Defending Jacob Review: Poker Faces (Season 1 Episode 3)
Some questions may not have answers, but the urge to look back is hard to ignore on Defending Jacob Season 1 Episode 3, “Poker Faces.”
The sheer weight that is placed upon the Barbers is palpable throughout the episode, where their every molecule is under scrutiny as their previous lives collapse. It becomes one of the episode’s most striking features. Defending Jacob is masterfully at placing pressure so far, and that pressure is leading down a dark, emotional path.
It’s the icing out of perceived friends that proves the hardest challenge for them, and for Laurie especially. While the previous episode drove home the ramifications of Andy’s job, “Poker Faces” brings the loss of structure and security to Laurie, systematically taking away her support system and her passion in one swoop.
It’s like a shock and awe campaign, where everything Laurie holds onto, including her own trust, is taken away. Nothing is certain, even when she can return to work. She’s shaken to the point of questioning past instances with Jacob that could have gone differently, like nearly hitting another child with a bowling ball when younger.
This is something that the episode strikes hardest with: while the loss of friends and jobs are hard, it’s the questioning of your own perception that is the true tragedy. Laurie is doing her best to keep a positive face on things, but at every turn she’s faced with reminders that reflect back on her.
She’s starting to feel responsible, and the coldness of the community driving the Barbers inward is only going to make that feeling worse.
This level of questioning also causes tension between her and Andy, as Andy looks to avoid too many details falling into the wrong hands while Laurie simply wants answers. Their trip to the behavioral therapist shows the difference of how they see this: Andy wants to avoid questioning every little detail of their son, but Laurie finds herself looking back, as though the answer is in past moments to unlock and understand this one.
This is a fantastic way of showing how two people can approach the same issue, but aren’t quite meeting eye-to-eye when they need to the most.
Michelle Dockery does such a wonderful job to portray that isolation and the effect it has on Laurie. It’s a progressive loss of security, along with this sense that her relationship with both Andy and Jacob will no longer be the same, no matter the consequence. There’s tragedy and heartbreak in her performance, and it strikes a deep chord on the episode’s unfolding.
Andy revealing the truth about his father finally brings some revelations with the flashes and the arm tattoo. The fact that there’s a history of violence in the family, and Andy’s outburst at work during Defending Jacob Season 1 Episode 2, “Everything Is Cool,” is sure to become a large focus moving forward.
It’s eerie how similar it sounds, of a stabbing and the body being found. The focus doesn’t stay on the event for long, as the scene is more about Andy’s deceit in not telling anyone. To be fair to Andy, the sins of the father aren’t his to bear over his life, and so keeping this detail a secret is his choosing. But at the same time, to not tell your own wife something so large and consuming is a harder thing to swallow.
There’s this sense that Andy isn’t exactly as stable as initially thought. Paula says as much when Andy questions their friendship, Paula informing him their work relationship barely qualifies as a friendship. Andy appears surprised by this, even though she explicitly tells him how little he talks to her outside of work reasons.
It’s a disconnect, where he perceives things from afar. He doesn’t talk to Jacob about his gaming voice chat while sitting next to him, he does so from the doorway, as though he’s unable to cross the threshold. He calls for Laurie for dinner from the stairs rather than going up to find her. There’s this sense that he is emotionally, and physically, distant, and that he doesn’t recognize it himself yet.
Jacob faces the same thing, but because of social ostracizing. He may like the sound of a Jacob fan page, but it’s a small beacon among a pit of gossip and anger. He’s withdrawn for most of the episode, locked inside of himself, knowing everyone’s eyes are on him. But by the end of the episode, there is that moment of doing his homework where he’s like any other kid, a sign that possibly there is some light at the end of the tunnel.
The show is still allowing Leonard Patz to be a potential suspect, either because he’s the real suspect or to throw us off Jacob’s trail some. His eyeing of a potential new victim from afar has the same sort of worrying look that he has watching kids at work or admiring his photos of Ben that he deletes. It’s still not clear how he fits into all of this yet, but now that Andy has his file, it’s sure to become a larger piece going forward.
One of the most impactful scenes on the episode is following Andy, Laurie, and Joanna from the parking garage to the inside of the courthouse. The chaos and pure wall of sound is almost enough to make someone claustrophobic, and Laurie’s pause to catch her breath once inside is perhaps the most human moment of the entire episode. The show does a fantastic job of selling those moments of unease and public attention.
Defending Jacob Season 1 Episode 3, “Poker Faces,” does the remarkable thing of making matters worse for its characters, sending them into the darkness, but still remaining just as engaging and thrilling. It’s a lot of misery to face during a single episode of television, but it’s a fascinating character study of showing how people react when they’re boxed in with nowhere to go.
Laurie may not be ready to face her doubts, but those doubts are starting to appear. She’s armed with more information than Andy, and he’s armed with more information about his father and the history of violence in their family. Now isn’t the time to be hiding things from one another, but as tensions rise and arguments become more frequent, their trust in each other is needed now more than ever, but may already be starting to show signs of cracking.
What did you think of this episode of Defending Jacob? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Defending Jacob streams Fridays on Apple TV+.
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Kevin Lever
Kevin Lever has been following television closely for most of his life, but in starting to cover it, he has grown a further appreciation. He strives to give the blockbusters their due, and give the lesser known shows a spotlight to find more fans.