Sumith Prasad
The fifth episode of Peacock’s thriller series ‘Poker Face,’ titled ‘Time of the Monkey,’ follows Charlie Cale’s journey as she ends up at an old age home named Mossy Oakes after solving the murder of Doxxxology’s drummer Gavin. Charlie works as a housekeeper at the establishment and gets connected to Irene and Joyce, two of the inmates of the home. While the three of them cherish a certain togetherness, the death of another inmate stuns Charlie, who sets out to solve the murder, suspecting Irene and Joyce. The engrossing episode ends with an astounding turn of events and let us explain the same in detail! SPOILERS AHEAD.
Poker Face Episode 5 Recap
‘Time of the Monkey’ begins with the introduction of Joyce and Irene, two rulebreakers at an old age home named Mossy Oakes. Although they are hated by their fellow inmates, Joyce and Irene cherish a special bond. As their lives at the place progress, they encounter a name named Ben Holmes, a new arrival at the place. Upon getting stunned by seeing the old man, they set out to kill him. While the inmates of the home prepare to leave for a zoo, the wheelchair-bound Irene goes to the restroom, gets out through the window, and climbs to Ben’s room. She injects sodium nitrate into him and removes his heart rate monitor band to wear a new one.
After ensuring Ben is killed, Irene then gets out of the room, climbs down, and returns to the other inmates. While strolling through the zoo, Irene and Joyce find an isolated corner. Joyce shocks Irene, who wears Ben’s band, using a taser to create a warning. The custodians of the home find Ben dead although they try to save him using a defibrillator. They conclude he died due to a heart attack. Meanwhile, Charlie has already formed a connection with Irene and Joyce. She learns from them that they were a part of a cult, led by Gabriel, which protested against Richard Nixon. The duo was eventually arrested and imprisoned for decades for their activities.
After returning from the zoo, Irene and Joyce place Ben’s real band at the desk and take the one he had in him after getting killed by the former. While attending Ben’s funeral, Charlie finds out that the old man is actually Gabriel. Ben’s nephew reveals to Charlie that he is an FBI agent named Luca, who has been looking after Gabriel, who is protected as a part of the Feds’ witness protection program. From Charlie, Luca comes to know that Irene and Joyce are staying in the same old age home, leading him to interrogate them.
Poker Face Episode 5 Ending: How Does Charlie Solve Ben/Gabriel’s Murder?
When Luca informs Charlie that Irene and Joyce were domestic terrorists who planned to bomb a high school event, she realizes that the duo couldn’t be merciful towards Gabriel, who destroyed their lives. However, since Charlie has seen them at the zoo during the time Gabriel died, she initially fails to seriously consider them murderers. That’s when she realizes that Gabriel supposedly died at the exact time when the monkey said the time at the zoo, an event Irene and Joyce missed. But since the duo cannot leave the zoo and kill Gabriel within that short time, she considers the possibility of the latter’s death at an earlier time.
Upon checking the restroom at the place, Charlie realizes that the window of the same is directly below Gabriel’s room for one to climb. She also reaches out to three murder mystery fans who reside at the home about “silent killers,” only for one of them to introduce her to the dangers of sodium nitrate, which cannot be singled out during an autopsy. When she enquires about the chemical to the gardener, he confirms that Joyce acquired the chemical the day before Gabriel died. Still, Charlie has to prove how Irene and Joyce’s alibi is not really an alibi since Gabriel was killed hours before his official time of death. She goes through the deceased’s heart rate monitor band’s records and finds a change in the heart rate around eleven, over two hours before the time of death.
By going through the records, Charlie realizes that Gabriel’s band was changed. But still, she gets confused about the heart attack that happened during Irene and Joyce’s zoo visit. While Charlie deals with her confusion, Betty tells her that she saw Irene and Joyce engaging in sexual activities using a vibrating object. Charlie realizes that the object is nothing but a taser that caused the spike in the heart rate recorded by Gabriel’s band, which was worn by Irene at the time. The last piece of Charlie’s puzzle is confirming that the killer actually changed the victim’s band. It doesn’t take much time for her to remember that Gabriel’s band’s records do not show the spike that should have been caused by the defibrillator.
Since the band doesn’t show the defibrillator spike, Charlie confirms that Gabriel died due to human intervention and not because of a heart attack. She connects the sodium nitrate, Joyce and Irene’s taser, and the band’s records to successfully solve the murder by finding out that Irene and Joyce killed Gabriel.
Why Do Irene and Joyce Kill Gabriel?
Decades before, Irene and Joyce were members of an anarchist cult led by Gabriel. The duo not only shared an ideology with Gabriel but also intimacy, which made them get closer to him. Together, they challenged Richard Nixon and his presidency. Gabriel and his cult wanted to bring a change in the nation by stunning the most potent, corrupt, and influential individuals in the country. To do the same, they made “pressure cooker bombs” and targeted a model UN event organized at a prestigious and elite high school where the children of the aforementioned group of individuals studied.
When the Feds came to know about the plan, Gabriel betrayed his cult. He became a witness for not getting killed by the authorities and accepted the luxuries of witness protection. He revealed the location of the cult to the authorities, who raided the place to arrest the cult members. During the raid, Irene got shot, which left her paralyzed. She and Joyce got imprisoned for decades, forcing them to spend a major share of their lives behind bars, only because of Gabriel’s betrayal. He encounters Irene and Joyce upon getting admitted to the old age home, leading him to seek forgiveness from the duo.
Irene and Joyce then kill Gabriel for betraying them, paving the way for Irene’s paralysis, and their imprisonment. If Charlie has failed to solve the murder, they may have avoided a second imprisonment but the former succeeds in bringing them to the law by taking advantage of the flaw in their murder plot: ignorance of the defibrillator spike.
Read More: When and Where Does Poker Face Take Place?
