Poker Face – Season 2 Episode 6 'Sloppy Joseph' Recap & Review

The Review Geek

2 days ago

Episode 6
The Murder
Episode 6 of Poker Face Season 2 opens up in an elite private school called Good Hope Academy. We are introduced to Stephanie, who loves achieving things, particularly having the most gold stars in the class. However, her streak is broken when she loses the spelling bee contest to Elijah, a small boy whose best friend is the class gerbil named Joseph.
The teacher comforts Stephanie and points out that she can still win the upcoming talent competition. Later, Stephanie Googles 'how to kill a boy's self-esteem.' It tells her to find what he loves and destroy it.
She then spies on Elijah as he does magic tricks for the talent show. It involves putting Joseph inside a paper lantern and making him disappear. The trick is the box below the lantern. Elijah pulls a string which makes Joseph fall onto some cushions inside. He then swings a hammer onto the empty lantern to complete the effect and then pulls out the intact gerbil.
Stephanie steals the keys to the office where Elijah's things are and sneaks inside. She finds a baby picture of Elijah on the computer and makes a copy of it on her tablet. Although she drops one of the gold stars on her uniform while doing so.
The day of the talent show arrives. As the students go up to showcase their work, a slideshow prepared by Stephanie shows photos of them. Stephanie smugly tells Elijah that his baby picture will be going up soon. He runs off to the projector and manages to delete his baby picture seconds before it goes up. Then it's time for his magic trick but this time, the hole in the box doesn't open for little Joseph. Unfortunately, Elijah doesn't realise and brings his hammer down, killing Joseph and traumatising his entire class.
The Investigation
We then shift to Charlie, who's telling her radio pal Good Buddy that she's gotten a new gig at a private school. Maybe being around innocent kids is what she needs? He laughs it off and wishes her luck.
Charlie begins working, although she butts heads with the school's uptight principal, Dr Hamm. She does get along with the janitor named JB, who is none other than Elijah's father. In JB's office, Charlie happens to find a gold star pin that Stephanie dropped while snooping on him.
The day of the talent show arrives and all hell breaks loose. Charlie drops by JB's house with some whiskey to offer comfort. Elijah has shut himself in his room and JB describes how he got into magic after his mother's death. Now he wants to burn it all.
He also tells Charlie that he thinks somebody sabotaged Elijah's magic trick by turning the box with the hole upside down so Joseph couldn't fall. Before she leaves, JB asks her to feed the other gerbils and gives her the key to his office for their food. He asks her to be careful since Dr Hamm is the only person with the other key.
At school, Charlie notices that Stephanie is wearing the same gold star pin she had found earlier in JB's office. Charlie tries to talk to her, getting to the truth very quickly and encouraging her to confess the whole thing and clear Elijah's name. However, Stephanie refuses to do so. Instead, she records a video of Charlie calling her a pigtailed demon.
Charlie then ropes in one of the class's computer geeks and asks to see the video of the talent show. In the footage, she spots Elijah running towards the projector. On the same computer, she also finds the baby picture of Elijah in Stephanie's presentation.
Dr Hamm then calls Charlie to her office and tells her she's fired. The reason? She's seen the video of Charlie calling Stephanie a pigtailed demon. Charlie explains how Stephanie distracted Elijah and then turned the box in his magic trick upside down, so the gerbil couldn't fall. Charlie then realises that the only place Stephanie could have gotten the keys to JB's office from is Dr Hamm's office.
However, Dr Hamm refuses to speak a word against the little girl. She tells Charlie to meet her in secret in the toilets, where she shows her a file with evidence of Hamm's gambling habits. There's also proof of Hamm stealing from the school's cash box. Apparently, Stephanie is blackmailing her with it and since her parents are quite important to the school, Hamm is now under her control.
Stephanie, who overheard the whole thing, gloats in front of Charlie after Hamm is gone. Charlie then meets Ms Dee, the class teacher, and tells her she's been fired. They both discuss how they want to do something for Elijah.
Elijah returns to school to see that his classroom has been made to look like a boat (a replica of the one that houses the gerbils). All the students welcome him back and Ms Dee shows the class a new gerbil but says that it is Joseph and that they managed to save him! Everyone cheers, much to Stephanie's dismay.
In anger, she steals cash from the school's cash box and tries to make it look like JB stole it. Charlie takes a picture of her, catching her in the act. She then threatens to use the picture unless Stephanie stops with all the bullying and the blackmailing of Dr Hamm.
At the end of Poker Face Season 2 Episode 6, Charlie then gets in her car, all set to leave. On her dashboard is a golden star from Stephanie, saying that she will find Charlie when she grows up.
The Episode Review
Poker Face Season 2 Episode 6 offers another fun Charlie Cale adventure. It's nice to see that this season is branching out from the structure of its mystery-of-the-week. While murder is very much involved in some way or the other, we can now include alligators in the suspect list and gerbils in the victim list. It's a solid twist to the format and stops it from getting too predictable.
In this one, Charlie does come upon the truth fairly quickly and that's a new change as well. More of the episode revolved around Charlie trying to bring Stephanie to justice rather than figuring out who the killer is. With all of Stephanie's creepy Orphan-esque energy, the series does continue to lean into its absurdist elements. But that's what makes it fun! After all, it's more enjoyable to watch a small child make threats and blackmail a principal rather than seeing the portrayal of a realistic child.
Also, the show's decision to shoot all of the kids' perspectives at their height and to cut off all the adults was a nice detail! While it doesn't have much relevance later on, it definitely makes the initial section of the story more immersive. To wrap this up, Charlie's discussions with Good Buddy are getting increasingly philosophical and she seems to be looking for something. It will be interesting to see where this goes!
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