Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Elsbeth Season 2 Episode 6.

‘Tis officially the season as Christmas comes to Elsbeth in Season 2 Episode 6, “Gold, Frankincense and Murder,” a title that had me thinking of that one Vine, and if I told you how many times I recited it to myself while watching the episode or prepping this recap, you would probably be the tiniest bit concerned. But while no gold, or frankincense, or even myrrh, was dished out, there was plenty of murder to be had — both actual and attempted — so let’s dive in!

The episode opens with “celebrity Christmas curators” Dirk (Christopher Fitzgerald) and DeeDee Dashers (Vanessa Bayer), as they appear on a special Christmas-themed episode of Dress Up, an HGTV-style home decor show tied into a magazine of the same name. The chipper couple shows the audience around their home, which is decorated for Christmas year-round — which, even for a Christmas fan like myself, feels like too much. As they head into Dirk’s workshop, the pair also announce that this year they’re planning on launching a vintage-inspired decor collection in collaboration with Dress Up. But while all seems fine between them, if a little over the top for the camera, it turns out DeeDee is unhappy, and once the two are alone she tells Dirk she wants a divorce.

A Potential Divorce Turns Murderous in ‘Elsbeth’ Season 2 Episode 6
Image via CBS

Dirk blows off DeeDee’s surprise bombshell, at first telling her they’ll just discuss it later, but then saying that divorce would be bad for their image, especially as they’re about to launch their retail line. But through all his insistence that they stay together, it becomes increasingly clear that the whole Christmas thing they have going on is his passion, not DeeDee’s, and she is actually feeling more than a little stifled by the most wonderful time of the year. Dirk suggests an alternative: the pair of them stay together through the holidays in order to launch their retail line, and file for divorce in the new year. DeeDee seems to accept the compromise, though she doesn’t say as much, and leaves to finish work on the lobby of the Dress Up office. With her gone, Dirk retreats to his workshop, upset not about the end of his marriage, but more about what the end of his marriage will spell for him in the court of public opinion, as it will look bad for “Mr. and Mrs. Claus” to separate.

If this level of delusion is giving you the ick too, this is a good instinct, as Dirk decides that DeeDee needs to die for what she’s doing to him. He also concludes that while divorce would be death for their brand, the tragic death of “Mrs. Claus” in a freak accident would boost sympathy sales enough that he will not only survive the holidays, but he will thrive. He gets to work on his plan, rigging the ceremonial light switch to electrocute whoever throws it by putting a copper plate underneath the table where a person might rest their hand. DeeDee, meanwhile, finishes the decor at the Dress Up office, with her biggest inconvenience being a single burnt-out bulb in an otherwise functioning string of lights.

At the Dress Up x Dashers launch party — overseen by Gisela Mott (Vanessa Kai), last seen in the Season 1 finale as a key player in solving that particular murder — everything is going as planned until Dirk’s assistant Grayden (Jakob Winter) starts blowing fake snow at them too soon. While Dirk runs to switch it off, he tells DeeDee to throw the switch, which she does with absolutely no problems. She is definitely not electrocuted, and is very much alive to Dirk’s confusion. He doesn’t have time to ruminate on that, however, as DeeDee agrees with Gisela that the tree is “almost” fine, given that one bulb is still out. Keen-eyed viewers will note that while the bulb she was frustrated with the night before was red, this one green. Another faulty bulb in the strand perhaps? Perhaps not, as Dirk climbs up a ladder to fix it, strains to reach it and just misses it, instead touching exposed wire and dying instantly.

While murder is obviously wrong, it is interesting that this is yet another episode of Elsbeth Season 2 that touches on the toxic lengths women are pushed to when they’re forced to live under the pressures of societal expectations and the men who take advantage of them. With Elsbeth’s old divorce case looming in the background, it’s clearer than ever that this is going to be a season-long theme, and I wonder how long it’ll be until it impacts the women at the precinct in some way, specifically Elsbeth and Blanke.

Elsbeth Is Caught in the Middle of Two Mysteries in Season 2 Episode 6
Image via CBS

With this now officially a crime scene, Elsbeth (Carrie Preston), Officer Kaya Blanke (Carra Patterson), and Detective Donnelly (Molly Price) have arrived to investigate. They head over to speak with DeeDee, also reuniting with Gisela and meeting her assistant Laird (Michael Ivan Carrier). Laird explains that Dirk fell trying to fix a burnt-out bulb, which doesn’t explain the fact that he has fake reindeer antlers sticking out of his chest, but Fire Marshall Lee Sparks (Stephen Mark Lukas) arrives to shed some light on the situation. He tells them that the wire frayed and Dirk touched it, causing him to lose his balance and fall on the antlers. DeeDee is quick to tell everyone that those lights on the tree are actually vintage and not the vintage-inspired lights from their collection, though the two look so similar Elsbeth can’t tell the difference.

