‘Elsbeth’ Delivers a Perfect Episode Featuring ‘Succession’s J. Smith-Cameron as the Hell of the Ball

After a brief hiatus for the NCAA March Madness madness (go, college team!) Elsbeth is back, and not only better than ever, but for the best episode this season. Guest star J. Smith-Cameron, who earned plaudits for her role as Gerri Kellman in Succession, knocks it out of the part with her role as “Izzy” Lancaster, the arrogant, demanding director of the Empire City Debutante Ball. What takes the episode over the edge, however, is an Elsbeth (Carrie Preston) with a backbone we don’t see often enough.

J. Smith-Cameron Takes the Gloves Off for Revenge in ‘Elsbeth’s “Deadutante”

The hall is being prepared for the Empire City Debutante Ball, a high-society annual charitable event, and director Izzy Langford is demanding efforts from her aides. Enter Sterling, who demands that his daughter, Plum (Danielle Kotch), be invited to attend the ball the next year. She replies coldly that there are other balls with lower criteria for entry. Izzy knows him, but he doesn’t know, or at least recognize, her, and she rebuffs his request, reminding him that invitations are at her discretion, and that “money doesn’t get you everything in my world.”

Apparently it does, and one year and a $2 million charitable donation later, Sterling is there with his third wife, Gwen, watching Plum in her beautiful gown, escorted by Brando (Jordyn Owens). Izzy approaches Gwen and Plum at their table and offers to take a photo of them on Gwen’s phone. She distracts them while she sends a message from the phone, promptly deleting it once sent, and then dismisses the photo as impossible due to the lighting. She then approaches another table, taking a pair of antique white gloves and placing a smear of lipstick on it, telling the young lady she’ll lend her a pair and clean hers, which belonged to her Aunt Jackie.

The purpose of Izzy’s message becomes clear when Brando goes into a room, leaving his sword out in the hallway, expecting to meet “Hot Mama” for a tryst. While he’s there, Izzy approaches Sterling and says her first wife, Paulina, is there and causing a scene. Furious, Sterling storms off to meet her in an upstairs room, but instead, Izzy enters the room, brandishing Brando’s sword. She spits out how 44 years ago, at this ball, he destroyed her life, humiliating her, and forced himself into this year’s ball. Suddenly, Sterling remembers who she is, saying, “Oh my God… you’re ‘Half-Off’!”

The name infuriates her even more, and she runs Sterling through with the sword. Throwing her gloves, the ones taken before, into the fire, she makes her way back to the ball for the Deb of the Year announcement. Plum wins, and is overjoyed. She takes Brando’s sword and makes the traditional first cut of the cake, but just as she pulls it back out, Gwen enters, screaming that Sterling is dead. Izzy conveniently points out that it isn’t red velvet on Brando’s sword, but blood.

There’s Pomp and Circumstantial Evidence in ‘Elsbeth’s “Deadutante”

Elsbeth walks toward the crime scene, her eyes fixed on yet another Alec Bloom (Ivan Hernandez) attack ad, and meets up with Detective Nina Taylor (Britne Oldford). Together, they meet with Izzy. She explains Sterling was a ball attendee before mentioning how she noticed the blood on the sword, impressive given she was seated farther away. Izzy claims that Sterling was irate that Brando was Plum’s escort, not himself, which simply wouldn’t do (“Escorts escort debs. Not fathers.”). She dismissively walks away, leaving the pair with her assistant, Jules (Purva Bedi). Jules instantly shatters Izzy’s account, confirming that not only was Sterling not mad at Brando, he forgot there was even a Deb of the Year ceremony.

Nina and Elsbeth begin questioning Brando. The prints on the sword match, and it’s Sterling’s blood on the sword, but Brando insists he’s innocent. He then refers to the message from “Hot Mama,” who instructed him to leave the sword in the hallway before entering the room, only to never show up. They turn their attention to Gwen, who denies having sent a text. The text isn’t on the phone anymore, but she does confirm that Izzy, for one, had used the phone to take a picture. Plum corroborates her story, and both are taken aback at the suggestion Sterling was upset that Brando was her escort. He didn’t like him — his Hollywood executive father is “new money” — and besides, she didn’t pick him for an escort: Izzy did.

