'Elsbeth' Season 2 Episode 7 Recap - I'll See You in Court

Editor's note: The below recap contains spoilers for Elsbeth Season 2 Episode 7.

Talk about a big week on Elsbeth! After months of working alongside the NYPD, Elsbeth Tascioni (Carrie Preston) is back in the courtroom and in a new capacity this time, making both friends and a new enemy that will likely stick around for a while. But this is also the week that sees Elsbeth's son Teddy (Ben Levi Ross) come for the first of hopefully many visits, so needless to say there's a lot going on. I admit I'm a little surprised to be getting another episode following last week's Christmas special, since in my experience the Christmas-themed episode is typically the last one before the show goes on midseason hiatus, but hey, more Elsbeth is never a bad thing, especially for an episode this good, so let's jump in!

The episode opens with Andy (Quincy Dunn-Baker), returning to his apartment on a rainy night. He's not as alone as he thinks, as a masked woman in a trenchcoat lurks outside his window, watching him. As he takes the call, the woman, Delia (Meredith Holzman), sneaks in and startles him, but luckily this isn't as sinister as it seems, as the two know each other... extremely well, given that Delia is wearing nothing but lingerie under her coat, and this is all just a bit of roleplay. Later, as Delia goes to shower, Andy pops on a Donna Summer record, and then is startled yet again, this time in a much less sexy way. The new intruder is a man (Michael Emerson), wielding a baseball bat. Andy recognizes him, and assures him that he promised he "wouldn't say anything," and has kept this promise for years. The man decides he can't take that chance and bludgeons Andy to death anyway, turning up the record to mask the sound. He leaves the baseball bat against the bathroom door for Delia to find, but she finds a lot more than that when she wanders into the living room to tell Andy to turn the music down and finds him dead instead.

Elsbeth's Son Comes For a Visit in Season 2 Episode 7

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We hop over to the precinct next, where Elsbeth arrives for work, with a pleased-but-embarrassed Teddy in tow. I guess it's "Bring Your Adult Child to Work" day. Teddy very quickly realizes that everyone, from Chief Wagner (Wendell Pierce) to Officer Kaya Blanke (Carra Patterson) and even Lt. Connor (Daniel K. Isaac) is not only excited to finally meet him, but also seems to know a little too much about him. Turns out, Elsbeth's been keeping everyone up to date on every new thing she learns about her son. She can't help being excited that he's here to visit. The one wrench in her plan is that she received a jury duty summons, and didn't postpone it on time because she actually wanted to serve on the jury, but didn't realize Teddy would be visiting. She tells him she's going to head down to the courthouse to sort it out, but expects to be back within a couple of hours, and sets him up in her office to work in the meantime.

Down at the courthouse, Elsbeth is still hopeful she'll be able to be excused from service, even though the waiting room is packed and one of her fellow jury candidates, Joan (Sasha Hutchings), tells her these things never start on time. She does, however, share with Elsbeth the excuses her assistant researched to get out of jury duty, such as the inability to be impartial, or a hatred of lawyers. Elsbeth tells her that neither of those excuses actually apply to her, as a lawyer with lots of experience being impartial. This is the first of many times her compulsive need to be honest will get the better of her. While waiting, she makes small talk with another potential jury member, Lonny (Max Crumm), who is actually not looking to be excused, and he tells her that his job is working on a podcast. It's not one she would have heard of as he's building his audience still, and those of us who know podcasters know this is code for "no one listens to my podcast."

Inside the courtroom, we see that the defendant is Delia, and according to another potential juror, the tabloids are obsessed with the story, reporting that she snuck into Andy's apartment to beat him to death. Elsbeth notes that the defendant looks scared but Podcast Guy writes her off as just another crazy woman. Delia's defense trial is already off to a fantastic start. With the potential jury in the courtroom now, they're ordered to rise for Judge Milton Crawford who, it turns out, is the man who actually beat Andy to death. After sharing the details of the case, the prosecutor (Nikki Crawford) asks the members of the jury if they're able to be impartial. One of the potential jurors points out the woman who admitted to reading a lot of tabloid coverage on the case, wondering if this would affect her impartiality. Crawford asks her if she can still be impartial, and when she answers in the positive, he allows her to stay, even after the defendant's lawyer, Chaz Molano (Scott Adsit), tries to get her removed. Crawford's decision doesn't sit right with Elsbeth, and her suspicion is piqued. The defense attorney tries to get Elsbeth stricken too because she works with the police, but once again, the judge dismisses his motion because Elsbeth doesn't know anyone involved in Delia's arrest. Her honesty gets the better of her again as she admits there's no reason she can't be impartial, and the judge signs her up as the first alternate juror for the case.

