Episode 8 of Elsbeth Season kicks off with a shareholders' meeting, where Quiin Powers takes the stage. Her objective is clear: persuade wealthy investors to pour their funds into her company, Cerberus, ahead of its eagerly awaited IPO announcement. She spins a tale of her past, revealing how a serial killer's attack left her with a limp and a reliance on a walking cane. This personal trauma, she explains, was the genesis of Cerberus - a platform designed to empower the public to report crimes without waiting for the police.
After the meeting adjourns, a reporter named Josh approaches Quiin, seeking her comments for an article he's writing about her. His tone is ominous, hinting at knowledge that could potentially derail the IPO. His words strike a chord of unease in Quiin, suggesting she has secrets to hide.
Just then, one of the meeting attendees joins them, commenting admiringly on Josh's purebred dog. Josh boasts about the fortune he paid for the canine, hands Quiin a business card, and departs.
Later, Quiin goes into action. She posts flyers all around Josh's neighborhood, listing lost dogs - including Josh's own pet. She then presents these posters to the Cerberus team manager responsible for posting crime alerts, instructing her to keep the news of the dog kidnapping at the top of the app's feed.
As night falls, Quiin convenes a meeting with her team, scheduled to last 90 minutes. She begins the session, sharing her screen and warning against any interruptions. Her pre-recorded speech plays, and she slips out unnoticed. Her destination? Josh's house. There, she commits a cold-blooded murder, stealing away Josh's dog. The canine is allowed to roam freely in the bushes as she makes her way back home, timing her arrival to coincide with the end of the 90-minute recording.
Detective Edwards, the lead investigator on the case, holds Quiin in high regard due to her noteworthy work at Cerberus. Edwards relies heavily on digital footprints and data to solve her cases. Elsbeth, watching from afar, notices Edwards speaking with Quiin outside the apartment window. She recognizes the detective as the same woman whose photos adorn the board hanging above Josh's homework desk - a chilling reminder of the web of secrets and lies that Quiin has spun.
Hence, Elsbeth and Kaya descend to engage with her, only to encounter her steadfast denial. She maintains that her sole purpose was to inspect the crime scene, having come across the news about the incident on Cerberus. Quiin adamantly declares that she has never set foot inside Josh's apartment.
As their conversation unfolds, Mimi, the local dog walker, rushes over, brandishing a cattle prod she stumbled upon in a trash bin. This discovery piques Elsbeth's curiosity, as it seems odd that the perpetrator would discard the weapon used to overpower owners and steal their dogs, suggesting they no longer intend to continue their canine theft spree. Additionally, Mimi sheds some valuable insight on the missing dogs, revealing that only Josh's pet hailed from the neighborhood, while the others were imposters.
Elsbeth's attention is drawn to Quinn's walking cane, which is identical in size to the murder weapon. This revelation prompts a startled reaction from Quinn, who hastily departs the scene. Nevertheless, Elsbeth makes a mental note to seek her out once she has regained her composure.
At the police station, Captain Wagner strides into Elsbeth's office, bearing documents that expose Lieutenant Dave's underhanded deeds. These papers, signed solely by Dave, serve as damning evidence of his illegal activities carried out behind Wagner's back. The Captain is deeply concerned that the DOJ's investigation could ruin not only his career but also the hard-earned reputation of his wife, who has tirelessly worked for the Wagner Foundation.
Captain Wagner laments that individuals like him and Claudia must maintain a facade of perfection to retain the public's trust, and seeking assistance from Celetano would be futile. Elsbeth suggests approaching Dave directly, given their longstanding acquaintance, but Wagner's trust in him has eroded to the point where he must devise a strategy to salvage Claudia's reputation.
Edwards provides an update on the case, leveraging data from Cerberus Blue. The Captain, Kaya, and Elsbeth jest about the technology, inadvertently provoking Edwards. She retaliates by showing them an image generated by the app, depicting the thief's face with a bizarre discoloration that stands out starkly from the rest of his features.
Edwards staunchly defended the controversial app, maintaining that it was a work-in-progress and daring Elsbeth to use her outdated investigative methods to hunt for the killer. He proposed a challenge, seeing who could solve the mystery first, with Elsbeth focusing on traditional clues while he leaned heavily on data.
