Elsbeth Season 3 Episode 5 brings back a character from Elsbeth Tascioni’s old life (Sarah Steele’s Marissa Gold, who we last saw in The Good Fight‘s series finale). That was always going to be a treat — and it is, despite Marissa proving she’s more her father’s daughter than ever. But it’s William Jackson Harper’s turn as our murderous director of a nonprofit poetry journal that really makes this hour. If the constant repetition of “the arts are under attack,” mostly by Harper’s character Gary but occasionally by others, is a little bit heavy-handed at driving home the point that the arts are, in fact, under attack, that’s perfectly forgivable because of how wildly entertaining Harper is as this person who’s so desperate for funding, he’ll do anything from grossly lowering his artistic standards…to literally killing for it.
Harper manages the specific push and pull between hyper control and overacting necessary to play one of this series’ murderers about as well as anyone has. Even in the opening scene, Gary is quite obviously resentful of having to lower himself to begging Dolores for money (without making it seem too much like begging). His initial delivery of that “the arts. are under. attack” phrasing tells us everything we need to know about this character and the situation. He’s so tense — from the stress of needing this money, to having to hold himself back from showing Dolores too much disrespect, and so much more — and those clasped, shaking hands provide both an emphasis as he pleads his case to his dinner companion and a way to keep those hands busy so he doesn’t throttle the old woman making all the demands.
You might even call Harper’s performance in this episode “extremely…epic,” just not in the totally-awkward way Gary says it to describe Dolores’ godawful poem. Because, you know, the actor is actually good here. Every time Gary tells someone about the arts (they’re under attack, in case you didn’t know!), the delivery is unique to the situation. The false emotion in his voice as he describes being on the phone with Dolores when she died is another brilliant detail, as are the many reaction shots that only the viewer, not anyone else in the scene, sees — maybe especially the one when Gary learns Dolores left him everything…which was basically nothing.
Harper’s pained, stumbling delivery through the poem Elsbeth asks him to read is yet another hilariously-performed detail. Not to mention, that struggle, coupled with the facial expressions he knows his audience can’t see, tell us that no, Gary’s not bad at poetry reading — he simply hates the poetry he’s currently reading. And when the character finally does get to explode about the insultingly terrible quality of Dolores’ work, or again when he knows he’s well and truly caught, it’s just over the top enough to remind viewers how long all that anger has been bottled up. But it’s never too much to keep us from cracking up.
Yes, the arts are under attack and all. But they’re alive and well in Elsbeth Season 3 Episode 5.
MORE: Elsbeth Season 3 started out strong with a season premiere focused on comedy, followed only a few days later by a hostage situation inside a toy store.
Sarah Steele is back as Marissa Gold…but what’s she up to
When Elsbeth and Marissa Gold run into each other at a benefit dinner in Elsbeth Season 3 Episode 5, Marissa introduces us to her “guy” Alec Bloom. He’s someone who “wants to make the city affordable for everyone, including nonprofit workers” and also Marissa’s “guy.” Not her guy, her guy — a candidate whose campaign she’s managing. And in true Gold family fashion, even in a conversation with someone she has a personal history with, she just can’t keep herself from rattling off knowledge of which group of voters she needs to win over (women) and how Alec’s (lack of a) personal life is going to cause problems there. Also in true Gold family fashion, when she says she’s “following in [her] father’s footsteps,” she actually means the conniving part.
Obviously, a lot of what Marissa does here is…tough to stomach. To say the least. She convinces Elsbeth to have dinner with Alec — not because she has at all asked about Elsbeth’s life and learned she deeply misses her best friend, but because tying her guy to Elsbeth and the consent decree will help his image. Next up, she not-so-secretly pulls out her phone and records Alec and Elsbeth’s conversation. Marissa also leaks photos of the candidate with his “mysterious redhead” to the press because manufacturing gossip can help with votes and endorsements. She can’t even be honest when Elsbeth makes an emotional plea to, basically, have her privacy back. In fact, she acts like she’s going to help — says she doesn’t want to be “that person” and pretends to really care — and only confesses to actually being “that person” when she comes to ask Elsbeth to keep quiet.
