S02.E09: Unalive and Well

[chitowngirl]

When a young man is found dead in his car, Elsbeth visits the holistic wellness center he'd just left, and begins to suspect its charismatic founder.
 

Airdate January 30, 2025 on CBS

[AnimeMania]

Eric McCormack as Tom Murphey

Danny Mastrogiorgio as Detective Smullen

Katie Huang as Lydia

Dan Cordle as Ron

Marcia Debonis as Sheryl

[ItCouldBeWorse]

I feel that the "Howdunnit" was obvious from the start in this episode.

I also don't know why Elsbeth felt Kayla was unusually wonderful in this case.  She wasn't with her for the majority of the episode, and Elsbeth was the one who figured out the mustard oil/sesame oil connection, as well as how it was administered to Cole (the later of which I figured out as soon as Cole started scarfing down doughnuts on his way out of the spa.)

I half expected Tom to have bugged the only phone.

I turned away for a moment - how did Elspeth figure out the code to get into the frog terrarium?  Was it just the 2nd or 3rd random combination she tried?

 

Edited Friday at 04:10 AM by ItCouldBeWorse

[possibilities]

If you're prone to anaphylaxis, please carry an epi pen!

 

Edited Friday at 06:25 AM by possibilities
typo

[ItCouldBeWorse]

1 hour ago, possibilities said:

If you're prone to anaphylaxis, please carry an epi pen!

 

You may not be referring to Cole, but it's not clear to me that he could have reached over, opened his glove compartment, and injected himself while both driving and undergoing an allergic reaction, even if he had realized he'd been "poisoned".

Edited Friday at 06:20 AM by ItCouldBeWorse

[possibilities]

He would have to pull the car over, but the epi should be kept easily accessible at all times. 

 

 

[Irlandesa]

1 minute ago, possibilities said:

He would have to pull the car over, but the epi should be kept easily accessible at all times. 

 

 

He had one in the car. 

[ItCouldBeWorse]

6 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

He had one in the car. 

Yes, in his glove compartment.

[shapeshifter]

There was a lot to like in this episode, but it was overshadowed by the future dark plot arc dropping, exemplified by the rift of Kara's trust in Elspeth. This felt shoe-horned in, and may have detracted from The Episode That Could Have Been.

Eric McCormack's and Carrie Preston's acting under the direction of Nancy Hower made this episode.…
…and also the crocheted scarf.

[Irlandesa]

I  was a little tired while watching this episode and I found I zoned out and missed things that I had to rewind for.  I'm not sure I like this divorce plot.  Unless I missed something, it's just not all that interesting to me.  Elsbeth is a lawyer.  She's supposed to represent her client.  She has defended some unsavory people. Sometimes she may not have known how unsavory they were but the crisis of conscience just doesn't make much sense to me. Frankly, neither does Kara's distrust.  She knew what Elsbeth did.

 

[AnimeMania]

12 hours ago, ItCouldBeWorse said:

 

I turned away for a moment - how did Elspeth figure out the code to get into the frog terrarium?  Was it just the 2nd or 3rd random combination she tried?

The password wasn't random, it was "MIDORI", I don't understand why they would have a different password required to exit. 

I was surprised that the female staff member wasn't helping Tom do all the bad things that he was doing.

[ItCouldBeWorse]

1 hour ago, AnimeMania said:

I was surprised that the female staff member wasn't helping Tom do all the bad things that he was doing.

She seemed eager to take over the spa.  And she certainly knows about the frogs.  I wonder if she plans to use them (she didn't sign any settlement agreement.)

Edited Friday at 06:02 PM by ItCouldBeWorse

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, AnimeMania said:

The password wasn't random, it was "MIDORI", I don't understand why they would have a different password required to exit. 

Why was there a password to exit at all???

 

1 hour ago, AnimeMania said:

I was surprised that the female staff member wasn't helping Tom do all the bad things that he was doing.

Nice twist.

[possibilities]

Needing a password to exit, to me implies they had used the dome as a murder trap previously. And especially having a password that';s different than the one to enter-- I have never heard of such a thing!

