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Kaya is back. KAYA IS BACK. And if this episode is any indication, the show should never let her leave again. In this recap of High Class Problems, Jason and Marissa are practically buzzing from the jump as Detective Block returns to the precinct — and brings all the chemistry, competence, and iconic green coat energy with her. The KayaBeth-and-Nikki trio is fully assembled, and the gang-is-all-here vibes are immaculate.
The case? A "wealth therapist" named Dr. Mal (played by the returning Constance Wu) has been cashing in on the secrets of her ultra-rich clients — literally. When one of those clients starts to figure it out, she cuts his motorcycle brake line and watches him crash into the harbor. Classic high class problems. But Elsbeth has a way of noticing things, and Kaya has a way of not letting the easy answer slide. Watching them dismantle Dr. Mal — and do it together — is exactly the show we have been asking for all season. Plus a therapy notes subplot that takes the most delightful swing at a certain tech billionaire, and a raw Kaya moment about what undercover work actually costs a person. This one has everything.
00:00 – Intro and hype: Kaya is back, and Marissa and Jason immediately call this the best episode of the season
00:05:52 – Case of the week begins: wealth therapist Dr. Mal (Constance Wu) in session with her very wealthy, very fragile clients
00:19:39 – The murder: Dr. Mal cuts the power, cuts the brake line, and sets Jason's fate before going home to accept a marriage proposal
00:35:55 – The SEC insider trading thread surfaces; Kaya, Elsbeth, and Nikki start connecting the dots around Dr. Mal
00:44:58 – Kaya opens up to Elsbeth about the emotional toll of undercover work and her complicated feelings about Cam
00:54:44 – The therapy notes with mismatched dates — and a very unsubtle dig at a certain billionaire whose SpaceX launch did not go well
01:02:40 – The bust: brake fluid in an opal engagement ring seals Dr. Mal's fate
Enjoyed the episode? Hit subscribe so you never miss a recap! If you love what we're doing, leave us a rating and review — it really helps the show grow. Want to support The Good Pod directly? Buy us a coffee at https://buymeacoffee.com/goodpod — every cup keeps the recaps coming. Thanks for listening!
Enjoyed the episode? Hit subscribe so you never miss a recap! If you love what we're doing, leave us a rating and review — it really helps the show grow. Want to support The Good Pod directly? Buy us a coffee at https://buymeacoffee.com/goodpod — every cup keeps the recaps coming. Thanks for listening!
Creators and Guests
Host
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.
Welcome to The Good Pod,
where today we're talking Elspeth Season
Three, Episode Seventeen,
High Class Problems.
I'm one of your hosts, Jason Reed.
With me, as always,
to kick off this episode with,
we got an order of totes my goats
with a side of kaya haya.
With me as always, Marissa Garza.
Marissa, you good?
I'm good, Jason.
You good?
I'm good.
We're good.
We're great.
We're great.
We're awesome.
This...
Look, y'all,
we're gonna drop the bomb right now.
Kaya is back.
Oh my gosh.
Unfortunately,
Paramount Plus does not know how to keep
a secret.
Because as I clicked on the episode,
the little picture before the episode
comes on, it had Kaya on this.
Oh my God,
Kaya's gonna be in this one.
And then they tried to surprise us,
but we already knew it was gonna happen.
Yeah, Kaya's back.
And dare I say,
it resulted in the best episode of the
season?
not yes and also like ever i was
like everyone's back everyone everyone's
here everyone's back it's so great i was
like oh it's a show again it's like
just make this the show guys it's not
that hard make this the show stop bringing
people in and out stop stop futzing with
the rotation this is what you need this
is the show
Yes,
I love that they self-referenced
themselves in this as well a little bit.
But yes, I'm so excited that Kaya's back.
I'm so excited the gang is back together.
We love to see it.
Everyone's here.
Even Officer Nikki is here,
which when Officer Nikki came onto the
beat,
It was it was, you know,
they were there with Kaya and I was
like, wow,
this trio is actually like really cool,
really fun.
