In the second episode of Poker Face Season 2, Charlie’s search for a somewhat steady source of income took her to a funeral home where a film was being shot. There, she became pretty friendly with Greta, the wife of the owner of the funeral home, Fred. She really empathized with Greta, since she was in an unhappy marriage, which was barring her from pursuing her dreams. So, Charlie promised to help her get to Miami, where she would be able to put her degree in cosmetology to great use. But Fred couldn’t digest the news of his wife finally deciding to live life on her own terms and killed her while making it look like she skipped town after filming wrapped. But Charlie wasn’t happy with the vagueness around Grace’s disappearance and decided to solve the case. When Charlie finally had enough evidence to prove that Greta had been killed, Fred tried to kill her too. However, Charlie thwarted him by starting a fire, which she managed to escape from, and Fred didn’t. She thought she was finally free, but Beatrix showed up out of nowhere in the backseat of her car, holding her at gunpoint and forcing Charlie to do her bidding. The third episode of Poker Face Season 2 is all about the conclusion of Charlie and Beatrix’s arrangement.
Spoiler Alert
Beatrix Apparently Kills Charlie
Episode 3 of Poker Face Season 2 opens with the revelation that Beatrix is in a bit of a fix. The Southwest Syndicate and the FBI are trying to nab her. So, she has to flee. A plane has been arranged. But she doesn’t want to board it until she learns the identity of the rat/mole in her gang. And that’s where Charlie comes in. She has to use her lie-detecting skills to weed out the traitor so that Beatrix can leave without worrying whether her next stop will be leaked to her enemies. If this episode feels a little like The Departed, it’s because it is. Before getting to the safe house, Beatrix makes a pit stop at a convenience store, where she is informed by her informant that said safe house isn’t exactly safe. So, they head over to a hotel called Gem of the Ocean, where they are greeted by Beatrix’s husband, Jeffrey. Side note: Richard Kind, who is playing Jeffrey, is (in)famous for going off-script, which is something that happened at the end of Wolfs. So, every time he is on-screen in any movie or show, I just keep imagining the lengths they went to to get Kind to complete a scene and laugh to myself.
Anyway, going back to the plot, Beatrix orders Charlie to go into the room where three of her men are sitting and judge if any of them are traitors. Once Charlie clears them all—whilst hinting that she isn’t exactly sure about Jeffrey’s allegiances—they move on to the next step of their plan, i.e., boarding the plane. When they get there, though, the Feds surround them, and a gunfight ensues. Agent Luca (Charlie’s friend in the FBI) seemingly guns down Jeffrey. In retaliation, Beatrix supposedly shoots Luca in the head. And then she approaches Charlie, who is hiding in the aforementioned plane’s cockpit, and probably shoots her too. While in every other episode of Poker Face, at this point, the clock is turned back to reveal how Charlie factors into the perpetrator and the victim’s story. However, in this case, the same gimmick is done to show how Luca, Jeffrey, and Danny got involved in Charlie’s story.
Danny Plans To Kill Jeffrey
After the FBI briefing on how Luca has planted a mole in Beatrix’s team, Danny tries to learn the identity of this individual, hoping that Luca will bypass protocol because they are old friends, so that he can then relay that information to Beatrix since he himself is a mole in the FBI. But Luca is an honest cop, and he prioritizes his job over friendship. Hence, Danny has him followed, and, lo and behold, he finds Luca having a chat with Jeffrey. Charlie’s hunch is never wrong; of course, Jeffrey is the mole. He is collaborating with Luca because the latter has promised him that he’ll put the couple in witness protection if Jeffrey gets Beatrix to cooperate with the FBI and help them bring down the Southwest Syndicate and possibly the Five Families as well. When Jeffrey says that he is unsure of Beatrix’s willingness to work with the Feds, Luca tries to see if Jeffrey can identify the mole in the FBI.
Jeffrey says that he knows who the mole in the FBI is, but he won’t say anything until Beatrix has been arrested and he has been put in witness protection. On that note, Luca gives Jeffrey a shirt packed with squibs and a remote control that’ll activate them. All Jeffrey needs to do is hit the button when Luca shoots at him with blanks during the ambush near the plane, thereby making it look like he has been killed. If Jeffrey is dead to the world, Luca will be able to whisk him away, give him a new identity, and everything else he needs to sever his ties with Beatrix and the criminals that she works with. The only issue in all of this is that Danny knows that Jeffrey is Luca’s mole, and if he survives the entire ordeal of trying to nab Beatrix at the airport, he is going to reveal to the Feds that Danny has been working for Beatrix all along. Hence, he hatches a plan to kill him.
Beatrix frees Charlie
So, at the end of Poker Face Season 2, episode 3, we see Charlie heading for the plane’s cockpit on Luca’s advice. As Jeffrey makes his way to the plane, Luca shoots him, and Jeffrey pretends to fall to his death. Beatrix gets overwhelmed and shoots Luca in the head and corners Charlie and shoots her too. That’s when it’s revealed that Luca’s gun held blanks. That explains why Charlie is alive; she gets a chance to thwart Beatrix and escape her clutches, but the old-timer pulls out her real gun and holds her captive again. Luca gets injured, because if you fire a gun with blanks at point-blank range, it’s going to hurt. However, Jeffrey isn’t pretending to be dead; he is dead for real, because Danny put two real rounds in Luca’s magazine, thereby getting Luca’s informant killed by his own hand. Luca is benched, and Danny is given the responsibility to negotiate with Beatrix, who is holding Charlie at gunpoint. During this conversation, when Danny reveals that Jeffrey is dead, Beatrix threatens to unveil the identity of the mole in the FBI. Charlie covertly calls up Luca (and keeps the phone on) to see if she can goad Beatrix into doing so, thereby allowing Luca to nab the mole before he does something shifty. Beatrix finds out about Charlie’s betrayal and gets aggravated enough to kill her. That’s when Luca intervenes. And then Danny also gets into the plane.
A whole ruckus ensues. Jeffrey is arrested. Beatrix goes into witness protection, and Luca also gets her to cancel the hit that she has put on Charlie. Hence, she pulls out a map, points at a random location, and hops into her Plymouth Barracuda in the hopes of stumbling upon new adventures without the pressure of being chased around by her enemies. Yeah, I’m just gonna say what I’ve been meaning to say since the first episode of this season: the writing is wack! The first season pulled off this really amazing (and impossible) trick of making a murder mystery interesting despite revealing everything there is to know about it in the first 10-15 minutes. The interactions between the characters, the study of human nature, and the visual storytelling were simply perfect. However, Season 2 is off the mark by a million miles. It still looks good. The actors are talented. The dialogue writing and the plots for each episode are not hitting. Now, with Beatrix off Charlie’s back, there won’t even be any urgency. Maybe Cliff will show up to get revenge because Charlie damaged one of his eyes with a miniature adult toy? Maybe someone else from the Five Families will try to employ Charlie? Whatever the case may be, my hopes for this season of Poker Face have been set too low. What are your thoughts on Charlie’s return? Let me know in the comments section below.
