Elsbeth opens with an interesting scene. Micaela Diamond returns as Detective Edwards, and Ioan Gruffudd.A Scottish musician, Angus, playing a lute-like instrument and writing music sits in the square outside a cafe, playing music at a table. He’s a regular and the waitress comes out to bring him a coffee. He sits and watches a lady go to a table to meet a gentleman. They are a couple and are there daily as he is. The odd thing is that the musician is in Scotland, and the couple is in New York City. Angus is watching on the other side of a giant tv screen called “The Iris”. One day he notices the girl is alone waiting for her boyfriend. She brought Valentine candy, too. Angus and the waitress watch and are sad for her. An angry man walks up shouting at the girl, and she appears frightened. The angry guy takes her candy box, and the girl takes it back. She appears to be struggling to stand and collapses. The man lets her fall and runs away. Angus jumps up to get a closer look. He is distracted by the waitress spilling cream on his music notebook and instrument.
The waitress peers around him, and sees the girl trying to get back to her table. Angus returns to the screen and tries to get people’s attention, waving wildly to the people on the NYC side to help the girl, but they just smile and wave back. Angus is unable to get help for the girl, and he and the waitress look on in horror as the girl dies. Enter Elsbeth and Officer Blanke. They arrive at the crime scene with newly returned, not-so-happy Detective Edwards. Elsbeth’s sporting a bright pink fuzzy jacket with matching polka dot hat. Her fixed stare is focused on the dead girl's face, as is Officer Blanke. Elsbeth asks if the dead girl looks sad. Officer Blanke matter-of-factly answers it’s probably due to her being dead. Elsbeth asks if anyone touched her. Officer Blanke thinks Detective Edwards did. They go to talk to her and the witness. Again, Elsbeth asks if the dead girl was sad. The witness says she’s not sure. She brought her a coffee, but the girl hadn’t drunk it before she died. Another Officer tells the group no one else noticed anything due to rush hour.
Elsbeth notices “The Iris”. Officer Blanke tells her about it. It’s covered up with crime scene tape blocking access. There’s also a sign stating the exhibit is closed. The Iris is supposed to be removed after Valentine’s Day. It’s a window to a seaside town in Scotland with 24 hours of streaming connecting people from a small town to a big city who wouldn’t meet otherwise. Elsbeth realizes they might have a witness to the murder through The Iris. It had just been covered when the police arrived on the scene. Elsbeth gets it turned on again. The waitress tells the musician it’s on. He’s standing in front of it and sees Elsbeth peeking in from the side. She waves at him, but there’s no sound. Officer Blanke leaves Elsbeth to investigate the crime scene.
Elsbeth stands in front of The Iris and signals to Angus to ask if he saw anything about the murdered girl. He indicates he did. Elsbeth’s exaggerated movements ask if he saw how it happened. He pantomimes back what he saw. (That was Great!) She shows him her cell to ask if he had one, and he did. Elsbeth writes her number on her hands and shows it to the musician. He calls her and they introduce themselves. Elsbeth’s about to ask questions when sheep and sheep herders cross behind Angus. So Cute! She asks if he saw who murdered the girl. He tells her about a man that tried to take the girl’s Valentine box of chocolates. It’s not there anymore. Angus doesn’t think the angry man killed the girl, because she returned to her table after the struggle. At that moment, two guys come up behind Angus to stand with him in front of The Iris. Elsbeth asks if they saw anything. Angus tells her why they’re there.
Something Awkward happens, twice a day like clockwork, according to Angus.Elsbeth continues talking to him. He shows her where he was when the murder happened. Officer Blanke calls her away. She tells him they will take his statement, and asks for his full name. It’s a mouthful. Elsbeth tries to write it all down. He compliments her on her jacket. She runs over to Officer Blanke who has the girl’s ID badge. She worked around the corner. Elsbeth tells Officer Blanke the guy she was talking to is a witness. Detective Edwards tries to enter the girl’s workplace with her badge, but it doesn’t work. Officer Blanke tries to help, while Elsbeth wanders off to the cosmetics section. The sales person tells her they make their own perfumes upstairs. Elsbeth sprays herself in the eye when she was demonstrating to the sales clerk how to sample perfume.
