The Prestige TV Podcast - ‘Poker Face’ Season 2, Episodes 1-4: Best Guest Stars, Favorite Jokes, and Meth Gators

Episode Date: May 19, 2025

Joanna Robinson and Rob Mahoney pick a spot on the map as they recap the first four episodes of ‘Poker Face’ Season 2. (0:00) Intro (1:21) How the second season changes the central premise for the better (14:44) Best guest star (18:49) Favorite joke (20:53) Best episode (21:55) Charlie Cale fits (24:28) Best murder (27:08) Most delightful visual (32:18) Best needle drop (34:24) Most appealing Charlie odd job (40:15) Charlie’s smartest move (42:05) Charlie’s dumbest move Email us! [e-mail] Subscribe to the Ringer TV YouTube channel here for full episodes of ‘The Prestige TV Podcast’ and so much more! Hosts: Joanna Robinson and Rob Mahoney Producers: Kai Grady and Donnie Beacham Jr. Additional Production Support: Justin Sayles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Don't miss Sol de Janado's limited edition perfume mist collection only at Sephora. Hello, welcome back to the prestige TV podcast feed. I'm Joanna Robinson. I'm Rob Mahoney. We're here today with a little poker face check-in for you guys. Season two of poker face,

and Rob was like Joanna, let's go nuts this week. Let's do a Last of Us pod, your friends and neighbors pod. Let's hit them with a couple episodes of Pokerface. as well. So we're here to cover episodes 1 through 4 of season two of Poker Face. Ra Mahoney

Tell me why Poker Face was like a must a must chat show for you. I think it's a sentimental show for us here on the prestige feed. We wanted to return after you and I did basically episode by episode for the first season. We really enjoyed it. I was eager

for Pokerface's return. I don't know if I knew how eager until I hit play on this thing. We're right back in it. It's exactly a a flavor of TV that I don't get enough of right now. So I've just been thrilled watching these first four episodes. And what is the, is the flavor how contained each episode is or the tone of it? Or what is it in particular for you?

I think a lot of it is the tone. I think a lot of it is how quickly within these first four episodes we get out from under the weight of a big overarching criminal conspiracy on the run from mafia bosses and into, literally, let's point at the map and go somewhere. Like let's just be honest about what the concede is here. We're going to go to a new town every week. There's going to be a new mystery, usually a murder of some kind to solve. I'm enjoying the mechanics of all those things.

And I think the show is hitting its stride in terms of doing all that stuff in a really playful way. And dealing specifically with Charlie's preternatural ability to detect bullshit in new and exciting ways, basically every time out. So, spoilers up through episode four of season two. To the extent that this is a spoiler. Spoil-spoil-able show. Just like if you haven't watched episode four yet, go watch it before you listen to us. The Game is Afoot is the first episode.

Last Looks is the second episode. Wackamol is the third episode, and the taste of human blood is the fourth episode. And I agree. So we're not going to go beat by beat for any of these episodes. By any stretch, this is just like a fun light and breezy Friday afternoon pod that we're going to do.

And we've got some categories that we're going to hit of things, you know, our favorite things over the course of these four episodes. But when I was going to, through the categories and picking things, it was very clear to me that episode four, which is the episode that takes place after we get out from underneath this sort of premise of season one, which is Charlie's on the run from organized crime, was just like a wide open new space for my enjoyment of this show. And I think it was just like a really brilliant move. I like the concept of the first season. It's not like I didn't enjoy it. But I didn't know what was possible. until, you know, we've got people, like, shooting at Charlie in the first two episodes. We've got the resolution of her being chased by a Raia Parliament's character in the third episode. And then the fourth episode, we get a better sense of, like, what the show can be going forward with, as you say, the introduction of the point of the map.

And then it becomes this sort of like, even though the episodes are contained, it becomes this, because it's her choice to do this town to town every week sort of adventure. it really feeds well into, I think before they felt like they needed a reason, but Charlie's curiosity about people and sort of zest for life is certainly reason enough at this point. So I really like that they made that choice to basically change the premise of the show to a certain degree. We're still doing murder of the week. What do you think, Rob? Yeah, I think they're changing the premise, but not the soul of the show.

That's kind of what we found in the first season was that the engine of it was not the getting away from the mafia bosses and the hitmen and the like, you know, various grunts down the chain. It was Charlie as like an empathy magnet, glomming onto people in the world, getting to know them. And you can see it even in these first three episodes, which as you said are kind of still within that globe before we fully break out of the crime element of the story. But just watching like Natasha Leone and Cynthia Revo like become buddies watching this old show together, like that to me is the soul of what poker face is. It's like her ability to, that character's ability to connect very quickly with somebody

and then kind of worm her way into their world and figure out what it's all about. And help. And what's wild to me is that, you know, I, like, because we watch so much television, we cover so much television, our producer Kai and I were just talking about before we started recording, like the fact that I will often rewatch a season, a previous season of a television show. I didn't do that with poker face. We kind of made a late in the day decision to, thrust this upon you, Joe.

No, no, no. And I willingly embrace it, but I didn't rewatch season one. So I had forgotten that, you know, basically you see the murder happen and Charlie usually enters the episode midway through the episode or at least after like, I don't know, at least a quarter of the episode. 15, 20 minutes sometimes, yeah. Yeah. So in terms of that, Charlie makes a friend move, you don't even have a whole episode to make that

feel realistic. You often just have like a scene or two scenes or some kind of montage. So watching her befriend a badly wigged Katie Holmes in the second episode or something like that over like a campfire. I mean, you know what? It happened so quickly. And then, but then you were invested in it and you believe that when spoiler for episode two, Katie Holmes gets incinerated, that Charlie would be invested in figuring out what happened to her. It all completely. Completely plays perfectly for me. And that's just a perfect marriage of material and performer. Like, Natasha Leone as a great hang is the premise of the show now.

