“Elsbeth” Review, Season 2, Episode 3: “Devil’s Night”

Elsbeth

Devil's Night

Season 2

Episode 3

Editor's Rating

4 stars

****

Photo: Michael Parmelee/CBS

It must have been a hell of a night to be relieved when Officer Kaya Blanke arrived at your apartment to arrest you for criminal mischief, and that's exactly what happened to former child star Mackenzie Altman (Brittany O'Grady) when she wakes up and can't remember how her white Marilyn Monroe bled The Seven Year Itch –or her hair cut into bangs, or a tattoo celebrating the love of Rick and Amy (people she doesn't know), or a hickey from what appears to be a very small mouth. And! As we've already seen, Mac dreamed that she shot an attacker wearing a werewolf mask, and coincidentally her pistol wasn't in her locked safe. Oh dear.

Thank God Kaya was the arresting officer because Elsbeth can now get involved in the case. I knew we were getting a Halloween episode this season and was very excited to see how Elsbeth would approach her costume. Would she carry multiple options around town in her carrier bags, transforming into different options over the course of the episode? Would she convince Kaya and Captain Wagner to make a group costume? Instead, she opted for a perfectly executed one-costume strategy and kept things simple by dressing up as Audrey Hepburn and Holly Golightly Breakfast at Tiffany'scomplete with a very chic updo and one of those long cigarette holders that unfortunately used to make smoking look very glamorous.

Character Development Twist #1: The extremely empowered Lieutenant Connor is the only other employee at the station who is in costume. He chose something similar: Winston Churchill, complete with bowler hat, pocket square and, I can only assume, a very well starched shirt. Character Development Twist #2: Captain Wagner doesn't dress up because he hates the “sanctioned chaos” of Halloween. However, growing up, he was an expert at high-volume trick-or-treaters: “We changed costumes twice and hit each block three times.” I applaud the creative problem-solving and efficiency of this method.

As Mac cools off in a meeting room, Kaya provides a helpful exposition: Mac played the eldest daughter Father's Guardiana show on KidPow (an analogue of Nickelodeon or Disney Channel) about a widowed father raising four daughters. Her roommate Cissy (Zolee Griggs) – who wisely advised Mack not to say anything and wait for her lawyer to arrive – played one of her younger sisters in the series. Neither of them made the Miley-like leap from child star to adult career in the industry, but that wasn't because Mac didn't try. Their very stubborn lawyer/manager/agent/accountant Danny Beck (Ryan Spahn) comes in and says the club owner is dropping the charges because it's all a misunderstanding. This is entirely consistent with Danny's track record of getting celebrity clients out of trouble; He got a customer from a cult and another from a drug cartel in Bogotá – all for a price, of course.

You'd think Mac would be more relieved to learn she could be released, but he ends up confiding in Elsbeth that she has no memories of the night before and suspects she may have killed someone. She wants to get to the bottom of the matter regardless of the consequences for her, which is more than I expect from a spoiled former child star.

Using Cissy's memory, Instagram posts, a bartender, and a tattoo artist, Kaya, Elsbeth, and Mac are able to retrace Mac's steps from the previous evening to summarize what happened and create a timeline to fill in the considerable gaps in Mac's memory, unfortunately one Corpse. Apparently Mac shot someone and he wasn't unknown to her. The victim was an aspiring rapper named Sonny Miller (Geronimo Ambert), who was also Mac's on-again, off-again boyfriend and partner. It's a good thing Mac has Elsbeth and Kaya on his side, because Detective Smullen (Danny Mastrogiorgio) is ready to declare this case completely closed just because Sonny is dead and Mac has gunshot marks on his hands from a gun that caliber fits from whoever killed Sonny. Smullen's tendencies here reflect more of resentment than the healthier competitiveness that would lead him to mount a solid case against his prime suspect.

Our glorious two-episode series without annoying veteran detectives is over, but Elsbeth and Kaya's work is not yet! On the face of it, there are at least three reasons not to press charges against Mac yet: She couldn't have taken the gun with her when she went out that night (no bags, no bag, and the PostMark party did). a metal detector); She helped them find Sonny's body, and her complete lack of memory of the night before suggests she wasn't drunk, but rather in hiding.

