The Game Is a Foot

"The Game Is a Foot" is the first episode of the second season of the American murder mystery comedy-drama television series Poker Face. It is the eleventh overall episode of the series and was written by co-executive producer Laura Deeley, and directed by series creator Rian Johnson. It was released on Peacock on May 8, 2025.^[1]

The series follows Charlie Cale, a woman with the ability to detect if people are lying; after the events of the first season, Charlie is being pursued by hitmen sent by criminal boss Beatrix Hasp. In the episode, Charlie finds herself involved in a family plot, in which a quintuplet killed one of her sisters to inherit their mother's fortune.

The episode received highly positive reviews from critics, who praised the humor and performances, particularly Cynthia Erivo's guest appearance.

In Conway, New Hampshire, Amber Kazinsky (Cynthia Erivo) takes care of her dying mother, Norma (Jasmine Guy). Amber is a quadruplet, and the four sisters starred on the TV show Kid Cop: Nights as child actresses. Her artistic career disappoints Norma, who uses every opportunity to insult her and mock her. Amber later learns that Norma met with her lawyer Paul Fletcher (Jin Ha) and has cut her and her sisters out of her will, leaving everything to a woman named Felicity Price.

Investigating, Amber travels to Vermont to meet Felicity, who is revealed to be another identical sister. Felicity reveals that she grew up with their father, who died after creating a dangerous environment for her. After leaving, Amber undergoes a makeover to look exactly like Felicity and visits Norma, who is shocked and has a fatal seizure, with Amber preventing her from calling a nurse. Amber later invites Felicity, wearing the exact same clothes, to a cliff. She fights Felicity and throws her off the cliff, later sending a video to her sisters detailing her intention to commit suicide. However, she finds that Felicity wore a prosthetic leg, which got stuck in the branches. She moves the body to a train track to make it look like her leg was crushed by a train. As the other sisters, Bebe, Cece, and Delia, find the body at the cliff, Amber poses as Felicity and meets with Paul to ask for the will.

Prior to this, Charlie (Natasha Lyonne) is seen taking different jobs across the country, forced to run away from hitmen sent by Beatrix Hasp. While working at an apple orchard, Charlie hides from the hitmen, and her co-worker Delia covers for her. Delia reveals that she and her sisters shared the lead role on Kid Cop: Nights, and their mother pitted them against each other. When she is informed of Norma's death, Charlie accompanies her to the funeral and meets Bebe and Cece. When Amber sends them her suicide video, they go to the cliff and return to the funeral where they are informed about Felicity's status. When "Felicity" shows up and relates her background to the sisters, Charlie immediately knows she is lying.

"Felicity" tells the sisters that she is keeping all of the money but is willing to give them $150,000 each if they sign a contract to not fight back legally. While Bebe and Cece sign, Delia refuses. Paul warns that if Delia files a lawsuit, it will hold up the estate for years and no one will receive any money. When Delia leaves, Amber steals her clothes and signs the paper on her behalf. However, she runs into Charlie and is forced to stay as Delia while she questions Paul over Felicity's background. Charlie notes that while Paul's claims are true, she knows "Felicity" is lying when she says it. When Charlie confronts her, Amber deviates from her suspicions by using different accents to prove that she is a "new" version of herself.

When Charlie talks to the real Delia about their previous conversations, they realize that someone pretended to be her to sign the paper. After a police officer relates that he has the song "Footloose" stuck in his head, Charlie remembers that all of Felicity's artwork is foot-related. After checking pictures of her, Charlie exposes Amber's lie to the guests, as Felicity had a prosthetic leg. Amber covers her suspicions by showing that she is wearing a prosthetic, but Charlie exposes her after stabbing her in the foot, causing her to bleed. The police arrive, having identified Felicity's fingerprints, and arrest Amber. As Felicity had no living relatives, the sisters will receive Norma's money, allowing Delia to buy the apple orchard. Noticing the hitmen arrive, Charlie flees again.