And I'm excited for where we can take that and the kind of like infinite number of spins you can put on it as you move from city to city. One thing that we should note, just because we like to track these things, is there's a different showrunner this season. The showrunners of the first season have gone off to go make the Buffy reboot that Rob and I have a lot of thoughts and opinions on, which you can find on this very feed. Yeah, best in interest, to say the least, in the outcome of that property. Rob, did you see the casting news?

No, can you break it to me right here on air? Yeah, so they've cast their chosen one for the Buffy reboot. It's this young actress named Ryan Kira Armstrong, who was in Skeleton Crew, which was the Star Wars show that came out last year, so one of the kids and that. She's, like, quite young. She's not like a kid kid, but she's like definitely younger, I think, than Sarah Michelle Geller was. Yes. when she was cast.

And there is, I don't, Rob, you're a sentimental person, but I don't think you go for cute that often, but there is an obscenely cute video of Sarah Michelle Geller

telling this girl over Zoom that she got the part. And it is just, I cried. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I cried. So,

yeah, I'm still very skeptical of this show, but like that video really got me. I will be seeking it out. I suspect it will work on me too. Look,

this is an important property for us. And I have to say, she does look, again, as you said, younger than Buffy in the original show. Also not unlike a young Sarah Michelle Geller in her way. I hope this isn't a Buffy's daughter situation. But look, we have a long way to go before that show comes out. Yeah, I don't think they would do that, but we'll see. Yeah, so the Zuckermans have gone on to do that.

And so the new showrunner of Fog for Season 2 is Tony Tost, who Rob and I were sort of digging into, We're like, who is this person that we have not heard of necessarily? He's worked on Longmire and a couple of other, which we'll come back up a little later today, on a couple of other things. But we also discovered that he has made a film called Americana, which was completed in 2023, but will not be released until this summer. Rob dug up a trailer that you sent to me.

Anything you want to say about this? We were just trying to get a sense of who this guy was and what his taste was. Anything you want to tell the listeners about this trailer you dug up for this movie? It's just one of the truly strangest collections of people in a movie. The cast for Americana, Sidney-Sweeney, Paul Walter Houser, Halsey plays a prominent role in that movie. I've seen the trailer. I have no idea what to think of it, except that now having seen Poker Face, you can absolutely see some common DNA, not just in the Americana of it all, but in sort of like the, like a certain Western vibe to

like particular elements like a type of like ensemble storytelling that I think it has in common like there is something shared between them. It almost reminds me having just seen the trailer, not the film itself. It has like a little Cohen zaniness

and like specifically like Ethan Cohen, Ethan all alone sort of zaniness. We've really separated the variables within the co-inverse these days. I think we can put a finger on it. But yes, and Rex is in this Eric Daines on McLarnan. So, I mean, I'll be watching this movie.

I'm very curious. I am a little concerned about the delay between its completion and release. That's never usually a great sign, but I'll be very curious about it. And then I just want to share this quote from Natasha Leon that she gave about season two of Pokerface. And she said, it's the concept of we lose interest in ourselves and gain interest in our fellows in a way she's sort of on the case of anyone but herself. And I really love that idea of like, Charlie's interest in other people is a great strength of the show,

but maybe a bit of a weakness inside of her and that she just does not want to introspect. But there is this interesting element that's added in episode four, which is Steve Bussemi on the CB radio. No, I have not watched Beyond, on episode four. Same. But do you get the sense

that this will be a recurring character that she'll get to get this sort of homespun trucker poetry wisdom from Steve Buscemi over the radio? What do you think? I mean, I think he has to be

popping up periodically. Maybe not every episode. But it makes sense to have some character in Charlie's life who she's bouncing off of more consistently and not just having to introduce herself to every single week out.

So having that through line of a voice on the radio is a really smart way to do it because you don't have to have a co-pilot in the chair who you have to account for in every story. So we're getting our lone Charlie out on the range storytelling. But with all the comforts of Steve Bouchemio over the radio, as you said, being a warrior poet in his way. I've really, really enjoyed it so far. I don't know if we're going to get him in the flesh at any point. Maybe it is strictly a voice cameo. But either way, I'm happy with it. I would say that's either like a finale.

thing of the season or like a finale thing of the show. But I really like him. They haven't even named him in the credits. He's listed as good buddy. That's his like handle and that's how he's billed in the credits. So I like this idea of him being this like sort of anonymous voice. But if something ever happened to him,

like Charlie would certainly want to investigate it. Absolutely. Something like Charlie would be there for him. So for however long poker face runs, I would not mind having Steve. to send me on the radio. It reminds you of, did you, like, because you're a bit younger than me, Rob, did you ever watch Northern Exposure? You know, I kind of missed it somehow. Yeah, yeah. The box set, I remember very specifically, because it's in like the puffy coat DVD, right?

