Carrie Preston explains why Elsbeth carries so many tote bags

Fans of Elsbeth are wondering about the character's weird habit of carrying bags all over the place. As it happens, Carrie Preston is sharing why this is key to the character!

Since her debut on The Good Wife, Elsbeth Tascioni has been developed beyond being merely eccentric into a very singular character. She looks like a scatterbrained woman who's easily distracted and is constantly babbling; it's understandable why people dismiss her. That's until they see her in court and discover she's an absolute legal genius who always wins. 

That carried to the spinoff The Good Fight, with Preston earning an Emmy Award for the role. She now has her own starring turn in the CBS series with Elsbeth heading to New York City to aid the police. She also gets involved in murder cases where her quirky mind lets her figure out the clues to catch the killer.

The show has been a big success, winning a second season and hailed for its unique turns. That includes how audiences see from the start who the killer is and have the thrill of Elsbeth figuring it out. The character still has her unique style of bright-colored suits and adds some other touches which includes Elsbeth's tendency to carry tote bags almost anywhere she goes, with a few being pretty large. As it happens, this is a deliberate character choice.

Why does Elsbeth carry so many tote bags?

While Elsbeth had some bags in her Good Wife appearances, it's amped up in her spinoff. It's not just one, but she can be seen carrying multiple bags around, some pretty large and outlandish, to the point that other characters have to note this strange habit.

Speaking to TVLine at the TCA summer press tour, Preston explained this was all the work of Good Wife director/producer Brooke Kennedy when Preston first played Elsbeth. 

"{She] was like, 'I think she needs to be always carrying a bunch of things, with all of her papers in there.' So it became a really fun accessory, but it also became a real insight into how her brain works. She has a lot of 'bags' in her brain, if you know what I mean, a lot of compartments. She's constantly going back and picking out little things that she saw 20 years ago and going, 'I can use that here.'"

That's carried to the spinoff as Elsbeth needs more and larger bags because she's not just doing legal work anymore but handling murder cases. That means needing more "room" to take in clues and the bags come in handy with producing evidence.

However, there's another clever touch with the bags that Preston shares, which showcases when you know Elsbeth is about to bust the killer. 

"Once I have got the killer and I'm ready to go in and frame them, I don't have the bags. In those final scenes, when I come in to bring in everybody to arrest the murderer, I don't need those [bags] anymore."

Indeed, watching Elsbeth episodes, it's easy to spot when Elsbeth suddenly stops carrying the bags and it's always just before she reveals who the killer is and how they did it. Notably, the season finale actually hid the killer's identity from the audience, so Elsbeth's baggage got larger to handle a more complex case. 

It's a great touch for the character and something fans can keep an eye out for. It's one of the many reasons why Elsbeth has become a winner for viewers and hopefully that continues in season 2.

Elsbeth season 2 premieres Thursday, Oct. 17 at 10/9c on CBS.