Carrie Preston’s Homicide Thriller Collection Makes Jeff Hiller Fully Wig Out

Editor’s Observe: The next contains spoilers for Elsbeth Season 3, Episode 12.Elsbeth (Carrie Preston) has been in bushy positions earlier than, however by no means actually — till this week, that’s. “All’s Hair,” Episode 12 of Elsbeth‘s third season, sees our favourite redhead investigating the homicide of a celeb wigmaker. It is a story of dishonor, mistrust, a drag brunch, Diana Ross, and a daring new search for Elsbeth… and Detective Bobby Smullen (Danny Mastrogiorgio). That mentioned, is “All’s Hair” a minimize above the remainder, or a shear disappointment?

Dishonor Between Wigmakers Results in Homicide in ‘Elsbeth’s “All’s Hair”

5 skilled wig makers are crowded right into a room with a customs agent. There is a coming Wiggageddon, an ideal storm of massive occasions all occurring without delay, and so they’re ready for information a few precedence cargo of Molten-Gold, uncommon and untreated virgin blonde hair. Sadly, it is delayed, which means they should wait to finish their wigs. 4 of the 5 have high-profile shoppers which are ready, and the fifth, Felix West (Jeff Hiller), “The Rug Physician,” wants to finish a wig for a crypto king’s wedding ceremony.

Felix returns to his store, the place he is visited by Lina Vyanti, host of a nationwide morning present. She has an issue: she’s being ridiculed as a result of the wigs seem like wigs in HD, and she or he needs a pure look, Felix’s specialty. Solely Felix has an issue: Lina is a consumer of Domenico Cappelli, one of many wig makers, and the 5 have an unwritten code of honor the place they do not poach shoppers. However honor will get pushed apart with more cash and the promise to introduce Felix to her showbiz associates. It is Felix’s ticket out of enterprise places of work and hospitals, and he takes it. Her coloration, Molten-Gold, is inconceivable to seek out, however he has a stockpile of it. Not sufficient, although, so when he sees a teen on a bench, together with her Molten-Gold hair in a ponytail, he walks over, cuts it off, and speeds off to complete his pièce de résistance.

Simply then he will get a cellphone name from Domenico, saying they should discuss. Felix goes to Domenico’s residence, strolling in when the aroma of Mama Cappelli’s sauce cooking lures him to the kitchen. Abruptly, Domenico seems and pulls Felix away, accusing him of poaching. Felix feigns ignorance, however Lina cancelled her appointment, opting to make use of her “pure hair” at a gala. He calls for that to any extent further, Felix is his worker, and he’ll take 40% of each wig Felix produces. He is aware of in regards to the ponytail snip, and if that will get out, Felix is finito. However when Domenico turns away, Felix assaults him. Domenico will get his fingers on a sizzling curling iron and sears a burn mark into Felix’s brow, just for Felix to wrest it away and strangle him with the wire. Felix takes the roller and some high-priced wigs, staging the scene as a theft gone incorrect earlier than darting away.

Elsbeth Cuts Down the Suspect Listing To Slim in on Felix

Elsbeth, Chandler (Ethan Slater), and Smullen are on the scene. The scent of Mama Cappelli’s sauce proves irresistible, and Elsbeth walks over to take a whiff of it simply as Mama Cappelli walks in. She’s the one who discovered her son, and provides that the wigs that had been taken, just like the one worn by Diana Ross, had been the most costly, and posits that whoever killed her bambino knew which of them to take. Smullen and Elsbeth flip again to the physique, noticing that he was strangled by a wire, and a burn means that the homicide weapon could possibly be a curling iron. So, if he was strangled by a heated curling iron, maybe the assassin, a wig skilled, was burned as effectively. Reduce to Felix, who’s now sporting a toupee to cowl the burn mark on his brow.

Again on the precinct, Elsbeth and Smullen clarify the case to Captain Wagner (Wendell Pierce), who tells them to usher in the 4 wigmakers, whereas he works on a case for a donor to the Payne-Wagner Basis, whose daughter is being bullied. The 4 are introduced in, with Elsbeth wanting them over for burn marks as Smullen does the questioning. There’s nothing to recommend that the primary three did it (one does recommend Smullen get a toupee, which he later does, humorously), and Persimmon presents up that once they talked about divvying up Domenico’s shoppers, Felix solely needed Lina. However Felix states that he is only a large fan, and if she needs to work with him, he has a inventory of Molten-Gold. Solely Lina says that she had already commissioned Felix to make a wig earlier than Domenico’s loss of life.

Felix Has Toupee the Piper in ‘Elsbeth’s “All’s Hair”

Felix insists he did not steal her, and that Lina got here to him, so Elsbeth and Chandler go to go to Mama to seek out out if Domenico knew about Lina turning to Felix. She does not know for sure, however is adamant that if he did know, he positively would have confronted him about it. That places Felix within the crosshairs (and a jar of Mama’s sauce in Elsbeth’s bag), however they want extra. They do know Domenico referred to as Felix simply earlier than his loss of life, and when Elsbeth goes to Felix for a wig becoming, Chandler tags alongside to ask what the decision was about. He waves it off as enterprise discuss, however as she retains urgent, he switches subject, and asks what she’s doing Saturday morning.

Saturday morning comes alongside, and Elsbeth, in a blonde wig, Chandler, and Felix are having a good time at Mimosas and Mirrorballs, the “finest drag brunch within the metropolis,” when Felix factors out that one of many performers has a Diana Ross wig, one of many stolen kinds. The one particular person that might have come from is Persimmon, so he is taken into custody. He could not have completed it, and has proof, however is shocked to listen to that Felix would have poached Vyanti, given he was as determined for the Molten-Gold cargo. He would not have sufficient to make a wig, though he would if he had been to have, say, minimize the ponytail off a teenage lady.

Seems that Wagner’s case is immediately tied to the minimize ponytail. Domenico discovered about Felix’s assault when the lady’s father approached him a few fake ponytail. However there’s nonetheless no proof that Felix was on the scene. Or is there? The key’s within the sauce, with a wig hair that matches the wig Elsbeth was sporting discovered within the jar of sauce she was given by Mama. Felix’s invite to brunch was merely to plant the stolen Diana Ross wig so he might shift suspicion to Persimmon. As Felix is escorted out, he says, “So that is it. I performed it brief and slick on this planet of hair and received tangled in my very own weave.”

“All’s Hair” is a pedestrian affair. Not the most effective, not the worst, however simply there. Hiller’s good, however does not match the standard of the visitor stars this season has introduced in so far. And resting the damning proof on a strand of hair that someway made it right into a jar out of an enormous pot of sauce is among the many weakest but. However there’s an attention-grabbing twist to the Alec Bloom storyline, with Winnie Crawford (Henny Russell) asking Elsbeth over lunch if she trusts him. She says she does, however has her guard up about Winnie, whereas Winnie is fairly positive Elsbeth is aware of greater than she’s letting on. Between that and Teddy’s article, it offers Winnie a path to derail Bloom’s marketing campaign, her true purpose in bringing it up.