Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Elsbeth Season 2 Episode 13.
It’s wild to think just how many “villains,” so to speak, we’ve met in Elsbeth Season 2. I guess “foe” is the better word, since I wouldn’t really consider Lt. Connor (Daniel K. Isaac) to be a villain so much as a man primarily driven by his mandate at the expense of working as a member of the team. But in the time since he came around to being a team player, Elsbeth (Carrie Preston) has had to deal with Mark Van Ness (Michael Park), a client from her past resurfacing, as well as the ongoing threat of Judge Crawford (Michael Emerson). And yet, somewhere in all that, Season 2 Episode 13, “Tearjerker,” made time to introduce yet another foe. One who unfortunately feels all too realistic, especially these days: a toxic, misogynistic nepo baby. But that’s not the only thing happening this week, so let’s dive in.
‘Elsbeth’ Season 2 Episode 13 Sees a Murder on Billionaire’s Row
The episode opens in a swanky restaurant with an incredible view of Manhattan. There, billionaire Nathan Jordan (Larry Pine) is having dinner with his date Chloe (Jordana Brewster), who is considerably younger than he is. The restaurant staff observes that she seems to be bringing out the younger side of him too, as he’s eating and drinking like he hasn’t in quite some time. They also note that he looks happier than he has in a while, so there is that too. They order another round of drinks, and when it arrives, Chloe calls Nathan’s attention to the view outside, and he turns a little morose, ruminating on how he feels as though he’s failed the whole city due to the problems with the building. Chloe points out that he’s done so much good, despite the problems with the building, but more importantly, while he wasn’t looking, she opened and emptied a capsule containing clear liquid directly into Nathan’s drink, a drink that he then downs.
The two of them then head out, after Chloe asks for two orders of tomahawk steak to go. The steak is ostensibly for the dog, but as they walk to the elevator, Chloe tells Nathan to hang on, walks into the trash room, and sends one of the bags of food down the chute. Back in Nathan’s apartment, Chloe gets him changed into his pajamas and tucked into bed, then dons a pair of gloves, deposits a bottle of pills with the rest of Nathan’s pills, opens the balcony door, and leaves, but not before sending the second steak down the trash chute. The thumping of the open balcony door swinging in the wind wakes up Deborah (Victoria Clark) and Jason (Phil Nee), and Deborah heads into Nathan’s apartment to talk to him about keeping the doors closed, but finds him dead instead.
At the precinct the next morning, Captain Wagner (Wendell Pierce) is joined by Captain Kershaw (Jen Colella). When he makes an offhand comment about Nathan Jordan’s death, and how much he hates his building Manhattan Towers and those like it, Kershaw suggests that “her guy,” Detective Rivers (Braeden De La Garza) might be a good fit for the case, as he was the lead detective on the Mertons case, and since his work was so sloppy, she figures he could learn from Wagner and co. Things get off to a terrible start at the crime scene when Elsbeth and Officer Kaya Blanke (Carra Patterson) have the misfortune of meeting Detective Rivers, Kershaw’s “guy”. He’s brash, rude, and assumes he knows better than either of them because he’s the detective on the case and outranks them — and though he never says it, I assume at least a chunk of his disrespect is owing to the fact that both of them are women, and that Blanke is Black. I know he works for Kershaw, and is now working for Wagner, but doubtless in his brain, their respective ranks command his grudging respect, and neither Elsbeth nor Blanke have that advantage.
Elsbeth and Blanke Deal With a Rude Detective in Season 2 Episode 13
Elsbeth and Blanke begin their investigation as normal, and Elsbeth notes that while Nathan is wearing button-up pajamas, all the pairs in his drawer have snap closures. Deborah joins them, and explains that Nathan was her husband, and the snaps were easier for his arthritis. They ask if she’s the one who got him dressed, and she says she wasn’t, as she was in her own apartment with Jason, who is her boyfriend. Rivers immediately goes into overdrive, suggesting Deborah is a gold digger who was having an affair — never mind the fact that she points out that she put Nathan through school, and the two had been separated for years, and were barely speaking since he was declared medically incompetent and blamed her for it. Elsbeth asks her to walk them through her routine, since Deborah is the one that administered Nathan’s medication, and believes that he probably got confused and took more of his pills than he was supposed to.