Yeah, yeah, exactly. There's a DJ in that show who hosted like a morning radio show where he would just sort of like read Alaskan wisdom over the microphone. It reminds me a lot of that. where it's just sort of like you just get some like soulful poetic wisdom from someone in a sort of homespun context. That's really fun. I mean, he's a Linda Mann's man. You know, he can be in, we'll take as many Linda Man's men in any story that you want to tell. I'm down for it. Do you, other than that sort of slight tweak and premise that we get in episode four,

do you sense any other major like differences between season one and season two? I think just some of that clarity as far as taking. some of these like heavy existential threats out of the story and turning them into as you said this like heavier introspective or introspective avoidant kind of danger that gives it a little bit of a different flare I'm also happy Joe that we can officially put to bed our recurring conversation about poker face

as to whether Charlie has some kind of superpower I've always said from the beginning this is a preternatural sense of truth not a superpower and I think we've confirmed it by the fact that you and I are podcasting about it again here on the Prestige TV feed and not this isn't a ringerverse podcast this isn't a house of our podcast

this is not a superhero I don't know how you're like how you dare to try to make that your case when we're covering a zombie show on this very feed also not superheroes on that show you don't have a single leg to stand in this week specifically

can't blame my guy for trying you got it you got to try okay do you want to do the categories anything else you want to chat about before we get to them. Okay. Let's get into it. So these are just random things that I made up for us to talk about here on a Friday. Joe, that's what a podcast is. You know, only the pod can reveal the podcaster, I like to say. Do you like to say that?

After these episodes I do, yeah. Okay, okay, okay. Best guest star. This is like poker faces, like, absolute magic trick. Even in these first four episodes, there's just an embarrassment of riches in terms of guest stars. And then when you look at the whole, the season as a whole, you and I were trading like some of the names that we were excited to see coming up that we haven't even seen yet. And it's, it's astounding what they can put, you think like, oh, well, there's this person. That's the guest star of this episode. But it knows like five different guest stars in this single episode. So who do you want to call out as the best guest star of these first four episodes?

I have a one definitive answer. I wonder if you share it. And it's Gabby Hoffman as Officer Fran Lamont. I think that's right. When I got to her, you were a little bit behind me when we were watching, and I was watching episode four when you were, I think, on episode three. And I was like, I'm watching Gabby Hoffman. Like, right now, I'm having a great time. A police officer stuck in a spiral of ego and also alligator meth.

Like, I don't know what more you want from a TV show than that. I think that's a really, really good answer. And especially when you find out when you meet her in episode four and she has it put together and then you get the cut to six years later and she has become unhinged and you're like, oh, that's what I'm watching. Great. Okay. On my answer, just because Gabby Hoffman, also Gabby Hoffman is a flavor, a performer who fits

this world very, very well. Without a doubt. My nominee is Richard Kind in episode three who plays Raya Perlman's love and an informant. to the FBI. I love Richard Kine. Anytime he shows up in anything, I'm thrilled beyond belief. And he's just so perfect for this.

I was actually devastated that he was the murder victim because I would love to see Richard Kine come back on poker face. But he will not be coming back on Poker Face. If he had actually made it into witness protection and then we got to circle back with him in season three, that would have been a perfect way to close that loop. And yeah, he's such a wonderful rube. in everything that he's in.

Like, he plays that strand of performance so, so well. But again, it was another episode where it's like, Ria Perlman and Richard Kine and John Mullaney, just like stacked on top of each other. You either have three or four different people were delighted to see or five Cynthia Arivos, who I'm also delighted to see happening at once. The balance of all these guest stars is super impressive.

The other person in episode four acting opposite, Gabby Hoffman is the director, John Sayles, who did Secret of Rohn Inish, Lone Star, one of my favorite movies, Madawan, Eight Men Out, like, John Sales, who has occasionally acted before, but he's just like in there as a police chief, just being John Sales in an episode of television, you're sort of like, what, I mean, what else could you ask for? And then also, I mean, like, I would add Bissemi to the mix, like, adding Bishami in as, like, a potentially weekly or, you know, every few weeks or something like that, character is really exciting.

I want to give one runner up as well. I've never historically had the biggest relationship to Katie Holmes. But Katie Holmes in the bad wig, I thought it was wonderful. And she has found this, like, era of her career where she'll just show up in something like this or show up in something like Logan Lucky. And she brings, like, a totally different charge than anybody else on screen has. And some of that's, like, her character in episode two gets to be the breath of fresh air in the, like, embalming house of death.

So by nature, she's going to feel like a bit of a relief, but I thought she was awesome in that part. And I, you know, I was sad to see her incinerated, as was Charlie and many other people. Yeah, the bad week was sort of like, felt like kind of the point. I don't know, she has, yeah, this

daffiness to her in that role that is just like, yeah, very welcome, very, very good. I agree. Great, great use of Katie Holmes. Okay, best joke. Yeah. Of these episodes. not to overindex on episode four the divine gator

every time they looked into the gator's eye and connected with the deeper spirituality of the gatorverse it got me literally every time I know it's coming I know they're setting it up and yet here I am dying on my couch at the divine gator

um listen mine is also from episode four so the setting from much of episode four is a cop award ceremony called the Sopopopacopa. Is that you pronounce it, right? Also, every time they just said flofacopa, I was laughing. Really, really good.

And the first year, I think it's the first year when they're announcing the award, the guy who goes up to anounce the award, they say, Star of the hit A&E show The Glades, which was just like calibrated perfect level of non-celebrity celebrity celebrity to be presenting at the flopa copas. The fact that like Tony Tust, who's the showrunner this season, like worked on Longmeyer,

which is an A&E show, you know, just sort of like really marinating in that A&E level of, it's just so good. Really, really good stuff. Yeah. Also within that episode,

I think the cops having a joint circular argument about which one of them is the loose cannon, I found really, really delightful. There's just, it's hard to make a really,

really funny cop episode these days. You've seen even like the cop oriented comedies, like, had to bail on their premises as soon as things started getting Yeah, Brooklyn 9-9. Famously. This one is genuinely hilarious, genuinely very funny. Start to finish.

