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I both loved and hated Elsbeth Season 3 Episode 8.
I wasn’t all that impressed with this mystery, even though I liked that it wasn’t Columbo-style (at least not at first).
But this was one of the funniest Elsbeth episodes yet, and I enjoyed the subtle social commentary.
The Mystery Started as a Whodunit, But Didn’t Stay There
This was the first time Elsbeth Season 3 has experimented with its format.
Instead of showing us the killer at the beginning, we only saw the victim get startled right before he was killed, and then it jumped to a Law & Order type of opening where random people found the body.
That was great, even if it was unusual for this show. Not all Elsbeth episodes work best as Columbo-type stories.
Still, if it was going to be a traditional mystery, it should have stayed that way.
About halfway through, Elsbeth Season 3 Episode 8 revealed that Coach Willoughby was using Peyton’s concealer on his hands, and from then on, we were back to the audience knowing who the killer was while Elsbeth didn’t.
Unless you were me, I expected some other twist.
In traditional mysteries, when a killer is revealed at the 30-minute mark or so, it’s automatically a red herring (unless it’s Law & Order, since that series switches to the legal side around then).
We don’t tear shows down, but we do call out the ones we love when they do something weird.
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But I guess Elsbeth couldn’t help reverting to form. The Columbo aspect was just in the middle, not at the beginning.
Coach’s Motive Came Out of Nowhere
My biggest issue with him as a killer is that he didn’t seem to have a motive.
He didn’t know that Dave was messing with Peyton, and the two men never interacted on-screen.
I’m still not quite sure why he did it.
Elsbeth said something about trying to find out which players were talking about him behind his back, but I didn’t see how that had anything to do with Dave.
Wagner’s Throwaway Line Hinted at a Stronger Story
Wagner said the university wanted this closed fast, so I was expecting a story where administrators would resent Elsbeth insisting on continuing to investigate when there was an obvious suspect.
Instead, the closest we came was that woman with dark hair who didn’t like Elsbeth and managed to ban her for about 30 seconds — what a shame!
Did you want more of a hostile administration in this story, too?
Either way, I’d love to hear your thoughts! Put them in the comments, and don’t forget to share this story with your friends so they can join in the conversation.
Elsbeth sneaking back in by wearing a mascot uniform was hilarious, though. I also enjoyed the way the rest of the cops came filing in when Coach Willoughsby objected to her presence.
Was Peyton In on the Unmasking?
She was openly hostile to Elsbeth and the cops for most of the episode, and even after finding out that her husband had put her concealer on his hands, leading to her false arrest, she married him and claimed spousal privilege.
Yet, at the end, she respected Elsbeth for standing up to Willoughsby and uncovering the truth. Then she got that weird epilogue with the podcast in the distant future, where she talked about the whole thing as if being with him had been a traumatic experience.
(That podcast was a seriously WTF moment for me. I don’t know why we needed it at all, and why name-drop Lindsey Graham of all people?)
Peyton was an interesting character who, for all her bluntness, never said the most obvious truth: there was an undercurrent of misogyny in all the hatred she was receiving.
Everyone assumed she was sleeping with Willoughby for his money and that she didn’t “deserve” the power she had.
Her intelligence and ability to strategize were seen as distractions or threats to the team’s cohesiveness, yet she was running a successful influencer campaign, and most of the team would have been wise to hire her for PR work.
She also wasn’t afraid to stand up to people who were blatantly prejudiced against her, like Dave, which got her a bad reputation.
I doubt anyone would have responded to a male influencer that way, even if he were only a few years older than the players.
Elsbeth Experienced It Too With That Whole Name Misspelling
Even before someone decided she was “Elspeth” instead of “Elsbeth,” her only value to the tabloids was that she was a woman supposedly sleeping with a powerful man.
She’d been the “mysterious red-headed woman” for a while, and the papers were repeating gossip and innuendo worthy of the hallways of a middle or high school.
Misspelling her name made it even more blatantly obvious that to the papers, she wasn’t a person — she was merely a sex symbol they could gossip about.
It was gross, and Elsbeth Season 3 Episode 8 didn’t have to call it out directly to get the point across.
The scene where Elsbeth finally decided to tell them the correct spelling of her name was powerful because it represented Elsbeth taking her voice back.
We Need to Talk About Some Detectives
There were a fair number of silly subplots.
Wagner and Connor’s war over security measures was the most ridiculous, especially when Wagner called and pretended to be from the credit card company.
The same man who demanded everyone learn how to avoid phishing scams didn’t know to say on the phone that he would call the company himself rather than give out any information.
But this side plot was amusing, even if it was goofy.
Detective Taylor, on the Other Hand, Needs to Go
I hope she’s not a permanent replacement for Kaya, because she was annoying.
I can forgive her being the latest one to doubt that Elsbeth was right, since she was too new to know that Elsbeth is ALWAYS right, but throughout the episode, she was more airheaded than amusing.
Maybe she’ll improve fast, or else she’ll go as quickly as she came.
I can dream, right?
I’ve talked enough. Now it’s your turn.
Whether you loved or hated Elsbeth Season 3 Episode 8, I want to hear your thoughts!
Drop them in the comments, and don’t forget to share this article with your friends so they can sound off too.
Vote in the poll below to rank the episode.
If you enjoyed this article, check out our coverage of Only Murders In The Building and Watson, two other mystery shows you might enjoy.
Elsbeth Season 3 airs on CBS on Thursdays at 9/8c and streams on Paramount+ on Fridays.
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