Elsbeth Season 3 Episode 5 ends with a confession about the photo leak and an ominous sort of statement about the future being in Elsbeth’s hands. And, like…what? First off, that’s the second major cliffhanger ending this season. (The first one was, of course, Kaya’s seeming disappearance when her undercover phone was disconnected following what had, up until that point, been a much more genuinely friendly return of an old friend.) Second, all I have to say is like…what? Just what. As in, what is going on here? And what does Elsbeth Tascioni going along with things have to do with it. Not to mention, what made Marissa think she should go about this in an underhanded sort of way instead of just asking for Elsbeth for help directly from the start?
Whatever the answer is, and however this return to each other’s orbit ultimately played out, putting Elsbeth Tascioni and Marissa Gold in the same episode of television again — believe the last time was three years ago in The Good Fight‘s ‘The End of Ginni’ — works well here. Steele is just as good as ever in this role, to the point where it feels like she and Marissa never parted ways. She and Carrie Preston also simply pair well together. No surprise there, considering both the history and the fact that nobody has had poor chemistry with Preston yet. That the characters come together when and how they do also manages to make perfect sense, so it’s not a case of, “let’s bring back someone from the previous show(s) and force them in here in a way that obviously feels wrong.” Not even close.
MORE: We loved Captain Wagner and Julia’s father/daughter moments in Elsbeth Season 3 Episode 4. (Yes, even that argument.)
More Elsbeth Season 3 Episode 5 reactions
- Mama Boone from Law & Order: Organized Crime/Meg from Twister (Lois Smith), Niles the Butler (Daniel Davis), Ben from The Morning Show (William Jackson Harper), and Marissa Gold (Sarah Steele) all in one episode! Perfect. 10/10, no notes.
- Big fan of the way the camera’s angled at the beginning here. We’re fully getting Dolores’ perspective, like Gary’s way too much/too in her face/too imposing in asking for money.
- “…poetry is life itself” while this woman hacks away. We do love some irony.
- She is done. “Well, I don’t know, Gary! It’s kind of like how you don’t know if you can publish my epic poem. With annotations.”
- “I am. Going to get it published. If it is the last thing I do.”
- “Thank you!!!! That’s so generous of you.” “No. You’re paying.” Love Smith’s delivery here. (And everywhere, let’s be honest.)
- A nonprofit? Woefully understaffed with the only employees working for free (or practically doing so)? More likely in the real world than you think!
- “You have an entire dental floss empire!!!!!!”
- “This sequence needs a hysterectomy.” I have no idea what in a “womb X” this woman is talking about after this, but I do love her having to be like “it’s a metaphor” and refusing to take the edit.
- “It’s literally 6:00 p.m.” “I am literally 95. I get tired.” If I make it to that age, this is literally the personality I will have.
- Marissa!!! That grin on the “too late again” line!!! Elsbeth’s reaction to seeing her!!!
- “Yeah, I hear every season is benefit season now, considering all the cuts in funding to everything.” A comment on all the nonsense out there, right as we’re (re)introducing a character who’s part of the political world. Clever.
- “Wait, I thought you were a lawyer now.” “Yeah. That was when the law still existed.” Girl, that is. A word. Also: I’ve missed you.
- “Am I crazy, or am I sensing a vibe here?” Why not both?
- Oh, she absolutely is blushing and absolutely wants to be his “friend.”
- “Here we go. Another benefit, another droopy salad, followed by unseasoned chicken.” Everything about Davis’ delivery on that is pitch perfect, especially the disdain for that unseasoned chicken. Real Niles the Butler vibes there, which makes me wonder why with Dolores’ last name being Feinn, we never once got a “Ms. Fine” out of him.
- Love the “one droopy salad later” and “One unseasoned chicken dish later” cards.
- “I always suspected that Dolores never actually used her oxygen tank…I told so many people she only used it to get corner tables in restaurants.”
- Wendell Pierce can do no wrong. Something as simple as a series of distracted “uh huh” and “yeah, sure” responses can include so much variation and be so effortlessly funny. Plus, dude looks like he’s bracing himself for an attack in that doorframe.
- “Eat a sandwich,” points at Rivers, “in the car.”
- “I love ideas!” Never change, Elsbeth. (And never change, Carrie Preston.)
- Elsbeth’s reaction to hearing about Alec’s fire marshal history is the correct one.
- “Your consent decree is kind of a magic bullet to position him well on policing for the electorate. He wants to see how the system can be changed from within.”
- More great physical acting: Elsbeth and Gary’s assistant moving that furniture.