The Head of Security, Mr. Thornwall comes to help Officer Blanke and Detective Edwards. He tells them he just deactivated her key card that morning. She had failed the company drug test. Elsbeth stumbles into the Security Office. Detective Edwards asked for more details about Hailey Ritter. She worked in R&D. Elsbeth asked about recent changes to her behavior. They ask for the drug test results. Thornwall said he’d send them Hailey’s personnel file. At the station, Medical Examiner, Cameron Clayden, tells everyone the lab results in CPT Wagner’s office. They determine it is a fentanyl drug overdose. Elsbeth stumbles in because her eye still hasn’t recovered from the accidental perfume spraying. CPT Wagner says the case should be transferred to the narcotics division, but Elsbeth intervenes. The CPT asks about her eye, and she says she walked into a cloud. She tells them what Angus saw. She tells everyone about their eye witness in Scotland. CPT Wagner is shocked, and Officer Blanke explains it to him. She and Elsbeth get off the subject, sharing the story of Scotland.
Detective Edwards is not amused, and CPT Wagner can’t make sense of it either. He said tomorrow they will get a full toxicology review and witness statement, and rushed everyone out of his office. Officer Blanke asks ME Clayden how he likes the apartment she rented to him. Elsbeth stumbles back to her office.Later, Elsbeth hears CPT Wagner grumbling in his office. He’s trying to make romantic Valentine Day arrangements for him and his wife. Things aren’t going well. Elsbeth gives him suggestions, but CPT Wagner wants it to be Special with Real Valentine Fanciness, and his Big Surprise! Elsbeth compliments him on his romanticness. She pivots to the Mertens Murder case being reopened. Elsbeth thanks the CPT for what he did.Elsbeth returns to The Iris to take Angus’ statement. She reviews what happened with him. He thought it was a jealous rage that led to Hailey’s death. He says she used to meet there regularly for coffee with a man. Another man was there the day she died.
Angus thinks it was a tinder date, because it seemed to be a first meeting. The chocolates were for the guy, but he never arrived. Angus compliments Elsbeth on her scarf. She changes the subject and asks about his music. They are too funny getting to know each other. It seems like they’re flirting, clumsily. They’re Adorable! Elsbeth gets a call about Hailey’s emergency contact.Elsbeth goes to the station to meet Hailey’s boyfriend. Officer Blanke and Detective Edwards tell him about Hailey’s drug test failure. He says Hailey was sober, and hadn’t relapsed. Elsbeth enters the office and observes. She bluntly asks the boyfriend if he followed Hailey and saw her meeting with another man. Elsbeth asks him to help them with one more thing.
They go to The Iris to see if Angus can identify him. He did. They take him back to the station. Detective Edwards and Officer Blanke interrogate the boyfriend while Elsbeth and CPT Wagner look on. The boyfriend admits he knew she was cheating on him. He also followed her, but to make sure she was alright. Hailey told him about someone who was threatening to kill her. Detective Edwards thinks they could charge the boyfriend with involuntary manslaughter. CPT Wagner asks Officer Blanke to take Elsbeth and find the man Hailey was afraid of.
That night, Elsbeth goes online to look up Angus. She listens to his music and watches the videos. It’s not bad at all. She falls asleep to the beautiful, hypnotic sounds. The next day, Elsbeth, Officer Blanke return to The Iris with the police sketch artist. He draws a picture of the other guy Angus saw. Angus compliments Elsbeth’s different coat. Officer Blanke is surprised at Elsbeth flirting with Angus, and drags the sketch artist away so Elsbeth can talk with Angus alone. She tells him she listened to his song online. He tells her how he records his music. The sheep and shepherd cross behind Angus again. He says he might come to New York one day. Elsbeth is reluctant to leave, but has to go. YEP, there’s Something Special with Them!Officer Blanke and Elsbeth talk to the coffee shop barista, Tamra. She was the witness. They ask if she saw the other guy.
She remembers his first name, George, and points out a guy, George’s editor, who is also looking for him. Elsbeth and Officer Blanke find out the two guys were together. George is a journalist. He hasn’t seen him recently. Officer Blanke gets a call from Detective Edwards telling her they found George. He’s dead. ME Clayden, Officer Blanke, Detective Edwards and Elsbeth are in the police station’s elevator updating CPT Wagner on the case findings. George died from a fentanyl overdose. Detective Edwards still says both victims died of a drug overdose. Elsbeth reminds them the chocolates were never found. CPT Wagner tells her they could have been stolen, it’s New York.
