season.

Download the Bleacher Report app today.

This is the one I, I, I told you earlier, I don't have an answer to one of our prompts.

Best episode.

I'm not sure I can pick one out, partially because this is all part of an arc.

And once you know how it ends, the earlier episodes take on different meaning.

I think the big pump was like sort of the zaniest, funniest one.

And I had been shouting those out as ones I really enjoyed in previous chunks.

But I think I was very satisfied by the, I'm kind of thinking it as like a two-part finale.

Yeah.

That really worked for me.

What would you say stood out to you?

Yeah, if the, if we're allowed to do the two-part finale, I think it is that.

If you're going to really pin me down on it, I would say the actual finale, the end of the road, is probably the,

may probably the best episode of the season in terms of all of those reveals.

And as you're saying, like, how satisfying they feel.

Like, it, it just makes sense that in the world of poker face, the final boss would be two truths and a lie.

You know, it's not like a shootout with Charlie or a race in her barracuda.

It's like, can you detect the one thing that you're supposed to detect in the person you've been hanging out with the longest?

And that felt like a really satisfying bit of closure for this season.

So, uh, we should say that episode is written by Laura Delia, but directed by Natasha Leon.

So, great job, Natasha Leon, directing that episode of

the show.

That episode, too, like, Poker Face overall is not a show that has the highest possible stakes, usually because we've already seen the crimes before, you know, we're trying to solve them with Charlie, so to speak.

And so it just doesn't have that like

natural like tension point.

Like the tension is like, how do you get the evidence?

How do you prove it?

How do you do all that?

And so having this like hurtling toward the edge moment at the end of the season of the Grand Canyon Canyon, I actually like was feeling that for the first time of like, I don't know what's going to happen here.

We don't know the future of this show.

Like, I honestly could not tell you how this is going to work out.

And that being combined with everything we've just built between these two characters, I thought was just like a great way to end the season.

You may or may not remember this, but in inside of

our sort of

aesthetes, though, we are group movie chat that we have with some of our colleagues in the ringer.

Yeah.

When Michael Madsen passed away last week, I was like, We're going to watch Thelma and Louise tonight, which I did.

I watched Thelma and Louise with like, and I had an, as I always do, an incredible time doing it.

I don't think I needed to have a a fresh rewatch in order to understand the visual reference

here at the end with

Luca in the Harvey Keitel role and like the blue Barracuda and the Grand Canyon and all of that being in the mix.

But it made it extra special to me.

But I did have a moment as we were headed towards the edge and the brakes aren't working on the Barracuda.

I was like, oh, is PokerFace not renewed?

Natasha's like, we did it.

And this is how it ends.

I was was like i i would accept that and then when it i wasn't watching the the progress bar at the bottom of the episode so then when it froze and said to be continued i was like are we doing

a literal cliffhanger

and then very bizarrely because i don't know i don't have ads on my peacock or whatever or no we were watching me watch this on a screener like it just says it's a freeze frame to be continued and then just like rewinds in there and keeps it's a very like strange little end to the episode without a commercial break which i presume is there for other folks Don't you think so?

Why else do we have that?

What explanation do you have for the to-be-continued freeze frame that happens with a few more minutes of the episode to go?

I think just being cheeky.

I mean, it's quite cheeky.

I took it as kind of like the ultimate, but one more thing kind of situation.

You know, it's like you, you think this is the way it's going.

Let's let's wind it back just a few seconds and show, you know, Charlie leaping out the side of the car.

You could have done that with just the freeze frame.

You know what I mean?

Like you just have the freeze.

You cut to the freeze of Luca.

You cut to the freeze of the front of the car and then rewind, watch Charlie, you know, ditch out before it goes over the edge.

That's fine.

The tobi continued across it.

I was like, okay.

Best Charlie Fit.

This is a tough one because this wasn't like, well, actually, it was easy for me, but like, I didn't feel like I had a wealth of options to pick for him as I usually do.

I think I have one definitive answer, which is Charlie on the run after she and Alex are trying to escape post-murder, accusation of murder, being caught red-handed with a bloody knife with an eye at the end of it.

This is Charlie's fit in that moment.

