Get ready for a wild reunion on the season 2 finale of Elsbeth with a murderer’s row of past murderers!
Elsbeth has been a great hit for CBS in 2024-25, as viewers have come to love this unique mystery series. The setup has Carrie Preston reprising her Emmy-winning role from The Good Wife as eccentric attorney Elsbeth Tascioni. Coming to New York as part of a “consent decree” with the police, Elsbeth soon uses her quirky mind to help solve murders.
The show stands out for two elements besides Preston. The first is that it’s a “howdunnit” where most episodes open by showing the audience who the killer is. While some episodes can make it more of a mystery, the majority play on Elsbeth matching wits with the killer.
The second is that the show boasts a fantastic bevy of guest stars as the killers, each providing some fun entertainment. They all end up arrested after Elsbeth exposes them, but it looks like the finale is bringing a bunch back!
Who’s coming back for the Elsbeth season 2 finale?
As reported by TVLine, the Season 2 finale (which airs May 8) has Elsbeth investigating a murder and somehow brings back a whopping nine past guest stars:
- Stephen Moyer as theater director Alex Modarian (Season 1 pilot)
- Retta as matchmaker Margo Clarke (Season 1 episode 4 “Love Knocked Off”)
- Gina Gershon as Dr. Vanessa Holmes (Season 1 episode 6 “An Ear For An Ear”)
- Elizabeth Lail as tech CEO Quinn Powell (Season 1 episode 8 “Artificial Genius)
- Arian Moayed as Joe Dillon (Season 1 episode 9 “Sweet Justice”)
- André De Shields as fashion designer Matteo Hart (Season 1 episode 10 “A Fitting Finale”
- Alyssa Milano as former mafia princess Pupetta Del Ponte (Season 2 episode 14 “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant”)
- Mary-Louise Parker as Freya Frostad (Season 2 episode 16 “Hot Tub Crime Machine”)
Showrunner Jonathan Tollins shared how bringing in all these actors was a great tribute to the show’s success.
“We have always tried to make Elsbeth a place for the best actors to come and play. We must be doing something right since so many of our special guest stars managed to clear their schedules and join us again. We couldn’t be more excited for this wild reunion between Elsbeth and some of her favorite suspects.”
That’s a fantastic bevy of guest stars with the question of what brings them back together? Or rather who?
Is this part of the Crawford plot?
A recurring plotline in Elsbeth season 2 is Elsbeth tangling with Judge Crawford (played by Preston’s real-life husband Michael Emerson). The judge had murdered someone and was presiding over the trial of the person accused of the crime. Thankfully, Elsbeth was on the jury and thwarted Crawford’s attempts to railroad an innocent person.
Elsbeth was suspicious of Crawford and she and Captain Wagner have been looking into him. Crawford hit back by trying to expose some shady stuff in Elsbeth’s past, but she defused that. Yet Crawford is clearly trying to get Elsbeth before she uncovers his crime.
It could be that Crawford is bringing up Elsbeth’s past cases to make it appear that she’s been somehow framing people for murders. To be fair, many of Elsbeth’s solutions come from circumstantial evidence and it’s likely each killer is appealing the cases, even those who confessed. Crawford can be using that to smear Elsbeth.
It will be interesting to see these folks back as a question is if some hold a grudge against Elsbeth but others (like nice guy Joe or designer Hart) aren’t as angry with her. Either way, it’ll be a blast seeing these people back on to show Elsbeth’s past successes.
So when Elsbeth wraps up its second season, it’s with a bang with so many past stars and likely more to come to spark up this show.
Elsbeth Season 2 returns on Thursday, April 3 at 10/9c on CBS.