Back at the precinct, Wagner meets up with Connor in his office to discuss precinct morale. Connor gives Wagner a folder of petty complaints officers have made against their colleagues, tasking Wagner with sorting out the disputes. Wagner rightly points out that this sort of thing is below his paygrade, and Connor agrees, but counters that he figured this would be a good way for Wagner to help informally deal with some of the precinct's issues, since he won't address the largest issue at hand — namely, Elsbeth's continued presence at the department. Connor explains that having Elsbeth there to, in essence, babysit them, is a source of shame in the department. Wagner says that he feels differently about her continued presence, but agrees to look into the list of complaints Connor gave him. Downstairs, Blanke finds Teddy in Elsbeth's office. She's surprised to see him still there, but he tells her that Elsbeth got picked and will have to spend her days at the courthouse, though they'll still have their evenings together. Teddy tells Blanke he doesn't mind, though, as he doesn't particularly care about seeing New York. As a native New Yorker, Blanke is offended that Teddy is so indifferent about her city, and tells him that she'll take him around to the touristy stuff instead, as she never gets to actually see these things.

Elsbeth Heads Back to Court in Season 2 Episode 7

Image via CBS

Meanwhile, at the courthouse, the prosecutor offers the jury her opening arguments, saying that Andy had taken out a restraining order on Delia after she broke into his apartment years earlier, a restraining order the prosecution says Delia broke dozens of times. She adds that on the night of the murder, two witnesses saw or heard Delia sneaking into the apartment, before the officers arrived responding to Delia's call, where they found her holding the bat. Her conclusion is that Delia killed Andy for rejecting him, and Delia's lawyer doesn't respond to this until prompted by the judge, as he was too busy texting his wife. His opening arguments don't inspire a ton of confidence, as he begins by reading off notes for the wrong trial, because he didn't print out the correct ones. The judge also denies his request for a recess so he can go get the correct notes, causing Chaz to improvise a very poor argument instead. Elsbeth is aghast at the incompetence, as it looks like Delia won't get even a remotely competent defense. I admit I half expected Elsbeth to pull a Legally Blonde and offer to represent Delia herself. Though maybe my brain just made that connection because Delia's alibi was that she was in the shower at the time of the murder.

When court concludes for the day, Elsbeth visits Crawford in his office to ask if he knows how much longer the case is expected to run, as she needs to get back to Teddy. Crawford misunderstands, and thinks that Elsbeth is Teddy's sole guardian, and is about to excuse her when the honesty gets the better of her again, and she explains her son is an adult, and is merely visiting for the week. She adds that she didn't think she'd get picked at all, as judges usually let her go once they realize she's a lawyer, but Crawford tells her that he likes to have lawyers on the jury, to provide an educated opinion on the proceedings. Elsbeth points out that not all lawyers are created equal, as Chaz Molano is also a member of the bar, and is so inept he might open the judge up to an appeal for ineffective counsel. Crawford tells her Chaz isn't the worst he's seen in the courtroom, but Elsbeth still feels Delia deserves better.

Crawford tells her that he can't dismiss her now, or rather is reluctant to, as all the other alternates have had to be excused, meaning if Elsbeth also leaves, and they lose another juror, then the case ends in a mistrial. He assures her, however, that he suspects the case will be wrapped up quickly, though Elsbeth doesn't share his confidence. She tells him she had a lot of questions after opening arguments, as a lot of parts of the story don't quite add up, like the fact that Delia violated the restraining order yet waited around for the police to find her there. Now if I were a murderous judge trying to hide my actions by having the wrong person jailed for my crimes, this might be the point at which I excuse the juror asking too many questions, but Crawford simply wraps up his conversation with Elsbeth, telling her he'll see her in court.

