‘Poker Face’ Ending Explained: Unpacking The Big Twists, Major Murder, and More

The Season 1 finale of Rian Johnson’s hit Peacock series Poker Face premiered on Thursday, March 9, and to put it simply: We’re hooked.

The Columbo-style mystery-of-the-week series stars Natasha Lyonne as Charlie Cale, a casino cocktail waitress turned amateur detective who uses her human lie detecting abilities to crack murder cases. The pilot ended with Charlie on the run from powerful casino mogul Sterling Frost Sr. (Ron Perlman), or rather, his go-to security guy Cliff Legrand (Benjamin Bratt), who spent more than a year chasing her across the country.

Since Poker Face embraces episodic storytelling, viewers get a new case, a new cast, and a new location each episode. But in a January interview, Johnson told Decider that “in the finale we are going to circle back and come back to the story that we started in the pilot.” And that’s exactly what Episode 10, “The Hook,” did.

Poker Face‘s penultimate episode, “Escape From Shit Mountain” ended with Charlie in the hospital wearing a “Jane Doe” bracelet and learning that a woman identified as Charlie Cale (who was actually her pal Morty, played by Stephanie Hsu) was pronounced dead. Charlie breathed a sigh of relief, assuming her “death” meant she was off the hook. But, Cliff was sitting outside the hospital telling Sterling Sr., “It’s over. I got her. All I need to know is how deep to dig the hole.”

The Season 1 finale, written by Johnson and directed by Janicza Bravo, picks up right where Episode 9 left off. In addition to Lyonne, Perlman, and Bratt, the episode stars Simon Helberg as Agent Luca Clark, Clea DuVall as Emily Cale, and Rhea Perlman as Beatrix Hasp, and the official description is as follows: “Charlie faces her greatest challenge yet when she is caught in the crossfire of a deadly power play that puts her in the sights of two ruthless crime syndicates and the FBI.”

Curious how Poker Face Season 1 ends? Wondering if Charlie escaped from Cliff and Sterling Sr. again? And if she solved another murder? Read on for Decider’s Poker Face ending explained, but be mindful that massive spoilers lie ahead.

Poker Face Ending Explained: Season 1, Episode 10 “The Hook” Recap

The finale takes us back to the pilot but opening at the Frost County Medical Examiner with Sterling Frost Sr. pushing open a door, exhaling, whipping out his phone, and calling Charlie — the same call we saw her receive at the end of the first episode. He vows to spend the rest of his life trying to find her and kill her, then he orders Cliff to find Charlie, call him, and ask how deep to dig the hole.

From there, we get a glimpse at the past year from the perspective of a deeply burnt-out Cliff. On Day 1 of the search, he confidently calls Sterling Sr. to say, “Well that was quick! ATM ping off Highway 93.” On Day 68 he heads to Texas, and on Day 92 we see him flustered, eating ribs at Boyle’s BBQ. On Day 175 he just misses her at the club. On Day 322 he’s a week late to the Ghosts of Pensacola performance. And on Day 368, after more than a year drinking shitty coffee, staying in bad motels, and living life on the road, he gets a tip that Charlie Cale is in a Colorado morgue. He heads to ID her, only to realize the body isn’t hers, so he goes to the hospital to check out the Jane Doe.

“We’re gonna let her heal up. Two months is fine. I can wait. I want her on her feet. Then you’re gonna bring her to me. You camp outside the hospital until she’s discharged,” Sr. tells Cliff. After two more months in a “shit motel in Denver,” he does a cool guy lean against his car and greets Charlie when she leaves the hospital. “I feel relief in a sick way…I knew he’d get me eventually. Inevitable,” Charlie admits in the front seat of Cliff’s car. “The hook. The hook brings you back. Inevitable,” he replies.

The two drive back together, stopping at more shitty motels on the way, and Charlie finally asks if Sterling Frost Jr. (Adrien Brody) ordered him to kill her friend Natalie (Dascha Polanco). Cliff pulls over, tells her to open the glove compartment, and she finds a gun. He asks her to reach in and take it out, and she points it at him, tears up, and he grabs it by the knuckles and keeps driving while rapping “Hook” by by Blues Traveler.

