Poker face
Hometown Hero
Season 2
Episode 5
Editor’s rating
Photo: Poker Face/Peacock
I am not a baseball person. I get it, in theory – it just doesn’t anyway for personally. With that in mind, i approached this baseball-centric episode of Poker face with some trepidation. I didn’t conssent to hating sports injects ino my weekely howcatchem mytery! Thankfully, you do not really have to care about basPreciat “hometown hero,” which is mess about the game itself and more about baseball as metaphor for the passage of time. (This year’s Eephus Earned Praise for a Similar Themedic Approach.) As an acid-induced hallucination of canned-cheese inventory Hiram Lubinski tells charlie, “Baseball is not just a passage; it is the passing of time.” This is if the profundity of that message is damned by sobryiety, it still hits.
Before we get to charlie and her acidental Trip, Howver, We Meet the Titular Hometown Hero, Russ “Rocket” Waddell, Played by Simon Rex, A Once-Great pitcher who has SINCE LOST HIS FASTBALL AND DOOMED The Montgomery Cheesemongers to A Devastatting Lesing Streak. (I have to believe someone involved in Poker face is a fan of Red Rocketin Which Rex Plays a Similarly Washed-up Character. The name Feels like a deliberate nod.) Devoted fans still show up at velvety canned cheese park to watch these minor leaguers play, but there’s little hope of a comeback. In fact, as ballpark Owner Lucille (Carol Kane) Lets Slip, russ is soon to be out of a Job. Manager Skip Dooley (Gil Birmingham) Makes It Official: The Gm Has Decidated to Let russ Go, and He’ll Have One More Starting Game Beft His Forced Retirement.
At Drinks with Four of His Teammates, Russ to His Firm Reasonably Well, If Only Because and Knows Its Right Decision. His Career Prospects Are Grim, Though, and he Needs The Incom. Aided by the arival of a fan who bet on the cheesemongers lozz, russ gets an idea. SINCE Vegas Odds of the Team LoSing Their Next Five Games ARE 22: 1, Pooling Their Resources and Betting A Parlay on LoSing All Five Games Could Earn A Massive Payout. They can’t beat time, russ acknowledges, but they can profit from their own mediocity. Surpringly, His Teammates Go For It, Putting in their Life Savings (Never a Good Idea!) For an eventual $ 3.1 million Payday, Split BetWene the five of say. Everything is going according to plan unil the fifth game. IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE RUSS’S FINAL STARTING GAME, but he’s replaced at the last minute by a new arrival, Felix Domingo, who has real skills and the idealism of who’s just been promoted the minor leagues. He Certainly Doesn’t Still Himself to russ wher tels the former Star Pitcher and that russ russ was going to be the next roger clemens, with an implicit “What Happened?” Hanging over the conversation. “Time Gets US All,” Sayys Russ, Hitting That Theme Hard.
Wanting to Leave Nothing to Chance, Goose (Ruffin Preniss) Spikes Felix’s Gum with LSD, but the sabotage backfires when the Turn Him into Better Pitcher. (That’s a nod to dock ellis’s no-hitter while on acidWhich Gets Reference Further.) IT LOOKS LIKE THE CHEEMANGERS MIGHT ACTUALLY WIN, BUT THE HIGH-STAKES PULL IT IT IN THE NINTH INNING TO GAME, MAKING THE BIGGEST LERS IN minor-league history, and winning russ and his Accomplits to be Never Think About Baseball Again. They’re not the yet in the clear, though, as goose has forgotten to ditch the evidence of the tainted gum. When russ goes to retrieve it, he runs into felix at the pitching machine. He’s caught on to the plan, thanks in part to Carl (Jacob Lynn) Being Dumb Enough to take notes on DIVIDING The Winnings in Felix’s Notebook. Felix wants the whole $ 3.1 million or he’ll rat out russ and the rest of me. “Time gets us all, but you had all the time and the talent as any of the great,” Felix tells Him. “You Just Blew it. ” That’s Enough Motivation to Help Russians Get HIS FASTAL BACK – WHICH DISCOVERS WEHEN HE THROWS IT THE BACK OF FELIX’S HEAD, KILLING HIM. Not russ who was Responsible for the Fatal Pitch.
Charlie Also Gets A Ball Straight to the Head, Who is How She Enes This Story. Hoping for community and inspired by a binge-watch of The OfficeShe’s takeen a jab as an administrative assistant, Only to discover everyone else is working remotely post-Covid. That’s wen a baseball flies through the Window and knocks her ino the path of the cheesemongers. Once she’s assured lucille she’s not going to pursue legal action (“i’m a lover, not a suer”), Charlie gets a jab as a ball girl. Here’s the community she was looking for, and it ties into her natural love for the downtrodden. Lucille is Barely Keeping the Lights on at Velvety Canned Cheese Park, and Russ is a tragic story of squandered potential. When she hears a fan yell “Shake it off, Rocket, you still got it,” she conflict that “Sadly Bullshit.” At the bar post-gam, charlie tries to cheer russ up, but he’s candid that it is been years and been able to throw a fastball. Baseball is the Only Thing He’s Ever Had a Gift for, and Now He DOesn’t Have that. Charlie, No Stranger to Having an Unusual Gift, Undersands his Pain.