Related

Elsbeth Finds a New Enemy in Season 2 Episode 7

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Elsbeth finds Teddy back at the precinct waiting for her, having a drink with Blanke and Wagner. She's excited that Teddy had a good day with Blanke, but also tells them that the case isn't sitting well with her. She feels drawn to the defendant, who is a "little quirky" and obviously has a heavy past — gee, I wonder why she feels that kinship — but also notes that she's the only one there who seems upset at Andy's death. She also notes that Crawford is weirdly favoring the prosecution, almost as if he wants them to win. Wagner tells Elsbeth he knows of Crawford, saying the man is beloved by DAs, and is the stuffy type whose ancestors came over on the Mayflower and who never lets anyone forget it. Teddy looks him up and also sees that he's in line for a Federal Bench nomination, and his uncle is a Senator. Teddy agrees with his mother's assessment that there's something fishy about Crawford.

The next day in court, the prosecutor questions Andy's next-door neighbor, Lydia (Vivien Landau). She tells the court that Delia lives in the building as well, and that she saw her sneaking around on the fire escape more than once. Elsbeth notes that the prosecutor is asking a lot of leading questions, and is increasingly frustrated that Chaz doesn't notice this because he's too busy texting, and therefore cannot object like he should. I've been antsy to see Elsbeth in a courtroom setting, and it's frustrating (in a good way) to see such a good attorney stifled by the fact that she isn't actually the attorney assigned to the case, and is actually not allowed to speak out at all. Lydia tells the court that she was trying to hear the Final Jeopardy clue when the volume became so loud she couldn't hear, and the prosecution makes another leading statement, this time directly to the jury, and unintentionally following her lead, Lydia declares that Delia must have had a violent streak, which even I know is speculation and therefore objectionable, but Chaz would have to put his phone down to hear that. Elsbeth has enough and causes a disruption in the jury box to get Delia's attention, and prompts her to get Chaz to pay attention. The next witness, George (Danny Doherty), tells the court he could see Andy's fire escape from his couch and, on the night of the murder, saw Delia climbing through his window, and when the prosecution tries to lead him again, Elsbeth — via Delia — manages to intervene this time and have the question redirected.

At the precinct, Wagner is making good on his promise to Connor to go through what I'm calling the Petty Squabbles Folder. He calls Blanke into the office, and she's nervous to find out he didn't call her in to talk about his mentoring of her, and even more nervous to realize she's actually there because she's the subject of a complaint. The complaint in question? Improper storage of her lunch leftovers in the communal fridge. Blanke bursts out laughing and rightly so because this is hardly something Wagner needs to discuss with her, but she sobers up when he tells her he's serious, and agrees to use Tupperware instead. If this is a sign of how Wagner's efforts are going, it's not a very encouraging one.

At the courthouse, the prosecution is speaking to Andy's ex-girlfriend Sadie (Ray Elizabeth Wilson), asking her about an interaction she had with Delia 15 days before Andy died. Sadie says that she caught Delia smashing the headlights on her car. Elsbeth signals Delia to object, which she gets Chaz to do, citing prior acts. He claims that the defense can't introduce prior crimes that the defendant may have committed, but the prosecutor tells him that she had made him aware of her intent in a pre-trial memo. A memo Chaz obviously hasn't read. Crawford orders the two of them to his chambers, and tells Elsbeth to join them as well. There, he orders Elsbeth to stop sending signals to the defense, but she counters that her expressive face is simply expressing what an awful job Chaz is doing. The prosecutor tries to have her dismissed, but Crawford refuses, saying she's the last alternate, and to lose her would mean risking a mistrial. Crawford asks Elsbeth to control herself for the remainder of the trial, and she turns the demand back around on Crawford, saying that his bench rulings show a clear favor towards the prosecution.

Crawford Gets Sloppy in Elsbeth Season 2 Episode 7

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It's at this point that Michael Emerson's eyes flash with the kind of menace that reminds all of us why he makes for such a good TV villain. Judge Crawford isn't real. He can't hurt me. And yet as he advances towards Elsbeth, I sat back in my chair, away from the screen. He tells Elsbeth that if she continues to act as Delia's de facto attorney, he will have her dismissed from court and held in contempt, and to top it off, will also place a call to the DA to let him know about her criminal charges, which would no doubt affect her consent decree. With that settled, they head back to court to hear the rest of Sadie's testimony. She says that on that day, she had gone to Andy's to pick up the cat they share custody of. Delia had come down the fire escape and seen the two of them together, and Sadie says when she returned downstairs, Delia was smashing the lights on her car with a baseball bat, threatening to kill both her and Andy, which doesn't look great for Delia.

