Poker Face Recap: Poetic Justice
Has Charlie Cale found her forever home? We seem to be inching closer to that reality, though what that means for the future of Poker Face remains unclear. In “A New Lease on Death,” she finds herself in New York City without any immediate plans to leave — and long removed from the threat of mob violence. The idea of Charlie not on the road is an intriguing prospect, but something about this episode didn’t entirely click for me. In part, it’s that it feels a little like we’re watching a pilot for a new series, creating an odd vibe this far into the season. But it’s also that the case of the week is not as tight as I’ve come to expect, with a very sloppy killer depicted as a criminal mastermind.
Before we meet that murderess, however, we get to know retired poetry professor Anne (Lauren Tom) and her granddaughter, bike messenger Maddy (Awkwafina). The two live together in Anne’s three-bedroom, four-bath, two-fireplace, rent-controlled apartment, which Anne has paid a truly shocking $640 a month for since she moved in back in 1972. (Not to jump ahead, but I would also kill for that deal.) In order to keep that impossible rate, Anne has to pass on the apartment to a spouse or child, so she’s in the process of adopting Maddy as her daughter. It’s a brilliant plan until it’s suddenly derailed by the arrival of an interloper named Kate (Alia Shawkat), whom Anne meets when they’re reaching for the same plum at a fruit stand. “I have taken the plum that was at the fruit stand, which you were probably eyeing for breakfast,” Kate says. “You are forgiven,” a smitten Anne answers. “Looks delicious, so sweet and so cold.” For a poetry professor, referencing William Carlos Williams is essentially third base, so it’s not really a surprise when the two fall into bed together, three-decade age gap be damned.
Well, it may not be a surprise for us, but it’s certainly a surprise for Maddy, who walks in on her nana in bed with a much younger woman. While Maddy is a bit taken aback learning that Anne had a wild bisexual past (and now present), she insists she’s happy for her. But when Kate moves in after a mere two weeks together, interrupting Maddy and Anne’s rituals of watching Jeopardy! and Michael Clayton, Maddy’s disdain is harder to hide. She decides to do a little digging, and with some help from her librarian friend Ricardo, she discovers that Kate is actually Amelia Peek, a jailbird with three warrants out for her arrest. Maddy confronts Kate and accuses her of using Anne for her rent-controlled apartment (again, fair). While Kate denies it, she agrees to break things off after Maddy threatens to report her to the police. Of course, she’s not really going anywhere — instead, she booby-traps the laundry room and lures Maddy inside. The spin cycle sends a bottle of bleach tumbling to the floor, where it mixes with the descaler Kate has deliberately spilled. Maddy is unable to open the door as a cloud of chlorine gas overtakes her.
Rest assured, Maddy’s murder won’t go unsolved for long. Charlie has arrived in New York with an apartment in the very same building, care of her CB radio pal, Good Buddy. (She has to repeatedly lie to building super Otto, played by David Alan Grier, about what she’s really doing there since sublets aren’t allowed. Charlie: great at spotting lies, bad at telling them.) Charlie has a good feeling about New York — she’s reasoned that while she runs into bullshit wherever she goes, the sheer volume of bullshit in the city might work as a white noise machine and allow her to live her life freely. Though a nice thought in theory, Charlie cares too much about others to really drown out people in need. She also has a bad habit of becoming close to murder victims, as is the case when she befriends Maddy and scores an invite to the highly coveted apartment. I did enjoy Charlie’s brief confusion when Maddy asks if she likes Jeopardy! “It sure has a way of finding me,” Charlie responds. “I can’t say I like it, though there is something invigorating about confronting your own mortality.” Maddy clarifies that she meant the game show, and I won’t be pedantic and point out that what they actually end up watching with Anne is Jeopardy! Masters.
As always, Charlie builds an instant rapport with the guest stars of the week, but her burgeoning friendship with Maddy ends abruptly when — well, you know. Charlie shows up to Anne’s to pay her respects, instead encountering Kate, who announces that she and Anne are engaged. “Bullshit,” says Charlie. Okay, soon to be engaged. Kate also refuses to let Charlie see Anne because she’s in mourning. Though Shawkat is always good, the character is so transparently evil that she’s never entirely believable. I know I talk a lot about the importance of suspending disbelief while watching Poker Face, but for some reason, Kate pushed me to my limit; she just didn’t strike me as a worthy adversary. This is also true when she learns that Ricardo is the one who first discovered her true identity and shows up with a (pretty tiny) knife to threaten him into keeping his mouth shut. Yes, it’s a fun subversion of expectations, with a big tattooed man scared out of his mind by a much smaller woman. At the same time, the idea that he’d be so in fear for his life that he’d flee just struck me as silly, especially since he could easily call up any of the police departments looking for Amelia Peek. Am I overthinking this?
