16: "The Sleazy Georgian" (Poker Face S2E8)

[00:00:00] Hmm? Ah! Hmm. Oncats to go! Ah, well, I know what I'm doing at a bar at 8.30 in the morning. I'm bored and I got this, uh, sweeping albatross to offload. You don't need to know about my life. What about you? What are you doing here? I'm Charlie, by the way. Ally. Bullshit. Sorry to say it. Nome to plume, gnome to gare, gnome to none of my business, so go ahead.

[00:00:34] Weirdly, it's kind of a hybrid business pleasure type thing. Staying at the hotel from out of town for a work engagement. Bullshit. What? No, it's not bullshit. I work with very private, luxury clients who need privacy. Bullshit. Man, I really just don't know that I've heard this much bullshit this early in the morning.

[00:00:59] Welcome to our podcast. I'm Penny. And I'm Jason. And this is murder magnets, a podcast dedicated to the Peacock original show. Poker face. This episode, we're covering poker face season two, episode eight, the sleazy Georgian, the

[00:01:25] best title ever directed by Mimi cave and written by Megan Amram. Megan Amram, by the way, has a very funny Instagram and Twitter feed. I bet. If you're so inclined to follow her. I recommend it. I mean, she's gotta be a clever person. Yeah. I think she was also in the mix writing for The Good Place. Oh, okay, cool. That was a very well written show. Yeah, really great.

[00:01:52] So, as you all can hear, Jason's back with us again this week. Hello. Thank you, Jason, and welcome back. Glad to be here. And Becky and Mandy are busy and couldn't join us. And so we're sad to not have them in the conversation, but we will motor on without them, as it were. Yeah, I was looking forward to getting to a podcast with Mandy. Yeah, you haven't met her yet, right? Haven't met her yet, yeah. Yeah. Maybe next week. Maybe next time. Yeah.

[00:02:20] So, what did you think overall about the episode? Thumbs up? Thumbs down? I loved it. Yeah, me too. Big thumbs up. Maybe, you know, one of my favorites of the whole series, I think. It was just very stylishly cool, very clever, a lot of delicious moments of misdirection that kept me guessing. And I liked how it subverted some of the conventions and rhythms of the show, which we've all come to know to kind of throw us off too.

[00:02:48] So, it worked on a bunch of different levels for me. I loved it. I agree. I thought it was really well written. And this cast, the guest cast was really fantastic. Mm-hmm. You know, anyone who's listened to the Yellow Jackets podcast knows how much I love Melanie Linsky. I just adore her. I have loved her her whole career. And John Cho is like, I mean, he's awesome. I love him so much.

[00:03:15] He's Harold from Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle and that whole series of hilarious movies. And Mr. Sulu. And he's Mr. Sulu on the reboot of the original Star Trek cast. And he's been in a ton of other things. He's in some of the American Pie movies. Mm-hmm. And I love him from like this really obscure episode of Charmed that he did where he plays a ghost. Um, that's just neither here nor there. I feel like that was a standout.

[00:03:42] I never saw it, but I think I've heard people talk about it or something. I don't know. Yeah. He just, he really makes an, he made an impression. And back then he wasn't famous for any of this other stuff. And so it was like, who's this guy? You know? Mm-hmm. Well, let's get into it. And Jason, want to read the, uh, synopsis? Sure. Charlie impresses a grifter with her gift and hangs out with his crew, learning their tricks and enjoying their stories.

[00:04:08] But when she uncovers the darker side of the con, she sets out to shut him down. What was your moment to die for? I liked when the leader of the con artist gang guy was talking about leaving money from the last gig at the top of the satchel in case the mark wants to see it. And one of his team was like, yeah, we only get paid after the next successful grift. It's kind of fucked up actually.

[00:04:37] We should change. And then Manny, the muscle goes, it's amazing. It's job security and nobody can quit guys gang. And then Cliff, the intern goes, um, I actually won't be returning after March. What? I got a job as an NBC page. It was my dream job. Charlie's like, wow, here's you, Cliff. And that just was just a little throwaway thing, you know, like a little dose of reality in the middle of everything. I just like when they do that.

[00:05:03] The entire concept of a grift gang having an intern is hilarious. Named Cliff, who's this. Yeah. Nice vest. Nerdy girl. Um, my moment to die for was when Charlie called out Guy Alec on his whole deal, how he's like, oh, we only steal from bad people. And, you know, it's what they deserve and whatever.

[00:05:26] And she's like, and I'm sorry, but I think taking advantage of a person at their most vulnerable is, you know, they got this old timey con terminology for it. It's a shitty. I also loved when she first sat down with him and he said his name and she goes, bullshit. Yeah, fine. You got an Omniplume, whatever. And then every line he said after that, she's like, yeah, that's bullshit too. I've never, I haven't experienced this much bullshit in the morning or whatever.

[00:05:55] And it was just fun to see her completely dismantle everything about him because he's a con man and everything he says is bullshit. And just those two, like you can't con Charlie. And also that's when, I mean, unless you're super clever, which I am really not about these things. I was pretty much taken in by everything, which I think made it more fun for me. I think if Jade was here, she might hate this episode and say she knew everything about it.

[00:06:22] But, uh, but, uh, I was just like, oh my God, he's a total con man. This is awesome. Boom. Yeah. I, um, I loved it when he was like, what the fuck is happening? Like, yeah, yeah. She threw him so far off of his game that he was just like, all right. He was pissed too. Like you can imagine, but yeah. Hey, Hey, yeah. You're throwing me off my game here. What, what the hell? Why do you keep yelling bullshit in my face? It's like, well, why are you lying to me? Yeah. And I loved how she was like, this is the ultimate low stakes. There's no one else here.

[00:06:51] Like, like, why are you even bothering to lie? Which, you know, if he wasn't trying to con her would have been incredibly weird behavior. She's right. Like, why are you just lying to me? Yeah. She's not used to that. Like someone just making up every single thing they say. Yeah. That was crazy. Um, God, I love John Cho. I, I'm so used to seeing him play a good guy that having him play this complete asshat was a real nice change of pace. I'm sure that's why they cast him. Yeah.

[00:07:19] Cause I really think they wanted us to be, to, you know, keep guessing. And when you're watching something like this, you're probably going to consider every permutation because right away it felt like between Melanie Linsky and John Cho, AKA Regina and guy that something, at least one of these people is not on the up and up here. You know, one of them is probably going to kill the other one. Cause that's what the show's about.

[00:07:44] And so I'm questioning everything, but I think they probably cast John Cho because you might be more likely to trust him. Yeah. And I was trusting Melanie Linsky way less, especially after watching her in yellow jackets. Me too. Her last couple of roles have been very against type for her, right? Like yellow jackets and the last of us. Those are the only things I've seen her in. So I don't know what's against type. Yeah.

[00:08:10] Cause she has played in the past, either sort of long suffering siblings or like sweethearts. Like she's played a lot of like sweet characters that goes along with her sweet face and her, you know, her sweet voice. And so that's one of the things I love about her in yellow jackets is that it is the sweetie pie face and voice with these like demonic psychotic behaviors. Mm-hmm . Um, but so I was like, Oh, this is Melanie Linsky playing against type again.

