[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Elsbeth Season 2 Episode 7 “One Angry Woman.”]
“Elsbeth is very good at getting people to let their guards down,” notes Carrie Preston, whose lawyer-turned-NYPD consultant is stuck in jury duty in the latest episode—bringing her face-to-face with Judge Milton Crawford (played by Preston’s husband, Michael Emerson). And this Elsbeth sets the stage for quite an arc.
Like every other episode, this one opens up showing that Crawford is the killer—and he then does everything he can to make sure that the woman he framed for his crime is put away. Too bad he couldn’t predict that Elsbeth would be first an alternate for, then on the jury, and she picks up every single thing wrong with the trial. It’s thanks to her that the jury rules in the defendant’s favor, and then on the courthouse steps in one of the final scenes, Crawford slips, revealing he knew what kind of music the victim had been listening to. But does that man Elsbeth has decided that he’s definitely the killer?
“There’s only one person who would know that information, and that will be the person who killed the guy unless he happened to be there or whatever. She’s not going to jump to conclusions, but he is definitely involved,” Preston tells TV Insider in the video interview about with her and Emerson.
“It’s a very small slip and it comes from hubris. He thinks he’s on top of it. So much so that he lets his guard down for a second. He’s careless just for a second,” notes Emerson.
Michael Parmelee / CBS
The married couple shares a shocking tidbit about the day that while they were filming that scene on the courthouse steps. “The building low-key got a bomb threat,” reveals Preston.
The aftermath of that was the logistical challenge. When it came to the scene itself, those “challenges were ones that you love to have where you want to rise up to great writing,” she continues. “We knew the scene was great on paper and we wanted to make sure that it came across.”
As Elsbeth and Crawford part ways, he tells her to get home safe. “If you’re a judge and you want to deliver a threat to someone, you have to choose your language carefully so that the message is clear but any transcript of the exchange leaves you innocent,” says Emerson. Adds Preston, “And Elsbeth being someone who’s very used to being in a courtroom and knows her way around language as well, was happy to meet that language head on.”
As Elsbeth’s investigation truly begins into Crawford—she’s starting a board on him at the end of the episode—we know that the judge will share a scene with Captain Wagner (Wendell Pierce) in the December 19 episode (see our exclusive photo here). “That’s about Captain Wagner feeling uncomfortable at high society events. It’s not really his scene. And the judge, I think, instinctively gets that,” Emerson previews. “In fact, he makes some reference to who gets in and who doesn’t. And it’s very mean on the part of the judge. He feels immune and entitled and he doesn’t realize that he’s making another dangerous adversary in the process. So it’ll come back to haunt him.”
Watch the full video interview above for much more from Preston and Emerson about working together, their characters, what’s to come (“the judge has reach,” he warns), finally meeting Elsbeth’s son Teddy (Ben Levi Ross), and if there had been any consideration to have him play someone innocent like both had suggested after the first season. “If you want to have fun, be the villain,” Emerson advises.
Elsbeth, Thursdays, 10/9c, CBS