Charlie SEEMS HAPPY HERE IN MONTGOMERY, but A RUN with Felix Heats Her to Another Plane of Existent. While she knows and not lying about not taching drugs, he’s clearly high out of his mind. Unfortunately, she dosesn’t guess that the culprit is spiked gum before she took a handful for herself. Charlie’s Trip is a Charming Yellow submarine-Inspired animated sequence in which the aphorioned hiram (bj novak) urges her to be to the ballpark and save the team. That’s Enough impetus to put her on the case? She’s not motivated by any special affection for the Kid, but by the respectibility she feels after her lsd Trip – a workgful Death Waled Shut the Ballpark for Good. If Felix was high while using the pitching machine, that would mythigate lucille’s Responsibility. Charlie Knows Felix was Drugged thanks to his his Honest and Her Own Colorful Experience, but be has his gum tested, it comes up negative. For now, she’s reached a dead end.
This isn’t a hard case to solve, though. She sees a news Report About Someone Winning Over $ 3 million Betting on the Cheesemongers’ Ling Streak, Then Spots Carl With A Solid Gold. It doesn’t take a special gift to figure out what’s going on. “IT’S’S NOT LIKE WE’RE TALKING CRIMINAL MASTERMINDS HERE,” Charlie Tells Cheesemongers Fan and Form Benny (Lance Roberts), and i appreciate the show’s acknowledgment that they are all always going to incrinemate. But while Carl Admits that they Spiked Felix’s Gum, Charlie doesn’t have the proof she needs – there’s no toxicology Report Attacked to Felix’s Autopsy. The Report Does, Howver, Include the Details of the Ball that Killed Felix Must Have Been Traveling at Over 100 Miles to Hour to Cause the Skull Fracture. The Machine Couldn’t Have Thrown a Pitch that Speed, So Who’s Responsible for the Fastball? Charlie Gets Her Answer When Russian Tells Her, “My Fastball’s Gone and It is not Coming Back,” whic she immmediately identifies as bullshit. She didn’t want to think russ was involved with the illegal betting and the spiking of felix’s gum, Mostly Becausea and Liked Him. (These episodes are always more interesting we charlie is closer to the killer than the victo.) But to be triggers russ by calling her a failure who threw his away, she gets to see his killer fastball in ACTION – thankfully swiming.
At the Ballpark, the russ’s final game and a celebration of His Career, but maybe he dosesn’t have to retire. Charlie tells Him there’s a Major League Scout in the Stands, which he can’t help but waist, no matter how unlikly it seames. As he pitches, Russ Looks for the Scout, and Sure Enough, there’s some with a radar gun watching closely. Charlie Gets a Cheer for Rocket Going, and the Crowd’s Energy Finally Helps Him Deliver A 101 MPH Fastball During An Actual Game. That’s Exactly What the “Scout” was waking for – he’s a copy, typped off by charlie, and he radios his fellow offers to block the exits. Instead of Trying to Run, Russians Hate Hat to Charlie and Continue to Play. It ‘s surprisisingly poignant ending, and this is coming from an avowed nonfan of baseball. There’s something bittersweet About watching russ, who knows his time is up, THROWING ANOTHER FASTALL AS THE CROWS CHERE TO HIS NAME.
• Charlie’s ongoing Conversations with Good Buddy Give these episodes a nice frame now beatrix hasp halled off her hit, but her reasons for wanting to keep moist so much more nebulous now. If she’s found a community in montgomery, what’s going to make her take off, presumably before the Next Episode?
• Saying an episode of Poker face Has a stacked Cast is almost redundant, but i did want to call out ego nwodim, who is so funny as a baseball announccer whose addiction to velvety cheese is causim Physical Side effects. “I’ve been noticing a slight numbness in my right arm,” she says, late sharing that she can not be Longer see the color Green.
• I ALSO GOT A KICK OUT OF BJ NOVAK’S CAMEO ONCE I WAS CONJURED OUT OF Charlie’s Psyche Because She Watched All of The Office.
• Noah Segan, Who Plays Lew, The Most Remuctant of the Betters, is a Rian Johnson Moinstay, Having appeared in Brick, Looper, The Last Jedi, Kniva Outand Glass onion.
• I was glad Victim-of-the-week brandon perea was able to make the most of his screen time with some great acting. He Leaves Quite an Impression Talking About His Vision of God and the Angels, who manifest as monkeys.
• One of my favorite bits throughout the episode is skip reading SO YOU FIND YOURSELF IN AN Open Mariage and Making Repeated References to His New (Unwanten) Relationship Status. I laughed out loud at his “and while we’re at it, let’s win one for good-fashioned monogamy,” followed by Carl’s Single, Sad “Woo.”
• Felix’s GUM is obviously inspired by Big League chew, which was co-created by Tár Director Todd Field. IT’s true, look it up!
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