[00:08:38] She's really here to con him. Yes. Like that was fully what I believed. And then of course I was wrong. Uh, it was fun watching it all unfold. Although. Very much was. Her story was pretty tragic when you look at it. It was. Yeah. Tragic is the word that I kept coming up with too. It made me really, really sad. Um, let's get into our main points. Okay. Where do you want to start? Well, before I want to get into my point, I'll say another thing too.

[00:09:06] Her story was tragic and part of the tragedy of it too. This, well, I don't want to downplay it. It's tragic that she had, she killed herself because she lost money for orphans. That's the worst. But also the way these things are usually structured, you think that what's coming after, you know, you see Melanie Linsky's character in this hotel room, two guys die. And then she takes off with a bag of money. Right.

[00:09:32] And you think, okay, what's coming next is we're going to see Charlie and Melanie Linsky together. Yeah. Facing off. And then because of what really happened, that never happened. And I thought that was a little bit of a tragedy too, because I'd love to see those characters together and they never shared any screen time. Yeah. They were both in the movie, but I'm a cheerleader together. Oh, I saw that at Sundance. Yeah. And that's so cool that you saw it at Sundance. I forgot. And like with a lot of the people who guest star on this show, they're just, I think,

[00:10:02] people from Natasha Lyonne's Rolodex, right? She's just like, that's how old I am. I say Rolodex, but she just like flips through her contacts. I wouldn't be surprised if Natasha Lyonne actually has a Rolodex. Like one of those really big ones that goes like, when you turn it. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. That would be really retro and cool. She would, she would be into that. Uh huh. Okay. My first point is, is about the style. I, as I said, I thought it had great style. It had this easy spare kind of cool feel.

[00:10:31] Um, even from the opening, I loved the overhead shot at the pool table. Yeah. And I think that's about how there's all these angles in this episode, you know, but also it's in, um, kind of dark, dim hotel, loungy bars with pool tables. Um, it felt, I was thinking like a Coen brothers movie at first, kind of Fargo ask, but then when I realized it was a con man movie, I thought about the Spanish prisoner. Yeah. Have you seen that?

[00:11:00] I have not because I'm not a Mammet fan, but, um. Yeah. I mean, I, it came out in the nineties. I didn't know anything about him, but I, I love this movie and it's a movie about cons and you never know quite what's what or who's on the up and up. And it was with Campbell Scott, Rebecca Pidgeon, Steve Martin played a good role in this. And, um, I feel like the, everyone who made this episode probably saw that. Yeah.

[00:11:27] I think it was an intentional homage to, there's another Mammet film that it was also, um, giving a nod to house of games. Yeah. Yeah. Cause I mean, there's a bunch of con movies, the sting, uh, dirty rotten scoundrels, talented Mr. Ripley, the grifters, but this. Oh, I hadn't thought about talented Mr. Ripley, Ripley, but of course. A little bit. Yeah.

[00:11:51] But I feel like that's a little different and this is more like, yeah, you sort of see things and think, you know what's happening. And then it, oh wait, you go back and realize you didn't know anything. And you, and the person you thought who was innocent wasn't. And that all of that is very much in, um, the Spanish prisoner. I haven't seen house of games might be in there too. I don't know.

[00:12:15] But, uh, like in a lot of these movies too, the camera will hold on things that you know, okay, that satchel is going to be important because we just rested on that for a second or whatever. I kind of like that. They feed you hints. Yeah. Yeah. That make you curious about, uh, the setting, the dimly lit hotel bar lounge with jazzy piano music in the background. And then, you know, just hotel rooms. It's just a cool, cool thing. And then one other cool thing, just stylistically, I love that it opened up with this song.

[00:12:44] I've never heard before 1969 seasons come seasons go by Bobby Gentry, but just had a really nice retro course. Cause 1969, but beautiful. And I don't even know if the lyrics have anything to do with what we're seeing, but it's very poetic dogwood blossoms float against the ice and crusted Creek bank. A tender blade of new green grass is bravely pushing upward through the melting snow. The spring breathes ruffles through my hair and whisper softly everywhere.

[00:13:13] Telling secrets in my eyes, search the countryside for your hello. The seasons come the seasons go. I just thought like the poetry of that. It's beautiful. It's also really melancholy, which works for the mood that Charlie is in. She's in a dark place. Yeah. Yeah. I thought just wandering around drinking in the hotel bar in the morning. She suggested she's not getting sleep, I think. Right.

[00:13:40] And just also sort of cozying up with con men. I mean, she's lonely. Yeah. She's really lonely. So she, you know, she orders a beer at 830 in the morning and then she says, morning beer makes a day a little less clear. And then she snorts, which I love. Yeah. And it's just so sad. It is. Yeah.

[00:14:07] You know, Charlie is this vivacious person who loves people. And, you know, in season one, even when she was on the run from the mob, we saw her having fun sometimes, you know, like she enjoyed being a merch girl and all that stuff and always until the murder happens. And in this season, the losses seem to be hitting her harder. And then, you know, last week she, she really liked Bill, you know, and she thought she was making a real connection and then he dies.

[00:14:35] It was, she's, she is really not doing great right now. I think. Yeah. I, um, she also said that, uh, at one point Alex says like, and what are you doing here? And she said, I'm bored and I've got this sleeping albatross to unload. And I don't know what sleeping has to do with albatross except that I did find out that this is weird. Albatrosses can sleep while they're flying. An albatross.

[00:15:03] Usually that means you have some burden, right? Yeah. Yeah. It's from a poem called the rhyme of the ancient mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge from like the 1830s sometime. And it's a, it's a poem about, um, you know, the sea captain who has done some bad things and his soul is the albatross that weighs around his neck and he tries to get rid of it. He tries to kill it. He tries to drown it. And it's like holding him down and he can't be free and all of his sailors go free.

[00:15:33] So it's, it's yeah, it's a burden, but it's, it's not just like a physical burden or a duty or a responsibility. It's like a self burden having to do with being sort of heavy in your soul. And I think that's what she was referencing. And it, that's, that's also really sad. Like just poor, poor Charlie. I feel so bad for her. Like no wonder she met somebody who maybe is a scumbag, but is interesting and friendly.

[00:16:02] And then when she met his crew, she was like, here's a community of people. Like she's so desperate to find a home of some kind that she was sort of ready to hang out with them. Uh, she especially bonded with Manny. She's always been the type to be able to easily mix with anybody. She comes across. Yeah. But it just caught me. Yeah. She doesn't judge, but it, but I'm like, they're con men.

[00:16:31] So they're probably stealing money from innocent people. Like, yeah, they're not, they're not good people. But I really identified with her a little bit in that scene when, you know, she's partying with them and she's like, you guys have lived such interesting lives. I was like, oh, that would suck me in too. I, I like people who are interesting. So I will hang out and with someone and talk to someone who's had a chaotic and crazy life. And maybe isn't a good person because they're not boring.

[00:17:00] And it has not always served me well. Um, but I, I just, I, uh, I just like people who are living lives that are not standard. Yeah. Um, and I, I totally understood how she could end up in that bar with those people hanging out with them and then be like, oh, these people are not good people. You know? This whole thing that I've been doing has just been one long con to get people to listen to the podcasts. I just want to admit it.