Like, you know, they got good,
charming chemistry and we saw it back here
again.
It was like, OK, yeah,
this is what we need.
Why are you messing with the formula?
This is the formula.
Yes.
Stop messing with it.
yes uh so you know i really hope
they see that and they they see the
they see the response and they're like you
know what maybe for next season we gotta
figure out how to get kaya back like
as like a regular well we'll talk about
it but
for right now there's no like for right
now it seems like she might be there
for a while so okay but you're gonna
are you gonna personally i hate to poop
on your i hate to poop on your
parade but you know i actually like to
do that sometimes um it's actually
Part of your job description.
Yeah, I was curious.
So I was just like,
so for the next three episodes,
which we have three episodes left in the
season,
is Kaia going to stay here all the
time?
So I looked on IMDb,
and I was just like, oh,
I can see the next episodes.
I can see who's guest starring,
who's starring,
what the cast is going to be.
Kaia is not in all of them.
She is in, for sure,
the last episode of the season.
She will be back for the season finale.
I can tell you that much.
Oh, boy.
don't know what else will be associated
with that i do know we we won't
have her for next episode which is a
bummer but well she's transitioning back
we got we got kaya beth back guys
just rename the show kaya beth and we'll
be fine we'll be all right
Yes, I was so happy about this episode.
Before we dive deep into it,
I want to remind you of some free
and easy ways you can help this podcast.
You can do that by rating, reviewing,
subscribing.
Those things help us get into the eyes
and ears of more people.
And it's free for you.
It just takes like literally five seconds
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You go to the podcast and your podcast
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You either click five stars.
We love when people leave reviews.
We love that.
If you're watching on YouTube,
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We can follow us.
Same thing on your podcast apps.
It's very easy to do.
Very simple.
And that really helps us get into the
eyes and ears of more people that would
enjoy this type of content.
We do have a newer review since last
time we've seen you Elspeth folks.
Yeah.
It is left by PJ's Graham.
It is entitled So Much Fun.
It says,
if you're watching Elspeth and not
listening to Good Pot with Jason and
Marissa, you're missing half the fun.
Their banter is quick, clever,
and genuinely funny,
like eavesdropping on two friends who just
get the show.
They'll have you laughing one minute and
then suddenly noticing deeper details.
You totally missed the next.
It's light, insightful,
and ridiculously entertaining.
Wow.
That is a great, stellar review.
Love it.
Listen, you don't even have to leave.
great reviews like that you just be like
leave a review like i love the show
they're awesome boom and that would that
would get my serotonin dopamine whatever
they want to call it up enough for
the week but yes i'm feeling great i
was off because someone likes what i do
so uh we're at forty nine reviews i
want to get to fifty by the end
of the elspeth season i think we can
definitely we're one away we're one away
and it could be you it could be
you
um if you just want to chat with
us about the show you can do that
easily by leaving us an email at
thegoodpodfeedback gmail.com we love to
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I know I talked about free and easy,
but you can also then do some paid
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also easy though.
You can go to buymeacoffee.com slash
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So yeah,
those are all ways you can help this
podcast out.
With that being out of the way,
let's get into the episode and the case
of the week.
We come into someone on a therapy couch.
They're complaining.
They're saying, oh my God,
everyone hates me.
And it kind of boils down to a
lot of rich people problems of like,
my assistant is just so upset when she
has to stay late.
I don't know why.
I don't get it.
And we see the therapist who happens to
be named Dr. Mao.
And Dr. Mao is played by Constance Wu.
Yeah, I was like, oh, hey, it's you.
Constance Wu.
Yeah, it's you.
It's you, the Wu.
It's the you Wu.
So if you're a fan of sitcoms like
I am,
you will recognize Constance Wu from the
show Fresh Off the Boat.
It was kind of really a breakout role
because she was great on that show.
It was so good.
I love that show.
It was so funny.
She was also the star of Crazy Rich
Asians, which, you know,
took over the movies for a good many
months back in like, what was it,
twenty...