As Edwards and the Captain exited the room, Kaya shared her keen observations about Cerberus. Despite a garage collapse and two manhole fires that left several people injured in the vicinity, as if they were pushing the dog kidnapping narrative.
Disguised as a potential investor, Elsbeth arrived at Cerberus and couldn't help but notice that Quinn always wore a distinctive headband. She casually mentioned that it might be a branding gimmick, recalling that she wore a similar one when the serial killer attacked her. Expressing her keen interest in investing in Cerberus due to the glowing testimonies Edwards had shared, she attempted to strike a deal with Quinn. Initially, Quinn seemed reluctant, preferring group investors. However, her interest piqued when Elsbeth mentioned her extensive network of influential contacts in Chicago, urging her to speak with Toby, the finance director.
Elsbeth inquired about the virtual meeting, and Quinn explained it was necessitated by a COVID-19 case within the team. But when Elsbeth spoke to Toby, she learned that no one on the team had COVID-19 that night. They took precautions nonetheless, fearing it could have been the janitor. Curious, Elsbeth requested a recording of the meeting from Toby, who revealed he had secretly taped it as part of his documentary project chronicling Cerberus's rise. He also confessed his intention to quit the company after making a hefty profit from the IPO approval.
Back at the police station, Elsbeth was busy taking notes about the meeting while Kaya shared her intriguing discovery about Josh's article on Quinn, which she found on his laptop. The article sounded like Josh's writing but lacked his authentic touch. Kaya's suspicions were further aroused when she ran the article through an AI detector, revealing the use of intelligent cheating software.
Kaya vouched for Josh, insisting he wouldn't plagiarize, but she had doubts about Quinn. Elsbeth echoed Kaya's instincts, recalling that Quinn had vowed to halt the meeting if interrupted, yet Toby had tried three times without success. Quinn seemed oblivious, giving off a fake, commercialized vibe. Kaya also pointed out that Quinn wore a headband at the start of the meeting but mysteriously ditched it towards the end.
Intrigued by these revelations, Elsbeth headed back to Quinn for clarification. Quinn denied any drug addiction and insisted she'd never been to Josh's apartment, hence her unawareness of the research materials pinned on the wall about her. Determined to unearth more clues, Elsbeth and Kaya returned to Josh's apartment, suspecting that Quinn might have sneaked in the day after the murder to check if her headband had been collected as evidence.
Elsbeth realized that gaining access to Josh's laptop was crucial for planting the AI-generated article. The computer, guarded by facial recognition, posed a challenge. Quinn would have had to crouch down after eliminating Josh to unlock it, presumably causing her headband to fall.
Despite not finding the headband, they stumbled upon a yearbook from Quinn's alma mater, with a torn page revealing a picture of Quinn and her former friend, Ellen Davis. The librarian at Quinn's university confirmed that the two were now estranged.
Elsbeth recognized the photo as a similar one found at Cerberus, except Ellen had been photoshopped out. Their curiosity piqued, they wondered why Quinn would go to such lengths and why the dog kidnapper had taken the picture from Josh's board. Quinn was summoned for questioning.
It turned out that Ellen was the brains behind Cerberus, and Quinn had been involved in its marketing. However, before its launch, Quinn discovered a critical flaw: the inability to verify reported crimes. While the app had the potential to aid in genuine crime reporting, it could also be manipulated by malicious individuals to spread hysteria through false reports.
Ellen wanted to scrap the project for ethical reasons, but Quinn saw it as a chance to maintain the limelight the app had brought her. To test Quinn's involvement, Elsbeth fed her a fake crime profile. Mere minutes after her departure, the profile appeared on Cerberus, accompanied by an AI-generated image of the supposed criminal.
Within minutes, the clown killer rocketed to the top of the app's list, providing the NYPD with a pretext to arrest her. Elsbeth and the police swooped in during a Cerberus meeting, apprehending Quinn. As she was escorted out, still clinging to her celebrity status, she boasted that she would convince the jury of her innocence.
The episode concluded with Captain Wagney confronting Wally to unravel Dave's secretive actions. Wagney confessed his ignorance of Dave's crimes committed under his name but vowed to bring him to justice. Wally revealed a shocking truth: the Wagner Foundation's top donor, known for generously donating clothes to sponsored children, actually sourced them from sweatshops using illegal labor.
