Poker Face "Sloppy Joseph" Guest Stars Explained: Margo Martindale, David Krumholtz & More
Charlie Cale goes back to school in the latest episode of Poker Face: "Sloppy Joseph."
**SPOILER WARNING! Spoilers below for Poker Face, Season 2, Episode 6, "Sloppy Joseph"**
Charlie Cale (Natasha Lyonne) goes back to class in this week's episode of Peacock's Poker Face: "Sloppy Joseph."
In particular, the character's nomadic, odd job existence lands her in the kitchen of a private school cafeteria, where she doles out sloppy joes to students before taking it upon herself to solve the mystery of a dead gerbil killed in a horrible magic accident. Her lie-detecting skills place her on a collision course with the show's youngest wrongdoer yet.
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With that in mind, let's take a look at the episode's roster of guest stars...
Poker Face Season 2, Episode 6, "Sloppy Joseph" guest stars, explained
Eva Jade Halford as Stephanie Pearce: An overachieving elementary school student with the most gold stars in her class, Stephanie cannot stand to be second in anything. She's a budding sociopath or, to use Charlie's words, a "pig-tailed demon child" who will to do anything to get her way. When she loses a spelling bee to a fellow classmate, Stephanie sets out to ruin their life, becoming the very first underage perpetrator on the show. Even when she's exposed by Charlie, Stephanie swears revenge against the lie-detecting phenom. Halford is a relative newcomer with a previous role in Will Trent. She'll appear alongside Alicia Vikander, Wagner Moura, and Victoria Pedretti in the upcoming drama film, The Last Day.
Callum Vinson as Elijah Turner: A soft-spoken boy and amateur magician, Elijah is the aforementioned "fellow classmate" who triumphs over Stephanie in the spelling bee when he correctly spells the word "Abracadabra." His subsequent talent show performance, a magic trick to vanish the class pet (a gerbil with the very questionable name of "Joseph Gerbils") goes horribly awry when he accidentally smashes the poor rodent to death with a giant, Gallagher-style mallet. What he doesn't know, however, is that Stephanie sabotaged the box containing Joseph while Elijah was distracted. Nevertheless, the fiasco accomplishes Stephanie's end of goal of killing Elijah's self-esteem and reputation in one stroke. Vinson recently played the president's son in the third season of the Chucky TV series (now streaming on Peacock).
Adrienne C. Moore as Ms. Dee: The class teacher unknowingly sets the whole thing in motion when she intentionally sets Stephanie up to fail during the spelling bee. It wasn't malicious, though. Ms. Dee simply wanted to boost Elijah's confidence while teaching Stephanie that you can't always be perfect. In the end, she helps Charlie restore the young Turner's reputation. Moore broke onto the scene through her tenure as Cynthia Hayes on Orange is the New Black, for which she received an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.
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David Krumholtz as J.B. Turner: Elijah's widower father just wants to give his son the best life possible, even if it means working as a custodian at the boy's private school in order to receive free tutiion. Following the disastrous talent show, it's J.B. who convinces Charlie to dig deeper into Joseph's death, postulating that someone messed with the magic trick. A longtime veteran of film and television, Krumholtz is best-known for his roles in Freaks and Geeks, The Santa Clause, and Numbers. He also played nuclear physicist Isidor Isaac Rabi in Christopher Nolan's Oscar-winning Oppenheimer.
Margo Martingale as Dr. Hamm: You don't want to run afoul of school principal Dr. Hamm, and don't you dare forget the "Doctor" part. But what's with the "Ur Mine" friendship bracelet around her wrist? Well, it turns out Dr. Hamm's been stealing money from the school cash box to fuel her gambling addiction. Since Stephanie found out about it, she's blackmailed Hamm into protecting her against any and all punishment like a mobster coercing a dirty politician. With a list of supporting, yet memorable, roles going back decades, Martindale gained a sterling reputation as both a talented and prolific character actor. This status became something of a running gag on BoJack Horseman.
New episodes of Poker Face air Thursdays on Peacock, where "Sloppy Joseph" and the rest of the show's already aired Season 1 and 2 episodes are currently streaming!