[00:17:33] It's working. It's working. It's working. Suckers. We don't really care about these TV shows at all. No, I don't even like TV. Yeah. This is a calculated script that we use in order to convince people that we enjoy watching these shows. To get that big podcast money. Yeah. Oh yeah. Big, big, big podcast money. Um, I just, I felt really, really sad for Charlie.

[00:17:56] Um, this whole, the whole way through the episode, I, I'm used to her being sort of funny and lighthearted, even in the face of murder. And in this, she just seemed sort of resigned and sad. I didn't quite get it that way because she's still cracking some jokes, not as many, but you know, especially trying to take care of this guy, Manny, who's the muscle. That's very Charlie, right? Hey, yeah.

[00:18:24] Hey, you don't have to let him treat you that way. You're smart yourself. And then helping him out in the end and, um, taking the money back to the orphans and just doing, being a do-gooder, I guess. But also her, I didn't feel like her spirit was. I felt like when she deposited the money, she got some of her spark back. Cause she sort of did a little hug. Okay. Yeah. That's cool. Yeah.

[00:18:47] Like I think doing good helps her, but up until they completed the con on Guy, she seemed just down. Down? To me. Okay. Uh, which I think is reasonable if you've been on the run for like months and months and people keep dying and- Yeah, she just had a lover die. Yeah. I'd be pretty bummed out too.

[00:19:10] Like, this is such a throwback to a time when there wasn't a lot of continuity episode to episode in TV. Mm-hmm. And that always bothered me. And when they started doing it, it just felt really good that someone would acknowledge something that happened a few weeks ago. Um, so I kind of wonder how much of that is meant to be in this.

[00:19:33] And my guess is it is meant to be pretty discreet as far as plot, but as far as Charlie's through line, even though we don't really feel the overarching story as much anymore cause the mob isn't after her, the writers are aware of it. Mm-hmm . And I do think something's going to come of it, but I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. I agree with you. I think her character arc is season long and these discreet stories are discreet stories. Yeah.

[00:19:58] But I think you're probably right that we're there right now her through line is just kind of being aimless and having these sort of tragic things that wear down and make her feel like she's looking for something. Yeah. You know? And also, if I get close to someone, are they going to die? Like... Mm, yeah, maybe. You know, I would start to feel, I don't know if she believes in things that are supernatural.

[00:20:27] She seems open to it, right? She's open to like new agey woo woo stuff, like feeling like she's cursed or something. Yeah. It would be maybe kind of dangerous to incorporate into the show her feelings about people dying all the time because it's one of those things like in Murder, She Wrote where it just happens every week and you're supposed to... Just roll with it. ...kind of ignore how weird it is that people die all the time, you know? Yeah.

[00:20:56] But they could put it in there, yeah. Yeah. Um, I love that they hit some of the highlights of the Grifter movie, which is a genre that overlaps a ton with the heist movie that we talked about last week. Mm-hmm. So there's always a charismatic central con artist. There's always a huge focus on the planning and like some kind of montage where they show like, this person does that and this is what that person does.

[00:21:20] You always meet their motley crew of con artists that help them and they're introduced, each of them with their role. And I loved the guy who was like, I'm the accountant. I'm good with numbers like that Ben Affleck movie. And then she's like, Good Will Hunting? No, the accountant. The accountant. And she kind of looked at him like, oh, you're an accountant, like the accountant. Got it. Thanks. Just very silly. And, um, but they hit all those, all those, um, hallmarks of the grifter genre.

[00:21:51] I wish we could spend a more, we would have had more time to spend with some of those characters. Yeah. We didn't really get to know any of them except for the muscle guy. Yeah. Manny. I loved Dave, the guy who's their acting coach. He went to Juilliard. I'll tell you before he gets to tell you like, um, he, that was pretty hilarious. The way he's like, I don't know, kind of pretentious about what they do. And, uh, I love this, this genre. My sort of go to version of it is dirty, rotten scoundrels.

[00:22:21] I think it's one of the funniest movies ever made. I love Steve Martin. But I also love the leverage TV show, which is a heist and a grift every episode. That's current. There is a, yeah, there was a, a show called leverage and there was like, I don't know, five or six seasons of that. And now there's a, like a sequel show called leverage redemption or leverage revenge or left something. Okay. Um, and it's got most of the same cast, but not a hundred percent, the same cast.

[00:22:51] And I have not watched the second series, but I heard from somebody in podcastica that it's good. Yeah. I remember that coming up recently. Maybe it was less. Yeah. I think it was somebody's feedback on this show. Yeah. Um, so, uh, yeah. Dirty, rotten scoundrels. If you have not seen dirty, rotten scoundrels, please run right out and see it. The original one with Michael Caine and Steve Martin, the reboot, as far as I know, really tanked. So I wouldn't, I wouldn't bother with that one. Yeah.

[00:23:19] Uh, back to you, Jason. Okay. I want to talk about how the conventions of this show kind of enhanced the episode. Uh, the biggest way was by misdirection because I'm pretty sure every single other episode of poker face, except maybe the pilot opens with a situation. Charlie's nowhere to be seen. Somebody gets killed.

[00:23:46] Then we go back in time and see that Charlie was already involved and may have just been right off screen for some of it. And, um, this one had the main character seemingly die, John Cho. And then we thought we went back and saw him before and over time slowly learned, no, his death was fake. And this is actually afterwards.

[00:24:11] And I think one way they kind of reinforced that falsehood was they had that song that we've talked about seasons come season go with pool playing at the very beginning of the episode. And then later that song comes in again and it makes us feel like, oh, okay, we've caught up to where we are. We're at that point. Right. We're restarting the timeline. Yeah.

[00:24:33] Um, but then when Charlie finds this slip that shows that orphan fund money that, you know, she was going to make a deposit, uh, Regina. And that's when we figure out, okay, this is later and they're breaking the format and having Charlie come after the, the murder, which we thought was a murder still at this point.

[00:25:00] And I'm, and then at that point I'm like, and then we find out, you know, that, um, Regina killed herself and I'm like, well, didn't she take the money though? So even then I was still like guessing like, oh, did the writers mess up? And so, so as all the pieces fell into place, I was like, no, no, no, they, they knew exactly what they were doing. But I think this was a good episode to break format in because it puts us even more off balance in an episode where we're supposed to be guessing about everything. They conned us. Yeah, they really did. Exactly.

[00:25:30] And also there was no murder in this episode, at least not directly. I mean, you could argue that John Cho killed Regina indirectly. Yeah. But she killed herself. Technically. Yeah. No, we do. We think we see a murder, but it's not. Um, another little thing, just, this is just a small thing, but when Charlie comes in, they always play that. Is it banjo or music or picking guitar or something? Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:25:58] And in this one, it was a hotel lounge piano, but it was the same music. And it's just another little thing that makes things feel different and maybe a little off in a great way. Right. And then the last thing about how the conventions of the show enhance the episode is just Charlie, Charlie's bullshit detector was especially useful. I already kind of went through this at the top, but when, you know, she just called bullshit on everything he was saying at first and he got so upset.