And look, some of that is you get a gator involved. You make one of the cops into, like, a manic TikToker. And all of a sudden, you're really cooking with grease. The, when it started and I was like, and it starts with, like, calling Gabby Hoffman's character one of the good ones. And I was like, what are we? I was like, what am I about to watch? And then I was like, oh, this is the best thing I've ever seen.

Best episode is episode four. I think it is. Should we do a runner-up? So episode four, I would say, has the best set up, the biggest laughs, the most alligators on meth, as mentioned. Like, it just has all the ingredients you want for great TV. If I were to pick another, I think it's honestly really competitive against these other three, which all have something to recommend about them.

I am partial to episode two last looks, which is the funeral home episode. You love that one. I really, really like it. Look, full disclosure, since we're all being honest about ourselves on this podcast, I come from a funeral home family. My grandfather was a funeral director. There is a certain like mortician humor that appeals to me and that is baked into at least that half of my family. You, I didn't know this. You're like, you're like representation matters.

This is what poker face is about is looking into our souls, figuring out what we really need at this moment in time and if Charlie Kale can provide it for us. Looking into the gator's eye that is the funeral home industry. Okay. Best Charlie fit. I've never made you talk about fashion before on a podcast for Abahoni. This is usually something Mallory and I talk about. But Charlie, her style is incredible. The hair is still outrageous, but better this season than it was.

She has to put a wig on for a flashback to season one. And I'm just sort of like, oh, yeah, that's what the same is. season in hair looked like. Anyway, the hair is much less, like, just a bit less crispy this season and redder, and the style is incredible. They're really leading into, like, the 70s-inspired thing for the whole season. So do you have a Charlie look that you want to shout out? I think there are a lot of good ones. I would also pick one from episode two here, which is her beach fit, Hawaiian shirt, teal ray bands with red frames, beer helmet. Like, that's, that's a nice little ensemble she's got going together.

She's also rocking a lot of high socks in this season. It's a lot of like jean shorts, high socks, a lot of bolos with open collars, which I don't know about that one personally, but I support Charlie and all her endeavors. Okay, as a Texan, you want to object to the use of the

bolo here? I mean, I object to most uses of the bolo. It's not even me being territorial. I just don't think anybody should be doing it. Native Texans included. Unless it's Peter Sars Guard and presumed innocent, which is the second time I get to talk about that this week. That one will allow.

Well, grandfathering Peter. Okay. I, you sort of outlined the kind of outfit I'm going to talk about, which is like when she's talking to Sue Busset me on the radio and she's wearing high striped socks, denim short shorts, a crab shirt and a trucker hat. And it's just phenomenal. It's just really, really good. runner up for me

is the party down cater waiter outfit in episode four. They went full party down for their look to liberate the gator from the flopacopas

and it's pretty great. And she has the matching pink sunglasses to go with is pretty great. How many sunglasses do you think she packed? She's got a whole like, you know,

she often lives in her car and I'm like, but is like one quarter of your trunk space just a bag of sunglasses. I know quite well protected, it seems like. These aren't dinged up.

Like, they seem to be in quite good condition. Gleaming. Yeah, absolutely. Best murder. I feel guilty again going back to episode four. But one person in these episodes died by getting overdose with gator laxative. So what am I supposed to do here? I wrote Gator Joe shit himself to death.

Come on. There's really no question. And then was eaten by a methed up. gator. I mean, that's just our producer Kai is on this podcast, and again, Kai got sort of like roped in a little last minute to doing this podcast, so it hasn't had a chance

to watch any poker face, and I don't, the only thing I'm bummed to spoil for Kai is the fact that Kamel and Johnny with like a bleached party mullet shits himself to death and that is eaten

by his own exploited gator hopped up on That's art to me. Tremendous. Really tremendous. There's literally no competition. You can't even get close to that. I'm so sorry. The other murders are good. We kind of skip past Kumail in the guest star section.

I'm just, again, very happy to see him here. We have a collection of wonderful, that guy, performers, wonderful, people we love every time they show up. In Kumail's case, I haven't seen him in anything, like live action. Because I am respectfully out on only murder. murders. I, as we have discussed also recently on this podcast, I'm not tuning in to Ghostbusters Frozen Empire. Is that the name of that movie? Were you surprised by how many, we got a couple emails from people being like, how dare you besmirch the new Ghostbusters? I've been very

surprised by the pro Ghostbusters stance at prestige TV at Spotify.com if you would like to join the course. But so I haven't seen Kumil in anything like live action since I think Obi-One and Eternals. Not my preferred context to see a performer that I really like and a comic who can be really great and is great as Gator Joe. His Gator Joe performance

is so good. And what's really just the icing on the Gitter Joe cake is the accent. Right? Because he's trying to embody Florida man. And Kumel is not really hiding that

he, his natural accent, but he is just layered on top of it. He's just smeared over the top of it. The twang of the Florida man. And it's pretty outstanding. It's pretty, pretty good. And then the little TikTok bits that play over the closing credits of that episode, really good stuff. Snoring, gasping during sleep, feeling fatigued, ask your doctor about Zepbound, terse appetite. The first and only FDA-approved prescription medicine for moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea, OSA, and adults with obesity. Zepbound is a prescription medicine used

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So something we talked a lot about in our coverage of the first season is, you know, Ryan Johnson, a director we both love. directed some the first two episodes I think of season one and he directed the first episode of this season but we talked a lot about sort of the visual style the visual palette yeah there are some like interesting camera work that he certainly did um in his episodes and I was curious um if you had a visual that most delighted you Rob Mahoney um last sion of a of a funeral home family thank you I appreciate that respect. Yeah.

