Editor’s Note: Below are spoilers for Episode 4 of Poker Face.
If you’re looking for something fun, inventive, And killer then you should watch Poker Face. Made Ryan Johnsonmystery man behind Get the knives And Glass Bow: Mystery of Knivesfollowed by the “Peacock” series Natasha LyonneCharlie Cale, self-sufficient badass who knows when you’re lying. She travels the country, meeting many interesting people and places who, inexplicably, always find themselves involved in murder. But this is where Charlie comes in. Basically, she’s a human lie detector. She can and will call your bluff.
Each episode of the series features a new case and a new group of actors. Episode 4, titled “Rest in Metal”, gets rocky as we go on tour with forgotten heavy metal band Doxxxology. Frontwoman Ruby RuinChloe Sevigny) now spends his days working a lousy day job at a home improvement retail store. Gone are the days when concerts were sold out and topped the charts. Doxxxology still tours, but only in pubs where they are. The audience is lousy and unreceptive to any new material. They just want to hear “Staplehead”, their mega-hit that they so desperately want to put in the past. But what’s wrong with playing hits?
Songs, staplers and secrets
Well, for starters, this is them. only a hit that you’ll find out is even worse than it looks. In its current form, Doxxxology consists of Ruby, Eskie (GK Ume), Al (John Darniel) and Gavin (Nicholas Cirillo). Eski and Al have been with Ruby since the band’s inception, and they’re all in their 40s and having a hard time. Eski is back home with his mom and is trying to get a degree in online law, while Al is in the process of divorcing. Gavin is the youngest and has a zest for life and performing that others lack. He responded to Ruby’s Craiglist ad looking for a drummer and couldn’t be happier.
The biggest problem is that their former bandmate Belinda, who left the life of a rock star for the suburbs, is solely responsible for “Staplehead”, which means that she receives all the royalties when the group sings it. They try to launch another original song called “Merch Girl” based on Charlie’s role in this episode, but the crowd doesn’t want to hear it. And Doxxxology knows this because the crowd literally says it to their faces.
Gavin annoys the group for many reasons. Especially with his ongoing enthusiasm for the band’s future and his giggles on the tour bus. Benson. He grew up listening to Doxxxology, which is a frequent reminder of how they all age, and he lets out Ruby’s iconic scream during a performance without her permission. But he proves surprisingly valuable when, after Ruby takes pity on him and invites him to spend time with the group, he performs his original song “Sucker Punch” for them. Believe it or not, the song was… amazing? For example, Ruby knew that this would be their next Staplehead. But since Gavin had written that he wrote the music and lyrics for the song, Ruby knew it would be a Belinda moment again. So what are Ruby and the gang doing? Well, kill Gavin, of course! They electrocute the wide-eyed drummer and burn the paper trail. Charlie Cale, you need to investigate something.
The man behind the music
It’s always interesting when songs are written specifically for a show or movie. Like everything in Poker Face, the three original songs have been handled with great care. If you are familiar with this musical genre, you may have been both surprised and delighted to see Ela play mountain goats frontman John Darniel. Although it doesn’t feel like it, it was his first acting performance. Rian Johnson approached him personally for his musical experience because Johnson was a longtime fan of his work. In an interview with Pitchfork, Darniel explained that they first met in 2001 when Johnson bought one of their limited edition t-shirts, and then, in 2003, Darniel went to see Johnson’s movie. Brickand eventually they connected and stayed in touch.
Understandably, Darniel was intrigued and had doubts about this project. “I had a lot of reservations because I’m a metal fan. When people play heavy metal, they often play purely for the sake of parody. I know metal is funny, but everyone involved in metal is too, right? There’s a laugh with and a laugh at, and I’m usually not going to get carried away with the latter.” He added: “… but I like how it turned out because it felt really believable: a small club group made up of people for whom touring is a vacation.”
So how did Darniel manage to write down the correct sound and words? He teamed up with fellow musician Jamie Jastawho wrote the music and considered the era the same as the name “Staplehead” that Johnson gave them. “There was a Hot Topic moment in the early 2000s when bands like Lacuna Coil coped well. Avenged Sevenfold were getting big. So we thought about this material - metal, very hard. They had a punk sheen, but a metallic vibe.” Episode 4 seemed especially coordinated as it had a lot of moving parts that had to fall into place perfectly to make the episode feel realistic. “Jamie hired a local singer from Judas Priest cover band, a young woman who records the vocals that Chloe lip-syncs on the show. I wrote the lyrics and vocals and determined the structure, and Jamie wrote the music and laid down everything else. This applies to all the songs that you hear there, except for the one that I play without accompaniment.
Due to the structure of the “mystery of the week” narrative Poker Face and just knowing how things are with Doxxxology by the end of the episode, it’s safe to assume that we probably won’t be reunited with Ruby, Esky, Al, or Gavin. But thanks to Chloe Sevigny, G.K. Uma, Nicolas Cirillo and John Darniel, and thanks to the mountain goat and all that, it was only a matter of time before a rewatch was made.
Source: Collider
I have worked as a journalist for over 7 years and have written for many different publications. I currently work as an author at Daily News Hack, where I mostly cover entertainment news. I have a great deal of experience in the industry and am always looking to learn more. I am a highly motivated individual who is always looking to improve my skills. I am also a very friendly and personable person, which makes me easy to work with.