[00:26:24] And during that little moment where you're realizing, okay, he's a liar. He, he's lying about everything. He's a, he's a con man. And then, but then when she said, um, or he said, uh, you know, the, I I'm sorry, I'm frustrated. This just the biggest deal of my life is going down today. And she called bullshit on that. And I was like, oh wait, I thought at least that part was true. And I'm just, my brain's trying to work out what the hell is going on.

[00:26:52] And the, that's when we find out that he was playing her. And then, then when he said, let's try this again, I'm guy and I'm a con man. And she's like, I believe you. Nice to meet you. That was, that was just a cool moment, you know? Yeah. It was really good. It worked really well. And the way they shot it with the two of them at the bar. And then that's when they started to face each other. Yeah. Yeah. Let's be real here. And I, all that stuff that I just talked about is stuff that this show in particular

[00:27:22] could bring to this con man genre, her lying power and the way that the time usually works in the show changing. And so it was just added something fresh and new to the whole idea. Yeah. It's the poker face twist. Yeah, exactly. On the whole thing. I, uh, let's talk about guy Alec for a second. He, um, at first he seems real charming, right? When she first meets him, when, when, um, Charlie first meets him at the bar and when

[00:27:51] Regina first meets him at the bar, he's really, he's pretty charming. Yeah. And, and likable. And he's a good looking guy. So you're like, oh yeah. Like, oh, this guy, Alec, he's cute, whatever. And then he reveals himself pretty quickly to be a real jerk. Oh yeah. And he does the thing that a lot of real jerks do, which is to like treat somebody who is working for them or subservient to them. And in real life, it's always like a waiter or a receptionist and they just are like mean

[00:28:19] to them and treat them like they're not even a real person. Or could be an employee too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And he's mean to Manny in this way. And then he just goes back. When the mask is off, when the con man mask is off. Yeah. Just goes right back to talking to Charlie. Like that meanness was nothing and didn't happen. And Charlie clocks it immediately. Of course she's like, whoa, that was dark. And then brings it up with Manny later. And he just, and then he has this incredibly self-serving philosophy about how, you know,

[00:28:48] we only steal from people that deserve it. And they all deserve it. By definition, if they fell for the scam, that means they deserve it. It's very self-serving and it's great just desserts that he falls for his own philosophy of greed overtaking common sense in the end. It's just, it's a wonderful ending for him to the episode. Yes. And I mean, the third thing that made him a dick is he didn't care about stealing money

[00:29:18] from orphans, which just shows the apathetic that he's totally apathetic. And when they, when all these things started popping up, I thought, oh, he's probably going to be killed because they're really trying to make us hate him so that when he gets killed, we won't care. And sort of, I mean, he got what he deserved in the end. Well, I think that they left it a little bit open that he could be a character that comes back because when the, his head is slammed down on the pool table, I think by one of his co-conspirators. Yeah.

[00:29:48] He says, Charlie Kale in that way that in movies and TV always mean someone's like, I gotta get revenge on that person, you know? And I'm like, is he going to pop back up like in season three? That'd be cool. Maybe I was, I hope so. And then we can get to know some of his gang more maybe, but what, one thing that maybe I misread it, but I thought he got a smile on his face as if he was impressed that he got conned. I think so. I think both. I love that touch. Yeah.

[00:30:15] I think he's like angry, but also like, she's good. She's really, really good. But she's so smart. That's just really fun to see him get his head slammed on the table and figure out that he just, he thought he was going to con somebody and he got conned and for him to smile. That's just a great moment in my opinion. Yeah. It was fantastic. Yeah. When they're talking about Charlie's power, right? First he tests her with all these great things. You know, I'm from Abington, Massachusetts, true. And then whatever the other ones were that were false.

[00:30:45] And, and then he's like, oh, you're just really good at reading people's tells. And she's like, I think people that talk about tells like it's a science are full of shit. And he goes on this whole thing about, about lies. And he says, um, a lie is a contrast between what you present to the world and the truth that you're hiding. And the tell is the friction point between those two things. And like any physical reaction, it can be repressed. And then this is hilarious. Charlie says, impressive.

[00:31:14] A guy who can repress his tells, you'd be amazing in bed. Like, um, and you know, she says maybe the greatest. The greatest sociopath in the world could defeat me, but not you. And he's like, you know, challenge accepted or whatever. Um, first of all, that's a foreshadowing. Yeah. In this show, people are always telling Charlie their life philosophy. Like people are always like, I believe. And then they, they sort of tell it to her, which is, it was just a little fear of the walking dead, but it's okay.

[00:31:42] And, um, but I, uh, this made me think about the show lie to me. Did you ever watch that show? I think I might've watched a couple episodes. Uh, there's, I think there's three seasons. The first two of which are very good. And the premise of the show is that the main character, uh, played by Tim. Tim. Tim Roth. Tim Roth.

[00:32:06] Um, has an almost uncanny ability to tell when people are lying and he does it by reading micro expressions and there is a sort of pseudo science behind that. And you could go online and read about it. And he has like a agency that he like gets hired by like, you know, law enforcement and stuff to tell when people are lying. And there's, you know, every episode is a different lie that he has to uncover to solve a problem. Um, and it's fascinating.

[00:32:32] And I spent months trying to teach myself to read people's micro expressions and I couldn't do it. But, um, it's a really interesting idea that you can train yourself to, to read people that way. I was interested in that too. And, um, if I'd been a little more interested, I would have read that book. Yeah. That inspired the show. Uh, the show is very, but I was curious. Yeah.

[00:32:58] Um, I really liked it, but, uh, my wife has a crush on him by the way. On Tim Roth. That's a funny one. Yeah. I know. Um, but the, something you said a little earlier about her saying, you know, maybe the greatest psychopath could fool me or whatever. That does make me wonder if anyone will ever come along that can fool her. That would be interesting to see. Yeah. I mean, maybe when they're ready to end the show. Yeah.

[00:33:26] I just feel like she needs, uh, she needs another arch enemy. That would be good. Yeah. Somebody who's like the best liar in the world would be sort of the appropriate arch enemy for her. The Joker to her Batman as it were. Yeah. So I hope that John Cho comes back. Me too. Again, because I just liked the way that it was left with him. Um, I think there's a fun dynamic between him and Charlie as a result of everything that went down in this episode.

[00:33:56] Um, but I've thought that about other guest stars too. I'm like, I hope that person comes back. I hope that person comes back. And so far, the only person we've gotten back was, uh, agent Luca. Maybe we're past where this even, where we should even bother mentioning something like this, but I find it cool that this is kind of a, it's the poker face version of a lot of grifter

[00:34:25] grifter movies that came out in the, you know, years ago, seventies and eighties and nineties and sixties, even some of them. And what's stands out in the modern age is John Cho. He's Asian and it's cool to just stick an Asian in this part and not have that, have any bearing

[00:34:47] on it or to have, uh, the Manny guy, he, um, his significant other turns out to be a guy, you know? And that was actually part of, cause he'd said, oh yeah. Um, uh, guys never bothered to meet Robin and I've been, we've been together for six years and you find out Robin's his husband. Yeah. That was such a fun reveal. I loved that.

[00:35:11] But I just like how, yeah, they just, it just incorporate, you know, more of a, the variety of, of people and situations that exist in the world today. And I love that. Yeah, I agree. Speaking of, of Manny and Robin, those two actors, uh, Brendan Sexton, the third played Robin slash sketch. And he was in six episodes of Russian doll with Natasha Leon and Joel Marsh Garland, who played Manny was in 42 episodes of Orange is the new black.

