Carrie Preston Delivers Her Best ‘Elsbeth’ Performance to Date on the CBS Procedural

Carrie Preston‘s Elsbeth Tascioni may strike one as being a one-note character, especially if you’re not as invested as we Fanscioni’s (?) are. But in Season 3’s latest Elsbeth episode, “Murder, He Wrote,” Preston assuages such presumptions with her best performance in the series to date. It certainly doesn’t hurt that guest star Griffin Dunne delivers a truly memorable, terrifying villain with author Elliott Pope, and a host of alums from Perfect Strangers, Friends, one from Grease and Grease 2, and four returnees from previous episodes.

Some People Can’t Take Criticism In ‘Elsbeth’s “Murder, He Wrote”

Image via CBS

Elliott Pope (Dunne) is reading a chapter from one of his books to an audience in an Authors in Conversation seminar, hosted by long-time friend Barney Corman (Mark Linn-Baker), a bookstore owner and critic. After his reading, Elliott sits down with Barney for an interview, with Barney citing how a new novel by Elliott is a major event. They talk about how their hometown of Massapequa features prominently in his books, a shared past that Barney honors by recusing himself from criticizing Elliott’s works. He then alludes to how the characters mirror people they’ve known — which Elliott chalks up to happenstance — before making reference to Elliott’s early, smutty bestsellers.

Afterward, they go to the back room of Barney’s Books, where Barney’s office is. The back room is a rat’s nest, literally, with one rat, which Barney named Templeton, scurrying about, having dodged all attempts to catch him. Barney begins to talk about how well the evening went, but Elliott is more concerned about the negative points Barney brought up, aggressively expressing his dissatisfaction. The tense moment dies down, with Barney asking if Elliott is stuck on a project, and offers to read what he’s written so far for his latest novel. Elliott relents, and hands Barney his current work. It’s still in longhand, Elliott notes, and if it gets lost, “I’ll kill you.” Cue the nervous laughter.

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Two months pass without a word from Barney. He makes his way to the bookstore and rearranges the displays, so his books are more prominent as he waits for Barney to finish with a customer. They go to the back room, where Barney shows a first edition copy of “Howard’s End” by E.M. Forster. Elliott thumbs through it, but what he wants is his manuscript, which Barney notes has some flaws. “Some” is a lot, with Barney calling it another “sad, masturbatory exercise steeped in misogyny and casual cruelty,” damning Elliott for using the good people of Massapequa as fodder, all but his sainted mother and her precious tuna sandwiches. Elliott rips into Barney, aggressively confronting him before breaking the tension, feigning he was simply upset. But when Barney is standing beside a bookcase, Elliott pushes another one over, creating a domino effect that traps Barney. Traps, that is, thanks to a footstool that prevents it from falling directly on him, until Elliott pulls it away. Deed done, Elliott takes the manuscript, turns the bookstore’s sign to Closed, and returns home, throwing the manuscript in with a host of others.

Elsbeth Senses Something Darker in Barney’s “Accident” in ‘Elsbeth’s “Murder, He Wrote”

Eighteen months later, Elliott is at another Authors in Conversation event, hosted by Fred Harrison (Arnie Burton, from “Poetic Justice“), reading a chapter from his latest book, with Elsbeth and Sheryl Jacobs (Marcia DeBonis, from “Unalive and Well“) in the audience. Afterward, Elliott takes questions from the audience, and Elsbeth has a few. One character in the book, Marty, who dies in an avalanche, bears a resemblance to Barney, but she was surprised he’d be on a ski trip, not being very athletic. Furthermore, the narrator Edgar says his and Marty’s eyes meet just before he dies, but if Marty died in an avalanche, wouldn’t Edgar as well? It gets more convoluted following the event, as Elsbeth has Elliott sign her book. She apologizes for the questions if he was offended, but can’t help herself when he says he heard about Barney’s death in the newspaper, despite an earlier claim that his widow called him personally.

Back at the precinct, Elsbeth drops a handful of Elliott Pope books on the table, telling Wagner (Wendell Pierce) and Lt. Connor (Daniel K. Isaac). Apart from noting that he’s not good at writing women, his newest book, Snow Falls Down, is different. Normally, Elliott’s narrator alter-ego is typically ravaged by guilt, but not at all in this one, despite causing the avalanche that killed him. With the help of Hackett (Lindsay Mendez), Elsbeth lays out an argument about the weakness of the initial investigation. Wagner thinks it’s a waste of time, but leaves the decision to allow Elsbeth to investigate in Connor’s hands. Connor agrees there’s something there, and off she goes.

