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Elsbeth<\/a><\/p>\n Yes, And<\/p>\n \n Season 3<\/p>\n Episode 1\n <\/p>\n \n Editor\u2019s Rating<\/p>\n 4 stars<\/p>\n ****\n <\/p>\n \n Stephen Colbert and Amy Sedaris are at the center of a late-night show with a working environment so toxic that it inspires murder. Welcome to Elsbeth season three, dear readers! Don\u2019t worry about the funky scheduling of a Sunday season premiere; the show is returning to its usual Thursday-night slot starting this week, so you can look forward to both normalcy and a second episode and recap before you look around.<\/p>\n Elsbeth often explores workplaces as spaces where tensions and resentments bubble over, and it goes for a big one in the season premiere as this week\u2019s murder victim, Scotty Bristol, is a successful late-night host\/miserable human being played by outgoing host of The Late Show and national treasure Stephen Colbert. Scotty is a real prince: He\u2019s nasty and ungracious to his staff, doesn\u2019t bother to prepare for interviews with his guests, and torments his writers by making sure they can see and hear him shredding their joke pitches.<\/p>\n Eventually, Scotty\u2019s Way Late producer Laurel \u2014 played by Colbert\u2019s real-life friend and collaborator Amy Sedaris \u2014 has had it up to here one too many times with Scotty\u2019s draconian control-freakishness and uses their once-upon-a-time, could\u2019ve-been history to feign seducing him and instead gets his necktie caught in Scotty\u2019s much-hated high-capacity office shredder. Everyone assumes it\u2019s a terrible accident, death by strangulation misadventure, at first, but Elsbeth, even in her heavily jet-lagged state after returning home from a visit to Angus over in Scotland, notes some suspicious things at the crime scene. Scotty had left his earbuds on his desk, rather than putting them away, suggesting another person was in the room with him when he died. Also, his tie would have to have been knotted pretty tightly in order for the strangulation to happen, and why would he have been lying backward over the shredder, anyway?<\/p>\n Detective Smullen takes on the case, and Elsbeth is assigned Officer Hackett (Lindsay Mendez) as her minder in Kaya\u2019s absence (sob!). Smullen wants to pin the murder on Scotty\u2019s oft-humiliated sidekick, Mickey Muntz (Andy Richter!), but Elsbeth notes that Mickey seemed genuinely torn up about Scotty\u2019s death, while Laurel, who is Mickey\u2019s wife, mostly just wants to get on with their day and protect Mickey, whose heart condition was the reason she killed Scotty in the first place.<\/p>\n Once Officer Hackett (is her name an homage to Buddy Hackett?) manages to reassemble all of the shredded paper from Scotty\u2019s office into its original form, the team realizes that it was a packet of joke pitches submitted on spec by would-be comedy writers, and we get a bit more of the picture of the work culture at Way Late. Scotty was a known joke stealer, and though that would seem incredibly infuriating to a regular person, Officer Hackett draws on her experiences as a part-time comedian and past victim of Scotty\u2019s practice to assure Detective Smullen and Captain Wagner that it\u2019s a badge of honor and significant encouragement. But maybe being mistreated and disrespected by one\u2019s boss\/former idol so many times over a period of years could drive a writer over the edge, so back to the studio they go!<\/p>\n The writers all have the same, easily corroborated alibi thanks to their attending both comedy sets by head writer (and likely heir to Scotty\u2019s desk) Ronan Gaines the previous night, making the scorned-writer hypothesis a dead end. On the plus side, they explain the meaning of the name of Scotty\u2019s shredder, Mickey II \u2014 it\u2019s an homage to Audrey II in Little Shop of Horrors and a bit of mockery of the actual, human Mickey, who, like the shredder, was made to eat crap all day long. Nothing like respect among colleagues!