Anna Camp isn’t just playing a trad wife — who churns butter — on Elsbeth but her character is also being accused of murder.
In Us Weekly‘s exclusive first look at the Thursday, May 7, episode of the hit CBS show, Camp, 43, can be seen churning butter while Elsbeth (Carrie Preston) grills her about a director’s recent death. Camp’s character distracts from her possible guilt by convincing Elsbeth to join in on her trad wife activities.
According to the official synopsis, the episode —directed by Pamela Adlon — follows a case in which “an ambitious filmmaker dies in a suspicious cleaning accident.” Elsbeth then “focuses on the subject of her final documentary: a ‘trad wife’ whose from-scratch lifestyle included a deadly ingredient.”
Elsbeth, which premiered in 2024, reintroduced the title character after she originally appeared on The Good Wife and The Good Fight. The first two seasons showed Elsbeth becoming a de facto detective who assists the NYPD investigating cases. Preston stars alongside Wendell Pierce and Carra Patterson.
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Season 2, however, ended with Patterson, who plays Kaya, departing the show as a series regular.
“It’s been in development since the beginning of season 2,” Preston exclusively told Us in May 2025. “We wanted to honor her and elevate her to detective. So it was very exciting when that happened for the character. Not as exciting for us though because we love Carra. I love Carra and I obviously love playing with her.”
Preston promised that wasn’t the last fans would see of Kaya, adding, “She’s still on the show — it’s just in a different capacity. It’s nice because it adds some conflict and it adds some stuff for Elsbeth to wrestle with. It’s going to deepen my character.”
During season 3, Elsbeth has been paired off with various cop characters — and detectives — before Kaya returned earlier this month.
“With Elsbeth having to deal with this person not being there who she really leans on, it’s a real testament to the writers that they did it in such a gradual and beautiful way,” Preston told Us. “It’s the good thing about Elsbeth, [she] is so positive and never met a stranger.”
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The actress didn’t rule out potential “growing pains” as Elsbeth adjusts to “flying solo” in season 3, saying, “The writers have already started introducing other uniformed officers that Elsbeth really relies on to get onto the crime scene. The way our show is structured, it’s not the same detective with Elsbeth on every case.”
Preston continued, “So that always adds a little breath of fresh air as well by having different points of views and different people for her to either partner with or go head to head with in the pursuit of justice.”
More recently, Preston opened up about how the show was able to expand for its third season.
“It suddenly feels like, ‘Oh, right. The NYPD has lots of people and it’s not just this small group.’ It made the show feel in some ways bigger,” she told Us in February. “I wasn’t altogether sure how we were going to do that without it seeming like we were trying to replace Carra — and yet we did and we still get to have Carra back. It’s been the best of all worlds.”
Elsbeth airs on CBS Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET. New episodes stream the next day on Paramount+.
