POKER FACE S2, E12 Review: Where the Road Goes

Who could lie to a face like that?

Poker Face
Episode 112, "The End of the Road," debuts today on Peacock TV, and also serves as the Season 2 finale.

As the second in a two-part episode, this week's installment picks up where Episode 11 ended, with "human lie detector" Charlie Cale (Natasha Lyonne) and her new best friend Alex (Patti Harrison) on the road in Charlie's Plymouth Barracuda, in flight from the world's deadliest assassin, known as the Iguana.

It's Charlie and Alex against the world. The mysterious Iguana, a master of disguise, murdered the adopted son (Haley Joel Osment) of Beatrix Hasp, a mob boss turned happy homemaker (Rhea Perlman), secreted away in a secure location under the government's witness protection program, awaiting her time to testify against her former gangland comrades.

By telephone, Charlie is informed by FBI Special Agent Luca Clark (Simon Helberg) that the Iguana murdered Beatrix's son solely to flush out the only person that might know her location, her friend Charlie Cale, in the hopes that Charlie will inadvertently lead him to Beatrix. Which, of course, is what Charlie is doing as the episode begins.

Written by Laura Deeley and directed by Natasha Lyonne, the episode has some lovely visual touches -- some fuzzy stutter stills, a God's Eye view of one sequence -- but is more straightforward than her previous directorial efforts on the series: Season 1's giallo episode 8 and Season 2's horror-movie adjacent episode 2, which were both excellent.

This episode is structured differently than previous episodes, which is to be expected in the concluding part of a two-episode arc, but it still plays true to how past episodes have been developed. It also turns on a twist to the show's narrative formula and premise, while being true to the show's spirit.

That also applies to how the episode concludes, which I found quite satisfying. Having now seen all 12 episodes twice, I remain a huge fan of the show and appreciate the new wrinkles they added this season.

If you haven't been watching the show, I urge you to remedy that by watching Season 1, Episode 1. If you need further convincing, you can watch whichever episode in the first season catches your interest.

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