After her friend is found dead, Charlie uncovers a plot where the owner's son ordered her murder to protect a powerful client.
At the Peach Tree Speedway in Tennessee, late model racing drivers Keith Owens (Tim Blake Nelson), a third-generation star in his final season, and hot-headed up-and-comer Davis McDowell (Charles Melton) compete for the local championship.
The announcement angers his daughter Katy (Jasmine Aiyana Garvin), who is eager to begin her racing career, and worries his wife Donna (Leslie Silva), who witnesses Davis vandalizing her garden.
A few days prior, Charlie (Natasha Lyonne) works at a go-kart track and is friends with her co-worker Jean (Angel Desai), Davis' mother.
When he is not racing or towing cars, Davis helps out at the arcade and admits that he hopes to earn enough money to compete in the big leagues.
Katy confronts Davis about punching Keith and challenges him on the track, effortlessly defeating him repeatedly, and his anger prompts him to vandalize the Owens' garden.
She knows he was not planning on racing the car on the day of the crash as he did not have his grandfather's photo on the dashboard and also talked to Katy, who is expected to recover from her coma and soon compete against Davis.
Johnson stated that the series would delve into "the type of fun, character driven, case-of-the-week mystery goodness I grew up watching.
[4] The episode featured appearances by Tim Blake Nelson, Charles Melton, Angel Desai, Jasmine Aiyana Garvin and Leslie Silva, who were announced to guest star in August 2022.
[8] Co-showrunner Nora Zuckerman was unfamiliar with stock car racing although she was interested in seeing the series explore it: "To me, it felt much more Poker Face.
[9] The crew was inspired by films like Smokey and the Bandit and Six Pack for the racing sequences, with Zuckerman saying "We really wanted to capture the dirt, the grit, the smell of the fuel in the air and the sound.
"[10] Alan Sepinwall of Rolling Stone wrote, "The show continues to have fun inserting Charlie into various subcultures, here with the world of dirt track racing.
I imagine on a weekly schedule/budget, there was no way to do a serious car chase, so that was a good example of how to turn limitations to a scene's advantage, making it so atmospheric that the lack of Fast and the Furious maneuvering doesn't matter.
"[11] Amanda Whiting of Vulture gave the episode a 3 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "After last week's night at the theater, Poker Face returns to an older recipe.
Let the mixture simmer for approximately one-half episode, then add the meddlesome Charlie Cale and a pinch of throaty charm.
The site wrote, "Charles Melton has mostly been stuck in the background as Riverdale's Reggie, but this week on Poker Face, he got a chance to flash some movie-star charisma, along with a sinister side.
When she confronted him, Melton had to walk a fine line between justifying Davis' deeds and displaying real menace, and he did so with impressive ease.