Poker Face EPs Map Out Where Charlie's Headed After That Surprise Twist — Plus, Grade The Premiere!
Warning: This post contains spoilers for the first three episodes of Poker Face Season 2.
Finally, Charlie Cale can stop running for a bit.
Poker Face returned for Season 2 on Peacock this Thursday with a three-episode premiere, and in Episode 3, Natasha Lyonne's Charlie came face-to-face with mob boss Beatrix Hasp (played by Rhea Perlman), who had vowed to hunt Charlie down last season. Thankfully, Charlie survived the encounter: She and Beatrix actually teamed up to turn the tables on an shady FBI informant played by John Mulaney, and in return, Beatrix called off the hit on Charlie, so now she's free to live her life without dodging bullets.
"It felt like in Season 1, we've seen the version of Charlie being chased all season," showrunner Tony Tost tells TVLine. So he and the writers thought "it'd be interesting to actually resolve that earlier than we expect, but then to explore where Charlie is not necessarily on the run, but still on the road. What is she looking for? How does she habituate herself to this lifestyle? Is this actually what fits her best, or is she longing for something else?"
With nine more episodes still left in Season 2, Tost notes, the decision to set Charlie free "kind of gives us maybe a little bit more breathing space to lightly explore her character and what she's actually looking for in the world and what her life might look like without having necessarily the same kind of ticking clock, or a Big Bad breathing down her neck."
Co-creator Rian Johnson agrees that "part of it was not wanting to just kind of repeat Season 1, but the other part of it was: We kind of realized that it's a little bit more interesting to take away the external pressure of Charlie being on the run and put it back on her and say, 'OK, you're free. Where do you want to be?' And what is it about Charlie herself that keeps her moving from place to place? It's a little bit like that kids' book, Are You My Mother? Every place she stops, she's like, 'Could this be my new home?'"
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