Poker Face – Season 2 Episode 5 'Hometown Hero' Recap & Review
Hometown Hero
The Murder
Episode 5 of Poker Face season 2 begins with a minor league baseball game in a small town. The town's team is the Cheesemongers who play in the Velvety Canned Cheese Park stadium, run by Lucille, the owner of the family company Velvety Canned Cheese. We are then introduced to Russ 'Rocket' Waddell, known for his fastballs that went over a 100 mph but he offers a dismal performance in the current game.
As the team is licking its wounds, Skip, the team manager, breaks the news to Russ that he is going to be let go. Russ is upset and is drinking his sorrows with his teammates when a stranger tells them he won a lot of money by betting on the team's loss.
This gives Russ an idea, they could bet on their own loss and win a lot of money.
He convinces four of his other teammates to join in. All they need to do is throw the next five games and they could be millionaires. They agree and a quick montage shows us how the Cheesemongers lose the next four games.
However, things change for the fifth game. Skip announces that a recently promoted new player named Felix will join the team and open the game.
Not wanting to take a risk, one of Russ's colleagues adds acid to Felix's pre-game bubblegum. However, this has the opposite effect and Felix does a fantastic job. One of Russ's teammates gives the opposing team's batter some advice and they manage to get Felix out. The game ends in a loss and the team are celebrating when Russ realises they have left the acid-laced bubblegum in the lockers.
He goes back there to get rid of the evidence but finds himself confronted by Felix. One of Russ's teammates had made the rookie mistake of using Felix's notebook to do the math about how much money they were going to get.
Felix knows their whole scheme and demands that Russ give him all the money. He wants to use to go to Belize and find God, which he has been inspired to do from his acid trip.
When Felix insults Russ, Russ gets angry and throws a ball at Felix, which hits the back of his head. The nearby speed reader shows the ball was a fastball, going 101 mph. Russ is ecstatic until he realises Felix is dead. He makes it look like Felix was practicing with Rambo, the machine that spits out balls, and died in an accident.
The Investigation
We then shift to Charlie working as an administrative assistant at an office, where everyone works from home but they need someone in the office for insurance reasons. She's arguing with a printer when a baseball flies in through the window and hits her on the head.
Charlie speaks with Lucille and assures her she won't be suing. Instead, she gets a job as a ball girl! As she watches a game of the Cheesemongers, she hears about Russ and how he got the 'yips' which stopped him from throwing fastballs. That evening, Charlie mingles with Russ and learns that he's fired.
We then skip to the end of the fifth game, where Charlie meets Felix in the locker room and even has one of his gummies. She realises he's high and tells him to hydrate. Soon, the drug kicks in for Charlie and she hallucinates a vision of Lucille's grandfather telling her to protect the ballpark and save the team.
In the morning, Felix is found dead and Charlie wakes up in the announcer's room. Since it looks like the machine was at fault, Lucille is worried about getting sued. Charlie tells Lucille and her retired cop friend about the drugs. But they don't find any drugs in the gummies found with Felix (Russ switched them out).
Charlie then speaks with Skip, who agrees that Felix was high. The new report playing in Skip's office reveals that someone won three million dollars by betting on the Cheesemongers' loss.
Charlie then goes to meet the team. One of the team members has new, gold tooth caps and another is sporting a fur coat. Along with a few lies from them, she puts the dots together and realises they drugged Felix and threw the games.
Charlie conveys her thoughts to the ex-cop friend, who receives an autopsy report from his previous partner. She's surprised to see the report says the ball that killed Felix was going over 100 mph.
She then speaks to Russ and even offers to buy him a drink after his last game the next day. But when he says his fastball is gone, she realises it's a lie. The next day, Charlie confronts Russ about his fastball. As he evades her probing, she realises that Felix insulted him and Russ hit him with a ball in retaliation.
Charlie then tells Russ that a major league scout is watching the game. When the game starts, she even rouses the crowd to cheer his name. Russ sees a man measuring his ball speed in the stands and assumes he's the scout. He then hits a fastball! However, the man in the stands brings out a walkie-talkie – he's a cop! And Russ just proved his ability to hit a fastball.
The Episode Review
Poker Face offers yet another delightful murder followed by Charlie's quirky, zinger-filled investigation. As always, this is a tightly written episode that crafts interesting and believable characters in the first half and then follows up with a fun journey where Charlie figures out the truth.
This episode also levels up the absurdist elements of the previous alligator escapade where Charlie saw God in its eyes. This time, she goes on a fully animated acid trip where B.J. Novak, playing Lucile's grandfather, tells her to protect the team. And it's just long enough to be funny and enjoyable without taking you out of the episode.
Like in other episodes, throwaway dialogues and random details are found to be relevant towards the end of the show. Which makes it all the funnier that Charlie binge watched The Office right before this whole adventure.
Her talks with the mysterious trucker continue on the sidelines and I'm wondering if this will ever take centre stage or if it will simply offer a means for Charlie's narration every now and then. Either way, this remains a thoroughly enjoyable ride.
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