Get in the Plymouth Barracuda, we’re going sleuthing. Everyone’s favorite human lie detector is back as Natasha Lyonne (Russian Doll) returns as Charlie Cale in season 2 of Poker Face, now streaming exclusively on Peacock.
The stand-out first season took viewers on a winding and wild path across America as Charlie dared to call out liars with every dangerous mystery she walked into. Now, director and series creator Rian Johnson (Knives Out) and Poker Face showrunner Tony Tost (Americana) are revealing the creative reasoning behind a major change in Season 2 that shakes up the entire core of the series.
What is that change? In the third episode of Season 2, they resolved the threat that has had Charlie on the run pretty much since the show premiered — so now she’s free to go wherever she likes without looking over her shoulder or having to actually, y’know, stay on the run at all.
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If there’s nobody chasing Charlie, what does that mean for Poker Face?
Season 1 saw Cale fleeing from casino owner Sterling Frost Sr. (Ron Perlman) and his underling Cliff (Benjamin Bratt) after solving her friend’s murder. As for shaking up that status quo in Season 2, the possibility of having Charlie no longer on the run felt “unexpected and kind of fun and weirdly freeing,” according to showrunner Tony Tost.
“If we resolved with Beatrix Hasp’s character and saw what Charlie’s life looks like if she’s on the road by choice…if she’s on this almost like old school road trip,” Tost furthered. “Like you would see in a 1970s movie or like a 1980s buddy movie, but she’s kind of moving from community to community and town to town.”
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That’s exactly what happens at the tail end of Season 2, Episode 3 where we find good guy Special Agent Luca Clark (Simon Helberg) brokering a deal with Hasp (Rhea Perlman) to call off the chase for Charlie once and for all as Hasp’s criminal enterprise finally collapses.
“We didn’t want to repeat Season 1, but we also kind of realized the heart of the show is the week-to-week mysteries, and so we can’t really mess that up, you know, that doesn’t depend on her being on the run,” Rian Johnson told NBC Insider. “Giving Charlie kind of the thing of, ‘Okay, no one’s chasing you, who are you, and where do you want to be?’ and having her question herself every week with that. That seemed like really fertile ground to dig into.”
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For the first time since we met Charlie, we’ll see what her life looks like on her own terms. Still, with a new mystery every week, Johnson and Tost assured.
“We have a social contract with the viewer, like we’re going to deliver you an interesting mystery of the week and hopefully you know be kind of funny, entertaining, and maybe a little soulful,” Tost said. “How can we provide new versions without repeating ourselves and find what all this kind of format can do…what worlds you can be in, what kind of new wrinkles, or spins on it we can find.”
Catch the first three episodes of Poker Face streaming on Peacock now with a new episode dropping every Thursday this season.