It was a big, big thing.
Still waiting on the sequels.
It's been a while,
but still waiting on those.
So yeah, Constance Wu was here.
Constance Wu was interesting because I
remember she was so in it.
She was so big.
She was in a movie with Jennifer Lopez
at one point.
Everyone was talking about her.
And then there was this, not a scandal,
but a thing where...
Fresh Off the Boat got renewed for,
I think it was the sixth season,
and she went on social media and
complained about it.
It was upset.
Well, yes.
She did because she was like,
Again, as you said,
she was so good in the show, right?
And she was also building this career
outside of the show.
And so I could understand where she was
coming from.
I think how she said it and the
fact that she went to social media might
not have been the best move.
But she basically was like, hey,
I'm trying to build this career outside of
this.
I can't believe I'm locked into the show
for another season.
Like, ugh, and a half.
That was kind of...
and funnily enough she was almost like the
patience she sees in in this show like
oh my god i'm so rich off this
show but i'm just i i can't i
don't want to be as rich from the
show anymore i just want to get out
of this wildly successful popular show why
am i stuck here why does everyone love
me so much i get renewed for another
season oh the burdens are placed upon me
it's just like okay
Well,
that's another thing that I really liked
about this episode is we did get back
to the heart of the rich people problems
part of Elsbeth.
And like, I liked how the character also,
the character of Dr.
Mal really was like...
she takes her work very, very seriously,
but she's very,
very complicated and has like a lot of
different layers to her.
So I love,
she like was trying to really get us
to care about the rich people and their
problems,
not saying that rich people don't have
problems and not saying that there's a lot
to do, but we all have that.
And to me,
the access of what rich people have to
solve those problems should be available
to everyone to solve said problems.
But also Dr. Mal was,
was doing a little Robin Hooding, I guess,
of her own.
I wouldn't say Robin Hooding.
She's not exactly spreading the wealth to
other people.
She's spreading the wealth to herself.
Not exactly Robin Hooding.
I think the phrase money doesn't buy you
happiness is so interesting because that
is true,
but I think when you have money,
the threshold to happiness
rises right like you know it's like the
access to happiness rises like it changes
because your relationship with happiness
changes because it's like what makes what
makes a rich person happy is much the
threshold is way higher than what makes me
happy
Like,
if I went on a private vacation to,
like, you know, Europe or some other,
like, locale, and I had, like,
a couple of issues on that vacation,
I'd be happy.
But with someone that has that much money,
their threshold for happiness is much
higher.
Where a, like,
a small inconvenience on a tropical isle
vacation makes them bummed out.
Like, makes them unhappy.
Whereas me, I just have to be here.
Like, you know.
If you watched season one of White Lotus,
there's a lot of commentary on that.
Because there's a couple where the guy is
very obsessed with the fact that he
doesn't have the room that he thought he
would have.
And his wife is just like, look around.
Yeah, exactly.
This is where we are.
And I think, yeah,
it's an interesting premise for the show
to kind of explore.
Yeah.
Yeah,
it's just kind of a – it's something
that struck me watching this and seeing
the rich people upset about some of the
smaller things in life that I'd be like,
but what do you mean though?
But you have all this as well.
I think it's kind of like a problem
– it's going to be a problem if
you don't deal with the root underneath
it.
But the problem changes –
for rich people.
So like we say, like I say,
I don't want to,
I don't want to speak for you,
but it's like, Oh my gosh,
your assistant can't work overnights.
That must really suck.
Right.
Cause I'm like, Oh my God,
you have an assistant that works
overnight.
Right.
Um,
but that person doesn't have to worry
about how they're going to make rent,
what they're going to do.
You know what I mean?
So like the, the different,
the locus of focus, um,
is a little bit different but at the
end it's like okay well what is the
issue underneath all of that that is
making me notice this problem to begin
with and i don't know if dr mel
like she would she had a lot of
great which we'll get into but there was
a lot of therapy speak in what she
said but i don't know if there was
any actual work being done because um you
know
she kept going like clients would still be
with her for a long time and if
if you're working on the work you don't
really need a therapist for it yeah in
my experience i don't want to i don't
want anything else it seems more that dr
mal is here to more coddle these people
than to really dig into the source of
their unhappiness.