Sparks notices that the light switch podium has exposed metal plating, which would kill anyone who touches it as it would send an electrical current through their body. He tells them that no one would rig something like that intentionally, and DeeDee tells them that since Dirk was supposed to light the tree, someone must have been targeting him. Sparks tells her she’s lucky she survived when she flipped the switch, and DeeDee excuses herself. The working theory now is that someone was going after Dirk, with Elsbeth’s eye training immediately towards DeeDee.

The next day, Elsbeth, Blanke and Donnelly visit DeeDee at her home, to find the widow determined to pack up everything Christmas related as it reminds her of her husband. They also learn that her name is actually pronounced “Duh-Day” rather than “DeeDee,” but she switched to the latter at Dirk’s insistence. She tells them that everything about their Christmas-driven business was Dirk’s idea, and that she was always just there to support the dream. As bleak as this all sounds, with DeeDee losing her identity in more ways than one, the overall festive vibe of the house inspires Elsbeth, who loves Christmas but hasn’t yet had the chance to get decorations for her new place. DeeDee gifts her a box of their vintage-inspired lights, and Elsbeth asks why they were even using vintage lights on the tree in the first place. According to DeeDee, Dirk said that Gisela wanted the tree to be an exact match for the 1964 cover of Dress Up magazine — though if you ask me, the whole thing looked way too 2020s contemporary. Donnelly asks who might have had it in for Dirk, and DeeDee paints a picture of the supposedly happy relationship she had with her husband, saying the two of them lived in a Christmas paradise year-round, made possible with their assistants, collectively known as the “Dashers’ Little Helpers.”

Related ‘Elsbeth’ Season 2 Adds Two Very Special Guest Stars The spin-off stars Carrie Preston.

Dirk Dashers’ Death Doesn’t Add Up in ‘Elsbeth’ Season 2 Episode 6
Image via CBS

DeeDee also tells them that any of the helpers would have had access to the workshop, and that they were always hanging out and tinkering in there with Dirk… leaving a mess for DeeDee to clean in the morning. You know, I definitely see why she wanted out, and my only surprise is that she lasted this long at all. DeeDee asks Grayden to give the trio a tour of the workshop, and there they ask him about what sort of man Dirk was. Donnelly asks if Dirk might have ever sexually harassed any of the helpers, but Grayden says he was a gentleman and expected the same of the rest of the assistants, in addition to being meticulous with their work. This is what leaves Grayden so confused about the accident, as he insists if there had been frayed wire, one of them should have caught it. He also doesn’t understand why Dirk came over to berate him about starting the snow so soon, as he definitely started it when he was supposed to. Blanke suggests maybe he was preoccupied with something else that could have been upsetting him, but Grayden tells them he’d never seen Dirk happier; he was working out, taking care of his skin…hard to reach at night… Just as they all put two and two together, DeeDee interrupts to send Grayden back to work packing up the house. They’re about to leave when Elsbeth spots a stuffed turtledove mounted on a plaque. She asks DeeDee where the other one is — as in the two turtledoves from the “12 Days of Christmas” — and DeeDee dodges the question, pretending to cry long enough to get them out of the house.

Back at the precinct, the pen is full of drunk people dressed like Santa Claus as SantaCon — a very real event where people dress up like Santa, drink, and apparently brawl in the street — is in full swing in New York. Donnelly shares her suspicions, that Dirk was having an affair, as her ex exhibited similar self-improvement behavior when he was cheating. Blanke tells them she was unsuccessful in getting a lot of meaningful intel regarding the case, but at least she found out where they got their moving boxes from. But why would she need moving boxes? Because her renovation finished early, and she’ll be moving out of Elsbeth’s place. Elsbeth asks if this means they won’t spend Christmas together, and Blanke tells her since she doesn’t have the renovation to worry about, she’s going on a cruise with her family. Elsbeth rapidly realizes she’s going to be alone on Christmas, with her son spending the holidays with his dad as he does in alternating years, and the holiday spirit goes rushing out of her. She even throws out the lights DeeDee gave her, something that doesn’t go unnoticed by Blanke.