It's finally time for the defendant to take the stand, and Delia paints a picture of her relationship with Andy. She says that she'd always found him cute, and during the COVID lockdown, headed to his apartment to offer him scones she'd made. She says he freaked out due to taking social distancing seriously, so the next time she wanted to leave him baked goods, she entered his apartment after he left, admitting that this doesn't sound good in retrospect. She says the two of them eventually bonded over baseball; as it turns out, they cheered for the same team, and a sexual relationship developed from there. She tells Chaz that Andy left her restraining order in place because it was part of the fun, as they liked to roleplay — which begs the question, why not pretend there's a restraining order so you don't set your partner up for legal misery, but what do I know? — with her sneaking in through the fire escape. Chaz asks where she was at the time of the murder, and she says she was showering, and didn't hear it because whoever did it turned the music up loud. Crawford's face betrays the tiniest bit of panic, which grows once Chaz asks who else might have wanted to kill Andy. Delia says sometimes when Andy would drink, he would get dark, talking about how he'd believe anything of the people who run the country after seeing what he had. Lucky for Crawford, the prosecution objects, and he allows it to stand.

If that bench motion had Elsbeth slightly suspicious, she goes into full-blown suspicion when Chaz tries to ask Delia about the baseball game she was watching, and when that fails, tries to ask her who got her into baseball. The prosecution objects to both and Crawford sustains her motion. I'd think he wouldn't be so blatant with another attorney sitting right there in the room, but I guess that's typical of these old boys club types, they think they're untouchable. Chaz gives up on the line of questioning, and all his questions entirely, which angers Delia, who, in a state of panic, says she's going to kill Chaz. Not a great look. While the jury reel from that very pointed threat, Elsbeth wonders where Chaz was going with his questions about baseball, which is great for Delia, but shows a serious lack of judgment on Crawford's part, letting such a sharp litigator on the jury when he's looking to convict. Then again, if there's one thing people are going to do, it's underestimate Elsbeth.

That night over dinner, Elsbeth tells Teddy — who is still wearing his foam Statue of Liberty hat, because he is Elsbeth's kid through and through — that the jury is set to start deliberations the next day, and she wishes she could get into that room for Delia's sake. She tells Teddy that if she couldn't see him fall in love with New York, then she would have at least liked to know she helped Delia, though that doesn't seem possible now. Teddy tells her that for what it's worth, he was never going to fall in love with New York either, which upsets Elsbeth more than he expected, and she bursts into tears. She says she was hoping Teddy would like the city so he would come visit her more, and they could be closer now that he's an adult. Teddy asks if this is the real reason she upended her life in Chicago and moved to New York, a move he says was so startling everyone is still asking her ex-husband about it. She tells Teddy there were a lot of reasons why she left Chicago, and in a masterful move, Teddy gets her to stop crying by saying part of his New York resentment is that the guy he's seeing is moving to Brooklyn.

Elsbeth Manages To See Justice Served in Season 2 Episode 7

Image via CBS

He then tells her that the real reason he came to New York was that after getting texts from Blanke and Wagner telling him to come, he got worried about Elsbeth, especially following her drastic life change. She tells him not to worry about her, and that all she needs is to see him more. Despite Teddy only giving Elsbeth one fact about him a day, he does tell her that his boyfriend Roy is moving to New York after getting a job at a podcast company. This reminds Elsbeth of Lonnie from the jury, which triggers a brain wave, and with it, a way for her to get on the jury. The next day at the courthouse, she approaches the foreperson of the jury, Francine (Marceline Hugot), and, not-so-innocently, asks if the jurors are allowed to make recordings of the trial. Since that's an obvious no, the jurors, councilors, and Crawford gather together to track down the guilty party. No surprise, it's Lonnie, who has been recording the proceedings for his podcast. Initially, Crawford is reluctant to dismiss him, even after learning it's for a podcast provided he delete the audio, and agree not to make more recordings. Elsbeth pushes Lonnie to reveal the title of the podcast — Nutjob Sluts Who Kill — and that is too prejudicial for Crawford to keep him on without raising suspicions. And with that, Elsbeth is formally added to the jury.