Shirt covered by a blouse, covered by denim, covered by a pilot jacket, covered by a scarf with the trucker hat, giant sunglasses, and the world's most giant mop of red hair that would signify exactly who you're looking for.

I just, I thought it was wonderful.

A layering queen.

I want to shout out, I could, I could shout out both of them, but specifically

Charlie's first gym fit, which is the Harley Davidson shovelhead muscle tee

with the flannel and the boots and either black jeans or leggings, I couldn't quite tell, but like it was just like she's not even trying to wear gym clothes or this is her version of gym clothes.

Anyway, she looked great as she always does, but I was just like, yeah, this is what Charlie wears at the gym.

Best murder.

I'm going to give it up to the Rube Goldberg of death.

Obviously.

From a new lease on life.

You know, we love a killer with attention to detail.

We love a like, how do you commit a perfect murder vibe?

You know what?

I think maybe there's too many people in this building who are putting things on the very edge of the washing machine casually all the time.

But if they're going to do it, let's take advantage.

Chernobalific.

Is that what she says?

Something else.

Chernobyl tastic, something like that.

Chernobalicious?

Chernobalicious.

There it is.

Yes, it's got to be that.

And I do want to, like, I will just use this as an excuse to say,

Aaliyah Shockette playing a grifter who seduces Lauren Tom's character

with poetry, with like English 101 Williams.

I was about to say Williams.

Not even English 101, being on the internet 101 poetry.

Sure.

I googled what is poetry.

Yes.

It was really funny to me.

I will also add to that, and I already referenced it.

The Adam Arkin murder murder that we just get a cutaway to was very like Wes.

You know, you and I both just recently watched Phoenician Scheme, like very Wes Anderson in its zaniness and just sort of like quick cut, quick cut.

Oh, yeah.

Really random use of Adam Arkin, who has directed, we directed previous episodes this season, but I was just like, he like, he, he has a full character name.

And I was like, is this a reference?

Like, what is anyway?

It's just Adam Arkin.

Just there to die.

It's fine.

Also, salute, though, to the weight plate that Method Man throws like a frisbee straight into, you know, straight into a throat, like really crushing the windpipe.

Not a bad way to go as these things go.

Pretty spectacular.

Oh, I mean, a pretty terrible way to go.

And then further.

Well, but to observe, I enjoyed it.

Further, the sound, the foley on like the squish as he drops the barbell on his throat.

How would you place that?

What do you think they did?

Oh, that's watermelon, right?

Or like a wet sponge.

It's either watermelon or a wet sponge.

It's one of the two.

But there was like a crunch to it, too.

So maybe like a bag of like Cool Ridge Doritos meets wet sponge.

That's, I think, how Jason Ritter went out on the show.

Breakfast of champions.

All right, most delightful visual.

I think for me, it's the goop bag.

This was just like an amazing invention.

Yeah.

That, you know, Joe, for reasons that will become clear to other listeners

going forward, like you and I have been thinking a lot about the decomposition of how do you get rid of a body.

We've been thinking about goop.

Yeah.

For work reasons.

You know, we can assure you, for work reasons.

That's the aesthetic that that we are.

We're always thinking about how one can dissolve a body, most aesthetically.

What's the best way to do it?

But this was among them.

Honestly, there is something like very, very polished about the entire ordeal, like spill-free for the spy on the go.

Like, what do you do?

And you need to get rid of this dead body.

I thought it was an ingenious creation.

And I actually loved watching it.

The like, the garment bag look of it.

Yes.

The reveal of it.

You're like, you don't know what this thing is.

And then all of a sudden, Justin Thoreau is goo and you're like, wow.

And then it rolled into like a handy little like camp roll, like, you know, your sleeping bag or something like that.

It was astounding.

It was great.

At first, I was like, is this just sort of like an embalming type fluid that's going to prevent the body from smelling or something?

Yeah.

But then, you know, you get further into the process and you see like the feet start to tilt as everything is starting to slowly

melt away, basically.

Google vacation.

Love that.

All right.

I will say I'm already sort of blew at it this, but I will say the entire freeze frame ending.

