Poker Face
Whack-a-Mole
Season 2
Episode 3
Editor’s Ranking
3 stars
***
The Everyone’s Dwell boys star in Poker Face’s model of The Departed (with Rhea Perlman within the Frank Costello position).
Picture: Peacock
The episode opens, we meet our particular visitor stars, we see a homicide happen, we find out how Charlie is linked, and we watch her remedy the case. At this level, the formulation of Poker Face has been so well-established that it ought to have grown stale. However that’s the fun of an ideal procedural — by way of sharp writing, course, and casting, each new episode feels contemporary, even when the fundamental construction stays the identical. In “Whack-a-Mole,” nevertheless, the present tries one thing totally different, and whereas it must be an thrilling twist on the format, it finally ends up falling somewhat flat. The issue isn’t the deviation itself a lot as the way in which it’s executed. Fortunately, the excessive requirements of a present as rock strong as this one imply that even a middling installment has lots to supply.
“Whack-a-Mole” picks up the place “Final Appears” left off, with Charlie being held at gunpoint by Beatrix Hasp. Beatrix explains that the state of affairs with the 5 mob households just isn’t good. “What we’re coping with now could be a struggle,” she tells Charlie. “It’s costly and a ache within the ass.” Because of Charlie’s interference, the Hasp household is on the run, with the Southwest Syndicate and the FBI scorching on their tail. Beatrix has an escape plan, however earlier than leaving the nation, she has to quell her suspicion that somebody in her crew is a rat or a mole. (Charlie asks for a clarification on the distinction, and I might even have appreciated a solution right here.) Beatrix is forcing Charlie to drive her to a protected home, the place the human lie detector will use her particular expertise to smell out … whichever rodent time period is suitable right here. Rhea Perlman manages to pack the suitable quantity of menace and humor into her 5 toes, and Natasha Lyonne performs off her completely, conveying the resignation of somebody who’s bored with operating (and who very not too long ago escaped a near-cremation).
Stopping at a fuel station for snacks, Beatrix connects with an unknown however sharply dressed man inside. (I imply, we acknowledge him as John Mulaney, however for the present’s sake, he’s simply an unknown character.) When she returns to the automobile, she retrieves a be aware from a can of shrimp-flavored Vienna sausages (I share Charlie’s disgust), which ideas her off that the protected home has been compromised. She has her males relocate to the Gem of the Ocean Motel, and that’s the place she and Charlie head subsequent. Charlie is nervous about serving to Beatrix discover the rat — particularly after Beatrix guarantees, “I’m gonna slowly pores and skin ’em alive and watch them eat their very own flesh in entrance of me” — however she’s put relaxed by the presence of Beatrix’s husband, Jeffrey, performed by the incomparable Richard Form. He’s not a part of the Hasp household operation, however he does make panini with an iron, and he greets his beloved spouse by singing “Howdy, Little Lady” from Into the Woods. This begins a Sondheim runner that continues all through the episode and is perhaps my favourite factor Poker Face has executed thus far.
Beatrix sits Charlie at a poker recreation with three scary-looking males, warning her to tread fastidiously. However Charlie has run out of persistence, so she instantly asks if any of them are working for the feds. They deny it, and she will be able to inform they’re telling the reality. “Nice, received what I wanted!” she says earlier than bailing. Beatrix isn’t glad, although, even after Charlie confirms that Jeffrey is clear, too. She desires Charlie to accompany them to the getaway airplane simply in case it’s an ambush. And wouldn’t you already know it — it’s an ambush. When Charlie makes it onto the airplane, she discovers that the pilot is a blow-up doll. The FBI arrives, together with our previous good friend Luca (Simon Helberg), together with Hooper (Chris Bauer) and Danny (Mulaney, abruptly wanting fairly suspicious). The state of affairs devolves shortly. When Jeffrey panics and tries to make a run for it, Luca shoots him a number of instances. An enraged and grief-stricken Beatrix assaults Luca and will get a maintain of his gun, capturing him at shut vary. She heads to the airplane and finds Charlie cowering behind the blow-up-doll pilot. Charlie barely has an opportunity to talk earlier than Beatrix fires.
Clearly, we’re lacking some context right here. In traditional Poker Face model, we return in time to search out out what’s actually happening. Main an FBI assembly, Hooper explains that Beatrix is operating scared, they usually’ll quickly be capable to apprehend her due to Luca’s supply embedded within the Hasp crew. Danny, clearly a mole for the opposite aspect, tries to get Luca to surrender the identify, however whereas the 2 brokers are shut — they actually have a bit the place they sing “Previous Pals” from Merrily We Roll Alongside — Luca’s sticking to protocol. Danny nonetheless has sufficient intel to fulfill Beatrix on the fuel station and tip her off in regards to the compromised protected home with the Vienna sausages be aware. Considered one of my quibbles with this episode is that the flashbacks typically really feel redundant; we’re repeatedly proven info we’ve already deduced or that’s defined elsewhere. We do be taught that Danny has been working for Beatrix for years, and it’s given him a painful abdomen ulcer, which is why he retains chugging milk. He additionally doesn’t appear all that good at being a mole, not less than in terms of exposing the rat.
