Elsbeth: Season 3, Episode 13 - Murder Six Across

This week on The Good Pod, Jason and Marissa tackle Elsbeth Season 3, Episode 13 — "Murder Six Across" — a crossword-convention murder mystery that gives the show an excuse to get absolutely obsessive about puzzles, competition anxiety, and the eternal debate between keeping things classic and keeping them relevant. The episode also delivers a long-awaited guest star upgrade (we hear you, Marissa), some meaningful momentum in the Alec campaign arc, and a Wordle bonus segment that spirals into beautiful chaos.

Case / Main Plot of the Week: The National Crossword Tournament Murder

• Played by: Steve Buscemi (Fargo, Reservoir Dogs, Boardwalk Empire, Randall in Monsters, Inc.)
• The situation: A contentious rivalry at the 27th Annual National Crossword Tournament turns deadly when the editor at the center of it ends up dead — and a killer has to keep competing while the body stays hidden
• The complication: The killer is meticulous, methodical, and has a very specific kind of obsessive logic — which means the clues are subtle, and the plan is surprisingly solid... at first
• The twist: Elsbeth's instincts are piqued not by what someone does, but by what they say — and a small, very specific behavioral tic becomes the key to unraveling everything
• The resolution: Exact change. That's all we'll say. Exact. Change.

• 00:00 – Intro & crossword nerd origin story
• 02:30 – Episode setup: the crossword convention world
• 04:00 – Guest star arrival: Steve Buscemi as Simon
• 06:30 – Crossword culture debate: modernizing vs. keeping it classic
• 11:30 – The tournament begins; Simon's motivations take shape
• 16:30 – The murder (tote bag. it's a tote bag.)
• 20:30 – Three days later: the investigation begins
• 21:30 – Detective Edwards returns!
• 25:30 – Interviewing the solvers; Simon's bad lies
• 31:00 – The trunk, the taxi, and exact change
• 38:00 – Wagner and Elsbeth talk youth culture & cringe
• 43:00 – Elsbeth goes upstate; the eureka moment
• 47:00 – Mo Rocca spotted; the arrest
• 51:30 – Alec arc: the dinner, the lie, the shift
• 01:02:00 – Outro & host plugs
• 01:09:00 – BONUS: Live Wordle segment (Friday, March 13th)

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Creators and Guests

Host

Jason Reed

I’m a simple guy with simple interests. Pop Culture, Tv, Movies, Comics. Constantly chasing that nostalgia dragon. Podcaster talking Married At First Sight on A Perfect Match and The Good Wife verse on The Good Pod.

Host

Marissa Garza

MTv never told me the Real World would be like this // podcaster, consultant, and tv watcher

What is The Good Pod?

Calling all fans of courtroom intrigue and complex characters! Join us each week as we dive deep into the gripping world of "The Good Wife," "The Good Fight", "Elsbeth," and the entire legal drama universe created by Robert and Michelle King. Jason Reed and Marissa Garza, break down each episode, unpack intricate plot lines, and analyze the moral dilemmas faced by Alicia Florrick, Diane Lockheart, Elsbeth Tascioni, and their colleagues. Whether you're a longtime fan or new to these addictive shows, you'll gain fresh insights and catch details you might have missed.

# Elsbeth S3 E13

​[00:00:00]

Welcome to the Good Pod, where today we're talking Elle's Beth, season three, episode 13, murder six. Across. I'm one your host Jason Reed. With me as always, a a, uh, a crossword pro, a Sunday crossword, uh, you know, real, uh, fan. Marissa Garza. Marissa, you good? I'm good. You good? I'm good. When I saw this topic, I was like, I, I just know, I just feel in my bones.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That Marissa Garza is a crossword nerd. Mm-hmm. I like that crossword nerd. Uh, I should, that's why I should have gone with a crossword nerd, Marissa Garza. Uh, I was like, uh, yeah. It just seems like Rapper Alley. And, and of course when we get on, I confirm Marissa is a crossword nerd. Yeah.

Jason, I don't know why you aren't, because it is the greatest games of all time. Uh, uh, like I, I am a mini fan. Sure. Yeah. Love a mini. That's my speed. That's my speed. But then when I get into, [00:01:00] like, I get into the crossword, I'm like, Ooh, yeah, I, this, this is too much for me right here. Even the Mondays. You could do the Mondays.

You could do the Mondays. I mean, maybe, uh, I'm, I'm a, I'm a big New York Times, uh, app. Game guy, like I, you're into this, you're just, you just don't know who you are yet. You're into this. A big, big wordle guy around here, like me and my wife, we have a daily wordle competition. Uh, eight 30 every morning starts our clock.

The first person that does the wordle, uh, sends it to the other, and if the other person can get it in less tries, they win. Mm-hmm. But if we tie, it's the person that sent it first. Uh, so that's, that's our, uh, we're a big wordle household, uh, here. Not a, not a big crossword household, uh, but big wordle wordle people around.

Well, much like Ellsworth. She's, she's a big wordle person. Yeah. 'cause, uh, crossword was just, uh, in much in Ellsworth style. Uh, she got way, way too invested in the, in the, in the crossword and. We see her systematically [00:02:00] falling off the wagon, uh, in this episode, which is really fun. Um, but yeah, then we're go, we're about gonna dive deep to the episode.

But before we do that, we wanna remind you of some free and easy ways you can help this small business fledgling podcast. You can do that by rating, reviewing, subscribing, wherever it is you are watching and or listening. It helps us get into the eyes and ears of more people out there that would be interested in this content.

You can also email us if you have a question or a comment about the show. You can, uh, email us at the good pod [e-mail]. If you would like to contribute monetarily, you can of course do that over at buy me a coffee.com/good pod. Those are always, you can help this podcast. Uh, alright, Marissa.

Yeah, let's get into this very wordy episode of Elsbeth. I see what you did. I see what you did there. Yeah. So, um, we are at a crossword convention. Okay. First of all, you know, I love a convention Marissa's having, you know, I love it, you know. If, if you didn't spend all your money at the stationary fest, you'd, you'd be going to, uh, the [00:03:00] crossword convention.

Yes. Yes. Uh, and we open on a mixer, which usually, you know, happens during competitions. People are talking. Um, but Maurice, the editor of the, what did they call it? The, it wasn't the New York Times, it was the New York Metro. It was something Metro. Yes. The something Metro, uh, crossword. Yes. The editor's name is Morris Long.

You know why? That's funny. You wanna know why? That's funny. You wanna know because the editor of the New York Times Crosswords puzzles is Will Oh, short. Oh. Oh, dang. You get it, you get it, you get it. That's a deep cut. That's a deep cut. Uh, but they're complaining about how the, uh, crossroads are becoming too, you know.

Sling filled to hip to with it. Morris is doing too much to try and keep it relevant and we are introduced to Simon. Who I, Jason, I just would like to recall if we could rewind. The last [00:04:00] one when you said, I love Jeff Hiller, but he's like a d less celebrity or something like that. And, you know, we missed, we missed the times where we had a-listers and who do we get here?

Who do we get? You got Steve Cemi, which is, uh, you know, pretty up there in, in the terms of, uh, greeted celebrities. Steve Cemi, who I think is just like, he may, he may be in every single TV show and movie that's ever been made. I'm just not sure. Um, 'cause he, he just, he seems to be everywhere all the time, is you need a cameo.

If you need a guest star, Steve Cemi is right there for you. Uh, I think probably best known for hits like Fargo Reservoir Dogs, uh, and so much, uh, did the meme. Hello fellow kids. Um, uh, and we were talking what I think it was. Wasn't the last Good wife we were talking about someone that reminded us of Randall from Yes.

From recess. And you were like, no, Randall from Monster Zinc. And I was like, I don't, I don't match Monster Zinc. I don't know who that is. I'm looking up Steve Che's [00:05:00] credits Randall from Monster Zinc. I was like, see, again, again, we are the world, we, we, the world revolves around us, the world of simulation.

Uh, and, and we are the stars of this, of this simulation of the world. Um, 'cause I mean, listen, we talked about Random Monster Inc. And boom, there he goes. Um, so yes. Have you watched it yet? Have you watched it yet? No. No. I have not. It, it's not, it's not big. That's not high on my, uh, recovery, uh, playlist. This Monster Inc.

Missed out, you're missed out. But hopefully I'll get there. I got another week, so hopefully I can get there before the next week is over. Um, but yes, uh, Steve Cemi is here. Lemme ask you. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. How did you feel about Steve Chemi, like his performance here? Like the character her? Oh, I thought it made.

And like, wait, where are you going with this? What you I know. I just thought it was fine. It was just like, it was just, yeah. It was like, I really want them to start. What did you expect from Steve bmi? Did you want, I guess I, I really want them to lean into more [00:06:00] like, I don't know, like quirks of characters.

Like, I, I don't feel like he really gave like a lot. Mm-hmm. Like, take, take Alyssa Milano as, uh, what was her name? Pta, I think was her name. Yes. Yeah. That, that was like a character. Like she had like a lot of quirks she like, was, was funny. All this and that. I just thought Simon was just kind of here. He was just there.

Well, you know, he had a crush on a lean, which we'll talk about. He had a lot going on, but I'll say that, I'll say that like, uh, arch, what's his name? Archer. The Archer guy from a couple episodes ago. Good character. Yeah. The health nut. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just needed them to do more, like do more with characters.