Elsbeth questions why everyone from New York is so down on New York. Detective Edwards says it to prevent other people from coming. Officer Blanke refocuses Elsbeth on the chocolates. Elsbeth’s theory is that Hailey was a whistleblower, and she was going to give George information for his story in the box of chocolates. CPT Wagner asks them to solve the case. He hurriedly leaves them. Elsbeth gets a call from Angus checking if the sketch helped. She tells him it did, but they found the guy dead. Angus hangs up and asks Fiona, the waitress, about the time she spilt cream over his notebook. He wants to know if she saw something on The Iris when he was turned away. She refers him to the Murray Sisters. Officer Blanke and Detective Edwards show Hailey’s boyfriend George’s picture. He doesn’t recognize him. He also has an alibi for when George died. He and Hailey went to the fertility clinic at that time. Elsbeth and Officer Blanke ask the boyfriend to get them Hailey’s fertility panel.
She had no drugs in her system. Mr. Thornwall sent over ‘doctored’ lab results in Hailey’s personnel record. Elsbeth believes Hailey was a whistleblower. Angus calls Elsbeth and has the Murray Sisters tell her about another man. They said the man sneezed in Hailey’s face, and took the box of chocolates. They didn’t see his face because he wore a mask, but he did have a tartan scarf around his neck. Elsbeth leaves just as the Murray Sisters see the guy again at the coffee stand. Angus calls Elsbeth but gets no answer.Elsbeth returned to the cosmetics department at Hailey’s workplace. She asks for another perfume sample, and asks if she can pour out the perfume. Mr. Thornwall approaches her. She remarks about the perfume atomizer. She goes to Mr. Thornwall’s office and finds out he used to be a patrol officer in Denver.
Elsbeth verifies the drug test date he gave them in Hailey’s personnel file. He leaves her, and she sees a tartan scarf on his coat rack. She finds a face mask in the jacket pocket. Thornwall returns, and Elsbeth tries to fool him by pretending to be talking to CPT Wagner on her cell. Thornwall isn’t fooled, and says she would just disappear. She confirms her theory about Hailey. Thornwall is bragging about covering up the company's drug secrets. There’s a knock on the door, and Elsbeth yells for help. CPT Wagner storms in with Detective Edwards and Officer Blanke! WOW! Thornwall is not even surprised he’s being arrested for the two murders. He says the Company CEOs made him do it. Detective Edwards takes him away. Elsbeth asks how they knew she was there, and Officer Blanke tells her Angus called the police station switchboard. Elsbeth is overcome with emotion and pulls Officer Blanke and CPT Wagner in for a group hug. Elsbeth returns to The Iris and finds out Angus left. Later that night, she and Officer Blanke finish off a box of chocolates.
Elsbeth still tries calling Angus, but gets no answer. At Officer Blanke’s apartment ME Clayden gives her a cupcake. She turns down the morgue cupcake, but invites him out for ice cream. He happily accepts. CPT Wagner surprises his wife, Claudia, with a smooth romantic dance on the rooftop. He was secretly taking dance lessons to impress her for their Anniversary. His dance instructor keeps giving him words of encouragement as they dance, too funny! He finally takes the hint and leaves. CPT Wagner celebrates their Valentine’s Day and Anniversary in the Beautifully Special Way he intended.Meanwhile, Elsbeth and the breast exposer person sit in front of The Iris watching the Scottish seaside town. No one’s there. The Iris in NYC will be moved to a different location the next day.
Suddenly nearby, someone’s playing a familiar song Elsbeth recognizes, and it’s Angus! She’s sad he’s missing his Edinburgh concert. He tells her that it’s not how he makes his living, cuz he’s a Fireman. He wishes her a Happy Valentine’s Day and They Kiss! They smile and gaze at a heart shape displayed on a high rise building. So Very Romantic!
This Elsbeth episode was So VERY GOOD! Loved IT. It opened with something unusual, The Iris, Video Streaming a murder. That was Fascinating! An Adorable pairing with Elsbeth and Angus which continued getting more interesting. CPT Wagner’s Romanticness was a Total Surprise and Sweet! Officer Blanke and ME Clayden have a budding romance. It was also Great to see the return of Micaela Diamond’s No Nonsense Detective Edwards. This episode’s mystery was so intertwined with subplots. Loved that police station elevator scene where they provided CPT Wagner case updates. That was well done! So many entertaining and intriguing moments in this episode. Actually, I was surprised when it was over. Elsbeth’s colorful coats and multiple bags were eye-catching. Loved the little hearts bag! Thank You All for another Incredible episode.
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