The rat seems to be Jeffrey, as we be taught within the subsequent scene, the place he meets Luca in a car parking zone. Luca desires to know if Beatrix will work with the feds in trade for witness safety, however Jeffrey thinks that’s unlikely. He’d like his personal journey to WITSEC, although; as a lot as he loves his spouse, he is aware of she’ll at all times select work over him, and he wants a break. Jeffrey will reveal the double-crossing FBI agent’s identification offered he’s given safety after Beatrix is in custody. Luca agrees, noting the one solution to make it work is to faux Jeffrey’s demise. The brand new plan is for him to run from the deliberate ambush, and for Luca to shoot him with blanks whereas Jeffrey detonates squibs sewn inside his shirt. When Luca warns his informant to not muck up the plan with dangerous performing, Jeffrey shares his background in regional theater, together with roles in Into the Woods and the “criminally underrated” (true!) Assassins. As the 2 sing “Everyone’s Obtained the Proper,” Danny and a lip-reader watch the entire thing by way of binoculars from one other automobile. Perhaps Danny’s a greater mole than I gave him credit score for.
Once we return to the motel and the scene of Charlie asking Jeffrey if he’s working with the feds, we are able to see that she’s protecting for him. We additionally be taught that she contacted Luca from the motel rest room earlier than the ambush, and that he gave her clear directions. Clearly, issues didn’t go in keeping with plan. We watch the shootout once more — do you get what I imply about this all being somewhat repetitive? — however this time, we see the aftermath of Beatrix firing at Charlie. Nothing occurs, and he or she shortly realizes the bullets are blanks. Effectively, most of them, not less than: Exterior, Luca approaches Jeffrey and discovers he’s been shot for actual. We get a short flashback to Danny changing the blanks with actual bullets, one other second that feels superfluous since Charlie confirms as a lot later within the episode. So far as Luca is aware of, nevertheless, he’s by some means screwed up and killed his informant.
Beatrix is now holding Charlie hostage on the airplane — she’s converted to a gun with actual bullets — however for no matter cause, Charlie can also be serving to her by calling out lies. Over the walkie-talkie, Danny tells Beatrix, “All I would like is to make it possible for no person else will get harm right here,” and Charlie instantly clocks it as bullshit. The FBI can also be not planning on getting Beatrix an actual pilot to fly her out, not less than not till she mentions her mole on the within. At this level, and far to Danny’s rising panic, Hooper is keen to make a deal: He’ll gladly let Beatrix free if it means discovering a compromised agent. Beatrix isn’t within the enterprise of naming names — “You need me to rat on my mole like a snake?” she calls for, confusingly — however Luca and Charlie persuade her that it was her FBI mole who’s really chargeable for Jeffrey’s demise. That’s sufficient to lastly get Beatrix to disclose the identification of … Maverick McTitticutty. An apparent alias, however a point out of milk-chugging is sufficient for Luca to place the items collectively.
Luca doesn’t wish to imagine his Sondheim-loving good friend may very well be a flip cloak, however he would have been in the suitable place to change the bullets. “He’s a weasel and a mole,” says Beatrix. “And now presumably a snake,” Charlie provides. No matter animal he’s, Danny makes a last-ditch try to save lots of himself, however Charlie’s fast considering (and his untied shoelaces) save the day, and he leads to handcuffs. As for Beatrix, she’s abruptly keen to get witness safety in trade for her testimony in opposition to the opposite 4 households within the Southwest Syndicate, which strikes me as an awfully abrupt change of coronary heart. With Luca’s nudging, she additionally calls off the hit on Charlie. The entire thing feels somewhat too straightforward, and I’m not simply saying that as a result of I hoped to see extra of Perlman on the present. In the intervening time, although, Charlie is certainly free and clear. “No mob on my tail, nothing to run from,” she notes. The episode ends not with Charlie underneath hearth, however along with her selecting her subsequent vacation spot at random on a map. Simply because she’s now not on the run doesn’t imply she’s prepared to remain in a single place.
• In my recap of the season premiere, I identified that the repeated arrival of Beatrix’s goons may develop drained quick, however I didn’t count on Poker Face to desert the storyline so shortly. Whereas I like the concept of Charlie wandering of her personal volition, it does really feel just like the present has abruptly misplaced a few of its urgency.
• Nonetheless, I’m not overly involved since I’m glad to hang around with Charlie in any capability. She has an actual means with phrases, as when she tells Beatrix, “I have already got pissed myself 5 instances as we speak, and but nonetheless somewhat one thing left within the tank.”
• It looks like Gen-X erasure when Beatrix calls Charlie a millennial, although that could be a mirrored image of Beatrix’s ignorance. (Or perhaps Charlie is just a few years youthful than Natasha Lyonne.)
• Describing Charlie to the FBI, Luca offers my favourite character breakdown to this point: “most likely in thrifted garments, genial, inquisitive, voice like a rusty clarinet.”
• Nothing within the episode made me snort greater than Danny’s frustration on the lip-reader getting the Assassins lyrics unsuitable. “He’s the most effective lyricist of the twentieth century,” Danny snaps. “Why would he write ‘bowl on sight’?”
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