I think my pick for the most delightful visual would be a Ryan Johnson joint. He directed, as you said, the first episode of this season. The dramatic reveal of the prosthetic leg dangling off of the cliff, I think was my first, like, oh, fuck, yeah, moment. Like, the twist on a twist of how far are these characters willing to go to cover up whatever they need to cover up, to get the money that they need to get. Like, that was my first, like, return to poker face moment, I would say. And so that was my moment of true delight. But there are lots of visuals in the show that are not as delightful, but I still enjoy quite a bit.

And I think the, you know, Giancarlo Esposito burning alive in his funeral home at the end of his episode. Like, am I delighted by it? Yes and no. But please speak on it, Joe. Like, that was an awesome moment. It's so cool. Like, so he's sitting in the chair in his office, surrounded by the trappings of his business, and then watching this portrait of his father.

burn, the portrait made from his father's remains, burn and pregnant. And something that you discover that maybe you always knew, but you, well, I guess we've known it since Breaking Bad is that Giancarlo Esposito has this, like, incredible bone structure of his face. And so in Breaking Bad, Spoilership Breaking Bad, when his character, very famously, once again, a spoiler for Breaking Bad, please skip ahead if you haven't seen it, gets half his face blown off. And it's just this, like, incredible visual. of like Gus Springs, like, half blown off face and his normal face. And so watching him sit there in that chair, he just looks, you can see the skeleton sort of underneath.

Like, he's just about to melt off of his own bones. He sits there in the fire. And there was just something like, really, like, that's the moment when I was like coming up with these categories sort of on the fly as I was watching. I was like, best visual where I'm just like inspired by this very moment. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I also think that moment opened up something for poker face from me. me, which is, you know, clearly this is a show that draws a lot from Colombo. The case of the weak structure, the one more thing kind of return as, like, Charlie's

talking through the cases. Like, it's all right there on its sleeve. That episode, among others, but I think they all kind of have their moment of this, had some real, like, twilight zone in it, too. Not in the, like, oh, there's a supernatural element way, but, like, the hoisted by your own potard dramatic irony twist at the very end felt very twilight zone. And I think that's where a show like Pokerface can draw from all sorts of influences because it can be anything at once at any time.

I want to actually, I'll circle back to that in our next category, but I do want to also say while we're here, this is less of like a striking sort of cinematic visual and more of like, to your point, a gag reveal. To me, in episode one, the running bit of Charlie gnawing on a turkey leg for like a quarter of the episode. Yeah. A funeral buffet turkey leg. Like she's Henry the 8th is like pretty phenomenal.

And then in that same episode, the biggest laugh, I think, of maybe all four episodes that the show got for me was when she drops Chekhov's pointy award. The Latvian Intergenerational Kiss Award. There you go. On to Cynthia Rivo's, one of the Cynthia Rivo's foot to reveal that it's a real foot and not a prosthetic. underneath there and that that Cynthia Ravio is pretending it doesn't hurt and then blood just like gushes out geysers out of it and it's so funny I don't think we gave Cynthia her flowers enough too for her episode where she is playing Amber and Beebe and C C C and Delia and Felicity and Amber playing Felicity and Amber playing Delia like there's a lot to juggle in that episode and

there's a lot of very exaggerated accent work happening, I think, to distinguish some of those characters and very clear color palettes in addition to the naming scheme situation. But I had a great time with it. I enjoyed her getting to just riff off of different versions of herself. The two sort of very backup ones, which are, I think, B, B and C.C, are, like,

the fact that you just mostly get them in reaction shots and it's just sort of like one of them says something very pretentious in French and one of them says something very spacey and DJ. And it's just sort of like, let's move on from here. It's really funny. Best needle drop. Okay, so this is where I want to, I don't want to step on your answer or whatever, but I will say in terms of the Twilight Zone feel of episode two, if you use the ink spots in an episode

as a rule, you're going to give haunted. It gives haunted always. anytime you use the ink spots as a needle drop. What is your pick for needle drop? Very competitive category. I'm glad you brought up, I believe it's Beebe, who's the DJ? Yes. Honorable mention to Beebe's remix of the kids cop colon nights theme that she plays at the funeral,

which I think is wonderful. Also honorable mention. Sorry, the kid cops nights. when like the first scene we get where she's like a show girl sitting on the She's a drug mule I think Yeah well she's a drug mule but she's like

Dressed as like a saloon girl And she's just like I don't know where I end And the mule begins very very good Really good The fact that Charlie wants to go back and watch the one Where the Kid Cop meets or catches the Zodiac Killer Zodiac Killer I also would like to watch that episode

But yeah the Kids Cop Night remix theme Does Slap So honorable mention to that honorable mention to Johann Sebastian Bach he cooked in these episodes as well I think there is one definitive answer for me though I couldn't go any other way it is the the shredding guitar

Ave Maria at the biker funeral in episode two just really really inspired work by everyone involved very very good yeah we get some like literal needle drops inside of that episode

for me it's a song I had never heard before which is John Kale's barracuda, not to be confused with a barracuda that you might know, a different barracuda, but I love when a show can teach me about an absolute banger that I had never heard before. So I love John Kail.

