Episode 3 of Elsbeth opens with three women engaged in filming the reality show, Lavish Ladies. Suddenly, one of them pulls out a blender, intent on selling it on camera. This unexpected move prompts the producer, Skip Mason, to pull her aside for a discreet conversation. Wendy, the woman with the blender, apologizes to Skip for attempting to hawk her product, explaining that she's been under immense stress due to the recent events surrounding Katricia. Skip, however, is not inclined to discuss the matter on the set, and Wendy suggests they meet later at her house to talk.
Later, Skip stumbles into another Lavish Lady, Stacy, and they arrange a casual meeting for drinks later that evening. As the clock ticks towards nine, Skip finds himself entering Wendy's apartment, where she's sitting in the bathtub, glass in hand. She uses the leverage of knowing information that could potentially land Skip in prison to coerce him into covering up the truth. Skip pleads for time to discuss the matter with his superiors, but Wendy remains unyielding.
After a tense wait, Skip returns to the bathroom armed with a blender and two glasses, professing that they should celebrate with a margarita. But instead of mixing up a festive drink, he fatally pushes the electric blender into the bathwater, ending Wendy's life. Later, Skip keeps his appointment with Stacy, seemingly unaffected by the earlier drama.
Meanwhile, Detective Donnelly, the lead investigator on the case, assumes that Wendy, in a drunken stupor, accidentally knocked the blender into the bathtub. Elsbeth, however, senses that there's more to the story. Her suspicions are heightened when she realizes that Kaya knows the deceased woman, having enjoyed the Lavish Women show. Elsbeth vouches for Kaya's innocence and accompanies Donnelly to the set to break the news to the cast.
Upon encountering Skip, Elsbeth's antennae twitch. His behavior, particularly his manicure session to remove sparkles from his fingers, piques her curiosity. Skip grudgingly grants Donnelly, Elsbeth, and Kaya permission to interview the cast.
The following day, Elsbeth finds herself in her office, imploring Kaya to give her a crash course on Lavish Women over dinner. She's determined to understand the inner workings of the show without having to slog through seasons of footage. But her concentration is shattered when Wagner summons her to his office. He reprimands her for meddling in police department affairs, reminding her that her role was supposed to be strictly observational in high-profile cases.
Wagner insists that Elsbeth focus solely on Wendy's apparent suicide, but her instincts tell her there's more to the story. However, Wagner is unmoved by her arguments. When Elsbeth requests a better office, Wagner offers her a space on the fifth floor - a ludicrous offer given that the police department is housed on the second. Frustrated, Elsbeth settles for the storage closet as her makeshift workspace.
Wagner calls in Lieutenant Noonan to assist Elsbeth, but the lieutenant's demeanor is cagey. He mentions a troublesome individual named Wally but quickly shuts down any further inquiries from Elsbeth. Wagner assigns Noonan the task of helping Elsbeth move things from the window in her closet office, but when she persists in prying about Wally, Noonan remains tight-lipped.
During their Lavish Ladies marathon, Elsbeth's curiosity was piqued when Kaya revealed that Tracy and Wendy, despite their on-screen rivalry, were actually close friends behind the scenes. They would clandestinely exchange late-night phone calls, plotting the fake feuds they would stage for the next day's show.
When Elsbeth inquired about Skip's awareness of this arrangement, Tracy revealed that he fancied himself as the puppet master, oblivious to the women's schemes and paying them scant attention. Tracy recounted an incident where Skip had reprimanded Wendy for promoting her blenders too aggressively during a segment, pulling her aside for a stern talk off-camera.
After her conversation with Tracy, Elsbeth visited Skip at his office, noting his obstinate insistence on his alibi, which only deepened her suspicions. Skip maintained that Wendy's alcoholism was her downfall, claiming he had kept her worst moments out of the show. Elsbeth realized that Skip held the reins of what the audience saw, able to manipulate their perception of people with carefully selected footage.
As Skip hurriedly made a phone call to assemble footage for the police after Elsbeth's departure, she returned to the office puzzled. She quizzed Kaya about Wendy's cameo appearances - paid messages recorded by celebrities for their fans. Their internet search led them to a video Wendy had posted just 23 minutes before her death. Elsbeth showed it to Wagner, puzzled about the wineglass Wendy held and wondering why Skip Mason was so eager to bolster his alibi with Tracy.
Despite Wagner's initial reluctance to entertain Elsbeth's theories, he was forced to take notice when Donnelly arrived with the autopsy results, revealing that Wendy had not been intoxicated. Furthermore, their investigation of the tray revealed no fingerprints, indicating that someone had wiped it clean. Intrigued, Wagner sent Elsbeth and Kaya back to Wendy's house to search for any clues they might have overlooked.
Elsbeth stumbles upon a collection of wine and margarita glasses adorned with glitter at the house, her curiosity piqued. Amidst her efforts to build a case against Skip, Noonan arrives with startling news - Valencia, Wendy's paid intern, has allegedly assaulted her former boss. The video clip that Skip forwarded to the police reveals a heated exchange between Wendy and Valencia, with the latter threatening to kill her employer at one point.
Despite Skip's seemingly solid alibi, punctuated by Tracy's voice in the background insisting on punctuality, Elsbeth remains resolute in her belief that Valencia is not the culprit. She stands firm in her intuition, challenging Wagner that the police may have overlooked crucial leads. Elsbeth presses for more information, inquiring if there are additional messages on the phone, which ultimately leads them to Katricia.
Skip insists that Katricia is unpredictable and disgruntled, but upon meeting her, Kaya and Elsbeth are surprised to find her sober and in control. To prove her point, Katricia boldly downs eight shots of tequila before the interrogation, revealing that Skip resents her inability to get drunk or lose her temper on camera. She alleges that Skip and Wendy drugged her, leading to her infamous meltdown.
As Kaya and Elsbeth returned to confront Skip, they found him unyielding, confident that his alibi was impeccable. Meanwhile, Wagner, perturbed by Skip's eerie demeanor in a clip discussing Wendy's demise, urged Donnelly to dismantle his alibi, which stood as the sole obstacle to his suspicion.
Elsbeth's keen observation, while binge-watching season seven of Lavish Women, pieced together crucial clues. She eagerly shared her revelations with Wagner and the team at the office. Suddenly, Skip's clumsy blunder - knocking the blender into the water - plunged the area into darkness, with only the generator's hum filling the silence. Skip calmly retrieved his phones, leaving a message for Wendy and playing a clip from season seven, featuring Tracy's amazement at her punctuality.
Elsbeth's theory held water; the recording was devoid of any car noises or external disturbances, save for the generator's ambient hum. Nevertheless, Wagner remained skeptical, recalling his recent observation that women often repeat themselves on the show.
The drama unfolded at Wendy's memorial, where Skip's meticulous planning overlooked Katricia's unexpected appearance. She brandished a folder, claiming to hold evidence that would expose Wendy's killer and the attempt on her own life. Skip, panic-stricken, hastily pulled Katricia aside for a private conversation, desperately pleading with her to keep silent. In exchange, he promised to reinstate her on the show.
As the women around them complimented Katricia's appearance, Tracy casually mentioned resuming her palate exercises, unwittingly triggering Elsbeth's memory of Tracy's encounter with Skip. Elsbeth demanded the message Tracy had sent to her gym instructor, timed precisely twenty-four minutes past nine. This ironclad evidence shattered Skip's alibi, revealing that he had never met Tracy at the claimed time.
The final blow came from the covert recording of Skip's conversation with Katricia, captured by the police with the assistance of the show's sound technician. The damning evidence left no room for doubt, and the police took Skip away, his alibi thoroughly dismantled.