[00:35:41] So we continue to pull people from her Rolodex. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Why not? I mean, if you already like someone like working with them and know that they're good, why wouldn't you hire them again? You know? And she's doing this thing where she needs to flip through that Rolodex cause she needs new people. Yeah. Yeah. Every week needs a whole new group of people, which must be incredibly stressful from a production standpoint, but also really fun.

[00:36:07] You know, like every week they have brand new sets, they have all new people, they have new style. Like that's a lot to create, but it's also like freedom. It is. I mean, that's how TV used to be for a lot of shows and they would do 23 episodes a season, but they wouldn't put as much care into the environments. I don't think as poker face tends to do. The production quality on this is, is pretty high for, you know, for a sort of lighthearted TV show. Yeah. It's great.

[00:36:37] Uh, I, it didn't hold up great to repeated viewing the episode because there was a lot of logic problems with the, with the sleazy Georgian scam. Like it's hard to believe that he sits in the same hotel bar every day and just waits for people to come in to scam. And like that, the bar hasn't been like, get out of here. You know? Yeah. Was it always the same bar? I was wondering that myself.

[00:37:05] Well, it was the same bar that Charlie went into and, and Regina went into and it was the same hotel room. Yeah. Okay. And they like have guns that make gunshot noises, you know, two gunshots in that hotel room in, you know, every day, a couple of times a day. And how many squib shirts do they go through? Like, there were a lot of logistics that I had questions about. Like, nobody ever calls the cops. Like I just heard two gunshots down the hall in this hotel. Like that seems like that wouldn't work out so great all the time.

[00:37:34] And then I was like, are they paying off like the hotel? And what is this pool hall that they have full business meetings in and they have a table of all their props at a pool hall in like a private room? I wasn't, and there was no other patrons at the pool hall. I was like, how much money are they making? Like, do they own the pool hall? And I was like, if, if Regina was a big score at 20,000 and there's like eight people in the gang, and then you take out some expenses, that's like $2,000 a person.

[00:38:03] It's just not that much money to go through all this trouble. But I only sort of started thinking that way on my second watch. On my first watch, I was all in. And then afterward I was like, do they have to cut in the bartender? Does the bartender make some of the money? Second, I want second watch. I particularly wanted to watch and see how a guy John Cho character pulled in Melanie Litsky's character, Regina. Yeah.

[00:38:30] And I found that unbelievable because she just comes in, she happens to have a bunch of money on her. And usually with this scam, you give them an hour to go to the ATM. So I guess he got lucky. I don't know. And she happens to be like thinking her life is boring and want some excitement. And she approaches him without him doing anything. Like he didn't do anything to pull her in. Yeah. That's why you feel kind of suspicious of her.

[00:38:55] But when you watch it a second time, it's like, okay, I could see once they start talking, he's laying little like seeds like, oh, I've never had a one night stand or just trying to get her in the mindset of let's go up to my room and have an adventure. And so then he's leading her down that path. But before that, she's the one who like he didn't do anything to hook her in. No, he's just sitting there. Yeah. And she starts, how are the eggs? Yeah. Yeah.

[00:39:23] And she was so eager. Like she blasted through all of the barriers really fast. I was like, whoa. And this is what on first watch is why you don't trust her. Yeah. Because it seems like she's driving. And then you find out, well, that's what he wants you to think that he wants them to think they're driving. So they'll be more likely to trust. And then I'm like, okay, well, let's see what clever way he gets them to think that. Oh, he just sits there. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:39:51] I mean, I did notice when Charlie came into the bar, there were only two bar stools. He was on one and then there was a huge empty space and then another bar stool that Charlie was on. And then she dragged it like scream to cross the floor. I know. And then she was on the night deposit slot intentionally so that she would be like, oh, I guess I'll go wait in this bar and have coffee.

[00:40:20] But that never was revealed. Because that seemed really suspicious to me that she couldn't use the night deposit slot. Yeah. And then at the end when Charlie goes to use it and she just like it's jammed and she just pulls it really hard. And you're like, oh, Regina could have just pulled it really hard and she'd still be alive. Yeah. That would have prevented all of these problems. Yep. It's really, really sad.

[00:40:47] Another way that the scam makes no sense is, you know, his story that he gets, you know, these this Georgian money from this, you know, prince or king or whatever this dude. And then he takes it to the bank and changes it into American dollars. And that's how he gets rich. And it's like you go to the bank and exchange several thousand dollars of Georgian money for U.S. money several times in a row. You get flagged and tracked by federal government. Like, that's not. Yeah. That's not going to work.

[00:41:17] I mean, I understand why Regina wouldn't have been like, hey, that's dumb. She doesn't seem like the kind of person who would know that. But I was like, oh, yeah, that's that's going to get you flagged by the IRS first and then by the Fed second. Like anything more than ten thousand dollars that you exchange gets you flagged. And then if you have a pattern. You know. There should have been IRS agents in that bar, like tracking that guy. Yeah.

[00:41:46] And, you know, I mean, the parts of this episode, the way this episode was constructed, in my opinion, so cleverly and leading us down a path and making us realize, oh, wait, it wasn't exactly that. Well, what about this? Oh, OK. Now this part makes sense. You know, just those kind of fun things. I'm willing to just let a lot of dramatic license go for things like you're mentioning.

[00:42:13] I mean, it's worth mentioning, but it didn't really bother me too much. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I was like, oh, it starts to fall apart if you look at it too closely. Yeah. Maybe not look at it. That's what we do as podcasters is look at things really closely. Yeah. Yeah. And I've been thinking that more and more that when you look at things really closely, it can help you get a lot more out of it. But it can also you can notice the flaws more. It's kind of like a relationship. Yeah, exactly. And usually it really does make me love the show more.

[00:42:39] And for me, whenever I notice clever filmmaking choices, like what you were saying with the pool table representing all the different angles, like that kind of thing makes my estimation of the show like sore. I'm like, oh, that's so clever. Like makes me so happy. So it all evens out. They made a lot of references to Dexter in the episode. Like they kept he kept saying he was the or she's described as the Dexter of Conmen. Dexter of Conmen. And then at the end, she told Manny he could be the Dexter of Conmen. Yeah.

[00:43:09] I thought that was a little weird. I was like, all right. Why are we pushing Dexter? It's not even the same network. Yeah. I mean, Dexter goes around and kills. Oh, maybe she meant like, OK, I think she meant like if you get bad people. Like con other con men. That would be Dexter. Yeah. Criminals or bad people. Yeah. Yeah. Which is what, you know, Guy said he was doing, but that's not what he was doing. But if you actually set out to con other con artists, that's yeah, that's actually sort of a net good in the world.

[00:43:39] And I think probably the reason why they had Charlie say that twice is so it would make sense that Charlie, who we know is a good person, would be hanging out with these people. Yeah. Because she's trying to tell herself at least that, well, they're only hurting bad people. Right. And she has said numerous times she's not a cop. She's not interested in being a cop. She's not interested in getting people into trouble unless they're her kind of bad. Right. She has her own sort of morals and it's not necessarily what's legal and illegal. It's more about good person, bad person.

