Spoilers for Elsbeth Season 2, Episode 2 are ahead! To catch up, you can stream the series with a Paramount+ subscription, and then catch new episodes as they air on the 2024 TV schedule every Thursday at 10 p.m. on CBS.
Elsbeth’s past rolled up to her in a black car during Season 2’s premiere, and in Episode 2, it’s quickly revealed that Christian Borle’s Carter Schmidt is the man behind the window. So, with this direct connection to The Good Wife made, I asked Carrie Preston and Jonathan Tolins about filming the sequence and its importance to Elsbeth moving forward.
In response, I learned about why they decided to bring back Carter now and the surprisingly catholic story behind filming the scene involving the titular character’s fellow Chicago lawyer.
Why They Decided To Bring Christian Borle’s The Good Wife Character Back
So, Elsbeth brought back a Good Wife actor to play a new character last week with Nathan Lane. This week, a performer came back to actually play their established character from The Good Universe. Yep, they brought in Christian Borle and his snide lawyer Carter to serve as an into why the titular character moved from Chicago to New York, as showrunner Jonathan Tolins told me during New York Comic-Con:
We were looking for someone who was from The Good Universe on the legal side, and preferably someone that we saw Elsbeth interact with. And they actually did have episodes where they work together. But [we] also [wanted] someone who was a little bit threatening…Carter always had an edge to him. And so it worked well for what we’re establishing now with what we in the writers’ room call ‘the black car plot.’
To refresh, the episode – which also features Rob Riggle and John Behlmann as guest stars – begins with Carter driving up to Elsbeth. She then gets in the vehicle, and he drops a bomb about a case they worked on. This ties the lawyer-turned-sorta-detective directly back to her past, and as Carrie Preston told me, it adds a new “darkness” to the show:
Well, he’s obviously bringing this darkness from my past into the brightness of my present. So that’s alarming for Elsbeth…and his character is so – snide is good word for it. And [he] gets under Elsbeth’s skin a little bit, and vice versa.
Elsbeth and Carter’s last appearance together was in Season 2, Episode 4 – “Day 429” – of The Good Fight. This scene marked their tense reunion, as Borle’s character informed Preston’s that her confidentiality was necessary because a case they worked on back in the day had reemerged in a problematic way.
Tolins told me that this “black car plot” will continue to play a role in Season 2. However, before we learn more about that on the show, I have to tell you about the logistical challenges of filming said plot in the “black car.”
The Story Behind Filming Elsbeth And Carter’s Meeting
While Borle is only in a couple of minutes of the episode, it’s very memorable as it’s made clear that this divorce their former client Mark VanNess is going through will be a big issue. The car scene also impactful and very dramatic generally since it takes place in…well…a dark car. And the BTS of how they filmed it adds to all that, as Preston told me:
[Borle] came in to do this scene on a day where we were shooting in another sound stage studio that we don’t normally shoot in, and there was a huge like thunderstorm. And so we were supposed to do this scene in the car outside. But, we couldn’t because of the weather, so they had to pivot and move that car into a parking garage. And so logistically, it was very challenging.
That does sound challenging, and as it’s noted in the episode, having this conversation in a car in a parking lot is a bit odd. However, I enjoyed it all, and Preston did too. She told me that while they had to work quickly and her character’s dog Gonzo added an extra complexity to the moment, overall, she and Borle had a great time together:
We were running late, and we had to do it very quickly. And when you have the level of actor Christian Borle is, you don’t sweat it, because he’s gonna hit his marks how and he’s gonna deliver the material. But then you add a dog in the middle. So we had many challenges to do that scene. But, once you’re in there and doing it with someone like Christian, it sings.
“It sings” is such a good way to put it, and now I can’t wait to see how this situation comes back to haunt Elsbeth as Season 2 continues.
It’s so fun to witness such direct connections back to The Good Wife and The Good Fight, and I’m looking forward to seeing this problem from Elsbeth’s past play out in her present. She has a totally new life in New York, so her Chicago ghosts coming back to haunt her will certainly be interesting. Hopefully, they’ll also lead to more fun and chaotic behind-the-scenes moments like this one did.