Spoilers for the Season 1 finale of CBS' Elsbeth, called "A Fitting Finale."
Elsbeth arrived in primetime as part of CBS' lineup in the 2024 TV schedule, and it was originally hard to say what to expect from a spinoff of The Good Wife and The Good Fight that looked so very different from those shows. It's clear now that those two are not required viewing for Elsbeth, but "A Fitting Finale" did seem to be setting her up to return to Chicago due to Captain Wagner's feelings of betrayal.
Carrie Preston spoke with CinemaBlend about the Season 1 finale that not only resolved the conflict between Elsbeth and the NYPD captain, but made the leading lady feel understandably emotional ahead of Season 2.
As Preston had previewed, Elsbeth was off her game during the investigation into the murder of a fashion photographer due to her impending (and unwanted) return to Chicago. She didn't foresee these consequences to her actions toward Wagner, and the situation seemed pretty helpless... until she was roped into walking the runway at a fashion show, with Cass Elliot's "Make Your Own Kind of Music" playing and Wagner turning up to show his support.
When I spoke with Carrie Preston after she'd finished filming the full first season as the quirky investigator, I noted that "Make Your Own Kind of Music" was really the perfect song for Elsbeth on the runway, and the actress responded:
I know! Actually, I got really emotional when we were shooting that. It's one thing to know that song, but then to be walking down a runway with your friends looking on, and I certainly have never walked a runway before. There was this vulnerability there for myself as an actor, but then also the deep vulnerability that Elsbeth is feeling at this pivotal moment in her life where she thinks she's done and she has to go home. So that music was a real heart-melter for all of us.
Luckily, it was a heart-melter in a good way, as Kaya and Detective Donnelly were already there to show her some support. Carrie Preston went on to share what it meant to her character to see Captain Wagner show up for her when she was in such a vulnerable moment in front of so many people, saying:
Oh, I think it's the olive branch that she was praying for and hoping for, and it takes her by such surprise but it also is really the wind that she needed in her sails. Because as soon as he shows up, she gets that clue that she needs. It's like the dam has broken and her brain starts working properly again and she's able to find that one last clue that she needed to solve the case. Just looking in his face did that.
Elsbeth may have spent most of the episode struggling to find the killer among model Nadine (Laura Benanti) and fashion designer Matteo (Andre De Shields) after first meeting them without getting a hunch, but she managed to crack the case after getting that show of support from Wagner. I mentioned to Preston that she cracked the case in a very Elsbeth way up on that runway, and she agreed, saying:
Yes, exactly! I mean, it's true. She's walking your runway, she's wearing six thousand different things on her body, and she's in front of an audience. And then she has this deep and emotional connection while she also looks in the sunglasses of some lady and realizes, Oh, that's the glue!' [laughs] I just think it was perfect for her.
While Elsbeth getting one last win would have added some sweet to the bitterness of her being sent back to Chicago, Captain Wagner got rid of the bitterness altogether by the end of the finale. Instead of cutting her off from NYPD investigations, he gave her an office of her own and declared that he intends to find her a more permanent position. Elsbeth gets to stay after all!
With the investigation into Captain Wagner over by the time the final credits rolled on Season 1, it was the end of Elsbeth's big ongoing arc. With the early renewal, will Elsbeth Season 2 start another arc instead of just procedural-style episodes each week? Carrie Preston previewed:
I think so, just because that's good writing [and] good storytelling. I don't know what that arc is gonna be, but Jon Tolins and our writers are really wonderful and inventive, and did such an incredible job on Season 1. So I'll be just as excited as you and the audience hopefully to see what those B and C storylines are going to be while we're still doing our crime of the week, kind of structure. I think that now that the show has been established, I think the writers are probably going to start messing around a little bit with the structure, keeping the audience and all of us on our toes in a really good way.
Unfortunately, it'll be a while until we see what's next, as this was the last episode until Season 2 in the fall. For now, you can always revisit the first season of Elsbeth streaming via a Paramount+ subscription. When Carrie Preston and Co. do return for the second season, Elsbeth will follow Kathy Bates' Matlock on Thursday nights.