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Elsbeth and Hackett arrive at the bookstore, where Barney’s widow, Bev (Didi Conn), is restocking. She asks to look in the storeroom, which she’s kept locked up since Barney’s death, but isn’t keen about Templeton. She calls in a favor from Brad and Jill (Mihir Kumar and Arianna Gayle, from “I See… Murder“), who trap the critter. They go into the storeroom, where Elsbeth follows the arc of the bookcases, noting the last one would have fallen on the footstool, which now has a scratch that matches the molding on the bookcase. Alongside a witness who noticed the store was closed at 6:40 that night, she’s given the green light to proceed.

Elsbeth meets up with Elliott on the sidewalk, going to a shop down the street to get a tuna fish sandwich like his mother used to make. She discloses they’ve reopened the case thanks to that new evidence, but he surprises her by inviting Elsbeth to dinner at Gogol’s, claiming he wants to know more about her. Elsbeth, however, gets an opportunity to know him better after Bev finds a log from Barney’s fax machine that shows he’s been faxing Maura (Joanna Gleason), Elliott’s first wife, frequently. It turns out he’d been writing reviews of Elliott’s work for years, sending them to Maura for a laugh. The last one is about a book called Troubled Pants, which was never released. A sneak peek, perhaps? Maura agrees, admitting that Elliott would let people read his work for a shot of adulation, which he also received from the young female grad students he is no longer allowed to hire after sexual assault allegations.

Elsbeth Writes the Epilogue to Elliott Pope’s Story in “Murder, He Wrote”

Image via CBS

“We’ll both have the borscht,” Elliott tells the waiter at Gogol’s, dismissing Elsbeth’s claim that he didn’t need to order for her and topping off her schnapps. He wants to hear about her “hopes and dreams,” but she pulls out two photos from the bookstore, one before Barney died and one after, noting that Elliott’s books are prominently displayed in the latter, which doesn’t square with the reviews Barney wrote about his books, the ones he didn’t know were being sent to Maura. And what about Troubled Pants? Elliott says it doesn’t ring a bell, then suggests that they go back to his place to “celebrate,” prompting a disgusted “No” from Elsbeth. Back home, alone, he sets fire to Troubled Pants.

It’s not enough to scare off Elsbeth, who meets Elliott at his house with a peace offering: a tuna sandwich, like his mother used to make. Only she never did, but instead bought from the shop down the street from his childhood home, shattering his illusion that she was the only woman who had never done him wrong. In an instant, Elliott’s demeanor changes, telling Elsbeth she won’t find the manuscript, the lawsuits were “misunderstandings,” and the only woman problem he has is women trying to trap him. He aggressively pushes towards Elsbeth, creating general concern for her safety in one of the few instances of such in the series, before demanding she get out.

Elsbeth does, only to reappear with Hackett and Connor at another seminar. She confronts him, noting how the death of a character in Howard’s End is eerily similar to how Barney died. Coincidence? Not likely. Elliott’s DNA is found in Barney’s copy of the book, on the very page that has the death in it, thanks to a habit he has of licking his thumb to turn pages, just as he did when signing Elsbeth’s copy of his book. Elliott’s story comes to an end, walked out on the charge of murdering Barney.

As for Alec Bloom (Ivan Hernandez), he wins the mayoral race but loses Elsbeth. In a show-stopping, heartrending scene, Elsbeth breaks up, unable to look past lying outright to him about Pete. She understands being a people-pleaser, but what she can’t abide is losing herself, and knowing that her gift of knowing when something’s not right was greatly compromised by their relationship is too much. It’s over, but it may have dashed Wagner’s hopes of being police commissioner, which is awarded to his rival, Tully, instead. But is Tully going to look into Elsbeth’s consent decree? We’ll see, perhaps as early as the next episode, when Kaya (Carra Patterson) returns!

Release Date

February 29, 2024

Directors

Nancy Hower, Robert King, Lionel Coleman, Rob Hardy, Robin Givens, Ron Underwood, Rosemary Rodriguez, Aisha Tyler, Bille Woodruff, James Whitmore Jr., Joe Menendez, Kevin Rodney Sullivan, Lily Mariye, Nick Gomez, Peter Sollett, Sam Hoffman, Tyne Rafaeli, Darren Grant, Fong-Yee Yap, Mary Lou Belli

Pros & Cons

• Carrie Preston is absolutely spellbinding here, with a powerful and emotional break-up speech that is utterly heartrending.
• Griffin Dunne is a very unlikeable villain, in the best of ways, and is among only a handful that have legitimately caused viewers concern for Elsbeth’s life.
• An excellent cast all-around, with Mark Linn-Baker a standout for his performance, albeit brief, as the ill-fated Barney.
• The return of characters from previous episodes, which has been a welcome and strong addition this season, marks a triumphant return.

• Only one: Didi Con(n). See what I did there?