ELSBETH Post-Mortem: Jonathan Tolins on the Unexpected Team-Up Against Crawford - Give Me My Remote : Give Me My Remote

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ELSBETH Post-Mortem: Jonathan Tolins on the Unexpected Team-Up Against Crawford

December 19, 2024 by  

Elsbeth Wagner team up against Crawford

“Toil and Trouble” – Elsbeth is thrown into the world of television after the showrunner of a long-running police procedural is brutally murdered in his office, and although it appears to be the act of a disgruntled fan, she begins to suspect the show’s longtime star Regina Coburn (Laurie Metcalf) who yearns for artistic fulfillment. Meanwhile, Judge Crawford (Michael Emerson) continues to be a thorn in Elsbeth’s side, on the CBS original series ELSBETH, Thursday, Dec. 19 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network, and streaming on Paramount+ (live and on demand for Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers, or on demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the episode airs)* Pictured (L-R): Wendell Pierce as Captain Wagner and Michael Emerson as Judge Milton Crawford Photo: CBS ©2024 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Highest quality screengrab available.

[Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Thursday, December 19 episode of ELSBETH.]

A teeny tiny homicide on the set of a police procedural wasn’t enough to derail Elsbeth (Carrie Preston) from her larger mystery on the Thursday, December 19 fall finale of ELSBETH: Trying to get insight into Judge Crawford (Michael Emerson), whom she suspected committed a murder—and got away with it.

After Elsbeth did some digging, Crawford confronted Wagner (Wendell Pierce) at a party, questioning what the lawyer was up to…and threatening her. Wagner, who was in the dark, then spoke to Elsbeth, who told the captain about her suspicions.

Though Wagner warned Elsbeth that Crawford was dangerous, he also made his support clear: “Now, what do we have to do to take this sonuvabitch down?”

Having Wagner and Elsbeth team up against Crawford—an echo to last season’s serialized arc when the duo were on opposite sides of the mystery as Elsbeth was trying to see if Wagner was corrupt—allows the lawyer and captain to work together in a new way. 

“Wagner has different things to offer,” ELSBETH showrunner Jonathan Tolins tells Give Me My Remote. “He’s got more connections with the other police departments. He also is connected in the world of society that the judge is in, as well. But, basically, it’s them figuring it out together, which we liked.”

“One of the things we find is it’s very hard to stay mad at Elsbeth,” he continues. “And so, actually, we have an episode coming up where we introduce a new detective who can be more adversarial with her again because it really doesn’t feel right—you can’t have people keep being irritated with her when she ends up solving so many cases. [And] because she’s such a dear person, the other characters just seem like a jerk if they hate her forever. So we’re finding new ways to sort of have new alignments, new partnerships for Elsbeth. And also the relationship between Elsbeth and Wagner has grown; their chemistry is so wonderful [and] it’s fun to see them working together.”

Unfortunately for Elsbeth, though, Crawford had already made his first move: A television news report detailed Elsbeth’s former high-profile Chicago case, with the allegation that the lawyers withheld crucial information that could invalidate the prenup…and Kaya (Carra Patterson), who had the program on, was stunned to see her friend might be involved.

“What led Elsbeth to move to New York was pretty messy, and it’s not so great,” Tolins notes. “It doesn’t look so great for her. And Kaya is her friend and loves her, but it’s information that’s difficult to process. We’re going to see them sort of work through it together.”

“I love their friendship,” he continues. “First of all, Carrie and Carra are really wonderful together, and I think that the chemistry you see onscreen is really genuine because they have the same chemistry offscreen; that’s another thing that we’re following: What’s just happening organically between them, and it’s great to see. But it’s tough. We’re gonna go through some tough stuff between them.”

ELSBETH, Thursdays, 10/9c, CBS

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