I could see that, like they definitely talked about, like I, I think the quirkiness went into the crossword puzzle. Mm-hmm. Like culture as a whole as opposed into the character. Um, but Simon also, you know, tunes, pianos. So yeah, that's his thing. His, there's some things going on there. Um, I did, I'd [00:07:00] enjoy the, uh, the, the cuts to a, uh, black and white, uh, fantasy world as that Simon was living in sometimes.

Yeah. Like, so he had some stuff, but yeah, I could, he wasn't, he was definitely not on the eccentric side as we're, we're used to seeing from some of our murderers

ERs. Um, uh, but I think Steve was semi, has played a lot of really kooky, quirky, weird characters. Could I think they really could, could have leaned into that. Yeah. He could have done it. He could have done it well. Uh, Simon is not too happy with how Morris is editing the crossword puzzle book. To be relevant to the young people, which I thought was also kind of funny, if you like, goes deep in the lore because it's kind of like him saying What up fellow kids?

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. He's like the polar, the opposite of that character in this. Yeah. What, what, what is your opinion, Marissa? Do you, do you agree with Simon? We are making things too, uh, too hip and to to, to, uh, ready for the young kids? No, I think that, you know, there has to be like a good. [00:08:00] Breadth of everything cover a la large spectrum.

Um, but it is funny when, you know, my mom's like, what does this mean? Like, those are usually not the ones she's, she can solve. 'cause my mom does crossroads puzzles too. She can't really solve those, um, organically. She definitely has to use like her context clues to get around. Yeah, me too. Make something like Me Too Juy or something like that.

Me too. Mama Garza. Me too. I was like, what the hell is this word? And then like, and then, you know, I get, so like, I get halfway through the puzzle. I'm just like, I don't know. I can't figure out enough of the clues to actually make any sense of this. So I give up. But that's what's so great about the app.

It's like sometimes, you know, you just had a show, reveal a letter and that's all you need and the whole thing's unlocked. Is that cheating? Is that cheating? Oh, I mean, that's a, that's being assisted, I would say. Okay. I would say, like, I do wonder that I, I do wonder like, what's cheating? What's not cheating?

Like, I, I, it feels like for me personally, that's cheating. Like, I, well, I mean, are you competing, like, also though, it could help you learn, [00:09:00] like as you're going Yeah. It's kind of like the training wheels, right? Like Yeah, I guess, I guess. Uh, but I, I like in Sudoku, right? Like when I'm doing, yeah, I, I have rules for each of the difficulties.

'cause I try to do the easy, medium and hard every day. Like, easy. I'm not allowed to even fill in hints on the Sudoku for like, the easy ones. Like, I should be able to get this without like, not hints, but like, uh. What do they call it when you put in the numbers? Like not officially, like to help you kind of guide.

Oh yeah. Yeah. Like if you were penciling it in. Yeah, exactly. I don't, I don't do penciling on easy. Um, I do it on medium 'cause I need it. Uh, but I don't do, I don't, I don't select the auto candidate function where it's, it tell, it shows you all the numbers where they all could be. 'cause if you do that like on hard, I'm like on hard.

I'll do auto candidate. That's, that's fine because I sometimes I need that assist. 'cause that's super hard. 'cause if you do auto candidate and there's a. There's a combination you didn't think of, like a box to check, and there's only one possibility in that box. I'm like, okay, [00:10:00] there we go. That's, that's where I'm going to solve this thing.

Well, you could apply the same rules to crosswords. 'cause the Monday puzzles the easiest, the Sunday per puzzles the hardest. So you can say like, on Monday. Mm-hmm. No, no. Reveals nothing at all. But then as you move through every week, does it gets harder every day. It gets harder every day though. Yeah. Okay.

I didn't know that. I didn't realize that was a thing. Uh, okay. So maybe, uh, you know, it's, it's Friday today, I'm, I'm probably gonna, I'm probably hopeless for the rest of this week. So Monday you called me. At least in the app you can use, you can find all the Mondays and play them. Not like I have, but Yeah.

Oh yeah, that's right. There's an archive. Yeah. You can do that. Yeah. Yeah. So just a YI. And if you are listening and also have your own like geek out with us, we'd love to know your, yeah, we'd love to know your system. Yeah. Like how do you do this? What, which, which, uh, which New York Times, uh, game is the worst.

I, I don't do the letter box thing, whatever that is. Pips Pips is the, is boss. Pips is awesome. Like the, it's a, the newer game. And I was like, oh, this is [00:11:00] actually kind of cool. Uh, letterbox. I don't do, what was it? I can't do the B one. I cannot do the, the B one, the spelling B. Oh, I love the spelling bee.

Spelling bee. I do great at most days. Um, let's see, yeah, connections. I love Strands. I love Strand is fun. Yeah, I think letterbox is really the only one I don't get into. Um, besides the main crossword, um, tiles is a hit or miss. Until now. Until now. Who knows? One is a big day for me. All right, so Simons at this mixer, he's talking about how like the, the crossword puzzles are skewing young, but then he's also looking over and giving eyes to another player, Elaine, who is newly divorced odd on the market, and Simon is ready to go.

Very creepy for me because Elaine is my mother's name.

But, uh. She's from somewhere. This Elaine. This Elaine is from [00:12:00] somewhere. Yeah. Uh, yeah, Elaine is, uh, Samantha Mathis from, mostly from Billions. I was like, Hmm, I wasn't a Billions watcher, but those haven't watched it of you that watch Billions. She was in a lot of episodes of that. So I was like, okay, that's like her claim to fame, but not someone I really readily recognized.

Yeah. Yeah. And we know, we know that Simon is crushing on Alene because of this film noir black and white type of jazzy thing where he is just like picturing Sunday mornings, I'm assuming Sunday because they're doing a crossword puzzle, but they do 'em every day. But anyway, uh, having coffee, doing the crossword puzzle, looking longingly across, across the room.

Then the tournament, the 27th annual National crossword tournament begins, and Morris is making a speech. He's just kicking things off. And I have to say, I. I love a tournament, like I love a tournament. I also used to go surprisingly to like tabletop gaming, [00:13:00] con convert conventions and stuff like that. So I love like watching competition in nerdy things.

Yeah. Um, I would be so freaked out because the setup here is like. It's like you're taking a test in school. Like there's the, the folder so you can't copy on the other people, and then you like, you have to flip the page over. And I think that that would be like something I would practice over and over and over again because I would like need to like cut, cut seconds off my time because I was like, oh my God, what if I like mis flip it?

Like, what if drops on the floor? Like I don't know what's gonna happen. God forbid you drop it on the floor and it does this, like, it does a little thing where like, you can't, can't tell where it's going. It's like just floating in the wind. Like, come here, come here. No, no. It just keeps escaping you. It's, I could do something like this because it's timed.

It's, it's in public. Yes. It's, I get anxiety when I do timed. Things on video games. Oh. Uh, so I can't, like, this would freak me the, out, like, I, [00:14:00] I would have too much anxiety about doing it in time, uh, you know, getting, you know, getting through the cutoff of whatever the people are. So I, I would be too freaked out to do something like this.

Yeah. And the setup here is you're competing, you start with one puzzle, you're competing for time. So there is a timer, like whoever finishes the quickest and then the puzzle, the puzzles will get progressively harder until they're down to what, like five. Or five people for the semi-final and then three people for the final or something like that.

It's, yeah, I think so. Something around, something around that. So, and it's also a two weekend setup. So we've got one weekend where we get to the semi-finals and then we have a finals weekend later in this first round. For the first puzzle, Simon finishes first raises his hand, then we get Elaine, and then we get the other familiar solvers that we had seen.

Um, talking at the Mingle earlier, Simon keeps complaining about the puzzles and Elaine admits that good old, what's his name, Morris. [00:15:00] Ask Elaine out, and Simon is like, what? And you can totally tell, 'cause Elaine like says this by Simon and then walks away and is just, goes over to Morris and is just like, ah, oh, Morris.

And Simon's like, no, no, I don't like this. So Simon marches his way up to Morris's room and reprimands him for asking Elaine out. And he's like, you cannot do this. She is just divorced, just let her live. And Morris is like, like, you're not right behind me, or like ready to go. Um, and Morris takes his, you know, his, his, uh, privilege of being the tournament runner basically here.

And he is like, listen, if you bad your judges, I can take 15 seconds off your time. And I was like, no. He's like 52nd penalty. So I was like, he's like, as in, he's like issuing like a yellow card of soccer games, like, oh my God, not 15 seconds. Which I imagine is a pretty big deal. These type of attorneys.

Yeah. And Simon is like. Taking [00:16:00] his time to let Morris know that he thinks that he's jumped out the puzzle and tells him to stay away from Elaine. And at this point, Morris is like, that's it. You've been permanently banned. If I even see you watching, you are going to be kicked outta here forever. And he rips his lanyard off of Simon, like Morris rips the lanyard off of Simon at this point and throws it across the room.

And Simon is like, well, I can't let this stand. This is ridiculous. Hey, you know what's a totally normal thing to do right now? Yeah. Suffocate you and kill you with a tote bag. Okay. Can I just tell you how, like terrified I am of those bags now? Like, I was like, I've never seen anyone try to use one of those bags to suffocate someone.

