DISCLAIMER: This recap of Poker Face Season 1 Episode 9, “Escape From Shit Mountain,” contains spoilers. Proceed at your peril.
Welcome back, drifters! We’ve reached penultimate episode territory on Poker Face, and shit has hit the … mountain. Get it? Rian Johnson is again at the helm, directing an incredible outing from a brilliant script by Nora Zuckerman and Lilla Zuckerman. “Escape From Shit Mountain” is, hands down, the strongest episode thus far. It crackles with vim and vigor. It’s a well-cultivated mystery that finds our Charlie becoming the subject of a murder investigation. She figures out who tried to kill her and leads the authorities to the killer’s other victims. A bona fide badass who uses Bea Arthur‘s name in vain, but we’ll let that last bit slide. Nobody’s perfect.
Ready to delve into “Escape From Shit Mountain”? Let’s get to it.
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We open the episode without music — a first for the series — nothing but the sound of the wind. Trey (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) spends his days in monotony. Firstly, he rides his bike. Then, he makes a smoothie, followed by a few games, a takeout order (where he doesn’t tip) and a nightcap. He unravels with each passing day. One night, his delivery driver, fed up with receiving zero gratuity from this a-hole, leaves Trey’s order outside his gate. Trey struggles to reach it, and we soon learn why: he’s on house arrest.
Next, Trey’s parole officer informs him that the blizzard knocked out the power, so his ankle bracelet isn’t working. Said officer will visit Trey the following morning at 7 am to ensure he didn’t break the conditions of his parole. Naturally, Trey hops in his car and takes it for a spin, newly invigorated. Hey, as long as he’s home by 7 am…
Then, while on the road, Trey swerves as the road conditions worsen, narrowly missing a stag. However, he doesn’t miss the human crossing said road. He exits his vehicle and approaches the seemingly lifeless body. He stuffs the person he hit in his trunk and calls a friend, Jimmy (David Castañeda), who owns a nearby motel. Trey needs help burying a body. When the pair reunites, Jimmy seems standoffish. It’s abundantly clear there’s bad blood between them.
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Nonetheless, Jimmy assists Trey by bringing the body to “the spot.” They shove the person into a hole underneath a tree. The duo returns to the motel, where Trey busts out the coconut rum. We learn this is the first time they’ve chatted in at least a year. Trey was put on house arrest after his law firm ratted him out. He’s already served six months of a 14-month sentence.
Suddenly, they hear a loud banging on the door. Jimmy and Trey open it to find the body they just buried lying in front of it. Then, a car pulls into the parking lot. Trey calls out to the mystery driver, claiming the person on the ground might be hurt. Well, no dip, Sherlock. You hit them!
Flashback time! Charlie (Natasha Lyonne) arrives on the mountain during the springtime. She meets Luke (Chris Cortez), a handsome, muscly man clad in tight-fitting flannel. A real mountain man. Charlie asks for directions off the mountain, but Luke persuades her to follow him to a second location. Never follow a man to a second location. However, Luke whipped off his shirt to reveal his glistening pecs, and Charlie (most likely) heard the angels sing.
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What transpires next is a montage featuring Charlie and Luke as they spend time near a shimmering lake nestled in between the mountains. They make love, go fishing, cuddle by a campfire, and jam on the guitar. An enamored Charlie shouts her love for “magic mountain” for all the woodland creatures to hear. Unfortunately, the fleeting romance passes, and it’s now February on “shit mountain.” Charlie’s standing outside a gas station, offering to clean windshields to the annoyance of the gas station owner. He orders her to get out. Well, she kinda needs gas to leave, so no dice.
Charlie slips on a patch of ice and falls. Thankfully, Morty (Stephanie Hsu) is there to help her up. Morty offers to pay for gas if Charlie drives her to Denver. Funnily enough, Denver is Charlie’s next destination. Charlie notices her wallet’s missing, which Morty skillfully pickpocketed. While inside the gas station, Charlie sees a missing person poster for a snowboarder named Chloe Jones. The owner claims she’s been missing for a long time.
Later, the new pals hit the road with a full gas tank. Morty explains how she’s a snowboarder who goes where there’s snow. It doesn’t pay well, so she gets creative with where and how she accrues funds, hence the stealing. Suddenly, Charlie spots what appears to be the same stag Trey sees later. She swerves but winds up careening off the road. Charlie tries to reverse out of there; however, she’s stuck.