[00:44:09] Yeah. If you're hurting an innocent person, she doesn't like that. Yeah. And she's like a raspy voiced avenging angel. Yeah. She's like, I would say either neutral good or chaotic good. Neutral good. I'd say neutral good as far as D&D alignments go. Yeah. She's a little chaotic, but like right on the line. Like in the best possible way. That's true. Yeah. Look at that hair. Oh, man. I, yeah. I love Natasha Lyonne's hair. It's funny.

[00:44:37] Every article I read about her, she's always described as flame haired, which I think is hilarious. As a former redhead myself, there's a lot of people that like to talk about the color of your hair and compare you to either carrots, fire, talk about how redheads have a temper. There's like mythology around redheads that's like sometimes great and sometimes weird and creepy. That's interesting because yeah, red hair is rarer, right? It's rarer.

[00:45:07] And so that means that there's probably more, there's less, there's a little bit more of a construction around what it is to be a redhead than there are other hair colors. And so then if you're a redhead, you're probably going to be seen as that, more likely to be seen as a narrower set of things until people get to know you. Redheads are very overrepresented in science fiction and fantasy fiction, I've noticed. Because it's special. There are a lot of redheaded heroines, right?

[00:45:36] Because they're always supposed to be like a little bit of outside the norm. So they're a little offbeat. Not to say there's not mythology around blondes also, right? Tons of stereotypes. But yeah, Natasha Lyonne has always been, I don't know, special to me. I just adore her. I like her. Oh, you know what? I just realized she was in the American Pie movie. So that might be where she knew John Cho from. Oh, yeah. That's right. Yeah. That's where I first saw her, I think. Yeah.

[00:46:06] Although I did notice her, or I think I mentioned this last time, but in that Pee Wee Herman documentary, you see her as like a 10-year-old jumping around in the Pee Wee's Playhouse. It's so funny. It's hilarious. I noted a couple of things. There was not technically a murder in this episode, but a suicide makes it a little different from other episodes. But Charlie not being in the background for the first half is a variation. Good Buddy didn't show up again in this episode.

[00:46:34] And Charlie has a smartphone now. We were talking about that in a prior episode. We're like, how come Charlie doesn't have a smartphone? And now she doesn't know how to use it, but she has one. So it means that she can now Google things. And it gives her other tools to use that she hasn't had in the past. New powers. Yeah. Because before, she couldn't have gotten anything but a burner phone because she was on the run from the mob. All right. Let me just talk about the end. Charlie cons the Connor.

[00:47:03] So when we met, you know, like Charlie and guy, they, he fesses up that he's a con man. And so then he introduces her to his gang and everything. And that's when we first met Manny, who's the muscle. And at this point, we're still thinking it's the past and we're thinking, oh, this guy's going to die. And, and so then I'm like, okay, but now we know he's part of the, he's part of it.

[00:47:33] So does that mean that he came in as part of this con pretended to shoot guy? And then Melanie Linsky threw things off by grabbing the gun and shooting this guy who was part of the con. And I'm like, well, that would make them really dumb because they left the gun out for her to get. They shouldn't have done that. But, uh, and, and, and also she took the money.

[00:47:58] So that was bugging me through most of the episode until after a few other revelations, guy revealed that he switched the satchel. And then I felt relieved because I'm like, oh good. They didn't flub it, you know? Yeah. But then you're like, oh no, that means this poor woman is holding a, you know, a bag of like newspaper. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think that's probably pretty close to when we found out she killed herself. I can't remember. Yeah. It's around the same time. Yeah.

[00:48:22] And then we, we see that he's, he's a total asshole and, and he spells out the con, which I won't go through again. And then, um, then we see Charlie telling Manny that he shouldn't let Guy treat him like that. And also that he's smart enough to be doing these cons himself, which is important later. And then that's when Manny says he's never, uh, Guy's never met Robin and we've been together six years. That's another misdirection. That was great. Then, um, then Charlie finds the orphan fun slip or whatever.

[00:48:51] That's when we realized this is all happening afterwards. He, she waits to confront Guy about it the next day. Uh, uh, cause Charlie brings in, I think a newspaper, right? Yeah. And, um, watching it a second time, I realized that Manny and Charlie, the muscle guy and Charlie had planned their con before she confronted Guy about Regina. Because then Manny says there's this juicy mark at the hotel, which we know is Robin, right?

[00:49:20] So that explains why she waited until the next morning to confront Guy because she needed to grab Robin and convince him to, I mean, not Robin, Manny, convince him to do this con. Does that all that, what I'm saying makes sense? That's what I think too. Yeah. That after she found the article about the suicide, she went to Manny and they hatched this plot together, which was really. Fantastic and hilarious plot. Yeah. So then they meet, we don't know it's a plot yet.

[00:49:50] And they meet the Mark, uh, who's Robin, but we, I forget what they said his name was. Sketch. Sketch. How could I forget? And he did seem pretty sketchy and we're meant to think that he is sketchy. And, um, and, uh, the thing with Charlie. Okay. So she leaves a note in his pocket to tell him this is a con run. And, uh, that was part of the scam. Right.

[00:50:17] And that's another suspension of disbelief that she would know that, uh, guy would see her do that and go take the note out. You know, that's she, she, how could she count on him doing that? Um, and, and she would have to count on him having done that because she tells him later. Maybe, maybe she saw that he did it. And that's why she said, well, you know what? He's not even going to fall for it. Cause I left a note in his pocket or whatever. Yeah. She does. And then he shows her. Yeah. And I pulled it back out.

[00:50:46] But what I'm saying is she would have had to have counted on him having pulled it out, but maybe not because if she, maybe she saw him pull it out and that's why she decided to say she did it. Whereas if John hadn't noticed that she did that, I mean, not John and John Cho hadn't noticed that she put the note in there and hadn't pulled it out, then she wouldn't have mentioned it. Yeah. Cause yeah.

[00:51:09] So anyway, um, then, um, also she's like arguing that, uh, oh, he's too sketchy. We should stop doing this. She's doing exactly what guy taught her to do, which is. Pretend like you don't want it to happen. Yeah. Make him, make him make you do it. Yes, exactly. And then, um, in the hotel room, pretending to be upset about Robin, having the gun, trying to call it off.

[00:51:34] It's just more of that making, making, uh, John Cho be the one to insist and, uh, pretending to shoot him in the scuffle. And I think Robin switched out the satchel under his coat. And then that's when guy goes to his gang and pours out all the coupons, the breakfast coupons. Yeah. Uh, and then back in the hotel room, they're all happy with themselves. And that's when we see Manny and Robin kiss and we find out they're married.

[00:52:00] And it's like just the perfect little one more twist at the end there that made the whole thing. Great. And then they let her take the money. It was a bit saccharine at the end. Yeah. Like, oh, everyone's such a good guy, but you can take the money and she gives it to the orphans. And it was just a nice feel good ending. It was a happy ending. The reveal that sketch was Robin was so great because you get, you know, like, you know that they're co-conspirators at this point. Yeah. And then, and Manny's like, no, give the money to the orphanage.