\u00a0Fortunately, Matthew the Page is there to fill in more lore-knowledge gaps for the investigative team, including how Scotty, Laurel, and Mickey got their start in improv comedy and his own pride in being the designated shredder-emptier on staff. Matthew also confirms what every Downton Abbey and Upstairs, Downstairs viewer knows: that \u201cpeople will say the wildest things in front of pages.\u201d<\/p>\n Elsbeth is familiar with that phenomenon, as getting people to say wild things to her is a not-insignificant part of her mystery-solving tool kit. She gets the prickly and suspicious Laurel to let her guard down by asking her for an improv lesson. Although Laurel eventually regains her cautiousness, the tactic works just enough to give Elsbeth a vital element \u2014 the principle of \u201cyes, and\u201d \u2014 that eventually helps her discover the truth about what happened to Scotty.<\/p>\n Everything Elsbeth notices about the toxic work environment at Way Late \u2014 overwork, humiliation, an unsupportive and ultracontrolling boss \u2014 is not present at the precinct, but having been away for a while, she\u2019s seeing the place with fresh eyes, and some of what she sees is distinctly not great. Formerly free coffee now costs $1 a cup; there are no more three-by-five cards in the supply closet, and she\u2019s on a wait list for a Sharpie. A Sharpie! This is grim. Worse, Detective Smullen is being really mean to Lieutenant Connor about it all, as he has been the one to implement these belt-tightening measures.<\/p>\n Smullen starts an unfortunate trend of detectives presenting Connor with their unemptied wastebaskets as if to say, \u201cYou created this problem; you deal with this,\u201d and eventually Elsbeth has a little heart-to-heart with the captain, urging him to step in and take the blame off of Connor\u2019s plate. It takes a minute, but Wagner does the right thing and later explains to Elsbeth that as crummy as these changes are, they\u2019re worth it because they make it possible to keep her on staff, emphasizing that he was unwilling to even consider the alternative.<\/p>\n Of course, everyone is delighted to see Elsbeth back from Scotland and relishing the gifts she\u2019s brought back with her: whiskey for Wagner, shortbread for Smullen, a very sober navy-and-green tartan scarf (with the tiniest red thread for a reserved pop of color) for Connor, who is visibly touched by the gift.<\/p>\n The plot is very mystery-forward, so we don\u2019t get much plot motion for Elsbeth herself, but we do get quite a bit of table-setting exposition this week. Things may not be a bed of roses with Angus, whom she\u2019s not even sure she should refer to as her boyfriend. She waves away Teddy\u2019s surprise at her early arrival home, saying she needed to be in New York to support her friend Cheryl from the wellness-retreat<\/a> episode, who is on a press tour for her new memoir about the four years she spent at a variety of wellness retreats. Teddy has a new job as a fact-checker at the New York View, where, as we may recall, one of the reporters was murdered with a cattle prod<\/a>. Elsbeth is so proud of him and notes that she knew all about that murder because she solved it, and Gonzo was that reporter\u2019s dog. That\u2019s at least two callbacks to earlier episodes already! They\u2019re not essential for new viewers but are fun \u201cif you know, you know\u201d moments and reinforce the feeling of the show being a fully realized world.<\/p>\n Alongside the callbacks to previous cases and relationships \u2014 Cameron, the hunky and kind medical examiner, appears briefly and quietly confirms to Elsbeth that Kaya has completed her training and been given her first undercover assignment, yay! \u2014 \u201cYes, And\u201d pulls out all the visual stops to remind us of how exuberantly colorful Elsbeth\u2019s world is. We\u2019ve got four tote bags in this episode, all sheep-themed, and one of them is in the iconic black-sheep design<\/a> made famous by Princess Diana way back when. We\u2019ve also got three all-time, Hall of Fame\u2013level costumes to enjoy, starting with a hot-pink tartan suit and coordinating tam o\u2019shanter worn over a white blouse with exuberantly lacy cuffs and a collar-scarf that would fit right in with Austin Powers<\/a> at his most outr\u00e9 (complimentary). I think my favorite this week is the white-and-autumnal floral suit with a single-breasted jacket and elegant flares, but the episode-closing ensemble of tropical-fruit colors \u2014 mango, star fruit, and papaya \u2014 all sort of harmonizing together is quite magnificent, too.