We had some fun last week with the three episode launch of season two of Poker Face after two years, and we’re back for more. Unfortunately, this is a Kumail Nanjiani episode, and Nanjiani appears on a mission to muddle every franchise he can. His Star Wars, Marvel, and “Only Murders” stops have all been the worst of what each franchise can offer.

What Happened on “The Taste of Human Blood”?“: We begin with Earl the burglar stuck in a doggy door before getting a brought into the police station where luckily for him they don’t press charges. We get to know Officer Fran Lamont who has been nominated for a police award. She heads to the “FLOPAS” but loses to Joe Pilson, who adopted a baby alligator after one of his cases. We learn that “Gator Joe” goes on to win for the next six straight years and that Fran has become obsessed with beating him, as his reality TV star status has made him famous.

At the next awards show, Fran sneaks backstage to find out she’s lost to Joe for a seventh straight time. Joe confronts her and she cries and runs away to find Daisy the alligator in her cage in the middle of the green room. Fran then decides to put gator laxative in Joe’s energy drink and ends up killing the obnoxious character. Realizing she’ll be connected to the poison, she gives Daisy some meth and the gator eventually eats Joe.

We catch up with Charlie, who after a fun chat with “Good Buddy” goes to work at a gator farm. We find out that her fellow employees are animal activist outlaws who want to free Daisy from Gator Joe. They recruit Charlie to go undercover as a caterer during the awards ceremony.

Charlie gets into the same room as Daisy but the cage has no wheels. She then looks Daisy in the eyes and has a vision of peace. Just then, Fran bursts into the room crying. Charlie leaves her with Daisy to get her own leash and Oreos for an escape but by the time she returns, Daisy has already eaten Joe. The cops prepare to kill Daisy, and the Hutch ecoterrorist tries to extract Charlie but she won’t leave.

We then learn that Joe filmed Fran crying, but before the cops can bust in and kill Daisy, we learn that Daisy has escaped from the bathroom. Charlie finds Daisy in the storage room passed out from Oreos and meth, and Fran decides to help them both escape in order to cover her own tracks. Charlie finds the bottle of Joe’s energy drink in Fran’s purse and detects that she’s lying. Right before Fran tries to shoot Daisy, Charlie intervenes and gets the two parties to look each other in the eyes which triggers a vision for Fran. She decides to let Daisy go and confess what she’s done. But her chief decides to cover it up and Fran resigns anyway to go to volunteer at the gator farm, where she’s tempted by the “volunteer of the month” award.

Trivia and Takeaways:

Happy to still see the show in Florida, my old home state.

The band “Yolo Tomassi” is a play on “LA Confidential” and the alias “Rollo Romassi” Kevin Spacey used to identify a traitor.

The “Miranda Bites” appetizers are also a clever word play on Miranda Rights.

“Where The Crawdads Schwing” is a play on “Where the Crawdads Sing”

We’re getting “Meth Gator” from the same company that gave us “Cocaine Bear”.

If you didn’t see it in the credits, “Good Buddy” is Steve Buscemi.

This is the second episode of “Poker Face” stolen by an animal guest star. Besides Daisy, you might remember MAGA Dog from season one.

Quotes:

(An award presentation) “A Brooklyn meth dealer known as Stanky James.”

(Charlie attempting to flirt with her ears) “Be careful, it gets a little waxy in there.”

“Thwarting A*****es”

“There has got to be some sort of gator due process.”

“She’s in the walls.”

“Did you happen to see an alligator come in here and score some crystal?”

“Don’t shoot. This gator has been framed.”

What did you think of the episode? Let me know below!