Spoilers ahead for the winter premiere of Elsbeth Season 2, called "Unalive and Well" and streaming now with a Paramount+ subscription.
Elsbeth finally returned to CBS in the 2025 TV schedule, with Carrie Preston's character forced to deal with some of her dirty dealings from her Chicago days being made public. Fans of The Good Wife and The Good Fight already knew that Elsbeth was a very different woman earlier in her career; now, Kaya and Co. are getting a better idea of that. Elsbeth wasn't quite her usual perky self in "Unalive and Well," and showrunner Jonathan Tolins praised the leading lady for portraying the title character's "darker side."
Ms. Tascioni was actually separated from most of her friends for "Unalive and Well," in a stark change from when they worked together in the fall finale to bust Laurie Metcalf's killer character. Kaya was struggling with Elsbeth confessing that the headlines about her were true, and the situation wasn't helped by Elsbeth being bound by attorney/client privilege. She finally broke down during her wellness retreat when speaking with an unlikely person.
Fortunately, that person wasn't Tom Murphey, the murderer played by a chilling Eric McCormack, but her activity partner Sheryl. Elsbeth confessed that she was so angry because she'd been tricked, and that wasn't something she was used to. When I spoke with the showrunner, I noted that it was one of Carrie Preston's best dramatic performances of the show so far, and Jonathan Tolins said:
I love it. I feel like because we have the gift of so much time now [with] so many episodes, I love when we get glimpses of other parts of her character and what's going on. I think that anyone who is that cheerful that much of the time must have other things happening too. [laughs] We hinted at it in the first season, where she said that she had a lot of moods when she was with the matchmaker in that episode. And she's a woman of a certain age who lives alone. I mean, now she has a dog, but she has a son who she doesn't get to see as often as she would like.
Elsbeth may present herself as cheerful and upbeat most of the time, wearing bright colors and carrying armfuls of tote bags, but there's certainly more to her. There were hints earlier in the season of how hard everything was hitting her as her past collided with her present, leading to her nearly breaking down when son Teddy came to town. Thanks to the hit drama getting a full season rather than just ten episodes like in spring 2024, there's more time to explore more layers of the character. The showrunner went on:
I love when we're able to show darker sides of Elsbeth, but only when it seems to come up organically. Putting her in this wellness center with a kind of guru who was able to get at people's most vulnerable places was a great opportunity, because Carrie is such an honest and emotionally available actress. Also pairing her with Marcia Debonis, who is just so emotionally available and raw and sweet. It just felt like such a great pairing to let Elsbeth really open up, and that's one of my favorite scenes we've ever done, at the campfire when Elsbeth unburdens herself to Sheryl.
Elsbeth's breakdown in "Unalive and Well" isn't a sign that the character is going to take a permanent dark turn, as she opened up to Kaya for help at the end of the episode and the promo for the next shows that she's back to her perkier approach to solving crimes. Who knew that she just needed an outside perspective in the form of her partner at a wellness retreat? Jonathan Tolins weighed in on Sheryl as the right person for Elsbeth to open up to:
I find often that it's surprising who we end up telling our deepest secrets to, and this is someone that she's just met in the last day or two, and they've gone through all these exercises at a wellness center, but it's just the right person at the right time. I think people are going to really love that.
The showrunner went on to say that it can be easier to open up to somebody new because "there's less on the line and there's less history to deal with," and that perspective was clearly what Elsbeth needed to realize she could ask her friends for help.
It remains to be seen if Elsbeth and Kaya will have any of their heavier conversations about her Chicago past on screen, but they certainly seem to be as solid a team as ever in the promo for the next episode, which airs on Thursday, February 6 at 10 p.m. ET on CBS. Take a look:
The show's streak of recruiting fun guest stars continues with former Succession cast member Alan Ruck! Season 2 has included plenty of big names as bad guys, starting with Nathan Lane in the premiere, adding Carrie Preston's real-life husband Michael Emerson in late 2024, all the way to Eric McCormack to start 2025. Tune in next Thursday for Alan Ruck!
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