On the counter, they find the bottle that Chloe left there, one Deborah doesn’t recognize. The bottle contains pentobarbital, a very strong sedative that can be lethal in the wrong doses. Rivers tells Deborah she’s under arrest, claiming that she got the pills from her doctor boyfriend and used them to kill her husband. Deborah advises her to call her attorney right away, and Rivers is angry and being undermined, and rushes to tell on them to the Captain. Blanke wonders why she’s not the acting detective on the case, given that she passed the courses needed for her promotion, and honestly, I have to wonder the same, and why Wagner is dragging his feet on this. I understand added drama for the sake of TV, and higher stakes, but I also really, really want Crawford to come back and cause trouble, as he is considerably less of a strain on my blood pressure.
As Elsbeth and Kaya leave the apartment, Elsbeth notes that while most of the bottles were closed the child-proof way, the pentobarbital was closed with the cap upside-down, which made it easier to open. Blanke also adds that it’s strange for her to use Jason as her alibi if the two of them were conspiring to kill Nathan. Elsbeth concludes that someone was with Nathan the night before, but they need to find out who. As they prepare to leave, Elsbeth notes that she feels like the building is swaying in the wind, which Blanke tells her it has been known to do. While skyscrapers do sway a little in the wind — some in famously windy Chicago even have things like wind tunnels and upper-level water tanks built in to offset this, which I’m sure Elsbeth knows — it’s worth pointing out that the occupants of the building never feel the movement. The fact that Elsbeth and Blanke can feel it speaks to very poor construction.
Elsbeth Tracks Down a Very Expensive Consultant in Season 2 Episode 13
Back at the precinct, Elsbeth and Blanke go through Nathan’s CashShare app (think Venmo) profile, which he left on public. Blanke points out that a lot of people forget to set theirs to private, and she’s used this handy gap in people’s memory to snoop on the people she’s dated. Elsbeth asks if this means she’s done the same with Cameron (Sullivan Jones), her extremely cute tenant, and Blanke acts shocked that Elsbeth would even say such a thing, then admits that she tried, but Cameron had his set to private. Elsbeth then asks what’s happening between them, and Blanke says she’s disappointed that when he sends her rent payments, the only emoji that accompanies them is a house. Why do emojis matter so much? Well, as Blanke points out, emoji use can tell a whole story, as is the case with Nathan and someone just known as “C” in the cash share app. While the exorbitantly high fees he pays her are for her consulting services, the emojis he uses speak to a more romantic — and sexual — relationship. The two of them notice that the most recent payment was accompanied by emojis that indicate “Above the Sky,” the restaurant located in Manhattan Towers.
The two of them head over to the restaurant for more information, and there the maitre d’ explains that the restaurant was built to only serve the residents of the building, but over time a third of the tenants left due to problems with the building. Problems like the wind making the balconies unusable, the swaying causing the swimming pool to constantly spill over, and the fact that the building is so high, anytime someone uses the trash chute, the velocity makes it sound like a bomb going off. That last point, the maitre d’ tells them, is one of the complaints in the lawsuit filed by a group of the building’s apartment owners against the developer, Nathan. The maitre d’ also confirms that Nathan had been at the restaurant the night before, and was actually one of the few residents who consistently dined there still. He shares with them Nathan’s elaborate order, and adds that the fine dining extended to Nathan’s dog, as his date ordered two tomahawk steaks to go.
This sounds suspicious to Elsbeth as there was no sign of a dog in Nathan’s apartment, and while she is right, and this is the right track to follow, I wonder why no one considered that Nathan’s date might have a dog at her place. They ask for more information on Nathan’s date, but all the maitre d’ knows about her is that her name is Chloe. He also adds that in his time working on Billionaire’s Row, he’s seen Chloe on the arm of more than one billionaire. While he may not know much about Chloe, he’s only too happy to provide the names of some of the men he saw her with. They bring them in for interrogation and all of them are similarly cagey about their relationship with her, and what exactly it is she does for them. At least one of them does tell Elsbeth where to find her, though.
Elsbeth heads to Chloe’s office, and is stopped by her assistant Desire (Han Van Sciver), who wants to know why Elsbeth is there. She says she’s there to talk to her as one consultant to another, but omits any additional details, because she’s still not sure what kind of consulting Chloe does, exactly. She gets some idea of what she does, however, when Chloe herself comes out and invites Elsbeth into her office. There, she sees a wall of Chloe’s clients, mostly men, as well as a wardrobe containing a variety of outfits from elegant to sexy. Still under the impression that Elsbeth is there as a referral, Chloe turns on the charm, which actually makes Elsbeth a little nervous. Elsbeth then tells her that she’s a consultant for the police, and asks Chloe what kind of consulting she does. She tells Elsbeth she’s a lifestyle consultant, advising on things like cuisine, fashion, the arts, etc., and that her job is to help her clients improve their lives, and gets generous gifts in exchange, like designer bags, and even a painting, though the latter gift remains in its crate. There’s clearly more going on here, but Elsbeth’s bigger concern is that Chloe was with Nathan the night he died. When she asks about it, though, Chloe says the two of them had dinner together, then she left, and suggests Elsbeth check the security footage. Chloe obviously doesn’t watch enough TV to know that you really shouldn’t volunteer information when you’re trying to get away with something, but just then another client arrives, and Elsbeth excuses herself.
