Elsbeth, the charming spinoff of The Good Wife, features Elsbeth Tascioni (Carrie Preston) trying to figure out how crimes were committed. The series premiere sees the titular character arriving in New York City in time to help the NYPD with a crime that looks like a suicide but turns out to be a murder.
The crime
Acting student Olivia (Alex Costello) is stabbed on stage. But it's OK, it's the final act of Professor Alex Modarian's (Stephen Moyer) play. Todd (Arthur Langlie) congratulates Alex on a successful performance, but he doesn't see Alex starting the timer on his phone. He says he's going to congratulate the cast, but the play is still going when he slips into the dressing room and goes to Olivia's station, swapping out the pills in her purse. The cast takes its bows as he finishes, barely getting his rubber gloves off as the women come in.
A bloody Olivia stands in the doorway. She's not happy with her "one line" and threatens to go to the Dean to report Alex for sleeping with his students. She wants him to be cancelled. She tells him to send her the keys to her apartment because she never wants to see him again.
But that night, Alex slips into Olivia's apartment and finds her barely alive, having taken one of the pills. He swaps them back, then covers her head with a plastic bag so she suffocates. He uses her finger to open her laptop, searching for a suicide website. He then clones the SIM card on her phone and leaves.
Welcome to New York
Elsbeth Tascioni is the lone patron on the tour bus, so she talks with the tour guide how she’s from Chicago but hoping the job she's in New York for becomes permanent because she loves the city.
Off the bus, Elsbeth arrives outside Olivia's building where she meets Officer Kaya Blanke (Carra Patterson). She asks to see Detective Smullen, revealing she's there as part of a consent decree wrongful death lawsuit as an outside observer to watch over the NYPD.
Kaya details the police presence is so big because Olivia's parents own a big company. As a lawyer, Elsbeth never saw actual crime scenes before, noting as she examines Olivia's body that this is "better."
Detective Smullen (Danny Mastrogiorgio) questions Lana (Julia McDermott), who says Olivia skipped the cast party and was thinking about calling the suicide hotline. When Elsbeth looks over his shoulder, Smullen tells her to go away. Kaya explains she's part of the consent decree and that Captain Wagner (Wendell Pierce) wanted her there.
Smullen calls Wagner, who admits he doesn’t want Elsbeth there either, but she’s there on behalf of City Hall because of all the wrongful arrest lawsuits against the department, but assuring him she'll go away eventually.
Meanwhile, Elsbeth looks through Olivia’s medicine cabinet and asks the nearby coroner how many pills it would take to kill her. The coroner says 10 pills, but her cause of death was the bag taped around her head. Elsbeth notes a teeth whitener in the trash can and Old Irish deodorant in the cabinet. She also spots an empty diaphragm case.
Smullen wants Elsbeth to wait outside, but that's when she reveals she doesn't think this is a suicide. Smullen dismisses her but Kaya wants to know why. Elsbeth theorizes someone about to commit suicide wouldn't be whitening their teeth while they do it, and if her diaphragm was in then she was probably expecting to have sex.
As Elsbeth's leaving she runs into Alex. She follows him and sees him talking to the other students about how she was "crushed" by his casting. Smullen walks in and asks them about the texts they received from her. Elsbeth rides the elevator with Alex and asks about New York plays to see. Outside, though, she asks him if anyone would want Olivia dead, which causes him to ask if they’re investigating it as a murder.
The investigation
Smullen briefs Wagner that the case is no longer a suicide because "the lawyer" has the medical examiner looking into it as a murder. Wagner assigns Kaya to watch over Elsbeth and keep her out of trouble. Then he calls Agent Celetano (Danny McCarthy) at the DOJ to get information about Elsbeth. Wagner was hoping for a "get along" lawyer but got Elsbeth instead.
Elsbeth observes Alex's acting class and watches him help Lana and the students understand a scene about cheating. He says believable acting is when the face and the body line up; otherwise, it's "bad acting." He looks up and sees Elsbeth in the audience, which gives him pause.
