Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Elsbeth Season 3 Episode 3.It seems oddly appropriate that last week’s humor “Doll afternoon” is followed by an episode focused on mourning. “Good grief“, that is to say, and the episode, again another good performance in Elsbeththe third seasonopen it Black veila show within a show in the vein of The Bachelor (and serves as a clever parody). As the show’s host explains, 28 widowers fought to win the affections of grieving influencer Raquel Drabowski (Julia Fox), including firefighter husband Johnny (Dirty Adam) died in a helicopter crash in Puerto Rico. There are only two left: a man whose wife was killed during their honeymoon in an alligator attack, and Daniel, whose wife died behind the wheel while texting him that her cancer was finally in remission (literally, tears). Who “can lift the black veil? » Neither. A sobbing Raquel sobbed: “I’m so sorry…I still love Johnny.”
The scene shifts to the room where Raquel and her agent Sydney are (Jason Butler Harner) sit down and watch the program. Sydney is impressed by Raquel’s expertise and admires her for finding a way to perpetuate her brand, which is now more lucrative than ever. Raquel just sighs and says softly, “It’s okay, but it’s not going to bring my Johnny back.” This may not be the case, but something didwith Raquel returning to her apartment to find Johnny, alive and well. As he explains, he was thrown from the helicopter, landing safely but unable to remember anything until he saw her face on television. She can now “become his wife again”. This clearly doesn’t suit Raquelwho asks if he told anyone else he was back. That’s not the case, so she suggests they take the ferry to Staten Island, where they first met. But while he goes to get coffee, Raquel places sandbags in a suitcase, and when he returns, she sneakily ties the case to his pants and throws him overboard, coldly exclaiming: “I’m no one’s wife.”
Johnny’s phone call to Mom is problematic in Elsbeth’s “Good Grief”
Raquel, widowed for the second time – same husband – starts creating content for her followers again, but is interrupted by a phone call from her mother-in-law Marie (Cathy Moriarty), telling her that she received a voicemail… from Johnny. Well, that’s problematic. And now, Marie is at the police station and tells Elsbeth (Carrie Preston) and company on this subject. As Marie tells her story, Raquel arrives and attributes the voicemail to another prank phone call from someone pretending to be Johnny. And in one of many clever digs at social influencers, Raquel pulls out her selfie stick, films herself imploring the audience to stop tormenting her with fake phone calls, stops the recording and moves to a spot where the NYPD logo can be seen behind her and re-records the same speech, with the logo “adding weight.”
After Raquel and Marie leave, the phone number goes back to a truck driver who picked up a hitchhiker named Don in Delaware, who regales him with stories of Puerto Rico, surfing, and tending bar at a resort while pounding beers. The trucker let Don use his cell phone, but is it Don, or did the trucker mishear Johnny? However, the beer cans are still in his truck and, as they tell Marie and Raquel, the DNA matches. Raquel can only feign surprise, while a joyful Marie exclaims: “My Johnny is alive!” Johnny is definitely notwith the scene showing his cold, dead face zipped into a body bag. Elsbeth, feeling like a third wheel with Detective Fleming (Daniel Oreskes) and Agent Hackett (Lindsay Mendez) does fabulously, goes off alone in search of witnesses. Who does she find instead? Kaya (Carra Patterson).
Evidence is no help in Elsbeth’s “Good Grief”
Yes, it’s Kaya, technically, but she’s undercover as Denise Jackson, working on an operation exposing corruption at the docks. She can’t talk there, but they secretly plan to meet at the bar, giving the friends time to catch up. There’s some small talk – Elsbeth explains how “frozen yogurt makes me sad now” – before the conversation turns to Angus (John Gruffudd) and, to make it short, their sweet romance is over. But she brought Kaya a stuffed toy of the Loch Ness Monster, which she mentioned in the premiere, thus tying up a small detail (the writers are just lights out this season). But for Raquel, Kaya has nothing, the seafront not being covered by the cameras..
Yet Elsbeth is more convinced than ever that Raquel is behind all this, but with no cameras on the waterfront or on the ferry, and no passenger list, there is no proof that Raquel was on board with Johnny. But Fleming and Hackett worked together on a project, a handmade map that detailed information they could find about Johnny’s whereabouts over the past 18 months. They narrowed it down to a resort in Puerto Rico, and the manager knows him well. Very, very good, as well as around fifty other women, some of whom are married. This made him a lot of enemies, but he escaped alive, on a tourist boat heading to Florida.
