S02.E06: Gold, Frankincense, and Murder

[chitowngirl]

Celebrity Christmas curators Dirk and DeeDee Dashers go from tinsel to tragedy after Dirk is killed in a freak accident and Elsbeth begins to suspect his wife is behind the murder; Elsbeth gets a holiday surprise courtesy of Wagner and Kaya.
 

Air date December 5, 2024

[AnimeMania]

Vanessa Bayer as Deedee Dashers

Dan Bucatinsky as Kidder Hawes

Molly Price as Det. Jackie Donnelly

Jakob Winter as Grayden

[MMEButterfly]

Aww, almost made me cry.

[AnimeMania]

Something weird I noticed in the episode, there was a scene where Det. Jackie Donnelly, Elsbeth and Kaya are in Captain Wagner's office and it looks like Det. Jackie Donnelly is standing next to a door, but it is a digital mask where they blurred out whatever she was next to, probably a person. I only really noticed because her fingers would disappear whenever they crossed over into the masked area, which was also kind of blurry, but only mildly distracting. I am guessing that someone was laughing during the scene and they didn't have a better take to use.  

[EtheltoTillie]

Not my fave episode.  I was too confused trying to followed the frayed wire discussion. 

[ItCouldBeWorse]

I had to look up who played Dirk Dashers.  His name is Christopher Fitzgerald, and he played the original Boq in Wicked on Broadway.

Speaking of colorblindness, when Dirk and DeeDee were filming the introduction to their new product line at the beginning of the show, I kept thinking how badly DeeDee's bright red dress clashed with Dirk's maroon suit, and thought that one of them should really have worn green.

Edited December 7 by ItCouldBeWorse

[SoMuchTV]

Okay, I’ll admit it. I literally LOL’d when Elsbeth had the brilliant realization about the crime, and the string of lights she was holding lit up. 

Also was weirdly amused by all the lookalike firefighters perking up when Elsbeth was around. “Must be the hair.”

 

[MMEButterfly]

Vanessa Buyer was fun to watch.

[kaygeeret]

Truly enjoyed this epi. even with the silliness.

Yeah firefighters!!!!!!!!!!!!

[chitowngirl]

Red/Green color blindness is very rare in females.

[tv echo]

I liked this episode. And we finally got to see Teddy!

Teddy is played by Ben Levi Ross, who is apparently best known for his musical theater work. (He was an understudy for Evan in Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway and played Evan on the national tour of that show.)

ETA: With all these musical theater actors showing up on Elsbeth, they have got to do a musical episode in the future.

Edited December 7 by tv echo

[sugarbaker design]

Fun holiday episode! There's not many shows with a female friendship at its center, this show is special.

[shapeshifter]

On 12/6/2024 at 8:39 AM, EtheltoTillie said:

 I was too confused trying to followed the frayed wire discussion. 

Yes. Was that enough to kill him? Or did his accidentally getting impaled on the antlers do it, which would mitigate Deedee/D'day's culpability, right?
It seems her lawyer could argue Deedee discovered Dirk intended to kill her, so she just wanted to give him a little shock. 
Or not?
Haven't several other episodes in this series have had similar legal loopholes for the perp?

 

16 hours ago, chitowngirl said:

Red/Green color blindness is very rare in females.

Yes. I wish they'd given Elsbeth a throwaway line stating that.
You know. 
Just to hang a lantern on it.

 

[incandescent]

I think Vanessa Bayer should be allowed to get away with killing her controlling, philandering husband who was actively planning to kill her first, as a treat.

[Quark]

This was hysterical!

And nice to finally meet Elsbeth's son.

[christie]

3 hours ago, incandescent said:

I think Vanessa Bayer should be allowed to get away with killing her controlling, philandering husband who was actively planning to kill her first, as a treat.

I mean really, when you think about it, it was self defence.

[shapeshifter]

55 minutes ago, christie said:

I mean really, when you think about it, it was self defence.

I am not a lawyer, but I've watched enough L&O to believe that would be her attorney's argument.

[Yeah No]

On 12/6/2024 at 8:01 PM, chitowngirl said:

Red/Green color blindness is very rare in females.

Yeah, beat me to it.

It's probably me but I didn't like the way the actress played Dee Dee. I think she was trying to appear fake but it almost came off as bad acting.

I felt sorry for Elsbeth that she might be alone on Christmas. I was hoping Captain Wagner would ask her over but her son showing up was a great surprise. Maybe we'll be seeing more of him in the future? That would be fun.

I loved how they worked that awful SantaCon into the episode. And the way the show parodied people that into Christmas was fun too.

A Christmas cruise? Don't give my cruise obsessed husband any ideas! 😏

Edited December 8 by Yeah No
Spelling.

[Milburn Stone]

On 12/6/2024 at 1:52 PM, ItCouldBeWorse said:

I had to look up who played Dirk Dashers.  His name is Christopher Fitzgerald, and he played the original Boq in Wicked on Broadway.

