The Poker Face season 2 finale is titled "The End of the Road". However, it’s hard to imagine the end of the road for Poker Face will be anytime soon.
With Poker Face's 96 percent Rotten Tomatoes score, it’s impossible to think the series won’t be picked up for a season 3. Not only that, but it’s in Peacock’s Top 10 list of TV Shows. Season 2 has had an intense group of A-list stars, so you can only imagine what showrunner Tony Tost has up his sleeves next for the tale of Charlie Cale (Natasha Lyonne).
This article contains spoilers for the season 2 finale of “Poker Face.”
Diving into the season finale, Charlie and Alex can be seen speeding off in her Baracuda as they figure out their next plan of action. After Charlie turns her cell on, her good friend, Luca (Simon Helberg), calls and reveals she was right again. The killer behind Hasps’ (Rhea Perlman) son’s murder was none other than the Iguana.
This is simply another situation where Charlie is better at Luca’s job than him. Luca is doing his best to protect her formidable friend, but he won’t be able to protect her from the fury coming her way if anything happens to Hasp. When the camera pans to Alex at the end of this conversation, it’s not hard to see she’s the woman behind the mask.
Who is the Iguana?
Alex (Patti Harrison) befriends Chalire Cale at a New York City cafe as a regular person until we learn that she is a highly trained assassin called “The Iguana”. They are suspected of nearly 50 assassinations. Luca thinks it’s a male, but she’s known as the world’s greatest assassin. She was hired to eliminate Beatrix Hasp and has an innate ability to deceive her very own lie detector. Fortunately for Alex, a ruthless killer can have those types of skills.
Alex and Cale find themselves at a truck stop as they regroup, and Charlie is convinced the real assassin is following them in preparation to murder Hasp. Little does she know the one she’s so paranoid about is right with her. It’s a little fun to see Charlie be fooled for once, but I have to say from the looks of Alex, she’s not very deceiving to the blind eye. Despite that, she’s been good enough to step up for her new friend, who is leading her right to Beatrix.
Charlie’s main objective is to keep them safe for two weeks until Hasp can testify. Cale is on edge around everyone she sees, yet I can’t blame her for the clown child. That would frighten me on my best day.
Things go awry at the truck stop when a man starts angrily coming after them, screaming. Thanks to a group of valiant truckers, Alex and Charlie were able to flee the scene without a hiccup.
Cale and Alex track down Hasp
The duo makes their way to Greenville, Indiana, to the safe house of Beatrix Hasp. Before going in, Charlie has a really bad feeling and ironically chews on some Big Red to calm her nerves. Side note, Natasha Lyonne would be perfect casting in a Big Red commercial.
Charlie tells Alex that if anything goes wrong, honk on the horn; however, nobody’s answering the front door, so she’s forced to go around back to enter. Alex does honk, but by the time Charlie reaches her, she’s gone. Moments after, Charlie spots blood dripping from the roof of an officer guarding the hasp. It’s a trail of dead bodies as she proceeds inside. Cale is a little too late when she explores only to find Hasp with a gunshot between her eyes.
I will give it up to Alex, she’s a great actress. She even pretends to be held at the assassin's gunpoint. Finally, Charlie has a grasp on her brain again and tells Alex to “cut the shit.” She knows it’s her, and Alex walks out with a smile. She’s caught, and her demeanor has shifted to this dark and confident persona that is the real Alex.
How was Charlie deceived?
Because Alex has spent her life deceiving some of the most powerful people in the world, fooling Charlie was child’s play. It might not be that Charlie is that much of a fool; it’s that Alex is just that good. She’s killed kings and queens, seduced and murdered movie stars, dukes, countesses, and even the Vatican wanted to put out a contract on the sitting Pope. She’s even gone as far as wrestling a polar bear to the death to take out a CEO. Even with all that, these weren’t challenges for her anymore. She became the bored assassin.
At first, Alex wasn’t interested in taking part in a mob hit. More boredom. Even so, her agent tried to convince her to take the job, and Charlie sweetened the pot. Murder comes so easily for this woman, but being able to fool the unfoolable was a test too great to pass up.
What else have we learned?
“Todd” was hired by Alex as the second-best assassin in the world to take out Breatrix’s adopted son, whom she wanted framed for. And when Alex came upon the murder, she pretended to act shocked until she sliced the assassin’s throat.
We learn that the man at the truck stop was just an innocent man whom Alex slashed on the hand. I’m still unsure of the point of that diversion. In a sense, Charlie Cale saved her life by giving her a reason to live. In return, she took the lives of a lot of people who didn’t always deserve it. Cale isn’t flattered and gets the last laugh by setting a fire on the stove so authorities could come and get her out of hot water.
Two truths and a lie
The authorities are told not to engage, and Luca trails the infamous Baracuda that is housing Alex and Cale. Alex was smart in using Cale as a human shield to get away. She thinks this is the end of the road for her until Charlie challenges her to tell an active lie. Cale knows she can’t be bested this time.
Alex swerves off on a road that takes them to the Grand Canyon. Two truths and a lie. If Charlie wants to live, she has to win this game. When Cale calls bullshit correctly, Alex tries to slam on the breaks. Suddenly, it looks like the former friends go out Thelma and Louise style.
As Roger Miller's “King of the Road” plays, I knew there was no way this was it. Fortunately, for the hope of a season 3, Charlie jumps out right before the Baracuda takes a cliff dive. We say goodbye to Alex and Hasp in this episode, but the true heartache is the loss of the Baracuda.
Luca gives Charlie Cale a head start. She’s now wanted by the FBI. It wouldn’t be Poker Face if she weren’t wanted by someone. Cale heads off on a service road to embark on her next fleeing adventures. Looking ahead, Cale picks up a dog before hopping into a semi-truck headed in route to Wichita. The Iguana (who is still alive and vanished from the wreckage) could be back for a second act in season 3. Until the next Cale catastrophe.
You can now stream every episode of Seasons 1 and 2 on Peacock.