I just didn't know this song, so there we go. Barakuda, but a different one. All right, Charlie, part of the promise of the show is Charlie goes from town to town, picking up odd jobs as she goes. Which Charlie odd job? And we got a montage of them in this season

in addition to working at the Gator Farm and all the other things that she does this season. What a corpse, sorry, I don't, I'll stop naming them so you can say what you want.

Which truly odd job would you most want to have? Rob Mahoney. I mean, the actual answer is none. None of these seem particularly pleasant to do. But if you're going to pick one, I think you could do a lot

of worse than apple picking. You know, a little bit of sunshine, a little bit of fresh air. Yeah, long days on your feet in the elements. Not always great. I'm not saying it's easy work. But I would much rather do that than be a parking lot attendant.

Okay. Yeah. Parking lot attendant looked the most bleak to me, honestly. Yeah. Some good reading time, apparently. But, you know, didn't seem like she was getting some good conversation from her coworker. Cookie, I think is his name? Great.

Great note. Haunted Hayride. That's my. You're in. A haunted hayride, yeah, yeah, when she plays the mummy in the haunted ride. How do you feel about a haunting, Joe? Like a haunted house, a haunted hayride, any kind of spooky Halloween-type situation?

Thank you so much for asking. I love it. I'm a big fan. I have been in a few haunted houses in my day as a performer, and it has been extremely fun for me. So this isn't which job you would like to have. It's which job you would like to have again. Not paid.

I did it in college a couple times, like when, you know, people put together a haunted house. Yeah. I think I've told this. I know I've told the story. I can't, I don't know if I've told it to you, but definitely on a pod before that a freshman year, one year, they had, yeah, it was freshman year. They had me do.

I was like Linda Blair from the Exorcist. And so they just like had me. So it was like in a dorm. And so each room had been like dressed up or something. And they had me like. So I was on the bed. There were people under the bed shaking the bed. And then they just like had like dumped pea soup on me, which was like actually completely

rancet. But then I just got to like shout swears at people as they walk past and had a great time. And I'd fared better than the girl who played Carrie who got carose syrup, like red carose syrup dumped over her hair. And it took like maybe a haircut to get it all out. So we didn't know what we were doing. We're not professionals. Yeah. We're just doing our best.

But that was really fun. And a haunted hay ride is really, really fun. So I think that's what I would want to do. Yeah. I'm sure the dorm administrators too loved just like. the pea soup and caro syrup being poured everywhere. Every bed, every surface, every crevice in that dorm room. That's great.

It's sticky. Very sticky situation. Not what you want. Would you, like, are you so superstitious that you would not do, like, a haunted house or a haunted hayride? I'm fine with it, but mostly, like, not that interested. Here's the thing. Halloween, not my holiday. More of a Thanksgiving guy, ultimately. More of like a July barbecue kind of guy.

I'm not out here trying to get spoof. Do you think it's because you come from a long lineage of funeral directors and you take death more seriously than the goons do at Halloween? You know what? You're right. We are more evolved. We have a healthier relationship with death. We don't need to make it a joke. You know? This is part of who we are. This is part of the natural life cycle. It's very serious. Wow. You don't like Halloween. I'm neutral slash indifferent. Like actually a slight negative. Neutral is too positive.

Slight negative on Halloween. Follow up question. Are you Rob Mahoney? Are you a costume party person? Would you dress up for a costume party? Absolutely. If there's a theme, if there's a participation element, some friends of mine back in Dallas used to celebrate every year

Leonardo DiCaprio's birthday. Long story. You had to show up in costume as a Leonardo DiCaprio character of some kind. So, yeah, I have many, many great costs. I would say my favorite of those was Leo did. I think it was a Vanity Fair photo shoot where he's in a black turtleneck with a swan wrapped around his neck.

Let's just say the costume went off. It really worked out. Oh yeah. The Vanity Fair Swan cover is like absolutely iconic. That's a great costume. I just don't understand why you don't then like apply that zeal. That clear talent you have for this to the holiday where we all dress up and have.

fun, you know? I think what I want is the camaraderie of knowing we are all on theme together. Like, we have a joint mission. We're all aiming for the same thing and we're going to reach at it together. Versus actual Halloween, you have so many varied levels of investment, execution. Some people are spooky. Some people are funny. Like, it's just all over the place in a way that does not do a lot for me. All right. So a more organized Halloween for Rob Mahoney, please. That's a note for the American populace. Charlie's smartest move She doesn't always make the smartest moves And we'll talk about that in a second

But what's her most impressively intelligent move that you think she makes? See, I would say this is maybe not her smartest collection of episodes She's not coming up with all the stops here I gotta say My memory is that in season one She's also quite often fumbling and bubbling And we're like, oh, Charlie Oh, Charlie!

Oh, Charlie. And she gets out of it because she's She's, you know, has a superpower. Yes. Well, no, she has a preternatural sense. You agreed. You agreed. You said yes.

That was me trying to yes and my podcast partner, not me endorsing every word that you say. The first thing you said was yes. Okay. What is the smartest thing Charlie does in this collection of episodes? So I have kind of a tie here. Because one of them, I think, is very smart, but not in a super obvious way,

which is in episode one, when she detects, Amber is telling her a set of facts, and the family lawyer is telling her the same set of facts. And the fact that one is ringing true and one is ringing false, I think it's like a great setup to use her power in the first episode of this season.