And apparently it worked. Yeah. I mean, those draw strings are, uh, irresponsive. You know, you just yank 'em, those babies like they're, you're done. Uh. After Morris is dead, Simon [00:17:00] then like takes his tablet, which I thought was so funny. It was like, not even his phone. It was a, I've had mini this entire time and is like texting with Elaine.

'cause Elaine's like, Hey, next round are you coming down? And he is like, I just got sick. I'm not gonna come down, um, for the rest of the day. Okay, bye. Well, I think he's talking to Marjorie who's like the, I guess part of the organizers. 'cause he's just like, Hey girl. Yeah. Oops, I, I got the, I got the bubble guts.

I'm not gonna not gonna be down at all for the rest. This nothing weird at all. I'm just not, I'm not gonna ever show my face again. Don't come up here. Don't come check on me. I will, uh, just, I will never answer, uh, any doors. I just won't be here anymore. Bye bye. No questions asked. It's nothing. Nothing at all.

And Simon takes the key card because he's gotta do something with his body at some point, but not before he goes back downstairs And. Is atop the leaderboard once again, Elaine is there also, um, climbing the rinks. [00:18:00] And you can see like in between rounds, he is bringing buckets of ice. Oh boy. To put the body on ice in the bathtub.

I mean, listen, for someone that did this, okay, for someone to do this in the heat of the moment, it feels like Simon's got a pretty decent plan to start out with. Yeah, right. Like, you know, it, it's as if he dream, he may have dreamed of this in his like black and white, uh, fancy sequence with Elaine. He also dreamed of killing somebody, probably also, uh, Morris to like, how would I do that?

Because he has a pretty good plan for to start. Yeah. I, well, I, I don't wanna say this about like, but you do learn a lot by doing cross proposals. That's all, you know, like, I don't know if you'd learn this, but you do learn a lot. Oh wait, wait to keep dead body cold. 15 across. Yes. Three letters. Ice. Ice.

Exactly. Exactly. Uh, Simons and his friends make it to the finals, and this is just like getting Simon closer and closer to his dream of living his happily ever after with Elaine. 'cause [00:19:00] now we have yet again another film noir sequence. And I think in this one it's like, oh, let me hold your hand. Let me do all of this stuff.

Um, so turns out that Simon. Uh, has a accessibility, which we will talk about as it is discovered later, but accessibility to a very large trunk. Mm-hmm. This trunk is so large, it can fit more. Yes. Dead body after rigor mortis, by the way, 'cause the guy's been dead for a long time. Yeah, fun. There might've been some, uh, breaking of limbs to get Morris in here.

Well, actually no, because later when we see Morris out in the woods, he's, he's still fully attacked. So I don't know how Simon did this. I really have no clue. I really have no clue. So he puts him in the trunk, puts him in his car, heads out to upper state or up state New York, and uses his iPad to like, put his location there.

Um, and then he, because he has this iPad, he's also getting messages [00:20:00] that the crosswords are ready for editing. So he takes a moment to like leave his own little mark on the crosswords for the next week. He just couldn't help himself. He is just like, you know what? This is kind of my dream right now. Let me, let me go ahead and, and edit this to my liking, which was like probably huge mistake number, like four that he's committed.

Yes. So then after editing the puzzles, we get a quintessential elsbeth and good wife and all of the things three days later, uh, with the boom and the typical, um, person taking dog out for walk finds dead body was like, am I watching law and Order? This is like a law and order dead body discovery that usually you watching.

So we move into the investigation and it was really exciting because we had the police department from upstate New York come to New York City to say like, Hey, we need your help, because we think [00:21:00] that, um, Morris was murdered in New York City. And who do we see behind the desk helping Wagner? None other than a good friend.

Detective Edwards is here. We thought maybe like she had, uh, is this her first time in season three? I think so. Yeah. I feel like it is. I was like 13 episodes of, took Detective Edwards back here now. I mean, detective Edwards is not like really anything to write home about for me. I think she's probably, she's pretty low on the detective rating list for me, but I was just like, oh, like she's back.

Cool. I like, I liked her, like she wasn't as like cold, I guess. She wasn't really cold, but she definitely was like straight. Talker before. Yeah. I feel like when she was first introduced, she was very, very techie. Like she always talked in like tech terms and all this, but I feel like they've really, uh, you know, calmed that down a notch here.

But she is very kind of like direct and like, you know, no nonsense really. Yes. But also a fan of the crossword, so. Mm-hmm. She's [00:22:00] happy to take this case. Uh, we do find that Morris died of as asphyxiation, um, according to the sheriff that came down from upstate New York, and she's like, he was found on his front, but he had.

Something on his back. Liquid, not liquidity, but something in that area. Basically his blood had pulled, his blood pulled to his back. So that shows like when he was dead, he had spent a lot of time on his back. So it's like, it's weird that we found him like laying on his front 'cause so that doesn't make any sense.

I was like, okay, like, hey Sheriff from uh, upstate, you need to come over here. 'cause so some detectives like, don't, don't get this kind of, uh, factual stuff. Right. So you, you doing good. Well, and also like. We had to give away another thing to the killers of the world. You know, like I always, I'm always thinking sometimes with this lens of like, how much are we talking about crime?

Um, but that's definitely one to add to the list. Uh, anyway. Yeah. Don't, don't forget you kill 'em on their [00:23:00] back. Keep 'em on their back. Yes. Exactly. Yeah. Like, just in case. Just in case you need that information. Uh. So Detective Edwards is on the case, and El Smith is on the case. And this is when she hears we, or she tells us, she used to be a crossword fan, um, but she got, would get obsessed having empty squares.

So she limited her squares down to Wordle and Wordle is fine for her and also for you and also for anyone else. Jason, there's nothing wrong with the word. Yeah, literal. Literally as we are talking, my wife sent me her wordle for the day. She got it in four. Oh, so the, the issue here is I haven't done mine yet, so now if you get it in four, she wins.

Right? So I have to get in under four. And I see the, the trick is, uh, my wife a lot of time likes to use the same first word. Like, so that's usually if, if we're in this situation, this is usually what I do. I like go for her. Her first word is irate almost every day. Oh. It's like I have to, I have to, you know, reverse engineer her [00:24:00] word.

Uh, now sometimes she switches it up, which, you know, tricks me, but I like to go from that word. Like, so she used the irate today and the middle square is yellow. So I'm like, okay, so maybe the word has a a in it somewhere. It's not in the middle, but also it does not have IR and T in it. Right, right. That's kind of where I go, so, we'll, we'll see.

I'm not gonna, do I have respect for the podcast? We're not gonna do it while we're podcasting, but, but, uh, maybe we can get an update on the next Ellizabeth podcast. Listen, maybe, maybe some, uh, maybe some bonus content after you finish the episode. We can stay on the podcast that work together, that works, that works for those that are interested, you know?

Well, I'm definitely not. Maybe I will start with irate as well. Yeah, we'll have the same starting point. Okay. So. What happened? Oh yeah. Okay. So they found Wagner's like, okay, I don't care that you are like the crossroad. I'll put you on this anyway. You can [00:25:00] go too, you can go too. Uh, they find out that there were fibers in Norris's, uh, nasal passage, so we gotta figure that out.

Which, which was nice. I don't know which me found it because we didn't see our good friend, Cameron. Oh, are we just getting to, uh, totally getting rid of Kaya in her life. We can't even talk to her boyfriend anymore. Damn. I guess he's busy. Uh, you know, trying to steal Peggy on. I get, yeah, I mean, it's, it's a full-time job.

It's a full-time job. Uh, Edwards and Ellizabeth head to the turn and end up talking to Marjorie, who is one of the organizers. And basically they have to break the news here that Morris is dead to basically the entire community of crossword Puzzlers. Mm-hmm. Um, so they tell her about Morris and. Um, she says, yeah, you know, like he went up in the middle of the day and never really came back down to the tournament.

He said he was ill. And later we find out from a series of interviews from all of the different [00:26:00] solvers, I think is the official, I I keep calling them Puzzlers. Okay. But I think solvers because, I don't know, maybe there's some like stigma or shame about being calling someone a puzzler and they're a solver, but they also solve anyway.

Don't wanna insult the community. Do not, yeah. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. So we, we learned from the solvers that, um, they're like, oh, Morris was found in a cabin upstate. That's so weird. He has a cabin in the Poconos, which is about the same ti like time away. Like it takes that long to get there. So that's kind of, kind of weird.

Uh, and Marjorie also tells Elizabeth that, um. To talk to everybody else. So they go on, they go on the little search, and they find out that through all of the interviews that um, Simon was the loudest complainer about the puzzles being changed. Yeah. They gotta, they gotta pour the finger. It's, they gotta pour the finger at Simon, like [00:27:00] talk to that guy.

Yeah. So then they go and meet with Simon, who is tuning a piano, I have to tell you because Steve Buscemi is Steve Buscemi. I legit Googled. Did Steve Buscemi, does Steve Buscemi play the piano? Like I could not find it. Like a good answer because not only does he like tune pianos as a character in here, but he ends up like playing the piano.

And I was like, does he know how to play the piano? Like, I have no idea. It was like that one time in peacemaker when John, um, Cena starts playing the piano and I was like, John Cena plays the piano. Like he actually plays the piano. Like he taught himself piano. Like just for that scene? No, during COVID he learned how to play the piano.

