Another day, another shallow suspect.
Elsbeth Season 3 Episode 14 involved a murder at a debutante ball that almost felt like a rerun.
The story was entertaining enough, but the guilty party was far too obvious, and I didn’t even care that her motive was relatable.
The Murder On Elsbeth Season 2 Episode 14 Was Revenge For Bullying
In theory, the story made a powerful statement despite its silliness.
Izzy had been so deeply hurt by Sterling’s cruel bullying when she was a debutante herself that she devoted time and energy to a complicated and violent revenge plan.
Make no mistake about it, what that man did to Izzy way back when was horrible and unacceptable in only the way teenage boys without any sense of empathy can be.
It didn’t help that she’d stolen her father’s credit card in order to get the dress of her dreams, but she was humiliated publicly, and having her dress cut with a sword must have been scary.
Unfortunately, Izzy herself became as hardened as she was shallow as a result of being bullied, making it easy to cheer Elsbeth on as she sought to prove that the woman was a murderess.
Elsbeth Season 3 Episode 14 followed an all too familiar pattern in which Elsbeth was excited about the glamorous and shallow social event while locking horns with the person who had to run said event and was the likely killer.
You’d think that after continuously discovering that the rich and famous are nothing but cold-blooded killers, Elsbeth would be less swept away by the glamour of it all.
Unfortunately, Elsbeth is always far too interested in these things, although her dedication to the details of the debutante ball magazine did help her solve the case.
Could Izzy Have Been Any More Obvious, Though?
Izzy did a great job of setting up Brando as the supposed killer on Elsbeth Season 3 Episode 14, but then she ruined it by pushing it too hard.
She kept repeating that he must have done it, making it obvious that not only was he innocent, but that she likely was the one framing him.
The point of that was probably to show that she was overconfident as well as shallow, but come on! She couldn’t possibly have been that clueless about what she was doing to her case.
Making the killer so obvious makes the case far less entertaining.
Instead of Elsbeth being a quirky detective who sees things that everyone else misses, the story revolves around her figuring out who did it in 5 seconds and spending the rest of the hour trying to prove it.
For some viewers, the thrill of the chase might not be enough, but not me.
I’d prefer a real investigation to Elsbeth trying to catch cartoon-like villains who make such obvious missteps.
Even the real investigation felt more like it relied on a coincidence than on actual investigation.
Technically, looking at details about the father’s death was investigating, but it felt like the reveal that Izzy had a sister came out of nowhere, and then said sister was all too eager to talk to the detectives and give them everything they needed to know in order to establish Izzy’s motive.
It all seemed too pat, and it led to the most ridiculous twist Elsbeth has had in a while.
Threatening to have Elsbeth arrested for the disappearance of a pair of gloves was not a real threat, and all it accomplished was to make Elsbeth more determined to solve the case, while Captain Wagner rolled his eyes at the accusation.
Besides, the missing pair of gloves was almost literally the smoking gun that helped establish Izzy’s guilt. Elsbeth likely would never have discovered that they were in the fireplace if Izzy hadn’t given her the idea with a nonsensical fake accusation.
The Ongoing Alec Bloom Story Was Far More Interesting than This Case
I liked the way it was intertwined with the investigation. More than once, Taylor interrupted Elsbeth’s ruminating about her relationship with Alec in order to ask her if she was okay before moving forward with the case.
And as disappointed as I am in Marissa, at least this conflict seems more natural and compelling than the all-too-obvious murder mystery.
Marissa is wrong, of course, which saddens me because she was my favorite character back in the days of The Good Wife.
Whatever Elsbeth did or didn’t do as Peter’s attorney back then, the fact remains that running a campaign on a lie is not a great way to get people to vote for you, no matter how amazing a candidate you may be.
Did Marissa really think that the opposition would never do basic research and discover that Alec was lying about having been homeless?
That’s a clueless take from a supposedly politically savvy campaign manager! Elsbeth was right that Alec coming clean was the only way to save his campaign.
Marissa’s accusation that Elsbeth was tanking the campaign was ridiculous. Marissa did that herself by encouraging Alec to make up stories and assuming the public was too stupid to find out the truth or too jaded to care.
In any case, Alec’s announcement was the perfect place to cut the episode, although I was incredibly frustrated.
For the first time in a long time, I was eager to find out what happened next.
What about you, Elsbeth fanatics?
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