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Morty suggests Charlie return to the gas station to ask the owner if he has a tow truck. Meanwhile, she’ll stay in Charlie’s car. Naturally, Charlie doesn’t trust Morty not to steal said car. So, Morty offers to get the tow truck herself. The hours pass until it gets dark. Charlie gets out of her vehicle and discovers her stag friend hath returned. She’s mesmerized by the majestic creature. Charlie sees an oncoming car and waves it down. Unfortunately, it hits her.
Charlie wakes in “the spot” after Trey and Jimmy bury her alive. She claws her way out of it using a stick. She crawls to the motel’s front door and bangs on it, bringing the men to her. Charlie loses consciousness right as Morty arrives at the motel in her car. Next, Charlie wakes inside the motel lobby, with Jimmy and Trey watching her closely. They ask her what she remembers. Charlie struggles to piece together her fragmented memories. She mostly recalls what she saw when she thought she was dying — a childhood memory of visiting a resort in Anaheim (not Disneyland).
Additionally, Charlie remembers waking up in a hole and climbing out of said hole. She also spots a stag head mounted above a fireplace and recalls seeing one like it before she got hit. When Charlie sits up, she notices her leg is very, very broken. Morty enters the lobby, muttering about spotty cell service. Well, they’re in a blizzard, after all. Jimmy pulls Trey aside as the pair formulate a game plan. They’ll let the women stay for a night and send them on their way the following day. Regardless, they can’t let Charlie remember that Trey hit her, and they buried her alive.
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Later, Trey pretends to call the police, prompting Charlie to emphatically insist they don’t need to involve law enforcement. She’s gotta keep a low profile to evade Cliff Legrand and Sterling Frost, Sr. Morty offers to make a splint for Charlie’s leg. Charlie points to her “stabby stick,” the one she used to break free of that hole. Upon closer inspection, Morty and Charlie realize it’s a human bone. As a snowboarder, Morty recognizes the metal fragments in the bone since her snowboarding friend had a similar surgery after an accident.
Jimmy and Trey try to shrug off Charlie and Morty’s fear, claiming animal bones are all over the area. Charlie wonders if the bone belongs to Chloe Jones, the missing snowboarder. She asks Jimmy if he has the missing poster. Jimmy lies, which Charlie catches. Even when she’s injured, her bullshit detector is still on point. Jimmy hands the poster to Morty, who hones in on the $75K reward.
The guys offer to make up a room for Charlie and Morty so they can spend the night. After they depart, Charlie voices her concerns regarding their hosts. She notes how Trey is wearing an ankle monitor. Morty counters that “rich guys” who do “light crimes” are generally sentenced to house arrest. Morty persuades Charlie to call in the human bone for their reward. However, Charlie realizes Trey never called the cops on the landline phone. She urges Morty to flee the scene with her. Morty doesn’t want to leave without the reward. She rattles off some BS about searching Charlie’s vehicle for a first-aid kit. Morty departs sans Charlie’s car keys.
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Meanwhile, Jimmy makes a bed for Charlie and Morty while Trey paces angrily. He thinks their guests are shady. Pot, meet kettle. Jimmy believes they can simply roofie them that night and send them on their way the next day. Trey muses about whether they need to get rid of Morty and Charlie. Trey mutters about how he can’t afford to have another woman “go crazy” on him. Red flag, numero uno.
Next, Trey spots Morty searching for something outside in the snow. He follows her to the spot. Morty discovers where they buried Charlie and the skeleton of Chloe Jones. She snaps photos of it. Trey reaches for the gun he stuffed in his sweatpants earlier, only to find that Morty stole it. She’s good. She whips out his gun and trains it on him. Morty guesses correctly that Trey hit Charlie with his vehicle, and Jimmy helped him bury her. Oh, and he also killed Chloe Jones. Trey asks her what it’ll take for her to keep quiet.
Then, Charlie tries to reach for her car keys hanging on a hook. She notices a photo featuring younger versions of Trey and Jimmy with Chloe. So, they were all buddies. Jimmy catches her snooping around. Outside, Trey vows to give Morty his vehicle. She stares at it in awe. This is the price for her silence. Morty sits in the driver’s seat. Before Morty can peel out of there, Trey slams her head against the steering wheel, effectively killing her.