Oh. And he likes to play the piano to like calm down. And I was like, what? John Cena. So I had to see, uh, Marissa. That's very like, uh, stereotypical of you. Just because John Cena is a, uh, big muscle bound man does not mean he cannot have sophisticated interests. Okay. I am not saying that. I just was, I was curious because the thing with piano players and any music musicians on TV is if they do not show you [00:28:00] actually playing, like if it's not your actual hands, you're not actually playing.

So when John Cena sat down and was like playing the piano, like actually playing it, so you need to tell me. When Rolfe, the dog is playing piano. Yeah. On the puppet show. Yeah. Yeah. It's not really him. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sorry, Jason. I'm sorry. I know, I know, I know. You're already recovering from your gallbladder.

I'm sorry to do this to you first. You took my gallbladder, then you took my, then you took my innocence. Anyway, I hear you think of his as Simon, who's two pianos. Uh, he says that he went to Julliard and was a concert pianist, but he couldn't deal with other people's opinions. So yeah. Simon that we're learning is very particular.

Um, what, I mean, I think he, I think we would maybe classify him as, uh, a Ken, uh, not, not necessarily a Karen, but a male. A male Karen a Oh yeah, a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. I was like, like a mojo dojo, casa house kind of, but not that kind, kind of Ken, [00:29:00] uh, very particular about things, and when they talk to Simon Simon's like.

Oh, I didn't know that Elaine was like married. Like there's just like this like surprise about Elaine's status. Even though Simon was basically like throwing himself at her. Not really, but in, you know. Yeah. A Simon way. Um, and he said, I, he does say that he talked to Morris about hitting on Elaine. So there was, there was some admission of truth there.

Um, and Elizabeth asks if he told anyone else about his concerns about the tournament and while he's like going to answer this question, he's trying to pay his bill for at the bar, at the bar, at the cafe, at the wherever. I couldn't really tell, 'cause it was like a bar with a piano. Anyway, piano bar, I guess that's a place and.

He pays the bill and he says, I always have exact change. And he pulls out a little coin purse and pays with exact change. [00:30:00] How could you always have exact change? Like, I guess it depends on how, how much you are, uh, you know, interacting, have cash interactions. Uh, but yeah, Morris strikes me as the type that would have one of those, uh, change belts.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Which I always kind of wanted as a kid for some reason. But he is like, he's got the belts like, like, what'd you say? 78 cents. All right. That's, uh, three quarters, three pennies. Um, like I'm sure you have a place like this by you in Baltimore, but we have in Chicago a gene called Portillo's and they're used to before the age of like AI and all of this stuff.

The people would take your order while you were in line, in car, in the car, like physically like a person, rain, snow, storm, whatever. It would be there. And then you'd go pay at the next person and they would always have this change thing and they could do it like without even thinking. And I was like, so in awe.

I was just like, what? You are doing math? And you know which coins come out of which little slot I have? No, you're a [00:31:00] God to me. I can't do this. Well, they do that at Chick-fil-A now. So that's like, they stole it. That's, that's what I think of. I think of like going down to, uh, down the ocean, you know, down down the ocean.

Td, uh, where you go into the arcade and you have those, the people with the change belts. So you like, give him a, give him a five. Like, all right. That's, he's like, oh my God. Um, yeah. And Morris is, uh, Simon. Simon strikes me as, as that guy. He is a very, like, anal retentive person. Always has exact change. Now this, when they, when they said, I always carry exact change, I was like, okay, so the solution will come from something about change.

Because he said it like very slowly too. He was like, I always Yeah. Carry exact change. Everyone remember this? Yeah. Before leaving Elba says, Hey, well just like one more thing. Um, how did you feel? One, one more. One more thing. One, one more thing. Like, alright, come on bro. We got it. How did you feel about Morris as an editor?

And he's like, [00:32:00] I like. Loved the lingo. You know, like I'm always keeping up with the kids and I mean, this is like putting a little, you know, antenna up for, for Elsbeth because this is different than what she had heard from everyone else. Listen, crime 1 0 1 don't lie about easily provable things like, okay, we've learned two things, one body on the same side.

Two, yep. Don't lie about easily provable. That, that's like, that's like, that's so annoying because it's like we just talked to these people that told us, number one, you had a thing of for Elaine and could probably also tell us that you knew that she was divorced and you were here sitting here telling me now that you didn't know she was divorced.

Big, stupid, lie number one. Big, stupid lie. Number two, you're fine with the puzzle. Well, you've, you've walked around this whole tournament complaining about the puzzle. Come on, come on Simon. You gotta do better than that. You gotta gotta come more correct. Yes. Yes. So before they leave, [00:33:00] um, detective Edwards and Elsbeth go to Morris's room, take a look around while they're collecting evidence and everything, and Edwards pinpoints that Morris was kept in the bathroom.

Or the bathtub, which is also in the bathroom on ice. I feel like, I feel like they're doing a little bit more to give the detectives like a little bit of credibility. Yeah, agreed. Like, as opposed to just the ne the official note taker. Right. 'cause everyone just like, huh, you know, the people complained about the ice being out all week on this floor and uh, you know, obviously that means someone was putting the body on ice in here.

I was like, oh, Edwards, look at you. Look at you Edwards. Well, and putting stuff together. And we had that last week too with Smolen Uhhuh, yep. Where Smolen was putting stuff together. So I think that, yeah, it's definitely much more of a collaboration vibe here as they're kind of going back and forth with each other.

Uh, also on the way out, Elizabeth runs into a fellow a, a another, I don't wanna say fellow, 'cause Elizabeth isn't a puzzle or a [00:34:00] solver. Um, runs into Trinity. Another solver and wants to see her swag bag and then uses that information and runs it over to Edwards and says, Hey, we got this swag bag. He's like, oh, great.

We'll go get another one. See if we can test the fibers in between. Yep. Ellizabeth also has a conversation with Trudy, um, to see what Trudy knows about Simon being up to date with pop pop culture and Trudy's like, yeah, we all try, but Simon the least like, didn't like it the least out of all of us or time, or didn't like the most out of it.

Oh, yeah. That's what he hated it. Yeah. Yeah. He hated it. There was this one time he hated it so much that when the puzzle referenced Survivor, Simon got so mad that he pestered the paper until they agreed to stop referencing reality TV in the puzzle. I was like, first of all. Cross promotion, like Yeah.

What's happening? Well, we do have the, like, entire season of Survivor where Elba kept like popping. Yeah. It's, it's [00:35:00] about time. Some payback for that, for that cross promotion where Elba was always buttoning into Survivor episodes. But again, I was just like, oh, see, again, revolves around us. We are, we are big survivor fans here.

It's like, again, yes. About, about us. Yeah. Well, it is. I mean, it really is. Mm-hmm. Um, Ali Ellizabeth then catches Elaine on the way out, and Simon has made his way back to the hotel and catches this, and you can see like his face changes, like smiley, smiley, Ooh. When you see this, he's like, he's busy complaining about something to one of the hotel people, and then he stops and says like, oh my God, that's, that's the weird detective lady talking to my girl.

Let me, lemme go intervene. What? What? And he walks over and he is all like. Don't do this to Elaine. Like, she's been through enough. Why do you have to do this? And Elaine's like, yeah, I am really sad because it took actually Morris dying for me to realize how much I loved him [00:36:00] because they like Simon say, say what?

Simon Simon says, what at this? Then shatters Simon's film noir dreams. Like he is. We see this whole scene where Elaine basically walks out the door into the, into the lights. She is no longer there. Um, but Simon does end up convincing Elaine because at the, his whole thing was like, it's really important to be with people, connect with people during these times.

Like, you know, connect with me like, you know, connected. And she's like, oh, I need to get the plane. I gotta get the plane back to, to Boston immediately. And he's like, no, no, no, no. Finish the tournament, it's what Morris would've wanted. Mm-hmm. And this, you know, as, as, as if Ellizabeth did not have enough, this is like, this firmly is just like, alright, Elvis's, like Simon's my guy.

Yeah. How now? Like he is like firmly in the cross here. He's my target. I just gotta [00:37:00] figure out how he did it. And he's like, it's over. Yes. And she tells, um, yes. So then we got the whole nylon bag thing and Elsbeth tells, um, Edwards that Simon is not the type to let things go because of everything she's learned.

Ellizabeth has talked to all of these people without Detective Edwards. So she is just bringing her up to date. Um, and so he also, you know, told the others about the Elaine Morris stuff that's going on. So Ellizabeth looks through 10 years of puzzle. And does note that the newer puzzles lean more into pop culture and youth expression, which is, you know, I do, I understand.

Like there, I used to do crossword puzzles in college because I was waiting for class to start or whatever. Like it's, it's a thing, but also it's like learning a new language. It's very, it's very weird. Um, but the, uh. [00:38:00] The puzzle for today is more back to an intellectual approach. So, so she's noticing a pattern here of there's definitely a change.

So that's another thing to like put in the Simon possible bucket of something's going on here. Um, and there's a cute conversation between Elsbeth and Wagner about, you know, youth culture and crossword puzzles and stuff like that. And they used the example of cringe and I just loved that. He's like, it's, you know, my kids say it's cringe when Claudia and I dance in the kitchen.

And I was like, that's not cringe. And that he's like, Aw, I was, uh, I was watching this episode in the presence of my daughter. And, and she's like, yeah, it is because me and my wife do that also. Aw. And she hates that. So, um, everyone. The solvers talked to Marjorie about when Morris emailed the last week, [00:39:00] this week's puzzle.

