Elsbeth is a classic “howcatchem” in the vein of shows like Columbo, where the murder and murderer are typically revealed within the opening minutes of the episode. As a result, the engagement is about seeing how Elsbeth (Carrie Preston) figures out how the murderer committed the crime, not necessarily who it was that did it, even though she typically knows that as well. Even when the show goes against the norm and the killer isn’t revealed right away, it can be pretty obvious who it is (anyone who didn’t realize that “Mama” Martin (Donna Lynn Champlin), the prison warden, killed Alex Modarian (Stephen Moyer) in the Season 2 finale clearly isn’t paying attention). But one episode did actually have me stumped right to the end by throwing a distracting wrench, albeit an engaging one, into the normal proceedings: “Tiny Town.”
Elsbeth Finds Love, but Not the Murderer, In ‘Elsbeth’s “Tiny Town”
“Tiny Town,” the 11th episode of Season 2, begins in Tattersall, Scotland, which seems an odd place to start a New York-centric show, only it’s soon revealed that Tattersall and New York are connected by the Iris, a 24/7 livestream installation where people in New York can see, but not hear, what’s happening there, and vice versa, at the same time. Angus (Ioan Gruffudd), a musician and the owner of a nearby pub have both taken an interest in a New York couple who have met repeatedly and seem to be forging a new romance. That is, until one day, the woman is seen sitting alone before being joined by a different man, and they get into a heated argument. His attention pulled away briefly, Angus looks back to see the woman stumbling back to her seat, looking disoriented and choking. He desperately tries to catch the attention of people on the screen, but to no avail as the young woman dies.
Back in New York, Elsbeth and Kaya (Carra Patterson) arrive on the scene to investigate the death. Only there are no witnesses, so the investigation hits a dead end before it even starts. Or has it? Elsbeth spots the Iris and suspects that there’s a possibility someone in Scotland may have seen what happened. She walks over to see Angus on the other side, and he tells her over the phone that he saw the argument, but doesn’t believe the other party killed the victim, who is revealed to be Hayley Ritter (Kara Rosella), an employee of the nearby Elle Même Cosmetics. They head to the company and meet the head of security, Mr. Thorwald (Alfredo Narciso), who informs them that Hayley had been released after failing a randomized drug test, company policy and compulsory for anyone working in R&D. He offers to send them the results of the drug test and Hayley’s employee file as well.
Autopsy results confirm that Ritter died of a fentanyl overdose, and the suspicion falls on Hayley’s long-time boyfriend Charles (Alex Hurt). It looks doubly bad for Charles after it’s learned that Hayley was prepared to speak to a reporter as a whistleblower on the corporation, and the reporter, who Charles falsely believed was starting an affair with Hayley, turns up dead. Only he’s got an alibi for that one, given he and Hayley were at a fertility clinic for bloodwork. That bloodwork, which included a drug screening, was taken the day after the company’s drug test, and proved negative, meaning Elle Même faked the results. But why?
Elsbeth has a theory, but is met by Thorwald who asks what she needs. He escorts her to his office, and she realizes too late that it was Thorwald who killed Hayley, and now she’s stuck, with a dead phone no less. It turns out Thorwald was paid by the CEOs to kill anyone that threatened to expose the company. That included Hayley, who was about to report that their concealer was causing health problems, the reporter, and, now, Elsbeth. But just as he’s about to kill her with fentanyl spray to trigger an overdose, Wagner (Wendell Pierce), Kaya, and Edwards (Micaela Diamond) show up to the rescue, warned by Angus who called them after seeing Thorwald walk by the Iris wearing the scarf they had seen the murderer wearing.
‘Elsbeth’s “Tiny Town” Keeps Us Guessing Through Trickery
Of course, it was Thorwald, it should have been obvious. So why wasn’t it? “Tiny Town” flipped the script for starters, keeping the identity of the murderer hidden until the end of the episode. And because we didn’t know who the murderer was, it could have been anyone they threw out as a suspect, and those names weren’t cleared until they were either dead themselves (George, the reporter) or had a game-changing alibi (Charles). We were just as much in the dark as Elsbeth and gang, and didn’t realize who it was until she did.
The other thing “Tiny Town” did that kept us stumped was the proverbial “look-at-what-the-other-hand-is-doing’ scenario with the Elsbeth/Angus romantic angle. It was such a sweet, innocent, and engaging story that the murder was secondary, and if the murder was secondary, the murderer became, what, thirdly? Thirdly. It kept Elsbeth preoccupied, and, more importantly, it kept us preoccupied. It’s not like pieces of the puzzle weren’t dropped throughout the episode, like the fact that Hayley was blowing the whistle about something, but when the episode is more Annie Hall and less Murder, She Wrote, then who can blame us?
By keeping the identity of the killer quiet to the very end, “Tiny Town” also becomes one of the only episodes of Elsbeth where we genuinely feel concerned that the titular heroine’ life is in legitimate danger. No one knows where she is, no one knows that Thorwald is the killer, there’s no escape, and Thorwald isn’t just a killer, he’s a killer who insists on doing the job he’s being paid for well. So, if the mystery keeps us, as viewers, stumped to the very end, how Elsbeth escapes from Thorwald keeps us stumped to the very, very end. If you’re counting, that means the escape is the secondary end, and the sweet kiss between Elsbeth and Angus is, as we established, the thirdly end.