The Police Struggle to Find Motive for Murder in ‘Elsbeth’ Season 2 Episode 13
At the precinct, she catches Blanke up, telling her that she thinks Chloe is definitely an escort, and more importantly, she found a pill bottle in her purse that was capped the same way as the pentobarbital. This isn’t enough evidence to point to murder, especially as Chloe wasn’t in Nathan’s will, so there’s nothing motivating her there. Money also wouldn’t have been a motive for Deborah, as Nathan was declared medically incompetent, and she had control over the money anyway. The residents suing Nathan are also not likely suspects, as none of them were in the country on the day he died. Blanke marvels at the sense of entitlement needed to sue someone over an apartment in a building you’ve never even set foot in, but can’t muse on it further as Mr. Sense of Entitlement himself, Detective Rivers joins them to inform them that he’s arrested Jason. They’re horrified that he would arrest someone without any grounds on which to do so, but he stubbornly maintains that he cracked the case, since pentobarbital isn’t available in pill form in the U.S., and Jason — or as his patients apparently call him, Dr. Sandman — had plenty of it in his office.
Things aren’t looking good for Jason, but luckily, unlike Rivers, Elsbeth and Blanke believe in due diligence. They return to Manhattan Towers to view the security footage from the night of Nathan’s death and the security guard shows them Nathan and Chloe entering the restaurant, and leaving two hours later. Elsbeth notes that the security camera pivots towards the trash room for no discernible reason, and when she asks to see Nathan’s floor, notices that it does the same thing there too. The security guard tells them that the system is AI-controlled, and he’s not sure why it would move like that, but Elsbeth has a theory. One that involves an order of tomahawk steak to go. She throws the bag down the chute and, sure enough, after a few seconds, a loud bang erupts out of the chute, causing the camera to turn towards the trash room, on every floor of the building. Someone familiar with the workings of the camera could use this to her advantage to get in and out of the building undetected.
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They head back to the precinct to update Wagner, but as they arrive, Elsbeth sees that Rivers has brought Deborah in for interrogation to try and pin the murder on Jason. Wagner is annoyed that Rivers is acting like a “caveman” but I’d argue he’s acting like every asshole renegade cop we see on TV whose bad attitude is forgiven because he always catches the criminal. If Chloe hasn’t watched enough police TV shows, then Rivers has watched too many. Elsbeth, however, brings up the famous quote that says men are afraid women will laugh at them, but women are afraid men will kill them to point out that Deborah is probably terrified of the way Rivers is carrying on, and Wagner tells Elsbeth to go swap places with Rivers. There’s been a fairly consistent note throughout the series — and especially this season — of the treatment of women in the workplace, in relationships, and how society and institutions meant to protect them will so often fail them instead. With only seven episodes left in the season, it’s interesting — if also sad and frustrating given the general state of the world — for the show to exemplify this systemic failure so wholeheartedly in Detective Rivers. Ultimately, Elsbeth is the sort of show where justice prevails, and the good people end up on top, so I have no doubt that Rivers will be thoroughly humbled at some point. It’s just waiting for the humbling that’s going to stress me out.
Elsbeth kicks Rivers out of the interrogation room, and he immediately storms over to where Wagner is watching the interrogation, intent on complaining about Elsbeth, but Wagner essentially tells him to sit down, shut up, and watch Elsbeth to learn something about how to question people. Elsbeth asks Deborah about her relationship with Jason, and she explains that the two of them got together with Jason knowing that her marriage to Nathan had been mostly over for decades, save the occasional appearance in public together, but adds that they hadn’t even done that in a while. Nathan, Deborah explains, hated that he was getting older, and eventually stopped leaving the building altogether. Elsbeth then asks about why Nathan was declared medically incompetent, and Deborah explains that she and Jason had him declared as such not due to a diagnosis, but rather due to reckless spending habits. She tells Elsbeth he was spending untold amounts of money on contemporary art, and more recently a very expensive Cezanne painting, as well as rare books, including one delivered the day he died. Deborah says they’re trying to sell the book back to the dealer, and adds that the Cezanne was given away in a private donation. Elsbeth now has a pretty good idea of what’s stashed in that painting crate in Chloe’s office.