As they enter deliberations, the jury takes an initial vote, with 11 voting guilty and Elsbeth voting a giant question mark. Since they all know it was her anyway, she offers to explain her reasoning. Picking up on Chaz's baseball line of thinking, she says that since Delia's family is from Rhode Island, and Andy was from Cape Cod, they were almost definitely Red Sox fans. The murder weapon, however, was a baseball bat with a printed signature from a New York baseball player, which neither of them would have owned. One of the jurors counters that Delia's fingerprints were on the bat, but another remembers Delia saying she picked it up after it fell into the bathroom. With enough reasonable doubt to continue, but not enough to acquit, Elsbeth examines Delia's motive. While she did threaten to kill Andy, she did so two weeks before he died, which hardly suggests a crime of passion, and if it was premeditated, then it was very sloppy. The one holdout on the jury reminds them of the eyewitnesses, but Elsbether reminds her in turn that only one was an eyewitness, as the other one only overheard. Lidia, Andy's neighbor who overheard Delia on the fire escape, says she heard her during Final Jeopardy, which is read shortly before 7:30pm, while the eyewitness says he saw Delia on the fire escape while it was raining, and the rain didn't start until after 8pm. Elsbeth suggests that whoever Lidia heard wasn't the person the neighbor across the way saw, and that whoever arrived first was hiding in the apartment until Delia got in the shower, and then killed Andy. Chaz might have been denied his Legally Blonde moment with the roundabout questions, but Elsbeth got there in the end.

Since their job is only to determine whether or not Delia killed Andy, and not who actually did if she was innocent, they put it to another vote. They return to the courtroom, and Crawford is more than a little alarmed by the verdict, but allows it to be read out loud by the foreperson anyway — the one small mercy of the justice system, that he can't just read out whatever he likes and make it binding. The jury announce that they find Delia not guilty, to her overwhelming relief. Crawford catches up with Elsbeth on the way out of the courthouse, congratulating her on the verdict, before implying that this is just the sort of lawyer she is, helping out "unsavory" types. He tells her he dug into her client list back in Chicago, and they're all certainly the kind of people Elsbeth doesn't help now — billionaires, corrupt senators, etc. She tells Crawford that that was her old life, and now in her new role, she sees justice served by proving no one is above the law. Crawford points out that Andy — whom he refers to as a "perverted disco lover" — didn't get justice, but she flips it back around on him, saying Delia got justice after Crawford tried to railroad her for reasons unknown.

Crawford excuses himself, and moments later Delia arrives. Not a minute too soon, as Elsbeth is hit with another brainwave. She asks Delia what they were listening to when she found Andy's body. She says it was Donna Summer as Andy loved disco, and Elsbeth confirms that that information — the artist and genre — never came up at trial. While the case may be closed as far as the police are concerned, it's hardly closed for Elsbeth, with Crawford now firmly in her sights as a suspect. Given that she's got that to deal with now, it's nice to know that at least one other source of stress will be relieved, namely Lt. Connor. Back at the precinct, Wagner calls him into his office to tell him he's no longer dealing with petty personnel issues as punishment for backing Elsbeth, but Connor tells him he was wrong about her. Connor shares that the department received several formal complaints of misconduct for things that Elsbeth would have caught, had she not been away on jury duty, and he's going to back off. As he passes Elsbeth's office, she declares her intention to stay in New York as she has unfinished business now, and Connor offers no argument against it. The unfinished business? Taking down Judge Crawford.

The first seven episodes of Elsbeth Season 2 are out now. New episodes premiere on CBS on Thursdays, and stream next day on Paramount+.

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Elsbeth

Review

Elsbeth Season 2 Episode 7 finally hints at us getting more insight into Elsbeth as a person, and changes the stakes of the season going into the back half.

Pros

• We finally meet Teddy! And get some hints about why and how Elsbeth left Chicago!
• Lt. Connor has decided to ease up on Elsbeth, which means maybe now we can have some fun with the character.
• Elsbeth has an exciting, terrifying new adversary in Judge Crawford.

Cons

• With Connor's investigation over, I wonder what's going to happen to some of the threads dropped earlier.

Watch on Paramount+