I just really liked,

and like King, we're about to talk about Needle Drops in a second, but King of the Road is playing and just sort of like, you know, I guess spending a moment to memorialize the barracuda before it goes down in flames.

You know, we just look at it from all angles.

I really enjoyed that.

In the end, it was the real Watson.

You know, it's the other main character of Poker Face.

Well, that's okay.

There's a little dog now.

So it's the same.

I can't wait to see what they name the dog.

There's going to be a cutesy name for the dog.

I don't know what it's going to be.

It's going to be a reference to classic 70s cinema, is what I would guess.

You know what?

We had a lot of Mission Impossible referencing this season.

We had a lot of Michael Mann.

We had a lot of heavy Michael Clayton vibes in these episodes.

Oh my God.

We didn't say this in like best joke, but like the Michael Clayton Jeopardy runner of

episode eight

was phenomenal.

Okay.

Once again, this is a tough one to answer.

Charlie Job, you'd most want to have.

She wasn't job hopping as much in this.

And so it's it's basically like lemon slicer on the oyster shucking beat, right?

Like, what else?

Well, she had one other one.

I'm not sure if she was announcing it or, yeah.

I also have in my notes, Bob Mahoney, care to comment on this other job that Charlie has?

I'm going to do.

I will say unpaid internship that you do as you go through life.

Every time I try to Google something on my phone, I am submitted through a seemingly endless series of captcha tests.

I don't know why.

I don't know what's happening.

I'm so curious to find out how you got on the robot watch list because this doesn't happen to me or anyone else I know.

So like,

you know, someone at Apple HQ or whatever or Google HQ has decided that you rob a honey, are an AI, um,

are a bot of some kind.

And uh, I just think this is a hilarious development.

Um, I am googling something once every like two days on my phone, and this is the treatment that I get.

So yeah, Charlie's, again, like kind of job as like, it seems like I capture a troubleshooter basically, hard out for me.

But at the same time, doing raw oysters as paste hors d'oeuvres is fucking diabolical.

And that should be the first red flag that Alex is a sociopath.

Like if that's her business model, she's going to get a lot of people very sick.

I like that Charlie's like, I'll just be slicing lemons.

Though then she had to like past trays.

But, you know, lemon slicer on the on the oyster shucking beat is not as bad as

because actual shucking, I mean, just like gloves involved.

It's a whole thing.

Okay.

I don't know a lot about uh oyster shucking personally i have done it but uh i've never catered a large event with oysters so the idea that they were like in bags in the water down in the boathouse was like pretty cool charlie's smartest move i think it's the big red gum as lie detector test do you think that was intentional because wasn't it wasn't it alex's gum

Oh, was it Alex's gum?

I thought it was Alex's gum and she handed it to her.

Oh, you're right.

So it wasn't as intent.

But it is putting it together at least.

smart connection, if not a smart move.

But you're right.

That, you know, she kind of stepped in that one herself.

I'm going to give it to spelling out H-A-L-P via exercise moves.

You know what?

It worked.

Steam room.

It did work.

It worked.

It worked because Alex is her, you know, diabolical soulmate.

But yeah.

And then Alex saying, like, you could have done elbow dips for the E on the way out of the room was like pretty fantastic.

Alternatively, I will say Charlie's dumbest move.

I have a couple options here, but there's a lot.

Liking the Fitbit data

was a real bummer.

What else do you have under this?

Or yeah, what else do you have here?

I think, look,

I've kind of two categories.

One, in terms of the actual mechanics of the show, if you don't want to lead who you believe the iguana to be all the way to Beatrix's house, don't park the Barracuda right outside.

Like, I know that's not the way it turned out.

I know like, you know, there's a lot of trickery happening, but maybe not not the place to put your very iconic car to draw lots of attention to it.

But personally, I have to say, not following Beatrix Hasp's Finsta that is baking forward, that's a big mistake.

That's a big, she, Charlie treats her algorithm turning half baking as a problem.

Right.

That's the, that's the goal.

That's the goal.

This is the dream for all of us.

Although I do dispute that Charlie as a character would ever use the word algo.

I don't, I don't think that's true to form for her.

Great point.

She's not even sure what an algorithm is.