- “The arts are under attack…” “So I’ve heard.” But have you? Have we? Has anyone heard it enough to actually do something?
- Elsbeth. Fidgeting.
- “I love to hear the muu-sic! Of the words!” Pro-tip: The way she sits there, exhales, and closes her eyes so she can really focus? That’s the way to do it.
- “Don’t cerulean and azure both mean blue? And why is the pussy willow wolf bleeding on the moon? Is she hurt? Why is it even called ‘Nipples of the Sea’?”
- Wendell Pierce dramatically reading poetry is a thing I could listen to nonstop. Yes, even when he’s putting a little bit of Wagner into it with the facial expressions.
- And then, Wagner basically asks the same important questions Elsbeth did. Also, him being like “and why is ‘BOTH THINGS CAN BE TRUE’ in all caps” is so relatable.
- Check out Elsbeth and Rivers, finding their mystery-solving rhythm!
- Elsbeth’s “the arts are under attack” revelation is giving “the limit does not exist” from Mean Girls. I need a reaction gif of it.
- “I’m not voting for you, but is there any way I can get a selfie?”
- “We might be screwed either way, but you’re the better choice. Psychologically.” The average voter, folks.
- I ship it. Preston’s got great chemistry with Ivan Hernandez, and the back and forth fangirling over The Lion King (and all things New York!) is perfect after her most recent relationship imploded over neither person being able to leave the places they loved.
- The way she twirls that watch…
- He is so proper.
- Harper’s melodramatic false emotion on Gary’s “the…gift of her words is…is so much more than I could’ve ever imagined” line.
- “Are you saying this because you’re deflecting or because you’re that sure he did it?” “Both things! Can. Be. True.” Elsbeth has a cruuuussshhhhh. Also a smart callback to the (bad) poem.
- “It’s been the only thing inspiring me in these…hectic and dark times.” Me at my silly, little TV shows.
- Choose your favorite purposely-off poetry reader. I’m going with Preston. The repetitions on “father” all have a different flavor, followed by that flagrant melodrama on “shoerack. Mouse.” And then, there’s…whatever I can only call a demonic growl on “SADAAM HUSSEIN.” Exquisite. You can’t really go wrong with any of the available choices (Preston, Pierce, Harper), though.
- “It gestures to Sylvia Plath in a way that makes me want to put my head! In an oven. It lacks a technique, or structure, or emotional resonance. And, frankly, your voice is the word salad of a toddler.” Ok but what have these Elsbeth writers had to read lately that was this bad?
- “So, you hated it?” “So much! And how dare you dangle your support as a way to get yourself published by my press? I have standards. Do better.” Harper is so good!
- See also: “Well who cares if I hated it?! The entire point of my job as the director of a nonprofit is to keep it alive!” He is roaring those lines! And the gestures!
- “Because this world doesn’t understand nonprofits! Because profit is the oooooonly thing this world cares about!” Physical. Acting.
- Plus: He’s right.
- “Sorry about the misunderstanding in the paper, but…that’s the press.”
- “Marissa, we’ve known each other a long time. I…I thought I was your friend. I don’t want to be a story. Or a pawn.” “I’m sorry. You’re right. I don’t want to be that person.” My heart. Poor Elsbeth.
- ELEVEN MINUTES LATER
- Obligatory “Carrie Preston acting out her description of the murder is excellent” comment here. The “sssssaturate,” fake phone, miming walking with a walker…genius.
- “…but science is under attack!” True. And the absurdity of that statement being true is highlighted perfectly by being included in Elsbeth Season 3 Episode 5. After nearly a full episode of hearing about the arts, which have always been under attack/woefully underfunded, now there’s this, too.
- “Sounds like the results of mandatory HR training to me.” And he sips from his mug. I LOVE HIM.
- Another reaction to that whole “the future is in your hands” thing: How is this supposed to work, when the work Elsbeth is already doing isn’t actually going to be doable with any kind of obvious conflict of interest?
- …and can can Marissa call Daddy Dearest for help? (As in, I’m greedy and demand to see Alan Cumming as Eli Gold again.)
Agree? Disagree? What did you think of Elsbeth Season 3 Episode 5 ‘Poetic Justice’? Leave us a comment!
New episodes of Elsbeth air Thursdays at 10/9c on CBS.