Not everybody, not the solvers, the detective group talks to Marjorie who's running the tournament about this week's puzzles because it's like, okay, you, you have to have the puzzles this week 'cause Boris is no longer here. And she's like, huh? He emailed them. Well, he was dead. Mm-hmm. That's weird. Um, so to edit the puzzles, they would have to know all the ins and outs and some of the solvers could probably have done this.

So they ask to see the new puzzle, like the, the puzzle for the puzzle for this week. Yeah. To see if there's any, any clues they can, can glean with that. Um, and they also asked all of the solvers that like are in the semi-finals basically, to see if they could tell if this was a, uh, puzzle that was edited by Morris.

And everyone's like able to pick up the little intricacies and flavors of Morris's usual puzzles and says, [00:40:00] this doesn't feel like a Morris puzzle, but Simon on the other hand is like, yep, looks fine. Looks fine to me. Actually better than it usually is. It's like, oh, Simon, you're not doing yourself any favors.

Elizabeth is at this point, notices that Simon's lanyard is broken, um, which we know is broken by Maur in the tussle up in his room. And as Judy or to Trudy is leaving this conversation, she drops a key card and it's a key card to room 6 0 6, which was Morris's room. And this like. There were shockwaves through the grout, the entire crossword community, because they were like, what?

Trudy and Morris? What? And then Elaine was like, huh, that was, that was a shocker. I was like, whoa, wait, what? We shall get these like interesting twists in the middle of the case. It's like, oh my God. What, how? I at first thought that Simon had did a poor job of like setting Trudy up. Yeah. Like he put a key [00:41:00] card in her bag was like, oh no, it's, it's true.

They weren't Tru, Trudy and Morris were begging

word. This is of course enough for Elsworth and Edwards to bring, uh, Trudy in for questioning. And she says, but like once a year at the tournament they would, you know, get together. And this year was, uh, at the kickoff party. She's like, does your husband know? And he is like, no, he doesn't have a clue, but I'm Bumps.

She's like, my husband drives me from Delaware. And, um, that picks me up every year because I do not have a driver's license, so I cannot drive. And they're like, you cannot drive. So you're not, you're off the suspect list. 'cause obviously the, the person drove Morris out there, so you're off the suspect list.

And I was like, Trudy, to thank that, to thank your dutiful, lovely husband for drafting you from Delaware to New York. You decide [00:42:00] to cheat on him every year with Morris. How dare you Trudy? How, how dare you. Right? I'm like, I hope you have a conversation when you go home. Because what, yeah, what, uh, Trudy on her way out from being interrogated says, oh, thank goodness, I'm so glad I can go back.

I've missed so much time studying. And I was like, huh, how do you do such a thing? Study for crossword puzzles? And Trudy explains that. Like, usually they study old puzzles and. It just so happens that Simon studies by bringing an entire trunk full of old crossword puzzles. Uh, so we see some security footage of Simon in the elevator with a trunk, and this is where we get our, now, once an episode lined this time, it didn't come from Wagner, but it did come from Detective Edwards.

Like, well, how are we gonna prove it? We need some proof. We need proof. So Edwards and um, ELs about to go talk to Simon and he is like, [00:43:00] Hey, can you show us our trunk or show us your trunk? And he's like, yeah, sure, no problem here. Look, it's full of puzzles. Just I said, and also was like, that smells like really fresh leather and also very strategically scuffed.

Mm-hmm. Like this is, you know, really interesting. It's not. You know, maybe you bought a new trunk. It's like, what, what, what? Whoa. What me buy a new, buy a new trunk? What? Why would I buy a new trunk, scrape up with a piano tuner and probably pass off as old ultra? Why would I do that? Well, I mean, and the way we get here is like, 'cause Simon's like, nah, bro, I like, I these, that, the, the footage.

You see me with the trunk. I took the trunk home to go study. Oh yeah. At home and went to go to go shower. I just went to go visit my house for, for a little bit, then come back. So, you know, that, that's what I was doing. And Elsworth Elsworth here is like Uhhuh Uhhuh Uhhuh. And she like does the thing where she gets into the world.

She's like, you know, I'm [00:44:00] stuck on this word here. Can you help me with this word? And the word leads to, uh, the, the clue leads to the word d Lulu. And she's like, oh. D Lulu, eh, kind of like when someone thinks they have a chance with someone out their league. I was like, damn, Elbo The shade, the shade Elbo like, just, just crap it on Simon, like for his like, crush on la.

I was like, oh, that is, that was Savage Shade right there. Um, but yeah, like, and then eventually El Ed Edward just like, yeah, well he didn't actually go take a taxi home because, well, 'cause they talked to the taxi driver dude. Yeah. And there was, there was no ta there was no trunk that he brought with him.

And the taxi was just like, Hmm. So how is that possible? And ELs Smith, you know, ellizabeth being Ellsworth was like, all right, well, what happened was, right Simon took, put Morris in the trunk, put uh, put him over here in the car, drove the car out to the woods and took a cab back to the hotel. And to, well, before, before he did all that, he took a [00:45:00] cab to his house.

So he have the proof that he went to his house via cab, and then he snuck back across and down and got, got Morris and took him out to the woods. It's like all El Smith. Nice. But yeah. And then, and then we get the, the, then we get like, what? Like what do you mean? Uh, you know, you, you, this looks like you script up with a tuning for.

He's like, no. What, why, why in the world would I, a, a expert puzzler waste a day murdering someone to take away from my time of puzzling? Like that is just in like, leave me alone. Like I have to like, which is also like, uh, usually they all get to one point where they're like, just leave me alone elsewhere.

Yeah. Just leave me alone. Like, and if they have the power, they ban them for whatever, like house or, you know, workplace. It's like, all right, I've had enough of you. I don't wanna see you ever again. Please stop. Suspect me of crime. Yes. Yeah. So SVI is like, okay, if we can find this old trunk, that is the proof that we need.

Detective Edwards can't help her on this, so, [00:46:00] um, because she's, you know, got other cases. What, what, what you do what? And you don't have elsworth on them. How are we gonna solve them? SVI goes upstate and meets with the sheriff that we saw at the beginning of the episode to kind of go through the woods, see everything, um, from that perspective.

And they came up empty on the trunk. They couldn't find the trunk. And so they're waiting at the train station, which is also like a bridge on the river, like the river. Is right there. Mm-hmm. And she is like, where could it be? And the chef's like, probably at the bottom of the Hudson River. Like, huh, okay, well do you need a, you know, can I get a newspaper?

I could do a crossword puzzle on the way home. Like, we don't, not here, but we do have this like old only filled once a week type of newspaper machine that you can get a newspaper out here and it takes exact change[00:47:00]

and that exact change. You say Eureka Melman. It literally was like, she was like, oh. I got it. Like fu future, uh, operational thing from, uh, from the podcast. We need to get a sound effects for when we have the partment. Oh yes. Death. Yes. We can do that. We can do that. So it is now time to arrest Simon for the re or for the death of Maur.

So Ellsworth and Edwards show up at the finals. Um, and I should mention that this entire tournament was also being like commentated on by, uh, a couple of people during the entire like thing, and one of which was Mo Raca, who I know from NPR. Okay. So I was like, I was like, Mo Rocka, I know that name. I definitely know the name.

And I was like, I think he's a radio guy, but I don't do a lot of radioing. Uh, my radio is basically podcasts, so [00:48:00] like, I'm like, I'm not a big radio person. I know I could probably listen to Mo Roka on a podcast for MBR or something. Um, but I was like, I know this name, I know the face. He was like, he was actually some episodes of Good Wife and Good Fight.

Yeah. And he also was like one of the OG Daily Show reporters. Like that's where he started. And then, um, he also, he's on like CBS Sunday morning now, like, I guess he's a real journalist or something. Um, but yeah. Wait, wait, don't tell me. On NPR is where I've heard my most Morocco stuff. He also wrote, he wrote, do you remember this one?

Pepper? Do you remember? Pepper, pepper, pepper, yeah. In the seventh grade?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That one he wrote for that show. So Oh, okay. Moca uh, does, did their parents name him in the, the like Morocco? Like the Moroccan like, I dunno. I dunno. I dunno. You didn't know the etymology of his, uh, ooh. [00:49:00] Etymology a crossword clue. Probably. Exactly. See, you're getting there. Yeah. I, I gotta figure out where Mo Rocket got his name for.

That's just too cool to be at a coincidence. So, uh, Ellsworth and Edwards bring Simon out or interrupt you. This is kind of rude. That's kind of rude, right? They could, they could let the man win the tournament and then arrest him. What? They solved their own puzzles and they have to tell him like, you're so proud of me.

We, we solved every clue. She's, they say, we know that you had words. Words about clean. Yeah, words get it. And he's like, yeah, okay, cool. Like, yeah. So I liked her like whatever. This is like again, I cannot stop seeing middle-aged children and adult behaviors this entire week because like this was like, yeah, yeah, okay.

Like yeah, or whatever man. Yeah, whatever. And then, um, we, she says you broke your lanyard in the room. So that's part of it. We found the damaged piece there and he's like, oh, okay. And we know you killed him with a [00:50:00] back and left him in the bathtub with ice. And then while this is all happening, 'cause they're going basically like Simon to the stage, please.

Simon to the stage. One minute, no minutes. Okay. I guess we're gonna have to put a lane in Simon's place then. Um, this is where Ellsworth is calling out Simon's scheme with the trunk and how he left the body in the woods and. He cannot help himself from doing a crossword at the station. So the exact change, because the thing that got him was the fingerprints on the change in the machine.