Rob, do you think your

inability to get your algo to be half-baking centric is due to the fact that your phone thinks you're a robot?

It might.

Honestly, lately, it's been very Smashburger-centric.

You know, I'm just kind of following my heart on basically all social media platforms, but especially where Instagram is concerned.

Are you on like a Smashburger kick?

Are you trying to perfect a Smashburger?

Not intentionally.

It's just purely subconscious.

It's like, I see it on on there.

I'm like, yeah, I'm going to click this.

I want to see what the smashing protocol is for this.

And you're like, home is where the mustard is.

It's very true.

We had a break, but it was back-to-back con artist, Charlie being ahead of the con, Charlie conning the con artist sort of setup episodes.

We had a large break between those two, but the John show and the Aaliyah Shawcat episodes were back-to-back.

The setup, like, we had just seen her with her top dancing firefighter neighbor and him being like, if you ever need a favor, and she's like, Actually, you know, so I don't think any of us were surprised when she went over the balcony and landed on the on the thing that they had set up.

I just don't,

I wouldn't trust that necessarily, like,

how did she know she was going to shove her off that balcony there?

You know, there's so many other things that she could have done that she didn't have a safety net for.

So,

uh,

taunting

Aaliyah Shawquette when you know that she is capable of murder and having only one very specific

safety net in place, is uh, I thought was a pretty dumb move, personally, even though it worked out for her.

I thought it was pretty dumb.

The trajectory's got to be right, yeah, the wind has to be right.

Like, there's just too many variables for me to be comfortable with.

Too many variables.

What's the most interesting fact you learned from this chunk of episodes?

As a non-New Yorker and as someone who has never lived in a rent-controlled building, the fact that succession rights are like a capital T thing,

I enjoyed the rabbit hole that I was sent down as a result of this episode, New Lease on Death.

Like

there is just a flood on the internet of people trying to figure out how do I get this rent-controlled apartment from my relative, from my friend, from my roommate, from the nice lady in 2B.

Like everyone is trying to crack this code.

And let me say, it doesn't seem like there's a lot of answers on it, separate from...

getting married, which it seems like people are actually doing for this purpose, at least to the extent that they can find willing partners.

The adoption seems relatively tame by comparison.

I really loved that sequence at the beginning with Aquafina and Lauren Tom when they're just sort of like, the lawyer knows what they're doing.

They know what they're doing.

And it's just like very.

And also their whole life, the life of like, let's watch Michael Clayton together and eat a lot of fresh fruit and read poetry and watch Jeopardy every night.

Fuck yeah.

Like again, that is the dream.

They have found it.

I did think casting wise, like

age-wise, Lauren Tom is probably more Aquafina's mom than grandma.

Absolutely not.

Lauren Tom, for folks who don't remember or don't know, famously played Julie on Friends, if that is where you know her from.

But

yeah, I was like, that's, I'm not ready for that actress to be a grandmother.

It's not.

It's not time yet.

And I should say, I really liked the runner in that episode of these various denizens not being what they seem, like the librarian, the woman outside who shows up in the next episode, and her whole thing.

The firefighter.

Yeah, the firefighter, all of that sort of stuff.

It's just sort of like New York.

It's a place where anyone can be anyone, sort of things.

Cute.

Okay.

For me, most interesting fact I learned.

Yes.

Despite being like a recent convert, Jimbro, myself, I did not know that bodybuilders use breast milk to get sick gains, but they do.

It's the ultimate superfood.

And I read a men's health article about it.

And I would just like to read you a quote from this men's health article that I read.

And it was all about like,

why you shouldn't use breast milk to get sick gains.

Basically, it's unregulated.

Like, they have to often buy direct from

the mother.

And, okay, so by the time, quote, by the time the milk reaches the bodybuilder, it could be contaminated, which is what was found to be happening during the study conducted by a nationwide children's hospital, who found that out of 101 samples of breast milk purchased online, 10% of them were quote topped off with cow's milk or baby formula.

In addition, 75%

of the samples had pathogenic or disease-causing bacteria slash viruses in it, adding more risk to infants who suffer from pre-existing conditions.

Anyway, just like,

don't buy your breast milk online

or at all, maybe.