This is amazing, because I saw him play the leprechaun Og in the 2009 Broadway revival of Finian's Rainbow. (Which was fantastic by the way.) He must specialize in characters with monosyllabic names of three letters or less where the vowel is a short O and the final consonant is a velar sound. 

This episode had a lot of funny lines and moments that were kind of subtle.

But it didn't have to, because I will watch Vanessa Bayer read the phone book.

[ItCouldBeWorse]

1 hour ago, Milburn Stone said:

This is amazing, because I saw him play the leprechaun Og in the 2009 Broadway revival of Finian's Rainbow. (Which was fantastic by the way.) He must specialize in characters with monosyllabic names of three letters or less where the vowel is a short O and the final consonant is a velar sound. 

That is much nicer (and linguistically sound) then saying he specializes in playing mythological characters who are known for being short.

[ofmd]

I felt the humor was a bit forced in this one.

[seacliffsal]

I really enjoyed this episode.  For me, there were several laugh out loud moments (especially during the opening which showed their business commercial/special).  I thought Elsbeth was going to end up going on the Christmas cruise so was surprised by the appearance of her son.  But, I was a bit confused as I thought Elsbeth had issues/problems with her son and he seemed very nice and loving towards her.

Really liked the character of the Christmas client (Giselle?) and would like to see her again.

[love2lovebadtv]

14 hours ago, seacliffsal said:

I really enjoyed this episode.  For me, there were several laugh out loud moments (especially during the opening which showed their business commercial/special).  I thought Elsbeth was going to end up going on the Christmas cruise so was surprised by the appearance of her son.  But, I was a bit confused as I thought Elsbeth had issues/problems with her son and he seemed very nice and loving towards her.

Really liked the character of the Christmas client (Giselle?) and would like to see her again.

I don't remember Elsbeth having issues/problems with her adult son. Maybe I missed that. But I also think that, unless it's major, they would still be loving toward each other for at least a couple of minutes. 

[Yeah No]

8 hours ago, love2lovebadtv said:

I don't remember Elsbeth having issues/problems with her adult son. Maybe I missed that. But I also think that, unless it's major, they would still be loving toward each other for at least a couple of minutes. 

I don't remember it either. Does anyone know if it might have been mentioned briefly last season? Or is it something leftover from Elsbeth's character's story on her previous series?

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, Yeah No said:

I don't remember it either. Does anyone know if it might have been mentioned briefly last season?

I can't recall a specific line, but that doesn't mean there wasn't one.
I think Elspeth might have at least mentioned with sad wistfulness that she rarely saw him?

[AnimeMania]

2 hours ago, Yeah No said:

I don't remember it either. Does anyone know if it might have been mentioned briefly last season? Or is it something leftover from Elsbeth's character's story on her previous series?

Things I vaguely remember, he lives in a different city, Captain Wagner found him a job so that he could leverage Elsbeth.

[incandescent]

I remember she bemoaned her son's poor choices in dating partners and a couple references to how family is "complicated" and she knows her son keeps things from her because she meddles.

[txhorns79]

On 12/7/2024 at 9:53 PM, Yeah No said:

 

It's probably me but I didn't like the way the actress played Dee Dee. I think she was trying to appear fake but it almost came off as bad acting.

I really like Vanessa Bayer, and am still sad that her Showtime sitcom only lasted a season.  Having said that, it did feel a little like she played the character like it was one long SNL sketch.  The whole "Please no longer call me Dee Dee, call me "Deh Deh"" was pure SNL.   

 

On 12/7/2024 at 12:57 PM, shapeshifter said:

Yes. Was that enough to kill him? Or did his accidentally getting impaled on the antlers do it, which would mitigate Deedee/D'day's culpability, right?

Depends on her intent. 

[love2lovebadtv]

On 12/10/2024 at 10:28 AM, shapeshifter said:

I can't recall a specific line, but that doesn't mean there wasn't one.
I think Elspeth might have at least mentioned with sad wistfulness that she rarely saw him?

 

On 12/10/2024 at 8:45 AM, Yeah No said:

I don't remember it either. Does anyone know if it might have been mentioned briefly last season? Or is it something leftover from Elsbeth's character's story on her previous series?

No, her relationship with her son was even less of a thing in the previous series. 

On 12/10/2024 at 11:05 AM, incandescent said:

I remember she bemoaned her son's poor choices in dating partners and a couple references to how family is "complicated" and she knows her son keeps things from her because she meddles.

That sounds vaguely familiar. But it's normal stuff that wouldn't make me surprised to see Elsbeth's son visiting her and them being happy to see each other.

[Calvada]

How much do NYC police officers make?  How can Kaya afford that roomy apartment/house, pay for extensive renovations, and then go on a cruise?  

[incandescent]

On 12/14/2024 at 7:48 PM, Calvada said:

How much do NYC police officers make?  How can Kaya afford that roomy apartment/house, pay for extensive renovations, and then go on a cruise?  

While also worrying about how she'll pay tuition for the few credits needed to finish out her college degree (even though there are multiple ways to get the cost down as a member of the NYPD)