Poker Face Season 2 Episode 5 Recap: Hometown Hero

Charlie Cale’s search for purpose leads her to another murder investigation in the fifth episode of Peacock’s ‘Poker Face’ Season 2. After cracking the case of a cop’s murder and helping clear the name of his pet alligator, Charlie finds reprieve in binge-watching all seasons of ‘The Office.’ She is so inspired by the show that she decides to get a job at a paper company, hoping that, like the characters in the show, she, too, would find friends and community.

However, all her expectations die when she gets a job at a paper company, only to discover that she is the only offline hire there. Since the pandemic, the job has become completely online, and they just need to keep one person on the premises to be in compliance with some random rule. This means that Charlie is all alone in the building, trying to fix a copier that, most likely, no one is going to use. This is when a baseball hits her, and she finds her next case. SPOILERS AHEAD.

A Faded Baseball Player Finds a Way to Turn His Luck Around

The episode begins with a baseball match. A local team, called Cheesemongers, is playing the game to save its dignity. They have lost several times in a row, so their fans have started betting against them and winning. There are several reasons behind their failure, but the most important one is that their star player, “Rocket” Russ Waddell, has lost his lustre. There was a time when Russ could throw a ball at 100mph. He was the star of the town when he got drafted. But in the past few years, his career took a downward spiral. He has lost his mojo and, no matter how hard he tries, he just cannot seem to throw the ball like he used to.

Continuing the streak of bad performance, Russ becomes instrumental in losing another game for his team. To make matters worse, he is told that he is being removed from the team at the end of the season. Later, while having drinks with his teammates, Russ discovers that people are making money by betting against them, and he wonders why he and his friends couldn’t do the same. He is going to leave the team in the matter of five games anyway. So, all they have to do is pool their money, such that a bet of a few hundred thousand will get them more than two million by the last game. Even though it is completely illegal for them to do it, they don’t care about the repercussions of their actions and decide to go forward with it.

The plan works as they lose the next four games. But then, in the fifth game, Russ is told that he is being taken off the team and replaced by a promising new player, Felix Domingo. This sudden change alarms everyone, but Russ doesn’t believe that one player can change anything. But after a short chat with him, he is convinced that Domingo is playing to win, so the teammates decide to do something to worsen his performance. One of them spikes Domingo’s chewing gum pack with LSD, but instead of foiling his performance, the drugs make him much better. He is so good, in fact, that the team almost wins, until the rest of the players collectively work together to lose.

Russ’ Talent to Throw Ball Returns at an Opportune Moment

With the Cheesemongers losing all five games, Russ and his friends celebrate their win. But then, he realises that they haven’t switched the spiked gum with the normal one, so he goes back to find it. However, by now, Domingo has worked out everything, mainly because the team members tried to work out how much each of them would get from the two million. Having the proof against them is not enough for the young player. The LSD has opened his brain to such a reality that baseball does not feel good to him anymore. He wants the money that Russ and his friends won so that he can permanently move to Belize and live a completely different life.

Domingo’s threat threatens to unravel everything for Russ and his friends, but that’s not what riles him up. It is when Domingo starts talking about how he is a faded player whose life has amounted to nothing that Russ throws a ball at him. He doesn’t anticipate how fast he’s thrown it until he sees the speedometer reveal the speed. It seems Russ got his magic back, but then he notices that the ball hit the back of Domingo’s head and killed him. Russ’ instinct is to call 911, but then, he realises how he would be damning himself and his friends. So, he switches the gum, takes the evidence against him and his friends, stages the scene to make it look like Domingo was hit by a ball from the thrower while practicing, and flees.

Charlie’s Unexpected Trip Leads to the Truth About Domingo’s Death

Russ would have gotten away with murder, but he didn’t anticipate Charlie’s interest in solving the case. A few days before Domingo’s death, Charlie worked at the paper company’s office, which happened to be next to the baseball grounds where the Cheesemongers played. She is hit in the head with a baseball, which leads her to the building, where she discovers that the entire place is already in disarray. When she is offered a job as a ball girl, she decides to take it because it seems like the place where work friends turn into family, just like they did in ‘The Office.’ This is where she meets Russ, and he tells her how he used to be able to throw a ball at 100mph, but cannot anymore.

After the fifth and final game, she comes across Domingo, who is still reeling from the effects of the drugs in his system. It doesn’t take much for Charlie to realise he is high, but what she doesn’t know is that the gum is spiked when she borrows it. Soon after, Charlie also gets high and sees all kinds of weird things, including an animated BJ Novak who tells her to save the Cheesemongers at any cost. At the time, she doesn’t understand what he means, but the next morning, she discovers that Domingo is dead, and his death would be the end of the Cheesemongers, simply based on the lawsuit that would be heading their way.

The death looks accidental, and Charlie believes that proving Domingo was on drugs might save the day. But when the gum is tested, it is found to be drug-free, which does not sit well with her. Then, the news breaks about the lucky winner who won more than two million by betting against the Cheesemongers, and later, she notices that the players have all kinds of new things. When she questions one of them about it, who also happens to be the guy who tried to do the calculation that Domingo later found, he spills almost everything, except the fact that Russ accidentally killed Domingo.

Charlie’s Unorthodox Methods Bring Justice for Domingo

So far, Charlie confirms that the team bet against themselves to win the millions of dollars. It is when she reads the autopsy report that she starts to get a sense of what might have happened. According to the report, the ball that killed Domingo was thrown at a speed of more than 100mph. Charlie knows that the machine cannot throw that fast, so she seeks out Russ to discuss this detail with him, only to discover that he is now lying about not being able to throw that fast. Even though he continues to deny it, Charlie knows that he is the one who killed Domingo. She also has the motive behind the murder. All she needs to do now is prove it.

When Charlie shares this theory with her boss, who also happens to be an ex-cop, he reveals that they can get the financial statement of the team members, which can prove they bet against themselves, but it will not prove that Russ killed Domingo. For that, they have to get him to throw the ball at more than 100mph, so Charlie confronts Russ. She figures out that he was able to throw at such speed because Domingo humiliated him about his career. Knowing that this is his last game, she decides to give him a reason to throw the ball as fast as he can.

She tells him that there is a man from the major league in the audience, which means that if Russ shows his best game, he might have the chance to revive his career. At first, he doesn’t believe her, but then he notices a man with a speedometer, which leads him to throw the ball at a speed of over 100mph. He is ecstatic about it, but then, the man reveals himself to be a cop. Russ realises that this was a trap set up to confirm that he was the only one who could throw the ball at such a speed that it would crack someone’s skull open and kill them, proving that he killed Domingo.