Spoilers ahead for Episode 4 of Elsbeth Season 2, called “Elsbeth’s Eleven.”
Just one week after Elsbeth embraced Breakfast At Tiffany’s for the Halloween episode in the fall 2024 TV schedule, the latest episode was an homage to Ocean’s Eleven… although this time around, the main thief was also a murderer and the authorities won the day. The case wouldn’t have been cracked if Elsbeth and Kaya hadn’t refused to give up their suspicions about Roselyn (Vanessa Williams), and the episode was a great showcase for one of my favorite TV friendships. It reminded me of what star Carrie Preston and showrunner Jonathan Tolins told CinemaBlend about Kaya and Elsbeth’s bond.
Kaya needed a place to stay while her house was being renovated, and Elsbeth of course volunteered her guest room. She didn’t expect Kaya to pay rent, however, while Kaya insisted that it as well as a contract between them was necessary. Instead of just remaining at odds and perhaps spoiling their future as roomies, the two friends talked out their conflict and Kaya was able to help Elsbeth understand why it was so important to her to not feel like charity. Throw in the duo investigating the heist case on the sly against Chief Wagner’s wishes, and “Elsbeth’s Eleven” was downright heartwarming for any fans of those characters.
And I’m certainly one of those fans, going back to when I spoke with Carra Patterson about Kaya and Elsbeth’s partnership last season. (You can stream Season 1 now with a Paramount+ subscription.) Ahead of Season 2, I asked leading lady Carrie Preston about the evolution of their friendship, and she shared:
I love working with Carra. She’s so lovely, and I think it speaks to our relationship as actors that the writers are taking their cues from that, or maybe we’re taking cues from the script in our real life. But it’s lovely to see both of those friendships blossoming. This season, [for] each of the characters is the overarching theme of you can’t escape your past. So we’re going to see some things from each of the characters’ pasts that are going to come up, that we have to grapple with. And so I think you’ll see Elsbeth and Kaya helping each other through those things.
We’ve already seen a bit of the friends helping each other, with Elsbeth welcoming Kaya into her home and Kaya explaining what was important to her in “Elsbeth’s Eleven.” Sharing his own thoughts on the friendship, showrunner Jonathan Tolins noted the “genuine warmth” between them, saying:
One of the nice things about working on this show – unlike some of the streaming shows I worked on, where we sometimes would write the whole thing before we shot it – we were able to respond to what we were seeing between Carrie Preston and Carra Patterson, and feel the genuine warmth and humor between them. I don’t know if, when Robert and Michelle King originally created the series, they saw that relationship becoming as warm and integral as it became, and we were just organically following where they took us. And we love their chemistry, and we love both those characters.
There’s definitely a reason why I – and probably many others – consider Elsbeth and Kaya to have one of the best friendships on network TV. Of course, the whole dynamic of the show feels a bit looser this season now that Wagner is openly glad to have Elsbeth on board.
In fact, my biggest laugh of the hour was when Wagner talked himself into drinking his milkshake after Elsbeth and Kaya walked out on their lunch together. This was also a special episode for Wendell Pierce, as it was a “full circle moment” for him thanks to his history with Vanessa Williams.
Fortunately, there’s still plenty of Season 2 left, and you can keep finding new episodes of Elsbeth on Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET on CBS, following Matlock. While there are many questions about what comes next, we do already know that Carrie Preston’s real-life husband Michael Emerson is set to debut before the end of the year.