Meanwhile, Charlie is investigating the murder scene with Otto. She notes that the descaler was moved from its original spot, and Otto reveals that he fixed the door, so someone must have replaced the handle. Charlie is able to use her human lie detector powers to rule Otto out as a suspect, though once she lets the adoption rent control scheme slip, Otto admits, “Had I known that, I would have killed her.” Charlie goes to the bodega, where owner Abdul confirms that he recently sold someone the door handle in question — unfortunately, his face blindness means he doesn’t know who. He provides enough information that Charlie is able to identify Kate, but that doesn’t get her very far. Even as Charlie confronts Kate directly with the entire scheme laid out, Kate is unfazed, noting, “It’s not what you know, Honest Thomas, it’s what you can prove. And I don’t think you’re gonna find many willing proof providers.”
That’s not to say it’s all smooth sailing for Kate, however. She returns to the apartment to find that Otto is showing it to a prospective tenant, with Anne having decided that she can no longer live there, given her grief over Maddy’s death. (I totally respect that, but it physically pains me to see anyone voluntarily giving up a $640 three-bedroom in New York.) Panicked, Kate tries to get Anne to marry her immediately, and even though Anne is unconvinced, Kate runs out to grab the paperwork. That gives Charlie the perfect opportunity to swoop in and share her suspicions with Maddy’s nana: Kate is trying to marry Anne so that she can kill her and inherit the apartment. (And really, who can blame her?) When Kate returns, Anne tells her everything, but she doesn’t want to believe it, and Kate helpfully insists that Charlie is out of her mind. She tells Anne to go down to the laundry room while she takes care of Charlie herself. That obviously can only mean one thing, but Charlie sure looks oblivious to the jeopardy she’s in as she vapes on the balcony. Before Charlie can even finish her “you’re cooked” Columbo monologue, Kate has shoved her over the railing to her death.
Kidding, of course. Charlie has worked out a plan with her tap-dancing firefighter neighbor, Micky — we meet a lot of new characters in this episode — and he’s set up an inflatable cushion below the window. Okay, so a couple of things. First, Kate is once again sloppy. She tries to murder Charlie in broad daylight; surely there would be plenty of witnesses! And second, Charlie could easily have fallen a little bit differently and ended up impaled on wrought iron, so this seems like a very risky move. But yes, it’s a fun moment, particularly when Anne and her lawyer emerge, revealing that they were in on it, too. “You’re so fucked,” Anne tells Kate, and if you don’t get the reference, you should watch Michael Clayton again. As triumphant as the final act is, the episode still ends on a bummer note, with Anne reading “Dirge Without Music” to Charlie and leaving her apartment behind. The obnoxious tenant Otto was showing the apartment to is, unfortunately, here to stay. On the plus side, so is Charlie, who may at last have found the community she’s been looking for.
Just One More Thing
• Because of the show’s semi-reset, we really race past some character introductions. I’m delighted we’ll be getting more of Patti Harrison, but her brief scene felt pretty superfluous in the context of the episode.
• I’d also love to see more of Myra Lucretia Taylor, who plays Charlie’s new neighbor, Noreen. She has one of the best lines of the episode when she explains that she used to be managing editor at Vague magazine (not to be confused with Vogue). What’s the magazine about, Charlie asks. “This and that,” says Noreen.
• As a recovering English major, I appreciated all the poetry references throughout, but I was equally thrilled by the repeated nods to Michael Clayton’s status as a perfect movie. Also, Kate’s “Have you ever seen Anatomy of a Fall? It’s a great dog performance.”
• Are we going to hear more about Charlie’s new role as a CAPTCHA technician? Specifically, I’m wondering if she’s helping create CAPTCHAs, or if she’s solving them on behalf of bots. The latter would be depressing, but she did call it “dirty work.”
• Now that Poker Face is staying put in New York, at least for the time being, I’ll be eagerly awaiting an Elsbeth crossover. Just because it can’t really happen doesn’t mean we don’t deserve it.