Anyway, there's no other answers, you know, clearly for the man, for the adult man in need of breast milk, like where, where else are you to go but the dark web?

So, yeah.

And I learned, if you want to read that men's health article, which I quite enjoyed, it's called The Weird Science Behind Bodybuilders Drinking Breast Milk for Quicker Muscle Gain.

There's a whole section about like the specifics of the contaminants that is the ascetes that we are, I do not want to read on this podcast.

But if you have a stronger stomach, you should read that men's health article and then never drink breast milk for your sick gains.

I would not recommend it.

All right.

Anything else you want to say about these, our...

poker face experience across these four episodes across the season how are you feeling i'm trying to think if there's any other specific call-outs from these episodes, too.

I know we've run through a lot of honorable mentions already.

I mean, I think maybe we didn't do Alia Shotcat enough service for her guest appearance as well, which I thought was really fun.

And honestly, as gags go, walking in on Alia Shotcat, going down on your grandma and then pepper-spraying yourself in the face is just a good one-to-punch.

Like, that's just good writing, as far as I'm concerned.

Her threatening

is Ricardo, right, the librarian, by like

slashing and dropping the portrait of a woman that he had.

It's fantastic.

Um, yeah, and I don't think we missed any.

I think we called out all of the guest stars.

Oh, I think,

and I did not double-check the credits, and that would have been a great thing to do, but I think

Alex's handler,

uh, Cedric, is voiced by Harvey Feierstein.

I think that, I mean, very, very, yeah, either Harvey Feistein or someone doing a Harvey Feerstein impression.

Very, very recognizable voice and a delightful voice to pair with Natasha Leone's voice inside of a universe.

So if, as it seems, she will, Alex, if, you know, if there's a poker face season three, which we hope there will be, I personally hope there will be.

And if Alex comes back, hopefully we will get more of Cedric.

And hopefully that is actually Harvey Feierstein's great, great

voice on the other line.

All right, anything else you want to say

about poker face?

Just one more thing.

Again, as we're talking about like the red flags that Charlie should have seen with Alex, a person that would order a Watergate salad cronut.

First of all, I need to be convinced that Watergate salad is like a real thing.

This is one of these like mythical, to me, like very 70s-coated foods.

That's like

jell-o and

marshmallow?

It's kind of jello adjacent.

Yeah, there's marshmallows involved.

I believe there's pistachio involved.

I think there's some other fruit.

Pistachio fluff, Watergate salad, pistachio, oh, oh, maraschino cherry.

Okay.

Oh.

Oh, this is tough to look at.

I don't like it.

Okay.

Visually, it doesn't really work out.

It's like if you blend the visual of Watergate salad, based on the pictures that I have seen, is like blending pistachio ice cream with like a fake gag vomit that you would buy at the joke magic store.

Like that, that those two things mixed together is what this looks like.

What do you think is a bigger red flag?

The Watergate Salad Cronut

or

not really being that interested in Michael Clayton because there's too much talking.

I can't tell you that I remember a time where I turned on a character faster.

Like it's just, it's such an easy shorthand for you should hate this person.

The reddest flag that ever was.

Truly.

Okay.

That is it for our coverage of season two of Poker Face.

I'm really glad we came back to this.

And I thought the season ended on a really really high note um

we did watch it in a very odd sort of uh start and stop kind of way but i had a really good time with it likewise i hope it comes back sooner than two years you know we waited a long time between one and two i hope i hope we're back again soon we will be back

if all goes according to plan

i think next week with this new project that i don't know why i'm beating around the bush announcing it just because it's just like hasn't been like it's not done yet i don't want to jinx it i don't know.

Yeah.

But we'll be dropping this mystery project next week.

It is not, I will say this.

Here's the tease.

Okay.

It is not Joanna and Rob watch the Zopranos for the first time, but it's not, not that.

And that is my

delectable hint

for what we have coming up.

Tastier than a Watergate salad cronut.

Thank you.

to Justin Sales always for his work on the speed.

Thank you to Kai Grady

here producing this episode.

We will see you.

Thank you to Rob Mahoney.

We will see you soon.

And bye.