REVIEW: 'Poker Face' Season 2 Episode 9: Murder, She Rented

This review contains spoilers from Poker Face.

Poker Face takes a detour to New York in "A New Lease on Death", which explores family, inheritance, and deception through one very desirable rent-controlled apartment. As per usual, it’s a slightly unhinged instalment, except this time it trades traditional whodunit tropes for a queer thriller, and lands most of its bets.

We meet Anne St Marie (Lauren Tom), a retired poetry professor living in a spacious, beautifully lit, rent-controlled apartment in the city. I may have paused the episode several times to fawn over something I cannot have. It’s beautiful.

Anne has plans: namely, to adopt her adult granddaughter, Madeline (Awkwafina), so that the apartment can legally be passed down to her. New York’s housing laws only allow such a transfer to a legal child or spouse, and Anne’s determined to keep the place in the family. She also won’t see her granddaughter robbed by their landlord, Otto (David Alan Grier), who overcharges, as most do.

But then Anne meets Kate (Alia Shawkat) at a fruit stand. What starts as a surprise romantic twist you’ll welcome, soon becomes the central tension of the episode. Kate’s presence immediately raises red flags: Why is the relationship moving so fast? (U-Haul may be the answer there) and why is she so interested in the apartment itself?

Madeline is rightly suspicious of the younger woman her grandmother is dating. When she hires someone to dig into Kate’s past, it soon is revealed that ‘Kate’ is actually Amelia Peek, a felon from Oregon with a history of violence. When Madeline confronts Amelia with the truth, she demands that Amelia let her grandmother down gently. Before long, someone winds up dead.

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Enter Charlie Cale, who has moved to New York precisely to avoid getting involved in anyone’s drama. She hopes the city’s endless noise will act like a white noise machine, allowing her to disappear. Naturally, that plan collapses within minutes. Charlie is soon calling out scams and poking around the very laundry room where Madeline meets her end.

As Charlie investigates, the episode plays with expectations. Who's next to die? Is Anne truly fooled, or is she playing her own long game? What follows is a tense turn of suspicion and second-guessing, led by Natasha Lyonne's dry humour and the show’s love for (obvious) misdirection.

Amelia, somewhat more unhinged than she was when she was setting up a murder earlier in the episode, proposes marriage to Anne in a blatant attempt to secure the apartment. ‘I’m not going to let her ruin our new lives together,’ she snarls, listing the flat’s features like a real estate agent possessed. ‘Three bedroom, four bath, two fireplace apartment in New York for 800 dollars a month,’ is what she believes she’d be paying out for such a luxury. Anne is quick to correct her that it's 640 dollars a month. Adopt me instead!

The climax delivers in full Poker Face fashion, including a staged confrontation, a balcony fall, and a witness with a camera ready. Charlie survives, of course, and Amelia’s lies unravel. But there’s no real victory. Anne, understandably heartbroken, decides to leave the apartment rather than live in the space where her granddaughter died. It’s a quiet ending that suits the episode’s tone.

"A New Lease on Death" isn’t the season’s most propellent mystery, but it might be one of its most layered. Tea Ho and Wyatt Cain investigate how far someone will go to experience stability as legacy and affordability are called into question. It’s tragic and just a touch absurd, exactly how we like it.

Rating: ★★★½

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About Poker Face

Premiere Date: May 8, 2025

Episode Count: 12

Executive Producer/Showrunner: Rian Johnson, Natasha Lyonne, 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 Mulaney, Justin Theroux, Katherine 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.