Dead Man's Hand
Natalie Hill (Dascha Polanco) doesn't have the best life in Las Vegas. She is married to an abusive drunk by the name of Jerry and has a meager job working as the cleaning staff in the Frost Casino and Resort. One night as she is cleaning the room of VIP high roller Kazimir Caine, she notices something horrific on his laptop screen. She snaps a picture of the screen on her phone and reports it to her boss, Sterling Frost, Jr. (Adrien Brody).
Sterling tells her they will alert the authorities immediately and sends her home for the night. What Natalie doesn't know is that Sterling has plans to rook Caine for running his own private poker games in his suite, and this would get in the way of that. Determined to keep this up and not look like a failure to his father and the casino's former owner, he sends the head of casino security Cliff LeGrand (Benjamin Bratt) to Natalie's house. There, Cliff shoots Jerry in the head with a gun he confiscated from him earlier when he went on a drunken rampage in the casino, shoots Natalie dead when she arrives home, and puts the gun in Jerry's hand. To the police (conveniently in Sterling's pocket), it looks like a domestic abuser murdered his wife and then killed himself.
What Sterling and Cliff don't count on is Natalie's friend, Charlie Cale (Natasha Lyonne), a woman with a near supernatural knack for identifying lies. Sterling recruits Charlie to help him in his plan against Caine, but when she hears of Natalie's murder, she finds something off about the whole thing and puts it upon herself to investigate.
This episode contains examples of:
- Actually Pretty Funny: Once Charlie reveals how she tore Sterling Jr.'s plan apart, Cliff can't help but laugh. Sterling's reaction, however, ruins the joke.
- Asshole Victim:
- Though Natalie's husband Jerry is murdered as a pawn in shutting her up, he was still a domestic abuser.
- Sterling Jr. valued showing up a greedy VIP of the casino over the life of a woman and justice for whatever Caine had on his laptop.
- Berserk Button: Whenever anyone mentions his father to him, Sterling immediately radiates Tranquil Fury.
- Chekhov's Gun: The Cloud, as well as Natalie's friend knowing her locker combination, comes in handy when Charlie is able to recover the picture deleted from Natalie's phone.
- Domestic Abuse: Natalie's husband is an abuser who made a scene at her job the day before she and he were killed, and it's used to frame him for a murder suicide.
- Driven to Suicide: Once Charlie reveals how she tipped off Caine and all the other whales, Sterling Jr. jumps out of the window.
- Foreshadowing: A friend of Natalie's opens her locker for the police after her death, knowing her code. Charlie later calls her for that code, and it unlocks Natalie's iPad.
- Genre Savvy: Cliff quickly catches onto how badly Jr. is setting himself up when present for Jr.'s conspiracy with Charlie, even comparing Charlie to Michael Westen from Burn Notice.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Sterling Jr.'s plan to fleece the private game his whale client is having is the downfall of his casino, which makes him commit suicide.
- Ironic Echo: Earlier in the episode, Sterling Jr. (trying to placate Charlie and keep the plan against Caine going) says "you gotta hit him where it hurts" (meaning his wallet). Charlie says the same to Jr., before revealing she tipped off the Casino's biggest whale, who will tip off other whales and devastate the casino's business.
- Laser-Guided Karma: After Charlie got Sterling Jr. to admit he had Natalie killed, he cooks up a story where Charlie was despondent after being fired and threw herself off a balcony. After Charlie reveals she tipped Caine on the scam, Sterling hurled himself off a balcony to his death.
- Never Suicide: Cliff kills Natalie and her abusive husband Jerry, then plants the gun in Jerry's hand to make it look like a murder-suicide at the hands of a domestic abuser.
- Not Hyperbole: Sterling Jr. says that he would rather die than continue being seen as a fuck-up by his father. After Charlie ruins his and his casino's reputation, Jr. immediately jumps off a balcony.
- Pædo Hunt: It's implied (though not outright said) that Natalie saw child porn on Caine's laptop. Child porn rings are discussed earlier in the episode, and just one screenshot of the laptop is enough that everyone who sees it (whether sincere or not) talks about getting the FBI involved.
- Shout-Out: As Charlie sits at a bar in the Casino, one of the slot machines plays the tune "This Old Man", a song that indirectly became the theme of Columbo, Poker Face's biggest inspiration.
- Take a Third Option: Charlie can't go to the cops or go up against the Sterlings. She instead tips off the casino's whales, killing a huge source of revenue and driving Sterling Jr. off a high balcony.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Sterling is desperate to make a go of the casino to impress his father. Charlie uses this to pay him back for Natalie's murder.