Yeah. That whatever poor tech had to like dust every single order or whatever in that, in that newspaper machine, which honestly probably wasn't a whole lot. 'cause who really reads like physical newspapers anymore. Well, that was the whole conversation too. It was like paper versus digital crosswords. I'm a fan of both.

I, yeah, I, uh, I, [00:51:00] I, I, I know where to get newspaper, but I don't know, have I ever bought a newspaper in my life? I don't know that I have my mom. Well, when I was a kid, we used to buy newspapers like on the side of the road. Like people would be like out on the side of the road selling newspapers and they were like.

For some reason cheaper. Like they probably stole those newspapers. Um, but I think that was the only, that's really been my only, uh, instance with newspapers. Then I would of course get the, uh, comics section for myself. Obviously. Obviously, obviously in the end, Elaine ends up winning the tournament. It's like, as it should be, as he's handcuffed, as he's like, ready, ready to go.

And I was like, I did this for you because I'm in love with you and Elenes like. No one asked you to do this. Good, good for you, bro. But like, that's creepy and crazy. Why would you do that? And then she has a really, you know, sweet moment. She, this is a woman who's just been through divorce and she says, you know what?

I actually loved how Morris was, you know, updating the [00:52:00] lingo in, in the puzzles because I could do these puzzles with my kids. And that is what one of the greatest things that's happened to me in the past couple years. So some puzzle appreciation there. Um, all in all, you know, it was the murder. It was I think another strangulation, asphyxiation sort of thing.

Yeah. Little, little close to last, the last weeks, but. Nonetheless, we got to see Steve Cemi. So good times all around there. We did have some other stuff going on Peru, um, with Elizabeth, well not Peru I should say, but at least Peru in the back half of this season, we're getting at least some updates on the Alec campaign.

Um, there is an entire like smear campaign commercial. Winnie Crawford did her, did her thing with her super Pac basically. Um, and ELs put this like this, none of this is true. Like, none of this is true. She's, I was like, but isn't it? [00:53:00] I thought, I thought, I thought it was, yeah. Yeah. And Elizabeth is finally like updating Wagner about the whole situation too, and like telling him that Teddy's keeping distance, which like is really bothersome for her, but also Gonzo, like Gonzo's really having a hard time with it.

Mm-hmm. Um, and then she has like a moment where she evaluates her love life and I was like, yeah, I dunno. I don't know what else about, like, I don't know if she's, I think she's being reckless in this one moment, but I don't think there's like a pattern here. Yeah. We haven't seen enough in any way. We haven't really seen enough of her love life to really tell, because she says that.

Yeah, Teddy thinks I'm just a, I'm just not rational when it comes to love. It's like. Okay. We don't know that the only, the only person we've really seen you with is Angus, and we didn't see enough of that to know if you were rational or not rational. I mean, listen, you were dating someone on a whole other like continent, so I mean, is that rational?

I don't know. Like people do it all the time, but you know, you go back into good [00:54:00] wife territory that we've seen so far in our coverage, she's just been pursued by weird people. Yeah. And she, she didn't bang all the firemen that wound up bang her. Yeah. In the early season. So I'm like, I dunno what you're talking about, Teddy.

Yeah. Yeah. But she is acting a lot more like smitten with Alec. I'm like, okay, this is kind of new. Yeah, no, because she likes Swoons. Like, she's like, she's like, but when he puts on a suit, I was like, what? Where is this coming from? Yeah. This is kind of new because at first she was very suspicious of Alec, like, and his like, good guy persona.

She was kind of trying to rebuff all the advances and now it's just like, oh, Alec, my guy. Oh my gosh. I was like, okay. And yeah. So I was like, what's, what's happening? Yeah. Switch it. Yeah, so it's in the middle of the night. Uh, um, Elizabeth's working on the case. She's got all these crossword puzzles out.

She's trying to, you know, do all of that. She's back in the rabbit hole of crossword puzzles. And Jason, I'm so sorry to say this next sentence. Oh boy. So sorry. So sorry. Um, [00:55:00] but Alec comes down the stairs in his pajamas, like he freaking owns the place. And I was just like, oh, okay. Well, there goes my bri in theory, I thought of last episode.

So obviously they are, uh, getting together, bumping, ugly, banging, whatever you wanna call it. I was like, okay, well this is real. Like ELs Smith's thing for Alec is real. This is like they are together. They are, yeah. A relationship now, I guess because they like kiss and everything too. Mm-hmm. Like, I, I don't think this is an act.

I was just like, I, I, anything Elsman is really in it with Alec. Alec explains that he's like super bummed about the ad and then is talking about how basically the price of his apartment. 'cause one of the things in the ad is that like, poor Alec grew up in the projects of a hun or a thou a million dollar apartment.

You know, like this is the situation. And he's like, well, that's something I talk about in my campaign is like the change in rent prices, blah, blah, [00:56:00] blah. And Lizabeth was like, yeah, okay. Well I have to tell you something. Um, I did have lunch with Winnie Crawford. Yeah. Um, but you know, it's nothing. It's nothing.

It's nothing. It's nothing. Um, and he's like, yeah, well, but like the ideas that I represent are not, you know, something Winnie would be too happy about. And I was like, don't, I shouldn't bring you into this. I shouldn't bring you into this elsworth. The world of politics is too dirty for someone Like you. S was like, I used to defend the governor of Illinois.

Are you kidding me? Yeah. Like, which is like, it is a good callback. It's a good one. Yeah. It was like, okay. Yeah, because she, she used to, uh, she was our very first person that got Peter like, you know, out of his legal trouble, uh, in the early days of the Good Wife. It's like, oh, like nice, nice callback. And also like Alec bruh, he is like, uh, hey, I, I'm not some innocent, poor, sweet thing for you to look out for.

Like, I was out there like, you know, getting dirty with the big wigs back in the day. So don't, [00:57:00] don't be like, oh, poor little L's Beth isn't to your world. F you guy F you my dad. Right, right. Exactly. Exactly. So then he's like, okay, let me help you with this puzzle, blah, blah, blah. And the clue is friend of e period.

T. Period. And ELs was like, oh my God. E the answer is Elliot. Elliot. And Alex's like, I never watched DHDI, I didn't have A-V-V-C-R. Don't tell anyone. Don't tell anyone. And, um, ELs was like, what? We're gonna have to watch it together. Like she's in this happy, like, we're gonna have to watch it together. And then the next thing out of this man's mouth is, if I win the election, what's it mean for us?

Like, what, alright, what, what? Getting, getting right into it. Okay. That's, she's like, well I guess, you know, gotta have to win first to see. Ha. Uh, we do get a text message from Teddy later in the, uh, later in the episode where he's agreed to come over for dinner, but mainly because Elle's bath is making lasagna.[00:58:00]

So Zach, now that is the big poll here, and I wonder she still has any of that sauce from last episode. Oh, that's prob that would've been great to mention. That would've been great to put in there. Don't tell anybody. Don't tell anybody. There was a hair in the jar that we used to catch a murderer, or maybe she got a replacement jaw jar from, um, mama Capelli.

Mama Capelli. Yeah. So the tin scene here is we've got Teddy and Roy still going strong, still together, and then we have Alec and Elizabeth together as well. It's a couple's dinner, you know, and they're talking about, I cannot believe the slander, ugh, the. The ageism. Oh my God. Oh my God. They said, oh, eighties movies.

You mean movies from the late 19 hundreds. Nothing that is, is so old for old people. No, thank you. You know what f you Roy F you go go, go sit on to whatever. Go get outta here. And he's like, yeah, I like et [00:59:00] I like et t. And um, and Alec goes, yeah, me too. I love it. It but the ending, the ending really makes me cry, which is the exact thing that Elizabeth said to him the night before.

Elizabeth is like, she clocks it right away. Of course she's Elizabeth. Of course, even though there were 800 gazillion red flags up until this point. But this one she got, yeah, this one, she got thing though, like she seemed to clock red flags. Earlier in her, you know, interactions with Alec earlier in the season and then she just forgot them, I guess, somehow fell for it and now we're back to like seeing red flags.

I was like, okay. You know, as someone who's missed a lot of red flags, they can be tricky. Okay, yeah, they can be tricky, but sometimes really you, sometimes you need the really big flags to really catch your attention. But this is really big. This is a really bad, terrible lie [01:00:00] from Alec because like we just had this conversation the other day, like, how are you gonna lie in front of my face about some stuff I told you and to my family, number one.

Mm-hmm. And number two, so smoothly. Like, this man did it so smoothly. There was no like, even look to Elsbeth or like a wink or a not, or like anything like that. He legit just went on with the rest of his, right, rest of his thing. Got some more lasagna on his plate, all of that. Um, yeah, like do you so much, you just can't even keep track of which, what you got this live information from.

'cause that was weird. It was weird. It was very weird. Uh, Teddy gets up to get a drink and Elsbeth is right behind him into the kitchen. And Teddy like, I don't know, maybe he's matured in the, you know, I don't know, 2, 3, 5 episodes. We haven't seen him. Um, but he's like, look. I can't see what you see in Alec, but if you're happy, I'm happy.