They arrive at an Atlantic City hotel where Cliff takes Charlie to a room to put on a dress. He takes her to casino floor to meet Sterling Sr, who greets her with a “hey kid,” a beer, and a “tell me about your year.” Really dude?! She’s been running for her life…but apparently it was all for nothing! Because all Sr. wants to do is talk, tell Charlie he doesn’t blame her for his son’s death, and offer her A JOB.

The casino they’re at is owned by head of the Five Families, Beatrix Hasp. In another callback to the pilot, Sr. tells Charlie, “Three things I said to my son before I gave him the casino. First two don’t matter. The third one? Keep Beatrix Hasp out.” Thanks to a tape recording he got from bugging Jr’s office, Sr. knows his son was making a deal with Hasp behind his back. He has a sit-down with the families and wants Charlie to be there to alert him of any lies. In return, he’ll give her $500,000 with a promise of no future obligations.

Charlie accepts, but when Sr. gives her a gift, she opens the box and pulls out a gun. She and Sr. look confused, then the power goes out, the poker chip in Sr.’s hand starts glowing in the dark, and two gunshots ring out. When the lights return, Sr. is dead, and Cliff yells “SECURITY! STOP THAT GIRL! SHE KILLED HIM!” Before the scene ends, we see a gun on the floor with a smoking barrel. HMMM…

We flash back to Cliff sitting outside the hospital venting about his boss of 20 years, whom he hates. He requests a yacht and Beatrix Hasp’s voice beams over speaker phone agreeing to his terms and reminding him that Sr.’s murder needs to look like an accident, so he’ll have to “get a patsy” to take the fall. Cliff looks at the hospital and realizes he can pin Sr.’s murder on Charlie.

Remember when Charlie grabbed the gun in Cliff’s car? He used it as the murder weapon. Cliff slipped a decoy gun into the gift box Sr. gave Charlie, rigged a switch to kill the lights, and slipped Sr. a blacklight poker chip to hold so he could easily find and shoot him in the dark. After Cliff fired the shots, he swapped the gun Charlie dropped to the ground with the murder weapon so security footage and DNA evidence would point to her. Charlie fled the scene and rang Agent Clark, who was lead on the case because Charlie’s Kazimir Caine takedown got him promoted.

Clark advised her to flee the scene and head somewhere safe, so she escaped on a bachelorette party bus, got herself a light-up penis ring, and headed to her estranged sister Emily’s house to beg for the keys to their dad’s boat. After briefly bonding with her niece and getting the cold shoulder from her sister for past mistakes (which I hope we explore in future episodes!) Charlie heads to the state marina only to find her getaway boat has a giant hole in it.

What’s a girl to do? Call Cliff, who’s at the marina drinking beer on his new yacht. He tells her to meet him, then calls the cops to tip them off about her whereabouts. This guy! When Charlie arrives they rehash the murder, with Cliff carefully choosing words and skillfully evading questions he’d have to lie to answer.

He tells Charlie they’ll flee together, then sends her below deck to grab his iPad and traps her as police sirens emerge in the distance. She finds blacklight poker chips in his bag and puts everything together. After punching him in the eye with her penis ring she jumps into the water to escape as the cops arrive. In a twist, they’re not there to arrest her. They’re there to arrest Cliff for the murders of Jerry and Natalie Hill after finding evidence on Sterling Sr.’s tape recorder. Hell yeah!

Agent Clark returns Charlie’s beloved Barracuda and reveals Cliff “turned like a bad penny on Beatrix,” so she’s off the hook. After turning down an FBI job again, Charlie heads out on the road and receives a call from Beatrix Hasp that brings the season full circle. “I’m here with the five families…What we’re dealing with now is a war. It’s expensive and a pain in the ass and it is no good,” Hasp said. She said her “fully modernized crime syndicate” would track Charlie down, find her, and kill her UNLESS she returned to use her “circus freak lie detector thing” to their benefit. Hasp asked how long Charlie thinks she can keep running, to which our girl replied, “I don’t know, B. Let’s all of us find out together.”

Before the end credits roll, Charlie smashes her phone, chugs a beer, and stands on the side of the road next to her car as “Walk On” by Neil Young blares. An icon. When she returns for Season 2, she’ll be on the road and on the run again. And honestly? We wouldn’t have it any other way.

All 10 episodes of Poker Face are now streaming on Peacock.