REVIEW: ‘Poker Face’ Season 2 Episode 6 Marks A Return To Quality

(L-R) Eva Jade Halford and Natasha Lyonne in Poker Face. © Peacock

This week, Poker Face dives headfirst into one of its darkest episodes yet, returning to the quality of its first three episodes of Season 2 thanks to writer Kate Thulin and director Adam Arkin. Sloppy Joseph sees Natasha Lyonne’s ever-brilliant Charlie Cale face a precocious, gold-star-obsessed schoolgirl named Stephanie.

Stephanie (the excellent Eva Jade Halford) is a child overachiever with murder in her heart and a disturbingly methodical approach to sabotage. She’s at the top of her class, hoarding the gold stars her teacher gives out for tasks such as politeness, singing, and penmanship.

That is, until Elijah (the adorable Callum Vinson) spells ‘abracadabra’ correctly and starts climbing the ranks. With 30 stars available for the upcoming talent show, she knows she must take the boy down. Naturally, she searches ‘how to kill a boy’s self-esteem’ on the school computer. We’ll forgive the child-level understanding of browser history. It’s not like Poker Face will go there anyway.

From there, things escalate wildly. Elijah is a budding magician. His talent show trick involves making the class pet, a gerbil named Joseph, disappear. For his age, he’s surprisingly good at it, which, naturally, aggravates Stephanie. Her response? Sabotage his act. It ends in a blood-splattered horror show that leaves Joseph dead and an entire assembly of children traumatised. As you can imagine, Stephanie smiles.

Horrific doesn’t even begin to cover it. Yet somehow, you won’t be able to look away.

Charlie, trying to reconnect with her inner child (bad call), ends up working as a dinner lady at the school. Her introduction to the students is brutal: “You look tired,” one kid tells her. Get out while you have the chance, Cale. It’s here that Dr. Ham (Margo Martindale), the morally compromised headteacher, arrives. She’s stealing petty cash to fund a gambling habit, and Charlie quickly gets entangled in a web of crimes that will make her wish she were still working in Season 1’s casino.

Stephanie, it turns out, has leverage over Dr Ham. Because, of course, she does. Her parents run the very same casino that she gambles at, and they pay handsomely for their daughter's elite education. The girl knows of her stealing habits too, after catching her with her hands in the petty cash box. If Ham says anything about her behaviour, the entire school will know of her crime. This keeps her in her place - as does a 'ur mine’ friendship bracelet left on the her wrist that serves as a reminder of the evidence sitting on Stephanie's tablet. Where are this girl’s parents? No really - where? You’ll wonder this no less than 20 times as the girl gets away with behaviour no adult would contend with.

In true Poker Face fashion, Charlie pieces together what happened through intuition and sleuthing. She finds the missing pin from Stephanie’s uniform, spots the sabotage, and, in a moment of shock, watches as Stephanie eats the evidence. Supernanny reboot, anyone?

The scene does provide the funniest moment of the episode, however. Charlie shares her theory with Stephanie: “Now I think that maybe you were a little bit upset because Elijah was gaining on you, right? With those gold stars. So, you sabotaged his magic trick. Am I right?” The girl cooly responds, “No.” Forgetting her audience, Cale replies, “Bull-shoot. Bullshoot.” It’s genius.

The climax involves Charlie saving face and job by confronting the culprit and helping Elijah reclaim a shred of dignity. Joseph is ‘replaced’ by another hamster, which is a lie, but a kind one that will warm your heart. Stephanie, defeated (for now), leaves Charlie with the chilling promise: ‘When I grow up I will find you.’ Let’s hope Lyonne and co stick to this promise.

Sloppy Joseph is exactly the kind of episode you want from a series such as this one. The humour is perfect, the horror barely contained, and the whole thing feels sharp, even if it’s predictable. If you thought Poker Face couldn’t get any weirder, you were dead wrong. Unfortunately, so is the gerbil.

Rating: ★★★★☆

About Poker Face

Poker Face. © Peacock

Premiere Date: May 8, 2025

Episode Count: 12

Executive Producer/Showrunner: Tony Tost, Ram Bergman, Nena Rodrigue, Adam Arkin, Nora Zuckerman, Lilla Zuckerman

Writer: Laura Deeley, Alice Ju, Natasha Lyonne, Wyatt Cain, Tony Tost, Kate Thulin, Taofik Kolade, Megan Amram, Tea Ho, Raphie Cantor, Andrew Sodroski

Director: Rian Johnson, Natasha Lyonne, Miguel Arteta, Lucky McKee, John Dahl, Adam Arkin, Mimi Cave, Adamma Ebo, Clea Duvall, Ti West

Production: Animal Pictures, T-Street

Distribution: Peacock

Cast: Natasha Lyonne, Adrienne C. Moore, Alia Shawkat, Awkwafina, Ben Marshall, B.J. Novak, Carol Kane, Cliff "Method Man" Smith, Corey Hawkins, Cynthia Erivo, David Alan Grier, David Krumholtz, Favionte "GaTa" Ganter, Ego Nwodim, Gaby Hoffmann, Geraldine Viswanathan, Giancarlo Espositio, Haley Joel Osment, Jason Ritter, John Cho, John Mulaneyy, Justin Theroux, Katherin Narducci, Katie Holmes, Kevin Corrigan, Kumail Nanjiani, Lauren Tom, Lili Taylor, Margo Martindale, Melanie Lynskey, Natasha Leggero, Patti Harrison, Rhea Perlman, Richard Kind, Sam Richardson, Sherry Cola, Simon Helberg, Simon Rex, Taylor Schilling

Synopsis: Poker Face is a mystery-of-the-week series following Natasha Lyonne’s Charlie, who has an extraordinary ability to determine when someone is lying. She hits the road with her Plymouth Barracuda and with every stop encounters a new cast of characters and strange crimes she can’t help but solve.