Elsbeth Recap: What If Parenting, But Too Much?

Let’s pour one out for the parents this week on Elsbeth. It can be really tricky to navigate the shift from primary caregiver/nurturer-in-chief to more hands-off on-call guide and cheerleader, and while Elsbeth herself has struggled a bit in her relationship with her (as yet unseen, but I have hopes!) son, Teddy, one thing we can say for certain is that she has never committed murder to smooth his path to success.

Most unfortunately, Cliff McGrath (Blair Underwood), tennis coach to his brilliantly talented but underperforming son, Hunter (Omari K. Chancellor), takes his fatherly ambitions a bit too far, with disastrous results. It’s not hard to see how just a tiny bit of cheating can snowball into something even more sinister, and it’s easier still to see how Cliff rationalizes his actions. He and Hunter have had a rough time of it: Mrs. McGrath died recently; Hunter’s reentry to competition has been uneven; and now he has to face a legendary opponent in Johann Arnaldo, also known as Yoyo (Gui Agustini). And Hunter has returned to the circuit after retiring.

Cliff wants to ensure a win for his son to get him over the confidence hump so he can pick up where he left off and become the future Grand Slam winner he knows Hunter is capable of being. Unfortunately, the method Cliff chooses, a strong dose of transdermally absorbed nitroglycerine ointment, delivered by a strategically placed towel placed on Yoyo’s bench, combines with the erectile dysfunction medication Yoyo’s girlfriend, Irina (Irina Chelidze), had secretly dosed him with. Result: a sudden, fatal drop in blood pressure.

The usual types of red herrings and unexpected leads unfold over the course of the investigation, with Cliff misdirecting Detective Smullen (Danny Mastrogiorgio) to examine the possibility of a contract murder arranged by the Russian government (Blair Underwood is a very fine actor, but saying those lines with a perfectly straight face should garner him another Emmy nomination) and some baseless suspicion falling on Irina. At least Irina’s questioning yields information about why Yoyo had Not Viagra™ in his system — he “wasn’t 23 anymore” and would lose his temper over having an age-appropriate refractory period, so she slipped him the drug to bolster his confidence. It turns out that unbeknownst to each other, both Irina and Cliff had reason to manipulate Cliff’s performance.

Most interestingly, Smullen’s suspicion of Irina was engineered by a ball girl, Ashlee (Aubrey Matalon), whose eye for scams helped her spot Cliff surreptitiously placing the fateful towel on Yoyo’s side of the court. Ashlee is gleefully devoid of morals, compunctions, or misgivings. She’s not even disturbed by how Cliff “low-key un-alived” Yoyo; she only wants to play that angle to her own benefit, whether by blackmail or coordinating their crimes for better betting odds. (The hot-dog guy is the stadium’s bookie, and it’s a pity we don’t get any scenes with him. Maybe next season!)

For an amoral petty criminal, Ashlee is kind of fun. She’s creative and a skilled improviser in her conversations with Cliff and the police, but to hone her abilities, she’d need a lot more practice. Elsbeth could revisit this character, too, as she pledges to flip on Cliff at once and could probably wrangle herself a deal for probation rather than incarceration. The one clunky aspect of her character is the overdose of Gen-Z slang in her dialogue. I lost count after ten instances of terms such as “let me cook,” “I’ll come in clutch,” “receipts, brah,” and “acting a little sus.” If I were the kind of person who didn’t cringe at the adjectival use of “cringe,” that’s exactly how I’d describe Ashlee’s lines. Yikes. (Said the mom in her late 40s.)

Let’s pause a moment, too, to extend some genuine sympathy to poor Hunter, who has now lost both of his parents and his first career at a really young age. Heart disease claimed his mother’s life, and now Cliff has ruined his own. Quitting tennis altogether seems like it’ll be a tiny blip for him now and could well save his sanity. As he shouts at Cliff (at the moment being dragged off in handcuffs and in no position to argue the point), the sport “made you kill someone!” It’s just not worth it.

Cliff, Irina, even Captain Wagner … it seems like everyone in this episode is trying to sneakily give someone they love a competitive edge. Cliff and Irina’s uncoordinated efforts lead to tragedy, while Wagner’s more self-serving actions succeed for the moment. After his bone-chilling realization last week that Elsbeth is investigating him and the foundation he runs with his wife, Claudia, Wagner sets about discovering what she suspects and knows.

Starting with Officer Kaya is a smart move, but she’s too shrewd not to connect the dots between his line of questioning and Elsbeth’s strangely similar behavior at the show-tunes brunch they’d attended earlier. Fortunately, she’s also too shrewd to give away anything of substance and receives with apparent calm the potential promotion to detective that Wagner dangles at the end of their conversation. She’d suspected something was up when she overheard Elsbeth talking about Wally with DOJ Agent Celentano, and now, whether she wants certainty or not, she’s got a degree of it.

I suspect that Kaya’s character arc is going to follow one of the following paths: After learning more about the scope and purpose of Elsbeth’s investigation, she may break ties with Elsbeth. Alternatively, she may reach an understanding of the truth before Elsbeth does and make an arrest herself. Another alternative possibility is that Kaya might offer not to report on a not-quite-squeaky-clean development in Elsbeth’s relationship with Wagner in exchange for Elsbeth exonerating him.

In accordance with this episode’s theme of parents going too far to help their kids, it concludes with Elsbeth regretfully accepting an unsolicited favor from Wagner. Having learned that Teddy Tascioni was unhappy in his job with a nonprofit organization in Washington, D.C., he got in touch with a better one to endorse Teddy’s candidacy for an opening with their offices. Teddy earned that job offer, but Wagner’s support in the application process’s early stages certainly didn’t hurt. Moments ago, Wagner referred to Elsbeth having reimbursed him for her excellent ticket to the Gotham Open (not, repeat, not the U.S. Open, also held in New York City). This development really muddies some ethical waters that Elsbeth was trying very hard to keep clean!

Just One More Thing

• Coat of the Episode: Hands down, it’s Elsbeth’s papaya-orange puffer coat with an exuberant dyed-to-match oversize faux-fur lapel/collar. Not that there was much competition for best outerwear this time. More of the costuming focus went to Elsbeth’s tennis-enthusiast cosplay ensembles, most notably her pullover-and-pleated-skirt look in very Lilly Pulitzer shades of pink, green, and cream. The shiny pink appliqué spelling out TENNIS across the wide green stripe on her pullover is a delicious touch. Did Elsbeth bring that look with her from Chicago? Did she purchase it just for her lesson/interrogation with Cliff? We need answers!

• The music playing under Cliff’s dramatic arrest will be instantly recognizable to fans of NYC-set mostly cozy murder mysteries — it’s the very distinctive “Mission Theme Pt. 1” featured in Only Murders in the Building. I used Shazam twice, just to be certain, and am left somewhat bewildered. Is this musical choice an homage to Only Murders? It would make sense, as there must be a ton of audience overlap for both series. Could it be a cheeky “we’re coming for your crown” selection? “Mission Theme Pt. 1” is part of the score composed by Siddhartha Khosla for OMITB, a show that first arrived on Hulu and aired this summer on ABC. Elsbeth is a CBS show. Am I overthinking this? Maybe it’s just a temporary placeholder on the screener I watched for this recap. Regardless, I’m simply burning with curiosity to know how this came to pass!