Elsbeth and Kaya continue to search for details about Mac's evening and relationships. Cissy lives with Mac, but things are bad for her, not her roommate. However, the arrangement has soured their relationship as each views the other as a user – Mac doesn't even know Cissy's real name! She has no real friends at all. The extent to which Danny is involved in her life increases her social isolation or perhaps just takes advantage of her. He's pretty intense and very protective, but Mac excuses that as being overprotective. He negotiated a multi-film deal with the PostMark Channel on their behalf and led the planning and construction of a club in Montenegro, east of Italy on the Adriatic.

The club was intended to be a “cash cow” and make Mac and Danny's future retirement easy and lucrative. So far, they have invested over $6 million, but due to weather delays and poor contractors, the club has not yet opened. Danny said that Mac is extremely impressionable and too trusting for her own good. Is it possible that it was less a criticism of his client and more a confession about what he actually does in his capacity as her manager?

To his credit, Smullen also worked on the case and learned that he called a production company in Montenegro two days before Sonny's murder to get the ball rolling for the video set. What a coincidence: the man Sonny spoke to told him that there was no such club. His next call was to Danny, which probably gave Danny a motive to kill Sonny – if this call was intended to let Danny know that things weren't right and to blackmail him, that would make far more sense than Mac Killed Sonny for the flimsy reason he disrupted her sobriety (which was already tenuous – Tampa sobriety from alcohol and Xanax pretty much exaggerates the definition). But somehow Mac still pulled the trigger?

Blood test results provide evidence for Elsbeth's roofer hypothesis; Mac had high levels of a substance called scopolamine in her body. Captain Wagner explains that it is a nightshade (so it is related to tomatoes and eggplants), commonly called devil's breath, that Colombian drug cartels use to hypnotize people and force them to commit terrible crimes. Kaya points out that it's fairly easy to get here, as it can also be used as an anti-nausea medication in small doses. Danny chimes in, citing a law that says defendants cannot be held responsible if they commit crimes while involuntarily intoxicated, which is strange for him as someone who was deeply involved in all of Mac's business and financial dealings , is incredibly practical. Does anyone know the combination to their gun safe?

Elsbeth's flash of blue realization that Danny could very well have learned all about Devil's Breath when he rescued a customer from a drug cartel in Bogotá, the capital of Colombia! A quick zoom with Jesse Fox (Dan Hoy), the former client in question, confirms this suspicion, along with Danny's penchant for embezzlement (which is why Jesse is a… former Customer).

The final piece of the puzzle falls into place when the gang attends a party thrown by Mac's friend and former producer Roya (Haven Burton), who happens to own the monkey that gave Mac that awkward little smooch. Roya had thrown a party the night before where there was no metal detector but invisible ink stamps were used to show who was allowed in. The previous party stamp was on the right wrist, the second on the left. Danny kept saying he never left the PostMark party, it's a shame, so sad, but what's the point? An invisible ink stamp from Roya's previous party on his right wrist? To prison with you, sir!

Mac – who knows she really needs to grow up – can't be held criminally responsible for poor Sonny's death, but the legal process that gets her released will take some time. Kaya and Elsbeth interpret the entire experience as an opportunity to restart their lives with new, real friends. She should probably retire her obnoxious self Father's Guardian-era “I’ll be the judge of this” slogan.

Meanwhile, at the station, Wagner saw a disgruntled Detective Smullen preparing to speak with Lt. Connor registered as part of his exam and is excited to hear more about Connor's progress so far. The overview of results is bad for Wagner; Staff morale is low, and the rank and file perceive him as a distant captain, thinking that he is playing favorite alongside Elsbeth and Kaya. Oh, also, Elsbeth’s undefined role makes others “uncomfortable.” Harrumph!

When Wagner is out with his wife Claudia (Gloria Reuben) that evening, he ponders. He's not distant, he's shy! Claudia encourages him to try harder for accessibility, then wonders aloud if Connor's efforts are helping to advance Wagner, or perhaps Elsbeth herself. None of the options are good.

• In this episode we get a glimpse of a more confident Elsbeth. When Smullen suggests that Mac's fame is misleading – that she is being “snowed by an actress,” Elsbeth retorts Naturally he doesn't believe Mac; Men generally don't believe anything a woman says unless that woman is their mother. Not all men, of course, but certainly far too many men. I like the lively Elsbeth and would like to see her again.

• I don't smoke, but if I want to cultivate the eccentric charisma of someone with one of those long cigarette holders, is eBay the place to go?