Elsbeth heads back to Chloe’s office to find her getting ready to go out that night. She asks her directly about the painting in the crate, and Chloe confirms that was gifted to her by Nathan, and confirms that it’s an original Cezanne, complete with all the authenticity paperwork. Elsbeth points out that a gift that generous might look like a motive for murder, and Chloe agrees, saying she doesn’t even want to hang it up, as she isn’t the kind of person who would want a painting like that to display privately. She adds that the two of them used to talk about investing in contemporary art, meaning she was the one behind the purchases Deborah thought were reckless. When Elsbeth registers surprise that Chloe is so knowledgeable about art, she tells her that she has a Masters in art history, and only decided to become a consultant when she realized how much more lucrative it was, not to mention the nepotism in the art world. Finally, Elsbeth asks her what the process would be for Nathan to buy the Cezanne without Chloe knowing, and the process, it turns out, is fairly extensive. Too extensive for someone medically incompetent, and certainly extensive enough that anyone capable of carrying it out would also be capable enough to determine when they were being given the wrong pills.
Back at the precinct, Wagner inexplicably lets Rivers interrogate Jason next, and apparently, Rivers learned absolutely nothing from watching Elsbeth, eschewing any attempt at being civil or professional in favor of turning in some very 1980s movie bully behavior and dialogue. Jason maintains his innocence in the face of Rivers’ taunting, and says that the only mistake he made was sleeping with Chloe, who in that moment would have had access to his stash. Deborah is brought in, along with Elsbeth, and informed of Jason’s confession. While Deborah berates him, she inadvertently reveals that Chloe and Nathan had been together for years, though adds that she didn’t care about that, as it got Nathan off her back. When Deborah expresses frustration at Nathan dying in the middle of the lawsuit, Elsbeth asks when he was set to testify, and Deborah tells her it would have been tomorrow. Given the stress she’s now under, and facing the prospect of “ruination” due to the lawsuit, it doesn’t make much sense for her to have killed him either. Deborah adds that before he died, Nathan also canceled all the scheduled repairs on the building, giving the plaintiffs even more ammunition.
Rivers Goes Way Too Far in ‘Elsbeth’ Season 2 Episode 13
Rivers has already decided that Chloe is guilty of murder, however, and tells Wagner that she just seduced Jason for access to the pills, then killed Nathan. It’s through the power of his terrible personality alone that I, a person who saw Chloe put something in Nathan’s drink, suddenly want to defend her against this terrible detective. Elsbeth insists that there’s more to the story, but Rivers talks over her, dismissing Chloe as a “prostitute” whose guilt he suspected from the beginning. Besides the derogatory language, he’s also now taking credit for Elsbeth’s ideas and, for some reason, Wagner does not shut this down. Elsbeth reveals that Chloe has the painting, a gift she insists was given out of love, and Rivers believes was in exchange for sex. Wagner tells them to bring Chloe in for questioning, and Rivers is very upset that he doesn’t get to arrest Chloe. I guess he missed the police academy class on due diligence because he was too busy watching TV.
Chloe is brought in, with both Elsbeth and Rivers in the interrogation room — again, unclear why Wagner would let Rivers anywhere near another interrogation after that performance with Jason — and while Elsbeth tries to kick things off in her typical fashion, Rivers goes in for the kill, telling Chloe they know she murdered Nathan after sleeping with Jason to get the pills. She tells them she never slept with Jason, and only went to his office as a patient. Before Rivers can interrupt, Elsbeth tells her that the bigger concern is that, while they have footage of her entering the building, there’s no footage of her leaving, though Chloe assures her she left right after her consultation. Rivers latches on the word “consultation” and uses it to slut-shame Chloe, telling her she should be in jail not for the murder, but rather for what he believes to be her real profession. Since they need a to see if Chloe was in Nathan’s apartment the night he died, they need to take a cheek swab for DNA. Elsbeth tries to be the one to do it, but Rivers refuses and uses the opportunity to humiliate Chloe further by making comments about what she might charge for oral sex, and that’s the last straw for Elsbeth, who uses the power of her consent decree to put a stop to things immediately. Luckily, Wagner arrives immediately to back her up, and throws Rivers out of the interrogation room.
