The Poker Face Season One Finale Masterfully Sets Up Season Two
Spoilers ahead for the season one finale of Poker Face.
After nearly being murdered in the penultimate episode of season one, Charlie (Natasha Lyonne) is back on her feet at the start of Poker Face's season one finale, "The Hook." She leaves the hospital where she's been recovering, and waiting for her outside is Cliff (Benjamin Bratt), who has been hunting her down throughout the entire season.
Cliff takes Charlie to a casino in Atlantic City owned by a mob family, where Sterling Frost Sr. (Ron Perlman) is waiting for her. There, he offers Charlie a deal: sit in on a meeting between him and the "Five Families" (the ruling mob families). Sterling says his son had been making a deal with Beatrix Hasp, the head of the Five Families, behind his back. "At the sit down, I will be promised certain protections. Assurances have been made, intentions will be voiced, and many, many, many, many lies will be told. It'd be a good idea for you to be in that room," he tells Charlie.
Sterling offers Charlie $500,000 in cash, and hopefully the start of a "mutually beneficial relationship." But if she doesn't say yes, there will be no obligations for her beyond the meeting. Charlie does agree, however, and Sterling passes over a present. When Charlie pulls out a gun from the purple box, the lights go out. When they're back on, Sterling has been shot—and Charlie realizes she's been set up. We later find out that it was Cliff who set up Charlie, and Sterling had put Charlie's old name tag in the gift box.
Fast forward to the final scenes, when Charlie ends up on Cliff's boat and realizes he's the one who killed Sterling. Cliff is taken into custody by FBI Special Agent Luca Clark (Simon Helberg) for the murders of Charlie's friend Natalie (Dascha Polanco) and Natalie's husband Jerry from back in episode one.
The penultimate scene features Charlie meeting Luca at a Harbor Bay Diner, where he gives her the keys to her car. Luca tells Charlie, "Cliff turned like a bad penny on Beatrix Hasp. Sold her down the river for Sterling Sr.'s death." He adds, "We haven't caught her yet, but the word is out on the street, she's under siege from the Southwest Syndicate." Luca then tries to get Charlie to work for the FBI, and she declines with just a raised eyebrow. He jokes, "I stick with you, at this rate, I'll be head of the Bureau in a year."
She leaves the diner, and gets to her car, but then her phone rings from an unknown number. The phone call is pivotal, and sets up the plot for season two.
It's Beatrix Hasp (Rhea Perlman) on the phone. She tells Charlie that she and the Five Families are now "dealing with a war" because of her, and that her "modernized crime syndicate" is ready to hunt her down. "There is no corner of the country deep enough to hide from us," Beatrix tells Charlie. "We're gonna find you, and your death will be neither quick nor comfortable. Unless—and this offer expires when I hang up—Cliff told me about your circus freak lie detector thing. You come back right now, you put it to work for the Hasps, and we'll see how it goes."
Beatrix adds, "I mean, look at that highway, kiddo. This life, that you're living, you like that life?" To which, Charlie replies, "I'm good at it, it's what I got." Charlie rejects Beatrix's offer, saying she's getting back on the road. She hangs up, smashes her phone with a rock, and throws it away. The final shot of season one is Charlie drinking a beer as she leans on her car.
The threat of Beatrix and the Five Families is what sends Charlie back on the run, untethered from technology. (Though Rhea Perlman only voices Beatrix Hasp in the finale, it's likely she'll appear on screen in season two if this plot does continue.) Now that we know Poker Face will be returning for a second season, we can expect that plot to be the overarching story of season two, but for the how-done-it mystery show to remain very episodic, with Charlie solving a crime each week as she runs from the Five Families.
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