She doesn’t have time to wallow for long as Captain Wagner (Wendell Pierce) frantically comes into her office, asking for advice on what to get his wife Claudia (Gloria Reuben) for Christmas. This year, her only hint was “whatever you think I’d like,” which is apparently too confounding for the man she’s been with for decades, and so the man in question turns to a woman who has only met his wife a handful of times. Before they can get too deep into brainstorming, she spies Gisela’s assistant Laird being escorted in and excuses herself to follow him. Before he goes, Wagner asks Blanke what’s wrong with Elsbeth, and she tells him that she suddenly realized she’s going to be alone over the holidays. Wagner and Blanke share worries over Elsbeth, but then again, they have bigger things to worry about, as Laird was just fired, and he’s ready to talk.

It turns out, Gisela let Laird go as she was upset at not being able to throw the switch herself at the tree lighting ceremony. That this could have killed Gisela did not factor into her upset at all, nor did it stop her from blaming Laird for it. He tells them that while it didn’t seem like a big deal at the time, on the day of the tree lighting, Gisela had asked Dirk if she could throw the switch and Dirk very loudly and rudely said no, she couldn’t. What Laird doesn’t understand is that if Dirk wasn’t able to throw the switch himself because he had to deal with Grayden, why would he not then let Gisela do it, instead of directing DeeDee to do it. Once Laird leaves, Donnelly and Blanke wonder the same thing: why not let Gisela, their client, throw the switch if it would make her happy. Elsbeth agrees that it’s strange he would outright stop Gisela, while also insisting that DeeDee do it, and the four of them realize it’s likely Dirk wanted DeeDee dead. But why?

Elsbeth Uncovers a Secret Affair in Season 2 Episode 6

Across town, DeeDee is meeting with her agent Kidder Hawes (Dan Bucatinsky), who tells her that she’s a hit since Dirk died, with their collection seeing record preorders, and other companies pitching things like collaborations, movie pitches, and book deals. Kidder is excited at the lucrative opportunity DeeDee’s loss presents for them — though he insists she cannot change the pronunciation of her name back to “Duh-Day” — but it turns out DeeDee has a pitch of her own: a line of monochromatic home goods. Kidder shuts that down as quickly as he shut down her name change and tells her they’ll just continue to go in the Christmas-y direction he has planned for her. Elsbeth, Blanke and Donnelly arrive at Kidder’s office, much to DeeDee’s alarm. However, it turns out they just want to speak to Kidder and ask DeeDee to step out of the room. They ask Kidder what his relationship was like with Dirk, and he tells them it was fine, and lucrative, but he’s not very devastated by the loss, as he still has plans to make money with DeeDee’s new ventures. The trio are confused, as they assumed Dirk and Kidder were close. Like very, extramarital affair close, as Dirk’s phone records showed hours-long calls to Kidder’s office every day, but he says it wasn’t him. Elsbeth catches sight of Kidder’s assistant Holly (Lynn Favin), who seemed a little upset when she let them in, but now out of sight of the rest of them, is outright weeping at her desk. A desk that also happens to have a plaque with a lone, stuffed turtledove on it.

They take Holly to the break room, and she confesses that she and Dirk were having an affair, telling them they bonded over their love of Christmas, a love DeeDee doesn’t share. She says that while Dirk said he couldn’t get a divorce as it would be bad for the brand — at least he didn’t promise her he was leaving his wife like every other man who cheats — he promised they’d find a way to be together. Holly leaves to go back to work, and the three of them realize that the metal plating on the light switch was meant for DeeDee. Donnelly agrees to get Wagner’s approval to let DeeDee know what they’ve learned, and they volunteer Elsbeth to be the one to break it to her, as she can deliver the news with a delicate hand. Elsbeth arranges to meet DeeDee at a Christmas-themed bar, and notes she’s stopped dressing in monochrome and gone back to wearing festive colors, in this case a green dress with one matching green glove, and one red glove. Elsbeth reveals that Dirk was trying to kill DeeDee, though she doesn’t say why, letting DeeDee draw her own conclusion. The conclusion she reaches is the wrong one, as she takes Elsbeth’s idea of “wanting out” to mean that Elsbeth knows about the professional disagreements she and Dirk were having about their brand. Elsbeth corrects her, saying she was actually talking about Holly, but DeeDee doesn’t even recognize the name.

Elsbeth races back to the precinct to share her new conclusion with them: DeeDee killed Dirk. She tells them that DeeDee’s been wanting out for a while, as her proposal for the monochromatic line of home goods was dated over a year ago. The motive for murder wasn’t the affair, as she genuinely didn’t know about it, but rather the fact that she wanted to leave the marriage and Dirk wouldn’t let her because it was bad for business. Elsbeth suggests that DeeDee somehow managed to outsmart Dirk’s attempt to kill her, but isn’t sure how yet, and she, Blanke, and Donnelly are sent to investigate. They reach out to Fire Marshal Sparks and ask him to look over the surveillance video of the tree lighting. Since DeeDee’s hands were on the copper plate and the light switch, they ask how it’s possible she avoided getting electrocuted, and Sparks says it came down to luck, since DeeDee’s gloves wouldn’t be enough to protect her.