Elsbeth, Hackett and Fleming show up at Raquel’s house and tell Sydney and Raquel how Johnny managed to avoid dying in the helicopter crash: he was never there. When everyone thought he was, he hid in the resort, surfed, tended bar and “kept the ladies company.” This last statement hits Raquel hard, who angrily exclaims that he would never have betrayed her like this. But faced with the fact that there is evidence and witnesses, Raquel, for the first time, shows real emotion, truly hurt by Johnny’s infidelity. The moment is fleeting after Elsbeth asks where she was when Johnny died, with Raquel smugly providing her with footage of content that was recorded at her home at the time. After he leaves, Elsbeth thinks about how Raquel could love her followers more than any man, and it’s not as far-fetched as it sounds.
Raquel gets arrested by TikTok in Elsbeth’s “Good Grief”
It may be a motive, but there’s still no proof, until “Denise Jackson” calls Elsbeth, wanting to meet her at the bar. Kaya has photos of Raquel on the ferry, confirming Elsbeth’s suspicions, but she can’t actually use the photos because they are taken by secret surveillance cameras. Their conversation is interrupted by the entrance of a man who recognizes “Denise” and asks her what she is doing there. She leaves with the man, leaving Elsbeth with proof but no way to use it. So we return to the police station, where they try to find a way to break his alibi. Hackett suggests that Raquel may be using an app called LiveClock, which schedules pre-recorded content to be shown as live streams at prescribed times.
It’s a viable theory, especially for an Internet personality. With this, and the revelation of a violent history between Raquel and Johnny, Elsbeth confronts Raquel, who acts stupid when asked about the app. Elsbeth thinks she had her “trap” when the TikTok video shows Raquel welcoming two followers to the chat, even though they weren’t online at the time. But Raquel “just assumed” the two worshipers were there. Elsbeth tries to play the “I know you were on that ferry” card, but Raquel counters by saying that if there was evidenceshe would already be under arrest. I got it, denied it. So we’re back to the drawing board, with Elsbeth going through Raquel’s TikTok videos for clues. As she watches, Hackett enters, making an offhand observation about the shrine to Johnny. His comment hits the switch for Elsbeth: She has her “I got you” sound.
The scene shifts to Behind the black veilwhere Raquel, now an influencer in matters of betrayal, is interviewed. But during a break in filming, Elsbeth and her cohorts arrive, and Elsbeth, ever the playwright, tells “the story of an ambitious young woman” before blaming Raquel for gaining millions of followers by exploiting her husband’s death – not once but twice now – simply to get likes. And when Johnny returned, jeopardizing what she had built, she lured him to the ferry and threw him into the water. Elsbeth admits it was a good plan but, alas, he had to go call his mother. Plus, Elsbeth has proof that Raquel was so sure she didn’t have it: TikTok videos from before Johnny died, with his worn and outdated harness on the shrine, compared to videos after, with a brand new harness. Where are the old harness and carabiner? They were attached to Johnny’s pants, sending Johnny into the depths of the Hudson.
Raquel is arrested, Marie lands a job on the Golden Years season of Black veiland Elsbeth is back at the station in her office. Captain Wagner (Wendell Pierce) arrives, hoping to catch Fleming and Hackett to congratulate the three of them on a job well done. Elsbeth sarcastically, or as sarcastic as she can be, states that it’s “5:03 p.m., so they’re probably together drinking boxed wine and crocheting.” Ouch. But Wagner turns that frown upside down with a lovely gift, a cell phone with which to call Kaya, just once. She calls, but her joy turns to worry when she hears: “The number you reached is not in service. Please check the number and dial again.
- Release date
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February 29, 2024
- Directors
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Nancy Hower, Robert King, Lionel Coleman, Rob Hardy, Robin Givens, Ron Underwood, Rosemary Rodriguez, Aisha Tyler, Bille Woodruff, James Whitmore Jr., Joe Menendez, Kevin Rodney Sullivan, Lily Mariye, Nick Gomez, Peter Sollett, Sam Hoffman, Tyne Rafaeli, Darren Grant, Fong-Yee Yap, Mary Lou Belli
- Writers
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Jonathan Tolins, Erica Shelton Kodish, Bryan Goluboff, Sarah Beckett, Michelle King
- The writing remains consistently good this season, with clever digs at social influence and “The Bachelor,” and Easter eggs peppered throughout the episode.
- The return of Carra Patterson and the rapid resumption of this joyful dynamic, however brief.
- Julia Fox does an excellent job with Raquel, walking a fine line between parody and depth.
- The dream of a future for Angus and Elsbeth? Angsbeth? is finished. Sigh.
- Johnny. The wandering surfer stereotype pales in comparison to the rest of the episode’s cast, and clearly too dense to realize that all he had to do was take off his pants before hitting the bottom of the river.