It’s back to Jules, who explains that she was surprised that Plum had been invited, given Izzy had always said no, and mentions that swords had been banned for decades, before Izzy interrupts, adding she resurrected them due to feeling “embarrassingly nostalgic.” She shares a photo from 1982, her debutante year, pointing out herself and then Sterling, who was escorting Paulina, who would become his first wife before a bitter divorce. “Bitter” is an understatement, with Paulina (played by a scene-stealing Anna Holbrook) calling Sterling a “grade A son of a bitch” before expressing her joy at his death. Sterling called her before his death, leaving a message full of venom about her being at the ball. She wasn’t, of course (“I wouldn’t be caught dead in that crowd. Too soon?”), and after being denied access to the crime scene photos, walks away.

Elsbeth Takes a Stab at Solving the Case in ‘Elsbeth’s “Deadutante”

Elsbeth goes to Izzy’s home and asks how Sterling got the idea that Paulina was there. Izzy doesn’t bite, and leaves Elsbeth in the company of her husband, Haydn (Don Stephenson), a gem of a man with a fondness for model trains. He invites Elsbeth inside, and they talk while playing with his trains. He shares that they have nothing in common, but he was there for her after her father’s tragic death and the humiliation she felt at the ball. They got married, and Izzy threw herself into planning the annual ball ever since.

Nina and Elsbeth regroup, and while Elsbeth was at Izzy’s, Nina did some research and discovered that Izzy’s father died in a car accident the day after Izzy’s ball, and there’s a stepsister, Raina. Odd — Izzy had claimed she was an only child — so they track Raina (Tasha Lawrence) down, and she has stories to tell. “Sweet little Izzy,” she begins contemptuously, “stole Dad’s credit card to buy her dress.” The dress was on sale, but the family was in dire financial straits. Izzy planned on wearing it and returning it the next day, except “some snobby rich kid,” Sterling, saw the 50% off tag and made fun of her, before cutting the dress strap with his sword, so the dress would fall “half-off.” Worse, their father died while trying to return the dress himself.

Izzy walks into the ballroom, under the pretense that Elsbeth found the antique white gloves she’d been accused of stealing, and is surprised to see Jules at the front, introducing Elsbeth, who is wearing a stunning gown. It was a dress like this that cracked the case for Elsbeth, who proves that the strapless dress Izzy is wearing in the photo from her ball was photoshopped. It was done to erase the humiliation she felt that night, when Sterling not only ruined the dress but also exposed her family’s financial troubles. The tragic death of her father pushed her to marry Haydn to reclaim status and take control of the ball, denying Plum entry until she couldn’t, prompting her to plan Sterling’s murder. She set Brando up, sent the message, and reinstated swords and fires, like the fire she threw the gloves in. The gloves burned, but not the pearls on them, a shame given they were from Aunt Jackie O. Yes, that Jackie O. Izzy is then taken away, angrily venting on her way out.

As for Alec Bloom, things get very interesting on that front. Elsbeth sidles up to Winnie Crawford (Henny Russell) on the sidewalk, asking if she has proof about her accusations. Winnie astutely answers, “Do you need it, or do you already know enough to make your own decision?” Later, Elsbeth confronts Alec, saying there’s proof behind the attack ads, and he can either tell the truth now or go down for it later. He confirms that he was never homeless, just ran away from home for a few nights, but the experience was so profound that it drove his desire to become a public servant. The story was meant to inspire people to care about housing, but it got out of control. Elsbeth tells him he has to tell the public the truth, that they deserve to know. And if he won’t, she will.

It sets up a deliciously tense confrontation with Marissa (Sarah Steele), who demands to know what Elsbeth did that now has Alec pulling a hiding act. Elsbeth doesn’t back down and says that lies are woven into his story, and the public deserves the truth. “This coming from someone who defended Peter Florrick in Chicago,” Marissa quips back, a brilliant callback to The Good Wife. And at the end of the episode, Elsbeth and Captain Wagner watch the television as Alec walks to the podium for a special televised announcement, an announcement that is… next week’s story.