Since Chloe hasn’t been arrested or charged with anything, she exercises her right to leave. Rivers charges back in, demanding that she be kept on a prostitution charge — a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine at most — but at this point, everyone is over his behavior, and Chloe leaves. In his office, Wagner explains that he brought Rivers on board as a favor to Kershaw, and tells Elsbeth that he was the detective on the Mertons case, which explains to Elsbeth why Delia Kirby (Meredith Holzman) was left so thoroughly out to dry. She urges Wagner to give Rivers a reprimand, one that ends up in his permanent file so people know who and what they’re dealing with with him. Before Wagner can agree, Blanke arrives with the book that was delivered the day Nathan died — an early edition of John Keats poetry — which his family provided after the dealer refused to take it back due to water damage on one of the pages. Wagner reads the poem out loud, and the sheer tragic romance of it makes Elsbeth cry, which sparks one of her patented brainwaves.
The next day, she heads down to Chloe’s office to speak with her again and tells her she knows what she did for Nathan, then walks her through it, saying Nathan was behaving like he knew he was going to die. He had gout, yet their dinner order was full of things people with gout tend to avoid, because he knew it didn’t matter. He delayed the repairs on the building because the wind and the noise from the trash chute benefited his plan, which was to have Chloe get him the pills to end his life while framing Deborah and Jason for murder. Once they had him declared medically incompetent, Nathan decided he wanted to go on his own terms, and framing Deborah and Jason for murder meant that they would no longer have access to his money. So he had Chloe seduce Jason to gain access to the pills, which she would slip into his drink, then distract the cameras with the heavy steaks to slip into his apartment and set everything up.
Elsbeth Finds a Surprising Motive in Season 2 Episode 13
Elsbeth notes that the plan would have worked, if not for a few slip-ups: the button-up pajamas indicated someone else was there to help him get dressed, given his arthritis, and the fact that Chloe capped the pills the same way she capped her own, rather than how Deborah capped the rest. As for motive, Elsbeth says she knows Chloe didn’t do it for money, but rather because she cared about Nathan, loved him even, as the water damage was caused by her crying while reading Nathan the Keats poem before he died. From a legal perspective, the tears on the book are what place Chloe in Nathan’s apartment on the night in question, and despite acknowledging how and why Chloe did what she did, Blanke still arrives to arrest her. Elsbeth even offers her a recommendation for an attorney, and while Chloe passes on that, she does ask Elsbeth to take the Cezanne to a museum where it belongs.
Back at the precinct, Rivers is pissed that they didn’t let him make the arrest, as it was his case, but given that he had nothing to do with solving it, he doesn’t have much of a leg to stand on. Wagner has Kershaw come in and explain her real reasons for pawning Rivers off on him, since it’s clear he’s not there to learn from anyone. Kershaw asks Wagner to give him another chance, saying they have to put up with him because his uncle is the Chief of Detectives. Wagner calls Rivers in next, orders him to attend mandatory counseling and to dress more professionally, and adds that he’ll be putting a reprimand in his file. Not sure how much that will do, given the nepotism and all, but at least Rivers doesn’t fight him on it.
Blanke heads back towards her desk, texting with Cameron as she goes about their respective days, and he ends the little exchange with a heart emoji. She can protest all she likes, but it’s clear she’s very into her tenant. The high of the heart emoji comes crashing down, however, when she finds Rivers sitting at her desk. She asks why he’s there, and he explains he had a bad day and needed somewhere to sit. Her attempts at offering some advice are very rudely rebuffed when he points out that he outranks her. She then politely but firmly kicks him out of her chair and informs him she’s being promoted, so he doesn’t actually outrank her like he thinks he does. At least he leaves without a fight — and with his face unslapped, because Blanke is stronger than I will ever be — and Kershaw comes over next, having heard the way Blanke put Rivers in his place. She tells Blanke that her precinct is always on the lookout for strong women, and urges her to stay in touch once she’s promoted. Why do I get the feeling the Season 2 finale cliffhanger is gonna see Blanke leaving for another precinct?
New episodes of Elsbeth Season 2 premiere Thursdays on CBS.
Elsbeth
Elsbeth Season 2 Episode 13 puts yet another interesting spin on its format, while introducing yet another foe for the season.
- Release Date
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February 29, 2024
- Network
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CBS
- I love any time the series takes its howcatchem premise and manages to turn it on its head in an exciting new way.
- This new detective Kearnshaw forced on the precinct is great in that he’s a realistic villain, but terrible in that I want him gone immediately because he annoys me.