<\/p>\n As the investigation continues with their suspect list narrowed down to Laurel and Mickey, Smullen is certain that Mickey killed Scotty as revenge for all of those years of routine humiliation, but Elsbeth and Officer Hackett don\u2019t buy it. Mickey is so clearly not a boat-rocker, let alone a murderer, particularly with his serious heart condition. In fact, he\u2019d been psyching himself up in the elevator to give Scotty an ultimatum: Approve his time off to get his health stabilized, or he\u2019d quit. When he confides in Laurel at home later, something like regret crosses her face. Mickey\u2019s going to get his time off now, but he could have done that without committing a murder!<\/p>\n Unfortunately for Mickey, he doesn\u2019t have time to defend himself formally, because the shock and horror of deducing that Laurel killed Scotty triggers a fatal heart attack. When Elsbeth overhears Laurel \u201cyes, and\u201d\u2013ing Smullen, agreeing that Mickey\u2019s feelings of intense guilt, which he confessed to her, must have triggered his heart failure, her suspicions are confirmed. But she can\u2019t quite crack the case until she has a flash of insight while pondering the appearance of Smullen\u2019s trash in her office wastebasket. He put it there to prove a point, so couldn\u2019t someone have done the same with the paper shreds in Mickey II\u2019s bin?<\/p>\n Indeed, someone (Laurel) could, and that same someone (again, Laurel) did! Seeing that Matthew the Page had already emptied Mickey II\u2019s bin, she covered her tracks by shredding a joke pitch packet in her own office and then put it in Mickey II. As ever, the what and how isn\u2019t as interesting as the why. Scotty, Laurel, and Mickey were united by a very special and particularly strong bond thanks to the early days of their career as an improv trio, but over time, Scotty\u2019s exploitation of that bond led to all sorts of excessive control over his collaborators. Convincing Laurel and Mickey not to have children, refusing to let Mickey take time to recover his health, his callousness and cruelty toward them \u2014 it all added up and pushed her over the edge.<\/p>\n As almost always, all\u2019s well that ends well, with Matthew the Page being promoted to Mickey\u2019s old job as Ronan takes Scotty\u2019s chair on Way Late, and Officer Hackett decides to revisit comedy. Ronan even buys one of her jokes for $200. This business, indeed!<\/p>\n \u2022 I\u2019m not sure why I\u2019m seeing multiple Mike Myers references in this episode, but it\u2019s not just the lacy cuffs and cravats. The cup of coffee Elsbeth pays $1 for maximizes both caffeine and humor by her use of an NYPD-branded mug that\u2019s almost as big as her face. It reminded me instantly of the massive cappuccino<\/a> Myers\u2019s character orders in So I Married an Axe Murderer.<\/p>\n \u2022 Lindsay Mendez has many screen and stage credits, but I know her primarily from her role in 21 Chump Street<\/a>, the funny, catchy, and heartbreaking 16-minute musical that a pre-Hamilton Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote for a live performance of This American Life. Listen at the link above, or watch on YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2022 I\u2019m choosing to believe that the whimsical d\u00e9cor elements in Mickey and Laurel\u2019s kitchen \u2014 two mid-century cookie jars with lids in the shapes of a bunny and a kitten and a ceramic raw chicken being used as a big spoon holder \u2014 are items that Amy Sedaris kindly loaned to the production from her own home. If anyone can confirm or correct these musings, please do let me know!<\/p>\n VULTURE NEWSLETTER<\/p>\n Keep up with all the drama of your favorite shows!<\/p>\n Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n
\n Photo: Mark Schafer\/CBS\n <\/p>\n