Griffin Dunne will always be Uncle Nicky to me, but I can’t argue with him being cast as a novelist with a murderous streak.
Elsbeth Season 3 Episode 16 featured Mark-Linn Baker as the victim, Dunne as the killer, and one of the season’s more intriguing mysteries.
The timing was weird, considering that Dunne’s character was a misogynistic creep and April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, but maybe that was the point.
Elbseth Season 3 Episode 16 Centered Around a Too-Clever-for-His-Own Good Novelist
Elliot Pope certainly didn’t put writers in a good light.
The guy not only thought he was God’s gift to every woman in New York, but also wrote about entitled men who could get away with sexual harassment. And on top of that, he craved adulation and couldn’t deal with criticism.
In short, he was the perfect villain because he was so obnoxious that I couldn’t wait for him to be taken down.
Griffin Dunne played him perfectly, showing both the charming predator side and the angry, abusive asshole side of the character without either one feeling forced.
Elsbeth rarely allows the title character to get into serious enough danger to be scary. The series leans far more toward the lighthearted side of things.
But Elsbeth Season 3 Episode 16 was an exception. Did anyone else jump when Elliot turned on Elsbeth, suddenly yelling at her and accusing her of hating all men and taking it out on him?
Having survived an abusive relationship myself, this felt spot on — and closer to the darker topics that Elsbeth’s parent shows used to tackle on a regular basis.
It’s surprising that most cases are low-stakes, honestly.
Although Elsbeth often deals with superficial people who kill for the most ridiculous of reasons, she is still confronting murderers, and a person who killed once often finds it easier to do it again.
Elliot Pope certainly had it in him. I don’t even remember what Elsbeth said, specifically, that set him off, but the guy went quickly to a dark, violent place, and I was glad he only threw Elsbeth out rather than putting his hands on her.
The Pre-Murder Scene Was Off-Putting, Probably On Purpose
Elsbeth Season 3 Episode 17 opened with Pope doing a reading from one of his books — and the subject matter was uncomfortable, to say the least.
Pope’s work turned a woman’s complaint about unwanted sexual behavior into a pick-up line, making me wonder why this episode was airing during Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
Pope’s real-life persona wasn’t much better — not only did he coldly murder his so-called friend for pointing out flaws in his new book, but he kept trying to flirt with Elsbeth despite knowing she wasn’t interested, and his creepy behavior disturbed her friends so much that they warned her away from him.
Of course, Elsbeth knows how to handle herself. She’s not as easy to manipulate as people think, and she’s willing to put up with being flirted with in order to get to the truth.
Pope’s true colors came out when he berated her, and it only made her more determined to show the world who he was. So in that sense, this wasn’t such a weird choice for an April episode.
We Really Need To Give The Trope of Others Not Believing Elsbeth A Rest
The most annoying part of the hour was Wagner’s skepticism about whether Elsbeth was right about the case being a murder at all.
He even admitted that she was right most of the time, so what was the point of his objection?
I get that we need some type of conflict, but this shouldn’t be it. Not after three years of Elsbeth being right not just most of the time, but ALL of the time.
Besides, why is it so far-fetched to consider that a bunch of bookcases falling on a bookstore owner could be murder?
While it’s possible that such a thing could be a horrible accident, a man who had run a bookstore for a long time would have known what the risks were and how to manage them.
The police really should have done a better job of exploring whether the bookcases could have been pushed over on purpose. Elsbeth’s point that someone locked up after the man’s death was an obvious clue that something wasn’t right.
Maybe that’s the real problem. Elsbeth keeps one-upping the police by pointing out obvious clues they missed, and Wagner’s tired of being embarrassed.
The idea of tightlaced Lieutenant Connor having to be the one to decide if the case was valuable was funny, though, especially when he didn’t entirely take Wagner’s side.
Elsbeth was, of course, right as usual, and Wagner probably isn’t complaining that now his department has another arrest under its belt.
Meanwhile, the Alec Bloom stuff wrapped up in the most disappointing way possible.
Elsbeth’s decision to break up with Alec came out of nowhere. I wasn’t even sure why she was upset when she saw his victory speech while with Pope.
This story had to end somehow, and having Wagner not get the Commissioner nod made sense because it kept him in Elsbeth’s orbit, but this sudden change of heart on her part pulled me out of the story.