[00:52:29] And sketch says, Hey, don't, don't I get any say in it? And then he like sort of affectionately like slaps Manny. And then they like smooch and you're like, Oh, Robin, Robin, Robin is a man's name and a woman's name. Yeah, exactly. It was such a great moment. And it, it, it's, it's, um, you know, because, uh, John guy had never bothered to meet Manny's significant other because he's such an asshole. That's part of what did him in. Cause he didn't know him.

[00:52:58] I mean, maybe they could have just gotten someone else for it, but. He's hoisted on his own petard, right? Like it's all of his own tricks were used against him and his own like coldness and being a jerk to his people. Like he deserved all of it. And it was so poetic in the end. Also sketches, whole ensemble was so fun. Like he really looked like a tweaked out addict of some kind.

[00:53:24] He was wearing like a low cut shirt and like a fur coat and these like daytime sunglasses, like indoors sunglasses, like everything about him looked really sketchy and his name was sketch. And it was like, and the way he act was a bit frenetic. Yeah. He was like, I would not have even wanted to sit near him in a bar. I would have been like, that guy is bad news. Bad vibes. Um, but he was great. And then he was so sweet and he and Manny are so cute together. It just made me really happy.

[00:53:54] It was kind of the same thing that happened with Manny too. He's this big bruiser guy. And then you find out he's a softie. Yeah. He has like a really nice, like grin. He has a really cute smile that makes you want to like, like, he's like teddy bear cute. So the only, I only just had one more note, which is why did one of Guy's gang ask the intern for 45 to 100 headshots? That's the acting guy. Are we supposed to know with that? So he's also pursuing an acting career.

[00:54:24] Okay. Okay. Yeah. Got it. David, the guy who went to Juilliard, who will tell you that he went to Juilliard. Which is like, there are certain schools like that where like people just have to drop the name. And Juilliard is one of them. Harvard is another big one. People can't help themselves. Well, Jenny went to Yale and whenever she talks about school, she, I can tell she's like not saying that because I think she doesn't want to be one of those people.

[00:54:52] So she'll just say when I went to college and then I'll be like, she went to Yale. Yeah. That's your job as the husband. Yeah. Yeah. But she doesn't ask me to do that. Yeah. It's like when, when people ask me like what I do and I say like, oh, I worked in the legal profession. And then they're like, they have to drag it out of me to be like, I was a lawyer. Like, I just don't, I don't want to say it. Like, cause people have preconceived ideas about what that means. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. We need lawyers. We're not all scumbags.

[00:55:22] Many of them are, just so you know. There's a reason for lawyer stereotypes. Like it's one of those things where a lot of them are true, but it's, it's not true of every lawyer. Right. Yeah. There's some great, fantastic, heroic lawyers out there. For sure. Um, I will not put myself in the heroic category, but I was not a scumbag. I will say that. Um, all right. Yeah. So I think that's everything. Pretty true. It's so funny.

[00:55:49] The show is so much more straightforward than other shows that we podcast about. There's just like, not as much to dig into. Like, it's not like Yellow Jackets where it's like, but would someone really do that? And like, you have to, you know, like get all psychological. Psychological. Um, yeah, I've noticed that about when I podcast about different types of shows, like, uh, we did Ash versus Evil Dead, which is really a comedy. Yeah. And so a lot of it was just saying the jokes and laughing, repeating the jokes. Yeah.

[00:56:19] It's just, it's just silly. Yeah. Just depends on the show, how, how you dig into it. And we would do, uh, uh, great British baking show. And that would just be about which recipes we loved the most and, and also which characters we loved and why, or, you know, which of the contestants, but it's, it's different. Yeah. It's just less analysis needed.

[00:57:56] Mm-hmm. I thought the way she was portrayed was unexpected from the character, maybe to Jane Austen, but I'm nitpicking. I mean, that, in season one, she had some romance too. Yeah. And it was a little weird. Remember, it was that mountain guy? Yeah. And it was like. But I'm sort of, I'm trying to be like, hey, just let people be, you know, if they want to, you know. But I do feel a little weird about it too.

[00:58:21] I thought this was easier and less awkward than her weird flirtation with the gator hippie guy, where she was sort of like, like, just so into him. And then with the, with the baseball guy, she like literally like thrust her body at him. And I was like, whoa, Charlie, what are you doing? This, the bill thing felt really organic to me. Like she delivered him food. They both thought each other were cute. Like it was, it was sweet.

[00:58:46] I thought it was a bit fast, but I thought they were both seem like, I mean, we know Charlie's good. He seemed like a good guy. So I was like, yeah, this would be great. Yeah. I thought the whole, their whole thing was really cute. Yeah. And then moving on to episode eight, we got some feedback on Facebook. First from Jared Harden, who said, I loved this episode so much. Maybe my favorite of the series. What I liked most was the tension.

[00:59:15] In the beginning, I definitely thought Reggie was in obvious trouble, but then I kept wondering if she was the predator. Yep. Also, I need to applaud the representation on the show. People from all backgrounds get featured in all types of roles. Love this show. Exactly what I was saying. I agree, Jared. Because like, yeah, they'll have an Asian person in a role and their story does not have anything to do with them being Asian. And like a gay person, it's not really about them being gay unless it's a trick. Like in this episode. Yep. Okay.

[00:59:45] Matt King says, nice to see Melanie in a role where she didn't annoy me after the last season of Yellow Jackets. She was not someone you'd want to spend a lot of time with. I'll say that. Yeah, that's true. A slightly different episode this time and enjoyed the execution of the final plan. Though I still love her character on Yellow Jackets. Third season. She's so fun to watch. Just as good as any of them. Yeah. In my opinion. I mean, she's not a good person, but she's a good character. That's what I think. Yeah.

[01:00:14] We got a voicemail from Kelsey, who's never called in before. So I'm so excited, Kelsey, that you decided to do this. Hello, hello. It's Kelsey. Been listening for a few years, but this is my first time calling in. So please do let me know if you've got any feedback for my feedback. I love Poker Face and Natasha Lyonne. And the Lazy Georgian was one of my favorite episodes so far.

[01:00:43] Last week, I felt like I was really missing Charlie being Charlie in the way only she can. Not that it wasn't a good episode, but I was very happy this week to get so much of Charlie being a human lie detector. I loved everything about the bar scene with Charlie and Guy from drinking for two, which like, why? Why would you say that? Why? Why?

[01:01:05] To there only being, for some reason, a total of two bar stools sat very far apart at this long bar. Her audacity to be like, okay, pal, I'm going to go back to my eggs now. After it was her nosy ass that plopped down next to him. The mayhem and miss reactions I felt in my own body. And then I was so tickled when he like brought her into their little crime lair.

[01:01:34] Like, hey guys, look at the new toy I found. Melanie Linsky as Reggie was super fun to see. I was like, okay, we're going to steal from orphans this week. Bummer that she died. Though for any Yellow Jacket fans, when she said she's a normal, boring person, was anyone else glad Guy wasn't wearing a backwards baseball cap? I really enjoyed all the side characters this week. The whole band of merry men.

[01:02:03] I'd be quite curious to know the rest of Manny's story. Because running from nuns with your pants around your ankles is quite a conclusion. Cliff was great as well. Odd name. But the tough sounding, nobody can quit us. Once you're in, you're in. And then her chiming up that she got a job at NBC. I'm like, oh, cool. Congrats. I stand corrected. It was just silly and fun.