It's like a really smart way to kind of walk that line. Is that a brilliant maneuver? I think it's probably great writing more than it is like great Charlie being Charlie. Her actual smartest move, I think is throwing the vape into the incinerator. I think it's her real superpower, Joe,

is listening. Yeah. Every episode, every throwaway line, you tell me that a battery will explode in this furnace, then I'm going to remember that. I'm going to lock it up. I'm going to throw my vape in there at just the most opportune moment possible. And I was like, I didn't know.

I didn't know what would do. I didn't know what would go like that. No. It was pretty impressive. I almost had best vape moment as a category, but there was just like a clear answer. Well, she's vaping up a storm until she decides to go back to the cigarette. So, yeah. Those are all good ones.

I have to say, maybe this isn't the smartest, it's just the one that, like, delighted me the most. When she's trying to figure out where the bag of meth went and whether or not the gator was capable of stealing the bag of meth and she was like, no, look how cleanly it was taken. These are definitely human hands

stole this bag of meth. I don't know what it is about the meth gator, but like everything about that episode, really, really gets me for some reason. Just what a show we've got. It's like what cocaine bear should have been, honestly, is how I feel about that. Charlie's dumbest move.

Even though it's not her fault, the twist tie on the Gator Cage. I mean, it kind of worked. It held, and it's not her fault that Fran came along and untwisted it, but I was just like, that's, you're very lucky that that did not go poorly for you, Charlie. Anyway, what is your answer?

I think her dumbest move and this may be observable by this point in the podcast based on which episodes we've talked about. Most of her actions in episode three. I don't really understand what Charlie is doing, how forthcoming she's being, why she's just like going along with these various schemes slash being like super upfront about everything

including her preternatural sense of bullshit. I don't know what she's up to in episode three, but episode three kind of goes off the rails. Episode three, where John Mullaney shows up with his, like I will just say, whatever he has done to his face had not settled when he filmed that episode. His face is like in a silly putty state. Oh, no.

I think it has like settled down since. But anyway, it was just like kind of un-gainly. But there's a Steven Sonheim runner. And I'm trying to spare you from it. I could spend the whole podcast talking about the musical references in that episode. But I was like, Rob doesn't usually like make you talk about basketball for most. Usually I ask you about basketball. So I'm going to like spare you for me talk about musical.

but the Sondheim Runner through that episode is quite good. A reason why that episode works so well for me, but everything that Charlie does is quite baffling. And so that is where we find ourselves in that. Okay. And Joe, you say that about musicals, I will say, you know, I'm musical open

and certainly musical humor open in this kind of context. I'm also a human being for reasons that I cannot explain to you have had several tick-tick-boom songs stuck in my head for now, 48 hours. And I don't know where they came from or why. I've only seen that movie. I have not seen it in years. They're just lodged up there somehow. You know, I'm just in therapy with Andrew Garfield. You got Garfielded? I got Garfielded. I got subconsciously Garfielded like a sleeper agent. I must have seen like his face somewhere and it just popped back into my head. Have I told you about my favorite,

my like current favorite piece of swag that we have in, in the house? You simply must. In our, In our kitchen, we got, there's a timer, like an egg timer, like a spin it in a tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. And it's just got Andrew Garfield's face on it, and they set it out for we live in time. It's just an egg timer with Andrew Garfield's face on it. And it's magnetized. So it's just on like the hood of our like range. It's just there. And I use it all the time.

And I think about Andrew Garfield when I do. But I haven't been thinking about tick, boom. And maybe I will start doing that. I mean, look, if you got the egg timer, it's already built in. Is there a corresponding flow egg timer that you can collect the set? They just did Andy, I think. They just did Andrew Garfield. It's a real missed opportunity.

If you had like a McDonald's happy meal with those toys in it, I would buy them. A we live in time egg timer with Andrew Garfield and Florence P on them? I'd shell out some money for that. Yeah, that sounds like the words of someone who dressed as the veney fair Leonardo DiCaprio uncover. Guilty is charged. Other than learning that Romani once dressed as the Vanity Fair, Leonardo DiCaprio cover, the most interesting fact you learned from these stressive episodes.

I gave you an example, not knowing that you definitely probably already knew what you could do with Cremains, but what did you learn from these four episodes? I don't want to speak out of turn. I'm going to say that my ancestral family, funeral home was not putting people's remains into records, was not putting them into toilet seat covers. But did you know that you could press remains into a record? I did know that. I just don't think it's quite our style. We're a little more tasteful than that ultimately. Okay. Yeah. You're elegant. I got it. Okay. Mine was less like a fact of, you know, for example,

that you can't throw a battery into a furnace and more a fact of life, courtesy of, you know, Steve Bouchemmy piping in in these episodes, Joe. This is a quote from that character. Good buddy. Is that his official canonical name? Good buddy, yeah. Good buddy says. I think it's a Gilligan's Island reference, I think. I seem to just like a 104 Good Buddy kind of thing.

Yeah, but I think that's... Is that from Gilligan's Island? Gilligan's Island. Maybe not. Oh, my God. But I think it is. We're going to have to get to the bottom of that. If you know where 104 Good Buddy comes from, and if it is Gilligan's Island, please email us at prestige TV at Spotify.com. The quote from that character is, there is no

destination, there is only the highway. And I believe if we open our perception and trust and humble ourselves and find sanctuary when we need it, that highway will find us. That's some facts. Those are bars. That's a thing I did not fully embrace and

understand until watching this episode of television. And that's what I'm saying. I feel like we can look forward to more of these words of wisdom from Steve Asim going forward. Before you send us an email about this, I might want to walk back. Do you?

