Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Poker Face Season 2 Episode 5.
Season 2 Episode 5 of Poker Face is a return to basics if there ever was one. While last week’s chapter of the beloved Peacock series was, to be kind, more than a little messy and bloated, this time the series brings us a pretty straightforward plot involving pride, money, and, of course, murder. The result is quite unimpressive, but not exactly bad. “Hometown Hero” won’t go down in history as one of the best episodes of Poker Face, but at least its blend of LSD and baseball won’t leave you with a headache like the meth served at last week’s Flopacopas. Whether that’s better or worse than being memorably bad is up for debate.
Although “Hometown Hero” isn’t as silly and convoluted as last week’s “The Taste of Human Blood,” it’s not very inventive. It feels like an episode from a lesser procedural, one that is lacking in imagination. Ultimately, the story boils down to a bunch of baseball players from a minor league team killing a new colleague in order to keep their get-rich-quick scheme intact. While the episode tries to pose some debate about the importance of community and what you can do with your life when your time has run out, it all gets forgotten by a very run-of-the-mill ending that left me wondering where the inspiration behind the first few episodes of the show has gone.
‘Poker Face’ Season 2 Episode 5 Introduces a Washed-Up Baseball Player Trying to Get Rich

Image via Peacock

Simon Rex stars as the main antagonist of “Hometown Hero”, a washed-up baseball pitcher called “Rocket” Russ Waddell. Well, washed-up isn’t exactly the term. While Russ was once a promising player, he never actually made it to the big leagues. Instead, he remained forever stuck in a minor league team called the Montgomery Cheesemongers. Unable to throw balls as fast as he did at the beginning of his career, Waddell has been losing game after game and is about to be forcibly retired. But when a fan buys him and his teammates a round of tequila shots as a thank you for having made loads of money out of betting on the Cheesemongers’ losing streak, something clicks inside Russ’ brain. Not even one drink later, everyone is on board with his plan to throw the next five games and bet against themselves to make some big bucks.
But, of course, their plan won’t work out so smoothly. As they are nearing their fifth game, team management decides that a new pitcher will replace Russ as the starter. Young and full of fire, Felix Domingo (Brandon Perea) has everything his new colleagues are missing. The Cheesemongers have no choice but to lace his chewing gum with LSD in order to throw him off balance. Alas, the drugs only serve to turn Felix into an even better pitcher. It takes some extra level of sabotage to ensure that the team will lose the game, and that’s not even where the problem ends. Soon enough, Felix realizes that his gum has been spiked and finds some weird math in his notebook, like someone was trying to split $3 million five ways and messed it all up.
It doesn’t take him long to figure out what happened. So, in order to keep his mouth shut, Felix wants Russ to give him all the money that the Cheesemongers made out of betting against themselves. After a heated conversation that ends with Felix saying he doesn’t understand how Russ manages to live with himself, Russ throws a fastball straight at Felix’s head, instantly killing him. He toys with the idea of calling 911, but eventually decides to frame it as if the new guy got hit by the team’s old pitching machine.

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“No no no.”

Charlie (Natasha Lyonne) gets thrown into this mess while looking for a job that will allow her to have a community she can rely on. Charmed by the promise of a small universe of players and local fans that get together every other weekend, she becomes a ball girl at the Cheesemongers’ stadium, sponsored by the local Velvety Canned Cheese. When Felix’s death threatens to kill the entire enterprise, as owner Lucille Lubinski (Carol Kane) was aware that the pitching machine wasn’t working right, Charlie sets off to prove what she already knows due to personal experience: that Felix was chewing on some very special gum. And considering how the team isn’t shy about flaunting their newly earned wealth, she doesn’t have a hard time figuring out why they did what they did.
However, Charlie never manages to prove that Felix was drugged, as Russ replaces the packet of chewing gum in the kid’s pocket with another one. What she does manage to prove, though, is that, unlike the pitching machine, Russ still has it in him to throw a ball at 100 miles per hour, i.e., with the force necessary to kill Felix. All it takes is a police officer disguised as a big league scout to measure Russ’ throws with a radar gun and, boom, he’s in for questioning; the promise of moving up in life turned into a trip to jail.
‘Poker Face’ Season 2 Episode 5 Would Have Benefited from a Different Ending

It’s a very underwhelming ending to a very underwhelming story. More than that, it is an ending that makes us question whether Poker Face has forgotten about one of its core elements: the idea that hitting a bad guy where it hurts might be more important than bringing the cops into the game. This dates back to the show’s very first episode, in which Sterling Frost, Jr. (Adrien Brody) tells Charlie that the biggest paybacks don’t have to involve the law at all and later has it used against him. Now, a lot of Poker Face episodes wrap up with the police arresting the villain of the week, but “Hometown Hero” is definitely one that could have benefited from the Sterling Frost treatment, perhaps something more along the poetic-justice lines of Episode 2.
“Hometown Hero” also isn’t helped by the fact that it simply lacks charisma. Apart from a surprise Yellow Submarine-inspired scene with B.J. Novak and a quick joke here and there about Coach Skip’s (Gil Birmingham) open marriage or the toxicity of Velvety Canned Cheese, there isn’t much charm to be found in the episode. I mean, it features Carol Kane and relegates her to a secondary role in which she can hardly use her skills. It seems like a given that when you have a comedy series and Kane is willing to appear in it, you should put her at the forefront, but instead, Poker Face gives her practically nothing to work with. Kane’s Lucille is just a sad small businesswoman who could have been played by any other actress. In the end, yes, “Hometown Hero” is better than “The Taste of Human Blood,” but only because it doesn’t feel bloated.

Poker Face

After a bloated episode, Poker Face Season 2 Episode 5 gets back to basics, but fails to entertain.

Release Date

January 26, 2023

Network

Peacock

Showrunner

Lilla Zuckerman

Pros & Cons

A few quick jokes and a surprise appearance by B.J. Novak ensure a couple of laughs.
“Hometown Hero” shows that Poker Face doesn’t have to rely on convoluted stories.

Carol Kane is criminally underutilized.
Screenwriter Tony Tost should’ve gone a different route for the ending.
The episode is lacking in charm overall.