The Poker Face season 2 finale was a shocking one that once more put Charlie Cale on the run! What does it mean for season 3?
Caution: This article contains SPOILERS for Poker Face season 2
The two-part finale of the Rian Johnson-produced mystery series had human lie detector Charlie Cale (Natasha Lyonne) settling down for a bit in New York. She befriended Alex (Patti Harrison), who impressed Charlie by being so honest.
The pair were working jobs at a wedding where the groom Kirby (Haley Joel Osment) ended up dead. Charlie had already discovered her old FBI ally Agent Luca Clark (Simon Helberg) was at the wedding, as Kirby happened to be the adopted son of Beatrix Hasp (Rhea Perlman), the mob boss Charlie had crossed earlier in the season.
Alex had gotten into a visible argument with Kirby before a hitman posing as a wedding guest murdered the man. That had the FBI suspecting Alex. Charlie wanted to help Alex and ran off to find Beatrix in witness protection, figuring they could use her protection.
Luca discovered that the assassin was the Iguana, a legendary contract killer. He also realized the whole point of this was to find Beatrix, and the Iguana was likely following Charlie and Alex.
The pair found themselves in the safehouse where Hasp was being held, and where Charlie found Hasp and the agents dead. She then met Alex with a gun to her head…and told her, “cut the act.”
Who was the Iguana in the Poker Face season 2 finale?
It had been just a few moments earlier that Charlie remembered that Alex had given her a stick of cinnamon-flavored gum despite having already claimed that she was deathly allergic to cinnamon. Which meant Alex was capable of lying without Charlie knowing it. And if she was lying about that, it stood to reason she was lying about almost everything else.
It turns out Alex was really the Iguana all along. That earlier killer was just another assassin who’d accepted the contract to kill Kirby and Alex then taking him out. She’d then used her friendship with Charlie to find Beatrix.
Alex was a pure sociopath, a killer so good at her job that she was frankly bored with it and not interested in taking out Hasp. But when she heard about Charlie and her lie-detecting ability, she saw it as a challenge. Sure enough, Alex’s lack of true emotions allowed her to beat Charlie’s “lying trick” and use her to find Hasp.
They had a war of words for a bit with Alex calling out Charlie wanting to see the good in people. Charlie, however, had already set off the smoke detectors to bring the FBI to the house. Alex grabbed Charlie and used her as a hostage to escape.
What happens to Charlie and Alex in Poker Face?
Riding in the Barracuda, Alex admitted she really liked Charlie as a worthy foe and played “two truths and a lie” to test whether or not they’d go off a cliff together, Thelma & Louise style. Charlie passed the test only for the car’s brakes to give out.
In a hilarious meta moment, the screen froze on the Barracuda going off the cliff and “To Be Continued” appearing on the screen. It then rewound to show Charlie had bailed out of the car with Alex seemingly killed in the crash, although notably, there was no body seen.
Luca found Charlie and broke it to her that she was going to be arrested. Knowingly or not, Charlie had inadvertently aided an assassin to kill a government witness, not to mention a few agents, meaning she was facing several federal charges. Luca did give Charlie a head start and the season ended with her hitching a ride.
It was a wild turn that makes season 3 even more dramatic.
What’s going to happen to Charlie in season 3 of Poker Face?
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, creator Rian Johnson said the writers loved the idea of “a character who seemed like Charlie’s Watson only to turn out to be her Moriarty." He added that having Charlie settle down for a bit was meant to set up her back on the run.
"Now having seen that it does work to have Charlie a little more static, it also seemed fun and invigorating to then shake the box at the end of the season and put us in a place where we can be some place fresh [when we come back].”
Johnson also shared the hopes that Alex would return as a recurring foe for Charlie. While the series has not yet been renewed, the massive critical acclaim for it is a factor that hopefully leads to another year.
So now, Poker Face season 3 appears to hint that Charlie is once again on the run, only now it’s from the FBI and presumably other law enforcement agencies. Meaning that if she stumbles onto a murder case (which somehow she always seems to do), Charlie can’t turn to the cops for help.
It was an intense finale for this wonderful crime drama and the hopes that season 3 of Poker Face can continue this fantastic show.
Poker Face streaming on Peacock.
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