That was our trickiest, most complex.”īarkin’s Kathleen initially appeared desperate to reclaim the spotlight, which is why she pitched the play to Michael. There are details and clues everywhere, and it’s hilarious. “Can we have Charlie solve this crime as the play is running and people are going backstage and running out on stage, and she’s up in the rafters and all over the set?” said Lilla, previously speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, of the intricacies involved in pulling off the episode, which was written by Chris Downey. The parody production, called The Ghosts of Pensacola, takes place at a local dinner theater that recently employed Poker Face‘s non-official detective Charlie Cale (Lyonne), who ends up proving for the police that the famed actors, in a Hollywood twist, were secretly in love and had plotted Ava’s murder.Ĭharlie’s secret gift is her ability to spot a lie, which anchors her as the central character who solves each episode’s murder mystery. The theatrical episode sees former sitcom icons Kathleen (Barkin) and Michael (Meadows) reuniting for a one-night-only stage event, and it involved the carefully plotted murder of Michael’s uber-rich wife Ava (Jamil), who fell to her death through a trap door intended to be Kathleen’s showstopping final act. Party With Jennifer Lopez, Designer Daniel Roseberry and Evil Eye Cookies