[Broderbits]

I liked Wendell Pierce mentioning the press attacking Meagan Markle, since he played her father on Suits.

[possibilities]

I really need to learn to crochet. I already knit, but Elsbeth makes me understand that really isn't enough.

[babyrambo]

Eric McCormack does insufferable kook very well. I wanted him gone before I even knew what he did. 

The culty retreat was a lot, but I liked Elsbeth’s retreat partner and that actress in general, I don’t know her her name but she’s a great character actress. I missed Kaya & Elsbeth partnering up though. Seeing Elsbeth work the cases is fun but their dynamic is the draw for me. 

And I know they did it mostly for the visual gag, but the newspaper thing made me wonder about just how often people really read printed newspapers these days. Read the comics when I was a kid, but as an adult I think can count the times I’ve read one on one hand. Finding an article online is so much faster & cheaper. 

[chitowngirl]

11 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

and also the crocheted scarf.

I looked it up-it’s from Uncommon Goods (a store I love!), but it is no longer available 😭

[SoMuchTV]

12 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

There was a lot to like in this episode,
[snip]
…and also the crocheted scarf.

 

8 hours ago, possibilities said:

I really need to learn to crochet. I already knit, but Elsbeth makes me understand that really isn't enough.

 

15 minutes ago, chitowngirl said:

I looked it up-it’s from Uncommon Goods (a store I love!), but it is no longer available 😭

I’m not planning to take it back up now, but from what I can recall of my crafty youth, crocheting was easier to pick up than knitting, and granny squares were kind of the basic starting point. So maybe Elsbeth’s scarf will encourage someone to take up crochet!

[Yeah No]

1 hour ago, chitowngirl said:

I looked it up-it’s from Uncommon Goods (a store I love!), but it is no longer available 😭

I found some similar ones like

This one

and this one

 

[snarktini]

13 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Eric McCormack's and Carrie Preston's acting under the direction of Nancy Hower made this episode.…
…and also the crocheted scarf.

In a place where the uniform is white on white, Elsbeth adds a colorful scarf! Of course she does. (But...trapped in a hothouse...take it off! And I thought it read 104°, which is really hot but not pass out immediately hot even if also humid.)

Also loved our guru calling her out on the omnipresent heavy tote bags. Why DOES she carry that burden, and why can't she set it down?! A very shrinky question.
🤔

[possibilities]

2 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

from what I can recall of my crafty youth, crocheting was easier to pick up than knitting

I've been knitting since I was a kid, and it's harder for me to learn new things now, but I've been wating to crocet for a while, and this episode made me feel it even more urgently! I doubt it would be easy for me, but I might do it anyway.

I liked that the retreat center, which I found annoying, wasn't ALL the people being annoying. The murdery leader was awful, but Elsbeth's companion wasn't. I like that they struck a  kind of middle note with that. 

It bothers me that Kaya is so suspicious of Elsbeth. I can understand her having questions. It seems like whatever the scandal is, it was more than just zealous representation of an unsavory client, though I'm not clear 100% on what exactly happened. But for her to be AS suspicious as she is, and seem to be assuming the worst, and not have a default of: maybe she's being framed, or has some explanation? It bothers me. 

I also thought there must be some delted scenes, when Elsbeth said Kaya did such a great job this week. Unless I spaced out and missed it, Kaya and the rest of the team were hardly in the episode at all, and Elsbeth solved it mostly solo. 

I did like that the uptight guy who is monitoring them got a moment to shine and was the first to say they had to go and get Elsbeth out of the murderous retreat center ASAP. I have always appreciated his sincerity, but I'm liking him even more as a team member than as an antagonist. 

I think lately I am pretty much across the board liking to see people work together and am not really hungry for villainy.

[Mellowyellow]

1 hour ago, possibilities said:

I did like that the uptight guy who is monitoring them got a moment to shine and was the first to say they had to go and get Elsbeth out of the murderous retreat center ASAP. I have always appreciated his sincerity, but I'm liking him even more as a team member than as an antagonist. 

That was a highlight for me! I like the direction they are headed with his character.