The series was announced in March 2021, with Rian Johnson serving as creator, writer, director and executive producer. Johnson stated that the series would delve into "the type of fun, character driven, case-of-the-week mystery goodness I grew up watching."^[2] The episode was written by co-executive producer Laura Deeley, and directed by series creator Rian Johnson. This was Deeley's first writing credit, and Johnson's fourth credit for the show.^[3]

The announcement of the series included that Natasha Lyonne would serve as the main lead actress.^[2] She was approached by Johnson about working on a procedural project together, with Lyonne as the lead character.^[4] As Johnson explained, the role was "completely cut to measure for her."^[5]

Due to the series' procedural aspects, the episodes feature several guest stars. Johnson was inspired by the amount of actors who guest starred on Columbo, wanting to deem each guest star as the star of the episode, which allowed them to attract many actors.^[5] The episode featured a guest appearance by Cynthia Erivo, who was announced to guest star in September 2024.^[6]

In February 2025, Erivo's role was revealed to be sextuplets.^[7] Erivo worked with the staff in creating the different character designs, personality and look, saying "I wanted you to be able to see the same face but see very different experiences in life. Because I think it added to the comedy, and it adds to how you feel about each of these women."^[8] On playing the antagonist Amber, Erivo added, "I think she thinks what she's doing is wonderful. That's where you have to have empathy for her, because you know it's absolutely horrific, terrible. But she's put so much energy into them, and she believes that she is just as good as Felicity and should have just as much praise for her work. She's really dedicated to all those spangles. She thinks they have just as much of a place in the world as her art. And it's so deeply sad. Like, poor little Amber."^[9]

Rian Johnson said that the writers came up with the idea of having Beatrix Hasp's hitmen pursue Charlie, as it would allow the character to move to different places across the country. He said, "I don't think the audience genuinely cares that there are people chasing her with guns. I think she moves to a different place each week and they go with it. So, for a lot of reasons, it made sense and it felt like a way to dig in deeper to the character."^[10]

The crew had to film the whole episode in 10 days, which was shorter than usual. Johnson commented, "It's not like we were using high, crazy camera technology. It was literally leaving the camera there, Cynthia would do half of her scene, she would go and change and she somehow kept it all in her head and was the loveliest person in the world."^[11]

"The Game is a Foot" received highly positive reviews from critics. Noel Murray of The A.V. Club gave the 3-episode premiere an "A–" grade and wrote, "Tip a cap to Erivo, who seems to be having a ball playing multiple Kazinskys—and sometimes playing a Kazinsky pretending to be another Kazinsky. In a scene where Charlie challenges the fake Felicity's broad southern accent, Erivo delivers a remarkable monologue, describing a hard childhood while changing accents pointedly throughout, illustrating Amber's new philosophy of life: “You must kill the old you to birth the new you.”"^[12]

Alan Sepinwall wrote, "The punnily-titled “The Game Is A Foot” has fun with jokes about cheesy Nineties high-concept shows like Kid Cop Nights, where four of the five Cynthias Erivo starred as children. But it's a clever case of the show having its cake and eating it, too, since the idea of having Erivo play quintuplets — four who grew up together, one who's a total stranger — is itself the sort of gimmicky thing TV did a lot more of in decades past. Some of the quints are broader than others, but Erivo drills in effectively on the two main ones, and does a nice job playing Amber playing Felicity."^[13]

Amanda Whiting of Vulture gave the episode a 4 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "“The Game Is a Foot” features notable names like TV icon Jasmine Guy and Broadway star Jin Ha, but it's recent Oscar nominee Cynthia Erivo who emerges as the standout by virtue of the fact that she takes on five separate roles — seven, if you count one character impersonating two others — and makes them each her own."^[14] Elisa Guimarães of Collider wrote, ""The Game Is a Foot" isn't Poker Face trying to be a serious mystery, but instead, Poker Face trying to be a comedy. And, by God, does the show excel at that!"^[15]

Ben Sherlock of Screen Rant wrote, "Cynthia Erivo anchors the episode as identical sextuplets [sic], which not only showcases Erivo's incredible acting skills but also keeps you on your toes. Charlie never knows which sister she's talking to, so she could be giving crucial intel away to the wrong person. It's a perfect reintroduction to this show's particular brand of be-careful-who-you-trust twist-laden storytelling."^[16] Shay McBryde of Show Snob wrote, "Erivo puts on her best Eddie Murphy shoes in this role, giving each of the sisters a unique personality. No singing in this episode, unfortunately, but her acting is enough to keep you glued in. This episode really gives Erivo a chance to shine and show off her range, which she does beautifully."^[17]

• "The Game is a Foot" at IMDb