Poker Face, from Knives Out Director Rian Johnson, returned to screens with its second season today on Peacock in the US and Sky Max/Now in the UK. We pick up where we left off at the end of season one with Charlie Cale (Natasha Lyonne) on the run from even more of the criminal underworld, taking odd jobs and trying to stay one step ahead of those chasing her.
After the opening three-episode premiere, I have several burning questions that the rest of the season’s 12-episode run will hopefully address. If you’d like to watch along, you can sign up for Peacock from $7.99 per month if you’re in the US, and for Now’s Entertainment membership starting from £6.99 per month if you’re in the UK.
Spoilers for the first three episodes of Poker Face season 2 below
Will the other four families catch up to Charlie?
At the end of the third episode “Whack-A-Mole”, Charlie seems like she might finally be in the clear with Rhea Perlman’s Beatrix Hasp, the lead of one of the five families giving up her FBI informant and planning on going into witness protection.
Charlie’s ally in the FBI Luca Clark (Simon Helberg) pressures Beatrix into calling the hit on Charlie off. With three quarters of the series remaining, it’s clear this won’t go quite according to plan, with plenty more hijinks and crimes for Natasha Lyonne to sleuth through before the series ends.
Safe to say, while Beatrix is going into hiding, the other four families aren’t done with our lie detector hero just yet.
How does Charlie’s gift work?
Speaking of lie detecting, one of Charlie’s main attributes is her ability to spot when someone is lying. A clever gimmick, it’s helped her out of a scrape on more than a few occasions. She mentions she doesn’t quite know how it operates. Will we get to the bottom of it, or will this mystery remain unsolved?
The trailer promises to put her lie-detecting abilities to the test further down the line with guest star John Cho taking an interest.
Will any characters show up further down the line?
While many of the episodes in Poker Face are standalone, often featuring murder(s) plenty of characters from the opening three episodes do manage to avoid meeting a sticky end. Oscar nominee Cynthia Erivo guest stars as multiple parts in the first episode, “The Game is a Foot” as siblings vying for their late mother’s fortune. One of the siblings Delia strikes up a camaraderie with Charlie.
The episode ends with the pair declaring they make a good team and wanting to set up their own Apple orchard together, before inevitably Charlie’s pursuers catch up to her. Will we see their dream become a reality? It’d certainly be a quieter life for Charlie.
Peacock/Sky
Will Charlie join the FBI?
Luca declared in the opening season that Charlie would make a fine addition to the FBI and again here says that he’s done her job for her. Could we see her take her sleuthing abilities to a professional, rather than coincidental level?
Will Charlie ever get to live a normal life?
Perhaps the ultimate question. Can Charlie outrun her past and the forces combining to make her life hell? Time will tell but it promises to be quite the thrill ride until we get our ultimate answer, with more than a few guest stars along the way including Akwafina, Kumail Ninjani and Melanie Lynskey.
New episodes of Poker Face drop weekly on Peacock in the US on Thursdays and on Sky Max/Now in the UK.
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