[01:01:00] So, you know, I'm happy for your mom. She's like, don't be, don't be like, don't do that. Like, don't be happy. Do not, do not ju judge your intuition. Like if you are, you were right the first time. This man's a liar. Yeah. So like, okay, like, okay, I guess blindfold is fully off. Like, I didn't know it was ever on. I was like, the blindfolds on for an episode that we saw, now it's off.

I was like, okay, so what now what now? Like how, how do we go forth now? I still think it's like the, the, the worst of two bad options, outlook or Winnie, because still think Whitney. He's gonna try be mayor. I still think that's what we're leading to. Well, okay. It's hard to know where we are in the election cycle.

Like is this mm-hmm. Is she like, is she running? Or too late or too early? Like is, has there been a primary, you know, like, I don't even know. And 'cause like I could see it coming down to a Winnie Alec Showdown at the end. Um, and then Elbe would have to choose who to [01:02:00] support the wife of the man that he, that she, I guess, got killed, but not really.

Yeah, not really, but you know, or known wire Alec. Yeah. Tough choice. Tough choice. Yeah. We still see, um, but do you have any, like, I'm still trying to tie this back to the whole Marissa saying to Elizabeth, you're the only one who can save New York. Um, I don't really know where that is. And I, I would love to have another appearance by Marissa to kind of.

Put some more context around this whole thing and maybe like, remind Elsbeth, like, I've been trying to tell you this man's a liar for a while, or something like that. Or now maybe Elsbeth has to tell Marissa that aick is a liar. Yeah. Like something has to happen there for me to like not forget that Marissa was on this season and like make her appearance, like worth it and not just like some little hello, you know?

Yeah. 'cause I mean now [01:03:00] we, we keep looking back at this thing with additional contacts we're getting, like, I just, I just have to wonder if Marissa does think he's a good guy. I can't see Marissa knowing knowingly supporting a bad guy. Um, so maybe the whole Save New York thing was ELLs be, this would be a great PR thing if you became his girlfriend and.

That's how she's gonna save New York. I, I dunno. I don't dunno. Because Issa thinks Alec's a good guy. I have no idea. I'm so confused now. Uh, I keep going. We keep going back and forth of like what we think of this thing. El was going back and forth how she thinks of Alec. Um, so we'll see. We'll see. Um, but I, I, I'm really curious of how they're going to wrap this whole thing up and we, we get, we just keep getting like little by little progress in every episode.

Well, at least we're getting that because it was pretty dry in the front half of the season. And hopefully, you know, we've got what, seven, six episodes left now. Mm-hmm. Seven episodes left. Yes. Um, so these are things that I wanna [01:04:00] see in the next seven episodes. One Kaya, two. Yes. Marissa. Yes. Three. I don't know.

Ah, Alec, Mr. Soft. Alec, MR. Four. Um, what's her face? Mrs. Wagner. Oh, uh, Claudia. Claudia, yeah. Just like see her ha you know, somewhere, something happening there. Um, those, those are on my list. Do you have any others, Jason, any other things? No, I think TVs, I think that's what we're looking for. That's what we're, that's what we're trying to end this thing.

I mean, look, listen bonus points, if you wanna have Claudia come in and do something shady, you know, just to support my, my long held theory that Claudia's somehow evil. But, um, you know, that, I don't think we're gonna get that, but that would be a bonus point for me. Um, but yeah, that's, that's I think what we're looking for.

We're looking for answers. We're looking for we, where the hell's Kayah? Is Marissa a good guy or a bad guy? I think Is Alec as a, as much of a bad guy as we think he is? [01:05:00] Or is he just like a liar, which is also being a bad guy? I don't know. Um, I, I think probably Alec will be a mostly good guy, but he just is a liar.

I don't know. I, yeah, I hope he doesn't say like, well, due to my childhood, I had to learn to lie to make it in the, you know what I mean? Like, I, I hope it's nothing like that. I hope we see him take accountability for something or get caught in something and then, yeah, I, I just like, I, I can't get off of this like, image of like, in the season finale being like, yes, we did it.

We took Alec down and it's like Winnie Crawford, the front runner for mayor. Like, oh no, we, we, we took out one evil for even bigger evil. Like that's just, that's just the image I have in my head. Yeah. Like, yeah, I can see that where we're going. Uh, but listen, my theories of mostly all been wrong, so we'll see.

We, we'll see this, this tough show to theorize on because we never really know where it's going. Yes. Uh, so that's the episode. Uh, stay tuned [01:06:00] for some Bone Wordal coverage. Uh, before we go into that, Marissa, you went to the good folks where they can find you on the interwebs. You can find me at it's me marissa g.com, where you can find links to all of the other podcasts I'm on.

If you're watching us on YouTube, there are separate playlists for the Good Wife and our Elsbeth coverage. So if you are listening to Just ELs, but, or watching Just Elsbeth, we have many Italians between the two shows. Um, so Hop on over there. Also, our coverage is in the middle of season five of The Good Wife.

Good stuff. We got some good stuff. Good stuff brewing over there. It's uh, I've watched the next episode. Oh, cheater. That's not cheating. 'cause we're, I'm still like in the sequence. I just haven't, you know, I just haven't, we haven't talked about it yet. Uh, Alsbeth. Is a feature prominently. Ooh, ooh, ooh.

Exciting again, the world revolves around the good pod. Yes, exactly. Um, uh, yes, so you can find, you can find links there. I also over on Whirlwind podcast, I'm talking Pretty Little Liars one previously on at a [01:07:00] time. And then also my sister and I are slowly but surely making our way through space on the USS sisterhood, while watching Star Trek, the Next Generation for the first time.

Jason, uh, I guess love is never out of season for you. Love and mess, love and mess. There's, there's always gonna be some drama. There's always gonna be some f boys to talk about. Okay. Okay. But like, one question for you before you tell people where to find them, have you watched The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives?

Because, no, there is Messa ru up the wazoo over there, so just, just letting you know if you wanna. If you wanna get into something that might be great. I only have, I only have so much bandwidth to, uh, to, to deal with things. Um, so, you know, I'm not, I'm not in that phase yet. Uh, maybe I'll get there eventually, but I, I don't know about that.

Um, but yes, you can find me talking about, uh, love drama mess all together in a variety of different ways. I've literally got like three different ways I'm talking about mess to bring to you right now. [01:08:00] So, me, Asia Welch, Mary Kowski are wrapping up our lowest blind coverage. The reunion is here. Season 10 is over.

It's all over. But the last reunion podcast, so that'll be coming out this coming weekend. If you're listening to this live when it comes out on Saturday, uh, the reunion coverage will come up right after that. Uh, if you have a Jason feed, it's gonna be right in there after that, I wish. Um, so yeah, so we're talking about that.

Also, we are talking about a new show called Age of Attraction, uh, which is kind of like, uh, Netflix is doing, its its thing by being like, all right, those blinds over slide in age of attraction right in after it. So this is basically a show where, uh, the participants don't know the age of the people in this retreat.

So they select the person to, uh, to commit to and say like, okay, this is my age. What's your age? And it leads to a lot of different, uh, crazy shenanigans. Uh. F Boy is abound in this one as well. Oh, sure, sure. So you'll see how good that is. It's a new, kind of a newer show, so me and Asia are talking about that over on The Lover First Sight Feed.

The same [01:09:00] place you would get the Love Blind content. Also, me and Asia are talking about the Mario, the First Sight Show. If that's a show you're into, we are doing a rewatch of Season 10, one of the best seasons of the franchise. We're doing that over on Patreon exclusively. So come on over, find the A Perfect Match podcast on Patreon and come join us.

Um, is that it? Uh, I talked about Nine Day Fiance on Altar Call, but that is a Patreon exclusive. So if you're a patron of Altar Call knock it, knock yourself out. Um, yeah, think that's it for now. All right. So, uh, that's, that's the episode, the episode's done. But if you want, if you wanna help us solve Wordle and Beat My Wife Wordle today, stay tuned.

If you're not staying tuned, stay good. Uh, it's your first day. God. I'll give you another one at the end, but let's get into Wordle. Okay? Okay. Hold on. I have to go get my phone.

​

have to go get my phone. I have to go get my book. Okay. You. Okay. Okay. Ready? Uh, so if you are, if you are a worder, uh, if you want to, if you, for some reason, if this is gonna be the puzzle [01:10:00] from Friday, March 13th, Uhhuh, okay?

So if you didn't do it on Friday, and you're listening to this on Saturday, or time in the future, you wanna go into the archive and go to Friday, you can, you're, you're welcome to do that and do this with us. So, and if you, and if you are, you know, it, stay quiet. Um, all right. So again, uh, based on the intel from my, my wife's, uh, you know, uh, submission, if she used irate, there should be a, somewhere in the puzzle, but not in the middle.

Okay. And you already put, you, you already put a first word in? No, I put a first word in. We gotta figure out what our first word's gonna be. Okay. So there's an A somewhere not in the middle. IRTE may not be in the puzzle. Okay. Once we mostly submit our first word, we can tell her whether or not this was a, uh, good lane to go down.

Okay. Uh, so let's take of some words. Um, I got one the first word, words. Okay. What's your word? Arid. Arid. Does that work? Isn't that, isn't that four letters? I don't think it letters, maybe. Or is it two [01:11:00] Mars? No. Okay. That's not a word. Okay. Um hmm. I usually use house. That's usually my first one. Oh. House does not work here.

