How Elsbeth Just Set up Recurring Arc for The Good Fights Sarah Steele — and Potential New Romance for Elsbeth

[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for ElsbethSeason 3 Episode 5, “Poetic Justice.”]

Elsbeth has great timing. The same week New York City elected Zohran Mamdani as its next mayor, the NYC-set CBS procedural introduced its own charismatic mayoral candidate — one whom Elsbeth Tascioni (Carrie Preston) is now unwittingly connected to, thanks to a political scheme hatched by The Good Fight‘s Marissa Gold (Sarah Steele), who’s now following in her father, Eli Gold’s (Alan Cumming), footsteps with a career pivot into politics.

Elsbeth Season 3 Episode 5, “Poetic Justice,” starred William Jackson Harper as the killer of the week. He played Gary Pidgeon, the head of a prestigious poetry journal that was desperately struggling for funds (“The arts are under attack!” Harper’s Gary kept repeating). He killed his biggest donor to ensure that she didn’t rewrite her will to divert funds away from his journal and towards another. He likely would have gotten away with it had it not been for his sharing oddly specific details about the gas tank explosion during his chance first meeting with Elsbeth, who was attending a fundraising event for unhoused people with her friend, Dr. Yablonsky (Daniel Davis). Yablonsky served on Pidgeon Print’s board.

Before the run-in with the soon-to-be-revealed murderer, Elsbeth ran into her old pal, Sarah. She’s now running the mayoral campaign for Alec Bloom (Ivan Hernandez). Elsbeth and Alec shared a cute rapport that made Marissa ask, “Am I crazy, or am I sensing a vibe here?” They denied it, but the spark was there. Later, Marissa came to Elsbeth’s precinct to pitch an idea.

“I think Alec may have a woman problem, electorally speaking,” she said. “I think you two should have dinner.” She wanted to set up a date for publicity to make Alec seem more appealing to women voters. That, and, as Marissa described, “Your consent decree is kind of a magic bullet to position him well on policing for the electorate. He wants to see how the system can be changed from within.” With that, the date was set.

Michael Parmelee / CBS

The three of them met for a drink later on in the episode, and Elsbeth was moved by Alec’s story about being unhoused when he was younger and how it motivates him to want to take care of New Yorkers through public office. They shared a lot of interests as well, such as a love of musical theater and NYC tourist attractions.

Word got out to the press that Alec was seen on what looked like a date with a “mysterious redhead,” and the story went wide. When the three of them met up again, Elsbeth asked Alec and Marissa to inform the press that they weren’t an item because she didn’t want to feel like a “pawn” in their campaign, for personal reasons and because she has “serious work to do” in New York, so being painted as just a pretty love interest in the press isn’t a desirable look for her. Marissa agreed she would kill the story, but she didn’t.

The episode ended with Marissa back at the precinct and revealed that she “won’t let” Alec issue a statement saying that he and “the mysterious redhead” are just friends.

“Don’t tell Alec, but I’m the one who leaked the photos in the first place,” she revealed. “I said I didn’t want to be that person. Turns out, I am that person. I need you to listen to me carefully. It’s super important that you don’t make any moves or talk to anyone about this unless I tell you to. Elsbeth Tascioni, the future of New York is in your hands.” No pressure!

This tees up Marissa and Alec’s returns inElsbeth Season 3 Episode 7, airing on Thursday, November 20. In the episode, Teddy (Elsbeth’s son, played by Ben Levi Ross) digs into Alec’s past for a feature he is working on. How will this be impacted by Elsbeth’s PR relationship with the mayoral candidate? Or will it help his chances? And could a real romancebloom out of this PR stunt? However it shakes down, Marissa is going to be pulling the strings.

Before Episode 7, Tony Hale, Dianne Wiest (as a nun!), and Henny Russell will guest star in Episode 6 (airing on Thursday, November 13). Russell plays Judge Milton Crawford’s (Michael Emerson) widow. Her meeting with Elsbeth is bound to cause a stir, according to Preston herself.

Elsbeth, Thursdays, 10/9c, CBS