Poker Face season 2 episode 6 ending explained: What did Stephanie leave Charlie Cale? What it means for her future explored

Poker Face season 2 episode 6 brings a darkly hilarious episode with Charlie Cale finding herself in a prestigious elementary school and in the middle of an accidental murder of the class gerbil. Titled Sloppy Joseph, Charlie meets the ultra-competitive Stephanie Pearce and the mini Houdini, Elijah Turner.

In a bid to ruin Elijah's confidence and win the most gold stars, Stephanie messes with Elijah's magic trick during the talent show, ending in Joseph's traumatizing death. While Charlie finds a clue to catch Stephanie in a lie and beat the kid at her own game, Stephanie gives her something that makes her hightail it out of the school.

At the end of Poker Face season 2 episode 6, Charlie Cale receives a threat from Stephanie, a terrifying note written in the back of a gold star. It's enough threat to make Charlie leave the school because, it turns out, being around kids is not all childlike wonder and innocence, as she initially believes.

Disclaimer: This article contains major spoilers for Poker Face season 2 episode 6. Reader's discretion is advised.

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Poker Face season 2 episode 6 ending: Charlie Cale receives a terrifying note from Stephanie

At the end of Poker Face season 2 episode 6, Charlie Cale bolts out of the school after receiving a threatening note from Stephanie, which teases something terrifying in her future. It looks like Charlie has found herself a new, and possibly even more calculating, enemy.

Charlie finds Stephanie's letter (Image via Peacock)

In Poker Face season 1, Charlie Cale has made enemies out of dangerous people, like the mob. Moreover, in earlier episodes of season 2, she has also dealt with murderers old enough to pay for their crimes in jail. But in Poker Face season 2 episode 6, Charlie finds herself at odds with 8-year-olds at an elementary school, specifically an ultra-competitive student who isn't above blackmailing the principal.

While it appears that Charlie's problem with Stephanie is over and done with at the end of the episode, after she threatens to blackball the girl from the best schools unless she stops her evil machinations, she's wrong. While on a call to her friend on the radio, Charlie finds a gold star on the dashboard of her car. She thinks Stephanie has turned over a new leaf when she reads the message:

"For the lunch lady."

However, when she turns over the gold star, Charlie finds Stephanie's real message for her. It reads:

"When I grow up I will find you."

If the letter is not threatening enough, Charlie finds Stephanie across the school, looking at her at the end of Poker Face season 2 episode 6. She's watching Charlie, motionless, with a blank expression on her face. For anyone who watches true crime shows or horror movies, Stephanie looks like how a serial killer looks at their victim, causing Stephanie to pump the gas and hightail it out of the school.

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How Charlie beat Stephanie in her own game in Poker Face season 2 episode 6

Stephanie in Poker Face season 2 episode 6 (Image via Peacock)

In Charlie's previous cases, she doesn't find it hard to prove that someone is the murderer after figuring out how the murder went, like in Rocket's case in Poker Face season 2 episode 5. However, in Poker Face season 2 episode 6, Charlie is challenged after Stephanie swallows the only evidence of the crime, leaving Charlie with no proof.

After the class gerbil's tragic death during the magic show, Charlie figures out that Stephanie has messed with Elijah's magic box. The box has a hole on top of it, and when he pulls at the string, the hole opens. So, when he puts the gerbil inside the sock over the box and pulls the string, the gerbil should fall through the hole and into a compartment when Elijah smashes the sock with a mallet.

But that isn't what happened. Stephanie has turned the box upside down, so there is no hole for Joseph to escape through, ending with him being crushed by the mallet. Charlie figures out that Stephanie went to the janitor's office because of the button she had found there. But when confronted, Stephanie takes the button from Charlie and swallows it, getting rid of the evidence.

Stephanie also gets Charlie fired from the school, and it turns out, Stephanie is blackmailing the principal, Dr. Hamm. Charlie sees the bracelet Dr. Hamm is wearing, a friendship bracelet that reads, "Ur mine." As Dr. Hamm reveals to Charlie, Stephanie has caught the principal in photos while taking money from the lunch box because of her gambling addiction and is using it as blackmail.

However, at the end of Poker Face season 2 episode 6, Charlie beats Stephanie at her own game. As Stephanie seethes over the new Joseph Gerbils' return, she steals the lunch money and uses Dr. Hamm's key to go to the janitor's office. She's trying to frame Elijah's dad as the thief. What she doesn't know is that Charlie is in the corner, waiting for her.

Elijah in Poker Face season 2 episode 6 (Image via Peacock)

Charlie takes a picture as Stephanie puts the money in Elijah's dad's coat. Now, Charlie has a picture to blackmail Stephanie, and she tells her that she will send it to her parents as well as the admissions to every prestigious school, ultimately blackballing Stephanie from going into a good school after elementary. That is, unless she changes and deletes the photo she uses to blackmail Dr. Hamm.

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Is Joseph Gerbils back from the dead in Poker Face season 2 episode 6?

After the gory scene at the magic show early in Poker Face season 2 episode 6, with the blood splatter, it's not likely that the class gerbil, Joseph Gerbils, has survived. Charlie and Ms. Dee have to get creative to help Elijah when he's back in class and hopefully catch Stephanie.

So, Ms. Dee puts a bandage on a gerbil and tells Elijah that she was able to revive Joseph and is all okay now. Elijah is happy about it, as well as the rest of the class, except for Stephanie. She's the only one to call out Ms. Dee for lying and claiming that the new gerbil is Joseph. And while what she's saying is most likely true, no one is listening to her.

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Catch Poker Face season 2 episode 6, and all previous episodes, streaming on Peacock.