Elsbeth’s Ridiculous Jailhouse Finale Made A Serious Point About Judicial Corruption (Even Though Crawford Is Still Dead)

In case you were wondering, Elsbeth’s season finale was as silly as it looked from the commercials.

Thanks to the most cartoonishly villainous judge ever, Elsbeth was behind bars with a whole season’s worth of entitled murderers, and there was even a musical interlude as she tried to figure out who had killed an obnoxious inmate.

There was more to the madness than over-the-top comedy, though — Elsbeth‘s ridiculous jailhouse finale continued what Judge Crawford started, demonstrating that the justice system only works when all players are honorable.

Elsbeth’s Incarceration Didn’t Resemble Real Jail, But Made Its Point

The jailhouse setting wasn’t nearly as realistic as those depicted in shows like Oz or Orange Is The New Black, but that wasn’t the point.

Elsbeth was still incarcerated and risked missing Kaya’s going-away party. The finale forced her to share space with people who hated her because she proved they were killers.

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And in her case, it was because of a corrupt judge who felt Elsbeth was a convenient scapegoat for Judge Crawford’s death.

All of these factors made the more serious point that unfair incarceration is disruptive to people’s lives and that biased judges have power over people they dislike.

However, there was one major issue with this — almost all of the people accompanying Elsbeth were entitled, upper-class white women.

Unfortunately, in real life, there’s an overrepresentation of poor people and people of color in jails and prisons, so that particular piece of unreality dilutes the point behind the madness of this story.

It did allow for a star-studded reunion between Elsbeth and several well-known guest stars who played killers, which was one of the reasons for this plot.

And to be fair, the writers might not have consciously set out to critique the justice system in this episode.

The idea of Elsbeth in jail with the people she helped put there, only to be the one who once again finds a killer, is comedy gold that’s hard to resist.

Still, most of this season has revolved around the chilling and corrupt Judge Crawford, so it’s hard to believe this thought didn’t cross anyone’s mind when creating this episode.

Judge Crawford Was A Much Better Villian Than Judge Dousant

I’m still salty that they set up such a strong villain in Crawford, only for someone to assassinate him before the story was over.

Crawford was so chilling because of his understated tone.

He was a quiet man who looked to the outside world as if he were just doing his job, while secretly murdering people and making veiled threats to those who got too close to exposing him.

The series shouldn’t have unceremoniously killed him off, especially since the only point of doing so seemed to be to give his friend a motive to jail Elsbeth.

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Judge Dousant was almost cartoonishly vain, making it hard to believe that no one had caught on to this judge’s biases and abuses of power before.

The interactions between him and Wagner in the tailor shop were as hilarious as they were frustrating, but this guy was not nearly the threat to Elsbeth that his predecessor had been.

Crawford was an unusual villain for Elsbeth because he was too chilling and realistic, while most characters on this light-hearted mystery show are quirky and over-the-top.

Still, his assassination felt like a cop-out, and I’d much rather he had been the one responsible for Elsbeth’s plight than his silly friend.

The Mystery’s Solution Reinforced The Point About The Injustice In The System

It was somewhat obvious that the warden was responsible for the new murder.

She was always in the right place at the right time, and it took place at a time when prisoners weren’t supposed to be in the library.

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Elsbeth was in her cell, which meant most of the prisoners were locked up too, but the warden had free rein — and she just happened to pass by the library seconds after Elsbeth discovered the body.

Still, this was the best choice. It reinforced the point that corruption wreaks havoc with people’s lives and freedom in the jail system.

Your Turn, Elsbeth Fanatics

Agree? Disagree? Have another point of view?
Let us know in the comments, or share this article with someone who will want to argue about it with you. That’s what makes it fun.

Elsbeth will return for a third season. All episodes of Elsbeth Season 2 are available to stream on Paramount+.

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