Elsbeth catches Alex after class and compliments his techniques. But she also has some questions for him, like what deodorant he uses? He's not amused because one of his students has been killed, but she points out it still could be a suicide. He admits he's a Ralph Lauren man then dismisses her when he needs to make a call. After she leaves, Alex makes his call and says they shouldn't meet that night.
Elsbeth sneaks back in and hears Alex say the name "Lana." She then asks him about the text Olivia sent. It has two spaces after each period, which is usually something older people do. In fact, none of Olivia’s previous texts have two spaces. Alex promises to keep an eye out for a murder who wears Old Irish deodorant and uses two spaces in their texts. He calls Elsbeth a "funny one" and promises her tickets to The Lion King.
In the computer lab, Alex prints out a message that reads, in part, "why won't you meet with me?"
Wagner finds Elsbeth and complains she's supposed to be following the police but instead they're following her. She explain she’s been a lawyer for 30 years and she knows she's represented people who were guilty; this is a chance to find the truth. He asks why she's following Alex? She says guilty men tend to go see the crime scenes, she just doesn't have any proof yet.
The motive
Elsbeth rushes to Alex’s office and finds Kaya and Smullen there looking at a note from a possible stalker named Trevor. Smullen believes this indicated motive, so he's going to investigate.
Kaya, stuck with Elsbeth, mention there were two spaces on the stalker's note, which Alex happened to find. She wants to find more writing samples but before they leave the school she spots the playbills from some of Alex's other plays. That's when she makes a connection that Lana the student is the Lana Alex was calling.
In the dressing room, Elsbeth praises Lana's performance in class. She asks if Lana is dating Alex. Lana asks if he's in trouble, but says they're not dating, though Elsbeth observes her hands clenching. She refers to Alex's acting advice about the face and body not lining up, but Lana insists she didn't date him to get the role. Kaya spots a syllabus from Alex's class and borrows it; two spaces after the periods. They look at the playbills again and guess that each semester he sleeps with a different student in exchange for favors.
They visit Beatrice (Chelsea Lee Williams), who was Alex's favorite the semester before. She refuses to sign a statement about Alex giving roles to students who sleep with him, even though she confirms it. If they can find proof, she'll sign it. "Well, that's the motive," Elsbeth says. "Now we just need to prove it," Kaya agrees. Kaya shares Elsbeth's theory that Alex chooses a new student each semester to Wagner and Smullen.
The proof
Elsbeth finds Alex at a party, with Kaya wandering in after her. She shows Alex copies of his syllabus and Olivia's texts. She points out similar spelling errors and spacing issues between them. She suspects he wrote the texts to give himself an alibi and believes he copied Olivia's SIM card. He introduces them to Todd, who he says types his syllabi. Alex asks him about his cologne, and it's Old Irish deodorant.
Todd sobs while being questioned. He had been with Olivia and his DNA showed up on the Old Irish. Smullen thanks Elsbeth for her help on the case. Kaya tells her to keep watching Todd's video; turns out he only copies and pastes the syllabi.
Elsbeth goes to Wagner and tells him Todd didn't kill Olivia, asking if they found the SIM card reader on Todd, but Wagner doesn't answer and instead demands Elsbeth apologize to Alex.
Elsbeth brings cookies to Alex, saying she admires his "craft" and appreciated their "jousts." Kaya approaches and says Wagner got a search warrant for Todd's apartment. He overhears Elsbeth say they won't find the SIM reader there. They leave and Alex goes to see Todd in the control room. He says the police are still pressing him about the texts. Alex sets his alarm again and hurries to the dressing room to plant the SIM reader in Todd's bag.
Wagner, Smullen and the police are there and catch him in the act. Alex praises Elsbeth and Kaya's acting. As he’s being led away, he asks if she's seen Cats yet and tells her to think of him.
Wagner asks how they’re going to make this arrangement work and Elsbeth's thrilled they want to continue working with her. After he leaves, she gets a call from Celetano, who wants to know if she's ready to start. She doesn't think Wagner is doing anything wrong but he reminds her that "nice people can be corrupt." Elsbeth says she really doesn't want to do this, but he says this is her new job and "the truth means putting people in jail."
Elsbeth airs Thursdays at 10 pm ET/PT on CBS, with new episodes available to stream the following day on Paramount Plus.
