Elsbeth Season 2 Episode 2: The Wrong Stuff

Elsbeth gets into the blacked-out SUV. The man inside is Carter Schmidt (Christian Borle), a lawyer from her Chicago days, who says their former shared client Mark Van Ness is about to divorce for a second time and warns that any breach of attorney-client privilege would bring retribution from his firm.

At an astronaut training facility, trainee Gavin Morrissey dies when his centrifuge catches fire. Captain Wagner announces he will lead the investigation himself, citing the expectations attached to the facility's VIP cohort; Elsbeth and Kaya handle most of the interviews, helped by fire marshal Jake Turling (John Behlmann) and by what they learn from owner Aaron Pritchard (Victor Williams) about the trainees' habit of texting their assistants back home.

Neal Dorsey (Rob Riggle) suggests Gavin's vape pen caused the fire, but Elsbeth identifies the devices in Gavin's belongings as battery-free smokeless air inhalers, which rules the theory out.

Elsbeth checks Gavin's hoverboard and finds both batteries present, and notices a rubbery black residue that has transferred to one of her tote bags. Morgan tells the team she was working Gavin for stock tips and mentions that he wore lifts in his boots because he was insecure about his height — which suggests a killer could shave down a lift, insert a battery, and leave the residue behind. Morgan also reports her LED mask is now missing a battery. Neil then becomes the focus: he loathed the nickname Gavin had given him, and his son Randy had adopted it too.

A second examination of the hoverboard recovers the gold tip from one of Neil's space pens, and Wagner recognizes it. Before the scheduled launch the trainees must sign a final set of waivers; Neil's mangled pen leaks ink across the paperwork, proving it was used to lever the battery out of the board. Neil states his reasons for killing Gavin — the lifts, the fracking hypocrisy, and above all turning Randy against him — and is arrested.

Two threads close the episode. Jake Turling tells Elsbeth he expects to see her at the next fire scene, and Elsbeth replies that the whole thing is too hot not to cool down. A news report then covers the forthcoming divorce of pop star TruRose and sports franchise owner Mark Van Ness, the same client Carter Schmidt raised with Elsbeth.

The arrest rests on two physical links rather than a confession about the hiding place. The battery that destroyed the centrifuge was pried out of Gavin's hoverboard with Neal's gold-tipped space pen and concealed in Gavin's boot lift, which is why he noticed nothing and why the residue transferred to Elsbeth's tote. The pen tip recovered from the board supplies the object, and the waivers signed before launch supply the proof: Neal's pen, damaged by the prying, leaks ink across the paperwork in front of the group.

The episode leaves two threads open. Elsbeth does not accept Jake Turling's invitation, and the news report on the TruRose–Van Ness divorce connects directly to Carter Schmidt's warning, so the consequences of that conversation are not resolved within this episode.