Joe, stake your claim. If you feel like that's true, I want you to stand on it. I know that the skipper calls Gilligan like, I want to say, maybe it's like little buddy, but I think he says, you know, I think there is a little buddy element. There could, I mean, look, there could be multiple kinds of buddies on Gilligan's Island. That's very possible. But you're right, it's 10 for good buddy. I just thought, like, it was a Gilligan thing, which fit in with a 70s thing.

but we could Google it instead. Why don't you email us, press DCV at Spotify.com, and don't ask chat, GPT. Absolutely not. Only email us if you know this what the answer is. We want human reactions. Okay. Here's what I learned.

And it's like a semantic thing. The difference between a rat and a mole. I don't know that I had just maybe never really thought about it. But in episode three, and they're talking about, you know, Rea Parman's character is concerned that there's someone in her organization is ratting on her.

So she's like, there's the rat, blah, blah. Yeah. And then later, someone's like, oh, the mole. And they said, did you say the rat? Or did you say the mole? And I was like, what do you mean? What's the difference between a rat and a mole? And so the difference, as far as I understand it, right?

I mean, I guess I should have known this. It just, I was just a moment where I was like, I've never considered what the difference between a rat and a mole is, but a mole being someone like who's long-term embedded in an organization versus a rat being someone who's like, there's a sense of betrayal from a rat. But there'd be a sense of betrayal from a mole. I don't know.

In the departed, leaving aside the literal rat and the Jack Nicholson talking about the rat, those are both moles, wouldn't you say? I would say. They're both embedded. So this is the question. Is it a matter of like timing and circumstance? Like if you're going in to influence,

infiltrate and filter out information, that feels more mole to me. If you're in an organization and you decide to turn state to witness or turn whatever, that would make you a rat. But also is there an element where it's like, if you are part of the establishment, then you are a mole infiltrating

the establishment. You wouldn't have a rat within the FBI. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. So a rat... Only the mole can work for the man. And only a rat can snitch. Is that what you're saying? But where does that leave the snakes? And the stool pigeons.

I don't know. See, we've learned something, but we have more questions than answers. I couldn't actually, could not find a satisfying, like, clear-cut answer to this. There's, like, a few Reddit threads that I was like, thank you. Other people, years ago, other people have asked these questions. But, again, press each TV at Spotify.com if you have thoughts and questions about. Is it an undercover cop, like the one we see during episode four, the cop who's been a janitor, like hiding in plain sight

the whole time. It takes his beard off. It's just a good bit. If you're an undercover cop, an undercover cop would, by our definition that we're kind of sussing out here, be more of a mole than a rat. Because he's going in to infiltrate.

But also, if you're a cop... Yeah, so a rat is someone who has been turned. Yes. You know, is an original gangster. It's like part of the team, those three scary guys that she was playing... Right. Well, not playing poker with, but whatever.

And Richard Kine. So, but Richard Kine, when they cut to like the suspect board and it just said like not really involved next to Richard Kine, it's really funny. But those three guys, if any of those three guys at the at the card table turn their rats. Yes, definitely. But if you join the FBI knowing that you are going to be an agent for hire sort of thing, you're a mole. So Walberg in the departed, definitively a mole.

Sorry, Damon and the departed. Yeah, sorry. Damon and a mole, but DeCaprio a mole because they both join with the intention of infiltrating

and then distributing that information. Can you be a mole if you are a police officer acting lawfully? I don't know. But you're a mole from the perspective

of the criminal organization that you've infiltrated. Without a doubt. You know, from a certain point of you, Joe, you're absolutely right. Okay. If you think the departed is a double-mull situation,

PrestiChi and Spotify.com, if you can think of a double rat, like, Donnie Brasco. Oh, double rat, yeah. Like, what's a double rat situation? There's got to be one out there. I would love to hear about any double rat situations that come to mind for people. I would love to hear about those as well. Yeah.

All right. Anything else you want to say about poker face before we depart? this podcast here today. I love this show. Clearly, we're going off the rails of it here by the end, but I think that's in part because the tonality of the show

lends itself to it and the silliness that's kind of baked into what it can be. So excited to have it back, I would watch an infinite number of episodes of the show as many as they would care to make. And so to have a full season and we're just at the start of it, I hope we can keep checking in, Joe.

So that is it for Pokerface episodes one through four of season two. We will be back in some form to check in on Pokerface. maybe not week to week. We'll see. Because we're not doing week to week, I don't think we're doing

any sort of show specific emails, but again, press Gusee v. Spotify.com. if you have Gilligan's Island information for us, rat versus mole information for us, all sorts of stuff. We love to hear it from you,

our listeners, and we will see you next week with The Last of Us coverage, with your friends and neighbors coverage. We have a really sick interview on The Last of Us podcast next week. We got, I can say it now because we've already conducted the interview, but Neil Druckman and Halle Gross, who co-wrote Last of Us Part 2, the game, and Neil Druckman, who is a co-show runner

of the HBO show and Hallie, who worked on Season 2, talked to us about the episodes could premiere this Sunday. So great interview. They're the best. They're wonderful. And so tune in for that next week. And thanks to Kai Grady, who is working on a Friday afternoon after taking a flight from Texas to California, the best. And thank you to Justin Sales for allowing us to do a poker for random poker face episode.

Thank you so much, Justin. And we will see you soon. Bye. When Mother's Day means celebrating your mom, your wife, maybe even your daughter as a new mom. Trust 1-800 flowers to help you celebrate every important woman in your life. With double blooms from 1-800 flowers, order 1-800. dozen roses and get another dozen for free. It's a simple way to give beautifully,

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