[01:02:32] Also, buddy, why do you need 45 to 100 headshots? Like, what is that range? What are you doing with that? Auditions. And then, of course, we get the sketchy sketch mark named Sketch. Fabulous. And he used to be a runner for things like drugs and Postmates. Lots of fun lines this week, I thought. Surely the hotel and bar are getting a cut, though. Yeah? Seems they only operate at one place.

[01:03:02] And if the regular 10 a.m. gunshots and fake bloodstains aren't problematic, then at the very least, the Google reviews must be terrible. And then, of course, the ending. The con man gets conned. Charlie in jams the deposit slot. And the orphans get their money. And like every other week, I have no idea where she will end up next. But I am looking forward to finding out. And looking forward to hearing what you guys think. So, thank you, you psychos.

[01:03:31] Thanks, Kelsey. That was great feedback. I have some feedback on your feedback. And that is that whatever you're doing for sound quality is fantastic. You came through loud and clear. You have a good voice. I hope we get to hear from you more in the future. My favorite. I mean, it was really fun. And I like that even though you're – I'm actually going to give you feedback on your feedback. I think you were probably reading it, but it sounded like you were feeling it as you were saying it. So, it felt fresh.

[01:04:01] And also, I loved – and you can't do anything about this part – but that you brought up a few things that we didn't mention. Yeah, I love that. I was like when feedback comes in and they – oh, yeah, we forgot to talk about it. I'm glad somebody brought it up. The thing about the Yelp reviews is hilarious. And I'm going to be laughing about that again later when I think about it. We also heard from Greg. So, we'll play that. Hello, Murder Magnets. This is Greg calling about Episode 8, The Sleazy Georgian.

[01:04:31] I've always been a big fan of John Cho. And I say always, like I don't know, for the last 25 years. And Mel Anilansky has become one of my favorites over the past 10. And I was wondering when I saw who was in it, which of them was going to get killed. The fact that there was no actual murder is actually nice. It's unfortunate that there was in fact a death.

[01:04:59] But, I mean – and I was wondering if she was conning him, if he was conning her. Like, I liked the way that it unfolded. It was very 1980s, 1990s, con man-esque. And, you know, backstabbings on backstabbings, I guess, double crosses on double crosses. I really enjoyed the wholesome ending. And I really liked it.

[01:05:28] I thought that the twist of Robin being Manny's husband was really cool. And, yeah, I thought it was great. The fact that his name was sketched was really fun. And the fact that, you know, Charlie kept the same way that whatever John Cho's character's name, Guy, told Charlie where she's like, hey. You know, he's like, hey, no, you draw them in. And then she kept trying to, like, get him to back out.

[01:05:58] And I thought it was great. I really, really liked it. Anyway, looking forward to hearing you guys talk about it. Bye. Thanks, Greg. Thanks, Greg. Good to hear from you. He also sent me a text where he said he enjoyed this episode and that it was a tale as old as crime. And I thought that was very clever use of language. Good job, Greg. And our final voicemail comes from Steve. Hello, Murder Magnets.

[01:06:28] Magnets. This is Steve. And this is going to be for Poker Freeze. Oh, this will be interesting. The sleazy Georgian. Oh, Melanie Linsky and John Cho. And this one's apparently going to be about pools. Pool halls. Okay, is it just me or is that John Cho doing his best Chow Yun fat impression with the big hair and the sunglasses? Oh, and Melanie Linsky, those bangs. Oh, bad choice. People are just bringing this guy big, thick envelopes full of something. It does seem like something out of a spy movie.

[01:06:56] Oh, this is not good, Melanie Linsky. Regina, Reggie, you took your $20,000 up to his hotel room. Not a good idea. Oh, and he has a gun. At the beginning, I was wondering if it was going to be Georgia, the country, or not the state. And that's what he just said. Is this like the Nigerian print scam? Okay, but who's conning who here? Because this is definitely a con. Okay, maybe not a con, but there's something fishy here, obviously. Because these two guys didn't just kill each other and she just walked out with $400,000.

[01:07:24] Okay, so Charlie's today, she's in the same hotel bar. So his name is not Alec. Okay, so he's the con man because everything he's saying is lies. Okay, so now they're at a different bar. So I guess this was a different day. Okay, the guy they just showed with the glasses and the little hat, that looks like the same guy that got shot in the motel room. Oh, he just said the sleazy Georgian title of the episode. Mic drop. Okay, so he gave him the whole, he just laid out the whole con, but obviously something's different with Million Linsy's here because she's going to have $20,000. Oh, and Guy is serious about his conning.

[01:07:54] Okay, that looked like the bag that Million Linsy was carrying that Charlie just grabbed off the not-keep table. So there's something more going on here. Oh, okay, the deposit slip is still in the bag. So this is after the con. Oh, Reggie killed herself after the $20,000 went missing. Okay, so they're going to bring Charlie in on one of their cons. Right. Oh, she's playing him just like he told her how to play about the whole red flag thing. She's convincing him to get into the job, this $400,000 job.

[01:08:23] Ah, I see what's happening here. Maybe not. She said she tipped him off. We'll see. Oh, he took the note out of his jacket. Yeah, I don't think he's trying to con Charlie, but I don't know. This is all getting confusing now. No, there is not $4,000 in that satchel there, guy. Yes, it was all a con from Charlie and the big guy. Oh, and the guy is Robin. Another one where nobody actually died. Well, I guess Regina did die. I was really hoping that something would happen at the end

[01:08:53] when you see that Melanie Linsky was still alive. But, oh. I guess someone has to die no matter what. Well, there was- At least a rat. A hamster, yeah. Or gerbil or whatever that thing was. Something. That was a fun ride with Steve as he figured out the twists. Yeah. Very entertaining. I thought he might be more confused, but nope. He picked up on stuff really fast. Yeah. Those were great, everybody. Thank you so much for writing in and calling in. Keep sending them.

[01:09:21] If you want to write in or leave us a message, you can find all our contact information at podcastica.com. And you can find our other shows and links to our social media pages on there. We just did a long time coming review of 28 Days Later, me and Karen and Lucy, because 28 Years Later is coming out next weekend, the sequel.

[01:09:45] I'm so excited for 28 Years Later, and I will definitely listen to your review of 28 Days Later once it drops. And we mentioned several times that we also cover Yellow Jackets. And if you like Melanie Linsky and you haven't watched Yellow Jackets, you should race right over there because she's basically the star. And it's amazing. And she's amazing. Yes. One of my favorite shows in recent years. Yeah. It's dark. It's not for everyone, but you should know after the first episode whether you're going to dig it.

[01:10:15] Yeah. And don't forget to follow us and subscribe to Murder Magnets wherever you get your podcasts. And if you are so inclined, we'd love some five-star ratings. That would be great. Give us some one-star. No, I'm just kidding. Please don't. Yeah. Next time we'll be covering season two, episode nine, A New Lease on Death. Ooh. Yeah. Spooky, right? Well, that's all for this episode. Thanks for listening.

[01:10:42] Oh, and Jared Harden, we know what you did, you psycho.