Elsbeth: "Otherwise Enraged" (Nemorino Studios, King Size Productions, CBS Studios/Paramount, aired April 9, 2026)

by Mark Gabrish Conlan • Copyright © 2026 by Mark Gabrish Conlan • All rights reserved

Things lightened up considerably when I switched from NBC to CBS and watched an April 9 episode of Elsbeth in which, following the Columbo trajectory of the show in general we first got to see the actual murder go down, know from the get-go whodunit, and then be entertained as Elsbeth Tascioni (Carrie Preston) and her official colleagues on the New York Police Department unravel the killer’s attempts to cover it up. In this case the killer is one of the most engaging, if also infuriating, characters in this show’s quirky history: Rachel Withers (Beanie Feldstein), an avocational party planner who’s literally “always the bridesmaid, never the bride.” She’s planned and attended at least 30 bridal showers and gender-reveal parties without ever having a boyfriend, let alone getting married herself. As the episode, called “Otherwise Enraged,” opens, Rachel is alone at a huge party she’s catered for herself to celebrate her inheritance of a large house in the south of France to which she intends to relocate now that her aunt, who owned it, has died and left it to her. Only nobody shows up to her big party, and Rachel eventually realizes that her big “do” was sabotaged by her supposed best friend, Kimberly Brooks (Ali Fumiko Whitney), who’s just reconciled with her previously estranged third husband (of course Rachel hosted all her bridal showers!) Howard Brooks (Lionel Leede). Rachel is so incensed at Kimberly’s sabotage of her big party that she goes over to Kimberly’s apartment, lets herself in (it’s been established that she has the key), confronts her and ultimately wallops her with a designer pan. Then she puts the pan in the dishwasher to wipe off Kimberly’s blood, only just then Howard stumbles home drunk from someone else’s party and collapses in a drunken stupor on the couch. Rachel sees this as an opportunity to frame Howard for Kimberly’s murder, and she takes a similar pot, plants it on him, and leaves him to wake up the next morning and become convinced he killed his wife in a drunken rage.

Also, between the party fiasco and Rachel’s confrontation with Kimberly, she ran into a bike-riding barista named Carson Rogers (Pierre Marais) who thought she was about to commit suicide, saved her from doing so (even though she insisted she wasn’t), and instantly became infatuated with her and took the card he’d offered her with his phone number. This became important later when Rachel decided she needed an alibi for the murder, so she called his number and offered to buy him a Tesla cybertruck if he’d testify that she was at his place literally all night. Though the official police detective on the case, Jackie Donnelly (Molly Price), remains convinced that Howard killed his wife, Elsbeth eventually brings her around and extracts Rachel’s confession. There’s also a subplot about Elsbeth’s boss on the police department, Captain C. W. Wagner (Wendell Pierce), hosting a party to celebrate his own 30th wedding anniversary. He’s invited not only his daughter Julia (Brittany Inge) but her ex on the the force, Detective Rivers (Brandon De La Garza) – only Julia gives her dad an ultimatum: either disinvite Rivers or she’s not showing up to her parents’ celebration of the longevity of their marriage. Rivers tries to lie his way out of it by saying his aunt has just died and he’s in no mood to party. It fools Captain Wagner but not Julia, who recalls during the time she and Rivers were dating that he lost his one and only aunt when he was 12 and it was a major trauma for him then. This Elsbeth was a charming show and a welcome departure from the gloom and doom Dick Wolf’s atelier had brought us earlier in the evening, and though she’s playing an exasperating bitch here Beanie Feldstein – who achieved stardom on Broadway playing Fanny Brice in Funny Girl in 2022 even though Feldstein, unlike Barbra Streisand (who created the role), is very definitely a “woman of size” – is quite engaging and I’d love to see more of her.