Marissa. We need something with an A in it. Oh, okay. Yeah. And no e Um, see, everything I'm thinking of has an A in the middle. Of course. Okay. Okay. Okay. How about, no, that won't work. Um, how about No, maple won't, there's no e. There's no e So let's, let's see what we can do with a, with a O. So what, what like, um hmm.

That's why IU like, well, there's, yeah. So we can use O, we can use U, use Y as some Vs. We can't use I 'cause I, well, and I rate irate. How about last? No, not last. Not laps. [01:12:00] Map maps. C I'm trying to think of a CY at the end

lap. Okay. I'm just gonna play and then I'll see if I can give you a word. Okay. I'm like, I'm gonna start with house. I have to start with house. It's not gonna work. Well that's cheating Marissa. That's cheating. What? No. Oh, if I tell you things Yeah, you can't, you can't use tell you things. I know. You already know.

Know. I know, I know. I know. Dang bail. How about No? How about bales? Okay. Bales. Okay. Bales? No, that won't work because there's a I, um, no, but bales of hay. But there's an E, but there's e there. Hmm. What about fail? There's an I. What about male? Maybe there's something with a LY at the end. Well, that's okay.

And guy [01:13:00] Eski. Mapley. Mapley. Um, how about, ooh, how about No, can't use R. What about Sunny? Can you try Sunny and see if then we knows? A, it's not a, yeah, we know. See person. Here's the thing about wordle. Okay? Okay. You, you can't, well, you, I don't wanna waste your time. You can't use, I got all time. You can't use double.

We don't wanna use double letters in the first word. That's a waste. Yeah, that's true because we want, we wanna get all the clues we can get. Okay. Okay. Let me check our notes and see if we have any five letter words. Right. What about, okay, there's an e, uh,

about, about, about, okay. About, okay. No, it has a t she said, but Okay. If we know that, that, but maybe we'll get something out of the a, b and the O and UU Yeah, but [01:14:00] that's a, it's a waste of a letter for you. I hear you. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Um, bad mixer. There's an I comes, there's an E, what? C-O-M-E-S. Okay. Get your mind outta the gutter.

Uh, I'll try. Um, okay. Okay. I got, I think I got one body, B-A-W-D-Y. Sure. Okay. Okay. What did you get? Okay, I'm gonna, there, there's a, in the second letter, Uhhuh, so we're, we're, so we got, we got the, we got a green in the second letter. So there's this, the letter, the word has a, a in the second letter. None of the other letters work.

So we can assume that the irate strategy is kind of working. Okay. Okay. How about pa? Ooh, po pay. No. Wait, what about Wally? Wally? [01:15:00] No, we just used the W so we can't use that. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. Sorry, PA, I wanted to use pause, but I can't use the E. Um, pause. And it doesn't end in Y All we know is the A. So what if it ends in S So what is, what is the word you're thinking?

I have no idea. I'm just asking myself. Um, it can end in s what if we have blank? A, a blank blank. S. Okay, but what goes, what goes with that? Balls? Um, balls. Balls. Balls. We can't use balls. How about balls? How about can't use walls? It's a w How about calls? C-A-L-L-S. It is a double letter, but I'm willing to look past that.

Um, all right. Let's see. Oh, nothing crap in a half. Okay. Still only have the, the second letter being an A. Oh my god. We have to get it in this one because you have to win. Yeah, this is it. This is it. Um, dang. So it ha, we have, we have to use the U or the O somewhere. That's the other vow. That probably is mm-hmm.

There. Can't [01:16:00] use, I can't use E. Uh, we really messed up by not using the vow, that second word. What was I thinking?

NA. No. Um, I feel like I really feeling you. I really am. Um, and C didn't work. So, but if it's u it's most likely next to the A, right? Like cause Yeah. Or something like that, right? Yes. Yeah. So, um, and we used a D already, right? Used a d Can't use an E or other. No, I would use gauze, but I feel like, I feel like that's the z never, I never wanna use a Z until it's like literally the last thing I can do.

Um, so UOZ.

Okay. I'm literally making a chart and crossing off the planet because I don't have the game in front of me. [01:17:00] Um,

I feel like is there anything with like, okay, no, let, no first letter. A-U-G-H-I feel like, I feel like I'm working with something there. Uh, what letter could fit in here? Um, I was thinking taut, but that's too long. But that has the A-A-U-G-H, but we can't use a T. Oh. 'cause the Rh Because the ih. Oh, not, how about not N-A-U-G-H?

No, that's not a word. Nah, no. Nah, nah, bro. Was I not? But it's too long. It also has a T. Um, I already use the L or else I know. Um, okay. Hold on something. Ooh, no, I use the C. You can't use, can't do caulk. Um,

okay. How about Falk? Is that, no, can't use l [01:18:00] Dang it. Um,

I just wrote down. No, again. No, no, no. Um, what is VA Uvo VI wanted to, I wanted to, like, I, I thought of magic, but I can't use A-C-M-A-G-I or something else. Got magic, magic, magic. Magics magic. Uh, not you can do magic with a k. Nah, that won't work. It's not actual word magic. No, no. That won't work. Um,

there's no e

gain. Nope. Too short? No. The I, oh yeah. It's got the, i Dang.

Golf. Golf. That's not a word. [01:19:00] Um, pop, pop, pop. Uh, okay. What's it start with? P Poff Poff. P Poof. That's not a real word. Um, ah, dang. Okay. Okay. Oh, oh, oh. I know it. Maybe. How do you spell yacht? Uh, I can't use the why. Why? Dang it. A body body took the why from us. Dang it. I'm at a disadvantage. Um, I'm so close.

How about

fame?

Fa no, that's not how you spell famine. Fame.[01:20:00]

All at this point. I'm willing to use other letters and irate. Um. What about Fang

Fang?

That would be, that would be like a thing Simon would be upset about. That's not a real word. Putting a Z on something is not replacing SI mean, okay. What are you going, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna go ahead. I'm gonna go ahead and bite the bullet. I'm gonna hit, I'm gonna put it in paint. Okay. Okay. And see what that, if, if, if the theory is correct about irate.

This is a bad guess. Um, but sometimes she does switch it up. So, let's see. Okay. Let's see what paint does, but I, I, I can't resist not using these great letters. Um, alright, let's see. Okay. So, okay, what did we get? She, I officially lost, which is fine. Um, she did not use irate because the T [01:21:00] is in the word.

Where is it? So there's a T at the, there's a T and an N in the word, but it's not in the last two letters. So NT is not at the end of this letter. The T in the N gotta go somewhere else. But the A is still the second letter. This A is still second letter. Tan?

Uh, tan. Tan. No, not tanner.

Snap and go anywhere because, yeah, Gary theory is not the window and n and T are not the last two. Do we think it ends in n? Could be.

If I, if it starts, no, not tanks. There's no P. No P. Um,[01:22:00]

how about MAT What man

with an n? Matton? No, there's any, yeah, I just messed that up.

About with Ton Matan, like in good way. M-A-T-U-N. Matan. A TUN Mat. Is that a thing? No, I don't think it's a thing. I just, or n ooh. Is there anything with A-A-T-O-N at the end that we can use a TON? Not Matan. Not Catan, gaan. 'cause batons out. 'cause there's no b not raton. Nope. That's not gonna work. Gaton GA fatten fatten ton katon.

Mattin n [01:23:00] Nain. No. Let's, uh, often. No. Let's see. Zain. Vain? No. Anything with a t?

Uh, ooh, no, not not razor. That doesn't have an N on it. Ran. Oh. Rant. Not thing With the rant on the end. Rano. Rant two. Rant The ramp ramps like camps. Ants. Oh God, no. Um, anything with, uh, a NTE. Can't hands, jets Can't fence rent? No. No. Nope. Nope. Dang. Um, people are just like, all right, I've turned this off.

Um, okay. Okay. Okay.[01:24:00]

Hayton. Hatton? Nope. Uh, Matten. Batten cat, hatten fatten? Nope. Nope, nope. What could be like TANE? There's no e Oh no. There could be any there. There can be an E. Oh, well, this g just everything. Ooh. Taken. Taken. Let's see. Yeah. No. Okay. Okay. Alright. Listen, we got something here. Okay. Uh, okay. The, the first letter was not T Okay.

But as we know it's in the word. Okay. Yeah. A second letter. A. We know that already. Yeah. K is not in the word, but. It does end in EN. Oh, right. All right. Right. So what we know, what we know now is that it is, there's a first letter and then a TN, we just gotta forgot this first letter.

I feel like we, I feel like we [01:25:00] tried that. This combination though. We couldn't think of anything Max. Okay. And we have an fatten. Jain. Hatten. Gatten. Fatten. Atten. Oin. Is there, is there a repeat? Maybe there's, oh no, there could be a repeat, but they, soda. Eaton. Eaton, yeah. I was like it. It could be E-A-E-A-T.

A TEN. I think we got it. I think this is it. So let's press enter, see what we get. Yep. That's it. Eating. I got it in five. I lost. Oh, sorry. If I didn't help your cough, that's fine. But this was fun, uh, for those sickos and psychos that stayed with us for the last 15 minutes. Thank you so much. This was fun.

Um, I hope you let us know if you want more. Marissa, Jason, solve Wordle. Yeah. I hope you had fun and maybe you went back to the archives and tried to solve it with us and you probably were screaming at us. It's eating you idiots. Um, [01:26:00] if you did, thank you. And until next time, stay good.