 The Elsbeth and Kaya tension reminds me of the CW shows I used to watch where they’d manufacture something to break the main couple up. Given their friendship and experiences together it’s very OOC for Kaya to be all suspicious and tense suddenly. She was always a zen believer in Elsbeth no matter what peculiar shenanigans Elsbeth got up to. It’s like their friendship is the ship of this show so they must stuff around with it a bit.

I did love Elsbeth telling her retreat partner that she was tricked and she found it hard to process because this never happens to her. I thought that was a great character growth moment and just very sincere. It’s a satisfying acknowledgement as Elsbeth has always been written as being 10 steps ahead of everyone.

[seacliffsal]

I thought that Eric McCormack was scarily evil (in the best way possible) and really enjoyed his character (as the murderer).  Nice to see Elsbeth in a different environment and hope that her friendship with her yoga partner shows up in future episodes (they were a nice combo).

Always enjoy this detective (actually like most of them) and laughed at the legumes bit (how his skin looked better after following evil retreat guy's recommendation).

[chitowngirl]

While Evil Retreat Guy WAS evil, I’m glad he wasn’t a quack. He seemed to know his stuff and read everyone about their "stuff", like the legumes and Elsbeth’s totes. 

[snarktini]

One more thing! Elsbeth's journey partner told her she needed radical transparency to win back the trust of Kaya (and others). Which is generally good advice, except it's not always possible for lawyers.  There's probably a whole lot she can't actually say!

For character and plot reasons I'm sure she will find a way through it but it's definitely a challenge to be honest in a case like this without violating privilege.

Edited Saturday at 10:54 PM by snarktini

[christie]

On 2/1/2025 at 7:55 AM, possibilities said:

I've been knitting since I was a kid, and it's harder for me to learn new things now, but I've been wating to crocet for a while, and this episode made me feel it even more urgently! I doubt it would be easy for me, but I might do it anyway.

 

I'm a knitter too; at some point I tried to teach myself crochet; it wasn't difficult (the most difficult thing was the differences in terminology between American and British patterns). I gave it up mainly because I didn't enjoy it as much as knitting and it hurt my wrist and hand (crocheting uses different muscles than knitting).

About the episode: Kaya's mistrust seemed extreme to me and it came out of nowhere; Eric McCormack does evil well; I too loved Elspeth's partner and hope we see her again; I had forgotten that Wendell Pierce had played Megan Markle's father on suits so the comment about her seemed strange; loved the uptight guy being concerned about Elspeth and how, little by little, he's being fleshed out.

[shapeshifter]

“Uptight guy” seems to be “on the spectrum.” And it seems like they might have originally brought him on as a workplace nemesis for Elspeth, but decided to retool the character. 

[zapper]

overall, I liked the episode, but having an exit password at all for the dome was problematic. having it different ... well if you were trapping someone there and they had seen the entry code then they would not be trapped.

more problematic was the artificial turf in the dome. I would have expected anything but plastic grass.

[Irlandesa]

On 1/31/2025 at 11:55 PM, possibilities said:

I did like that the uptight guy who is monitoring them got a moment to shine and was the first to say they had to go and get Elsbeth out of the murderous retreat center ASAP. I have always appreciated his sincerity, but I'm liking him even more as a team member than as an antagonist.

Yeah.  I was waiting for him to be a complete antgonist but his position made sense even if it was rigid.

His mention of an ex-partner did make my ears perk up.  During Teddy's first episode (or full episode) I thought it was interesting that one of his few scenes was with the rigid cop and it made me wonder if they were possibly being set up as love interests.  While his "partner" could have been a woman, I still think it's mostly associated with a same sex significant other and certainly han't made me move away from my theory.

 

[possibilities]

I wish I had looked up the character's name instead of calling him "uptight guy". 

I just checked IMDB, and it seems his name is Lt. Steve O'Connor. Even seeing it, it did not ring any bells for me. 

But I couldn't remember Kaya's name until someone said it on the thread, and I also don't remember the name Wendell Pierce's character, so "uptight guy" is in good company having me not know his name.