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Meanwhile, Jimmy tells Charlie about how he knew Chloe. Chloe and Trey had an on-again, off-again relationship. Jimmy ostensibly carried a torch for her. They all thought she would make it to the Olympics. When she went missing, the town chalked it up to nerves. Jimmy hands Charlie two blue pills, claiming it’s Ibuprofen for the pain in her leg. Of course, we know he’s giving her roofies. Charlie responds with a look that tells us she knows it’s bullshit but takes them anyway. Jimmy vows to keep Charlie safe while she’s at his motel.
Charlie seemingly falls unconscious. Trey erases everything from Morty’s phone, so they can’t trace the photos of Chloe’s skeleton back to him. Then, he pushes his car over a cliff with Morty inside it. RIP, Morty. You adorable little pickpocketer. Trey returns to the motel and chats with Jimmy outside. Charlie waits until Jimmy’s out to “wake up.” She removes the pills from her cheek and places them in Trey’s mug. She observes the heated conversation between the two men.
Trey informs Jimmy about Morty and how he had to kill her to cover his tracks. Charlie tries to reach for her car keys again, but the key hook and the surrounding display fall on her. Jimmy and Trey head inside to find Charlie on the floor. Trey asserts they must off Charlie now. Charlie persuades Jimmy to keep her alive by revealing Trey’s heinous crime: he killed Chloe. While Trey doesn’t blatantly admit to it, Jimmy knows it’s true. Initially, Trey’s excuse was that she “fell” after Jimmy sold coke to her.
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Jimmy stands in front of Charlie, refusing to budge. He’s keeping his word to protect her (even though the roofie thing isn’t cool). Trey shoots his long-time friend point-blank in the head. Jimmy falls over instantly. Trey trains his gun on Charlie, but it’s jammed. While Trey checks Jimmy’s pulse to ensure he’s dead, Charlie slices Trey in the leg with a knife. Trey grabs the knife and stabs Charlie in the chest amid a brief struggle. Uh-oh. She can’t be dead.
Trey buries Charlie and Jimmy in the spot. He returns to the motel and downs the rest of his rum, in which the roofie pills dissolved. Then, he hightails it home in Charlie’s car to make that 7 am curfew. The roofie kicks in after he arrives at his house, parking the vehicle some distance away to avoid suspicion. He struggles to make the trek through the snow uphill. He also spots the same stag.
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Trey stumbles through the front door right on time. His parole officer calls him, claiming he’s outside. Trey pulls some clean sweats over his bloodied ones to hide his leg injury. Unfortunately, he notices his ankle bracelet is missing. Charlie cleverly grabbed it before he stabbed her. We see it in her hand as she lies in “the spot” on top of Jimmy and Chloe Jones’ bones. The bracelet pings.
Charlie wakes in the hospital. My girl is one badass motherf*cker. Not even Death can take Charlie Cale. Charlie watches a news segment regarding Trey and his crimes. They found Chloe Jones’ bones, Jimmy’s body and Morty’s corpse in the crashed vehicle. However, law enforcement identified Morty as Charlie, making our Charlie a “Jane Doe.” Charlie cries out in happiness. Now that she’s officially “dead,” she can stop running (About that…). Outside the Denver hospital, Cliff Legrand (Benjamin Bratt) calls Sterling Frost, Sr. He claims he found her. All he needs to know is “how deep to dig the hole.” Double uh-oh.
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The performances in “Escape From Shit Mountain” are top-tier, with each performer doling out nuanced, compelling work. Natasha Lyonne is a tour de force. This should be her Emmy submission. Stephanie Hsu, David Castañeda and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are no slouches, either. They’re all talented, versatile actors who play off each other well. JGL, in particular, is unadulterated chaos.
Do you think Cliff will return Charlie to Sterling Frost, Sr. in the season finale? Can she evade them a little longer? What happened with Luke the Mountain Man? Only time (and one more episode) will tell.
Poker Face drops new episodes every Thursday on Peacock.
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What I do: I'm GGA's Managing Editor, a Senior Contributor, and Press Coordinator. I manage, contribute, and coordinate. Sometimes all at once. Joking aside, I oversee day-to-day operations for GGA, write, edit, and assess interview opportunities/press events.
Who I am: Before moving to Los Angeles after studying theater in college, I was born and raised in Amish country, Ohio. No, I am not Amish, even if I sometimes sport a modest bonnet.
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