Elsbeth’s new career path is coming back to haunt her in the Elsbeth Season 2 finale. Pretty much nothing has gone according to plan in the past few episodes of the Carrie Preston-led series, as Judge Crawford (Michael Emerson) was shot to death before he could be brought to justice, and another judge decided to punish Elsbeth for the death.
She bothered a witness, so she’s going to jail. It just so happens to be the same jail that holds all the murderers she’s brought to justice over the past two seasons. So now she’s surrounded by a bunch of murderous weirdos who hate her guts and think she ruined their life. They committed the murders, but it’s Elsbeth’s fault that they got caught! It’s a very whimsical jail situation, but the danger is real, and Elsbeth’s going to have to watch her back–or maybe even someone else’s back–even in the midst of prison drama rehearsal and prison arts and crafts.
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Everybody’s favorite consent decree lawyer (and the only one most of us know) is still reeling from recent events, which brought her quest to bring down Judge Crawford to a sudden and unsatisfying end. For Elsbeth, she was mourning a failure of justice. For Preston, who has been married to Emerson since 1998, she was watching her husband die in front of her, which was new.
“I’ve seen him do scenes where he gets beat up a million times,” she told Parade. “It’s always uncomfortable and unpleasant to watch. I’ve seen him do a play where he died on stage — devastating. So that was a challenge, but we were in such great hands with our director and our crew and the writing. I think it was such a great thing to add to our show that it was worth it to see my husband bleeding out on the steps of a courthouse.”
Crawford and Elsbeth were in the middle of a sort of battle of wits as he tried to stay one step ahead of her at all times, blocking every attempt she and the NYPD made to catch him for murdering a man and framing a slightly deranged woman named Delia. Delia did not commit that murder, but she did gun Crawford down when she felt that was the only way to get out of her situation.
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“Delia was innocent of killing Andy Mertens. But she did beat up a woman’s car with a baseball bat, you know,” showrunner Jonathan Tolins pointed out. “She did have these signs of instability. We just felt like, ‘Oh my god, we’d been writing towards this and we didn’t realize it.'”
Tolins said that when Episode 7, in which Crawford made his debut, was written, he and the writers had not yet decided exactly how the story would end.
“We knew we wanted Crawford to get away with it, because that’s a new thing for Elsbeth to deal with,” he explained. “And it felt a little bit like something that would happen in the world.”
Crawford may have died, but he got away with his reputation intact, and now Elsbeth is paying the price. If there’s one thing a corrupt judge hates, it’s when another corrupt judge gets attacked. Now, Elsbeth’s in jail for no real reason, alongside a whole bunch of her enemies, some of whom are singing.
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As the finale promos revealed, returning guest stars like Alyssa Milano, Retta, Mary-Louise Parker, Gina Gershon and Elizabeth Lail perform their own version of Chicago‘s “Cell Block Tango.” And Elsbeth is also confronted with André De Shields, Arian Moayed, and her pilot foe, Stephen Moyer. It’s a cast almost worthy of a Good Wife spinoff crossover with Orange is the New Black.
“It was just like a big social time,” Preston said. “I deliberately went really hard on this episode, making sure I could get as much into my brain as I could. Because I knew when I got on set with [the guest stars], all I was going to want to do was play and hang out and gossip and have snacks…and that ended up being such a delight.”
At the same time, Elsbeth has to come to terms with her son Teddy’s future ambitions and her own future without BFF Kaya (Carra Patterson) by her side all the time. Kaya’s now a detective with an undercover assignment, meaning she’s going to be appearing on the show and in Elsbeth’s life a whole lot less. But don’t worry too much, according to Preston.
“She’s very much a part of the show,” she promised. “It’s just in a different capacity.”
There’s just a lot going on for Ms. Tascioni as Season 2 comes to a close, but if there’s anyone who knows how to make the best of a bad/weird situation, it’s Elsbeth.
Elsbeth‘s Season 2 finale airs Thursday, May 8 at 9 p.m. on CBS.
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