Christmas Lights Solve the Crime in ‘Elsbeth’ Season 2 Episode 6
Image via CBS

Back at Elsbeth’s place, the pair of them return to find a Christmas tree in the living room. Elsbeth panics because she didn’t put it there, but Blanke tells her that she brought it as a surprise, since Elsbeth has been so uncharacteristically down. She even brought over a few boxes of Christmas decorations that her family sent her for Elsbeth to use and share in the celebration. As Elsbeth is still sad over all she’s missing over Christmas, Blanke reframes her idea and asks Elsbeth to decorate the “celebration tree” with her, to celebrate the fact that she got A’s on her exams. Now dressed in cozy PJs to make an evening of it, the two of them sort through all the strings of lights Blanke’s parents sent. The problem with the lights being so old is one string won’t turn on at all, as some of the bulbs are burnt out. Blanke pulls out the box of lights DeeDee gave Elsbeth for them to use instead. When they plug those ones in, they find most of them are lit, with only one of the bulbs not working. Elsbeth wonders why some strings stop working entirely when one bulb is out, while others work just fine, and Blanke suggests it’s a change in technology, and that newer lights can keep running even when a single bulb is out. This would make sense, except for the fact that the lights used on the Dress Up tree were supposedly vintage, and so if one bulb was out, they all should have gone out.

Following a lightbulb moment, both literally and metaphorically, Elsbeth, Blanke and Donnelly go to the Dress Up office to meet with DeeDee. Elsbeth offers DeeDee a homemade Christmas cookie and apologizes for them not being the right, Christmas-y shade of green. DeeDee tells her the shade of green is lovely, which is funny because the cookie is actually red and not remotely green at all. They then walk DeeDee through their conclusions, recapping Dirk’s motive for wanting her dead. Elsbeth also notes that while DeeDee generally wears red or green, on the day of the tree lighting, she wore black gloves. Black gloves that Grayden located for them, and which upon closer examination were revealed to have a rubber lining to prevent electric shock.

Elsbeth says that DeeDee formed the plan to kill Dirk after going into his workshop to clean up and finding the light switch with the copper plate. Though DeeDee claimed Gisela wanted vintage lights — a claim which turned out to be untrue — it turns out the only reason she claimed the lights were vintage was to make the frayed wire seem believable. But because the whole strand didn’t go out when one bulb burned, this made the team realize that the strand was newer, and tampered with. Elsbeth then reveals how they tied the puzzle together. DeeDee is colorblind and cannot distinguish between red and green, which is a rough state of affairs for someone whose livelihood comes from such a red and green industry — hence the confusion over cookie color, and the mismatched green and red gloves. Her colorblindness also led to a critical error with the lights, as she switched out a working bulb from one strand for the burnt one on the other, disrupting the alternating green and red color sequence with three greens in a row. The only thing not accounted for is the reindeer Dirk fell on, but DeeDee tells them that was just a happy accident.

As Blanke takes DeeDee away, Elsbeth tells Wagner to get his wife couple’s dance lessons for Christmas. He doesn’t seem sure, but Elsbeth is adamant, and he takes her advice — because really, all his wife wants at the end of the day is probably some quality time. And speaking of quality time, back at Elsbeth’s place, she and Blanke have started the process of moving Blanke back to her own place by organizing her moving boxes. As a thank you, but really, just because they’re good friends, Wagner and Blanke give Elsbeth an early Christmas gift: a visit from her son Teddy (Ben Levi Ross).

Your changes have been saved Elsbeth ReviewElsbeth Season 2 Episode 6 is a delightful Christmas-themed mystery that shows a new dimension to the title character.ProsWe love a Christmas-themed episode!This episode shows a new side to the title character that we’ll hopefully explore more.

Your changes have been saved Elsbeth Tascioni, an unconventional attorney, gives her singular point of view to make observations to catch criminals alongside the NYPD.Release Date February 29, 2024 Main Genre Crime Seasons 1 Creator(s) Michelle King , Robert King Writers Michelle King , Robert King Network CBS Streaming Service(s) Directors Robert King , Ron Underwood Where To Watch Paramount Plus Expand

The first five episodes of Elsbeth Season 2 are out now. New episodes premiere on CBS on Thursdays, and stream next day on Paramount+.

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