And I mean, Dr. Mao tells this woman,
listen,
it sounds like you're suffering from shame
of abundance.
And I can help you through that.
Like, okay, cool.
Great.
So more calling, basically.
Basically,
you just have to deal with these little
people.
It's not your fault.
It's their fault.
But you're okay.
You're fine.
And I'm going to use these words that
are not tangible to you.
Like, shame of abundance.
what does that even mean where like like
but you like put a name on it
the person who's hearing it is like you're
right yes abundant yeah it's that whole
like emperor with no clothes thing of like
you're saying things that sound like they
should be like smart so i'm gonna go
ahead and like say like oh that fixes
the whole thing you said the smart words
all thrown together you're smart so i'm
gonna believe you um it's just like yeah
kaya mentions later like all these crazy
terms that this lady comes up with to
like coddle these people is so so great
So we kind of we kind of get
a little background of what who doctor
what who Constance Wu is.
She's Dr. Mal.
We know what she's about.
He's a therapist to the rich people.
Cool, cool, cool.
We see Mal coming home to who I
thought was her husband at the time.
But then I find out, oh, actually,
it's her boyfriend.
He says, you know, he's cooking for her.
He has a surprise for her when she
gets when she gets home.
She's like, OK, great.
But I got to take care of the
real quick.
She goes and logs in on a laptop
to a stock trading account and we see
her buying some stock.
Okay, interesting.
I don't know what this is about.
She goes back into the kitchen.
Her boyfriend pops the question.
He doesn't do it with a diamond.
He does it with an opal birthstone.
I, first of all,
I have never received one of these,
but I love a non-diamond engagement ring.
I was so taken aback that Dr.
Mal was not appreciative of this
situation.
Dr. Mal was like, ew, yuck,
that's not a diamond.
Why would you give me this?
And he's like, okay, sorry,
I thought it would be cool as your
birthstone.
I guess I'll get you a diamond later.
And then Mal's like,
but we're not rich enough yet.
We said we had to get richer to
get married.
He's like, I mean...
We're pretty good because we find out that
her boyfriend is a stock trader himself.
He's doing okay.
And he even mentions we just bought a
two million dollar apartment.
How much more stable are you looking for
here?
Yeah.
So we're pretty good.
She's like, we're not good enough,
which kind of shows you a little bit
more of insight into Mal as well.
Like, okay,
it's never going to be enough for you.
And that comes from some trauma in your
early childhood,
which you'll find out about.
So she's like, oh, my God,
it's not a diamond.
She's freaking out.
A call interrupts,
and it's from someone named Jason
Rathborn.
And, you know,
he's freaking out because he had a new
motorcycle come in and it's the wrong
color.
Oh, my God.
Get over here, Meryl.
I'm going crazy.
They sent me the wrong color motorcycle.
All right.
I got to go deal with Jason, which,
Kings, I see you.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know where our relationship is
that I'm the same name as the victim
of this episode.
Are y'all mad at me or something?
Are y'all upset with me?
I don't know.
Just watch out if they, like,
send you a motorcycle.
I would check it under my car the
next time I go in to make sure
there's no brake fluid that's leaking.
I do want to, just for a minute,
this is where while I was watching,
I was like, okay,
maybe a therapist like this is really
needed because some of these billionaire
type people could really go off the wagon
if their motorcycle is the wrong color.
So maybe just having someone listen to
them and say, oh my gosh,
I can't believe this motorcycle is the
wrong color could save the world.
You know what I mean?
Like this is where my brain is at
this moment because, you know,
I don't know,
like wars have been started and, you know,
stuff just because,
and also a man ran for president because
of a joke and a thing.
Like, you know, so like I just,
at some part of me,
this is where like my view of Dr.
Mal was oscillating back and forth
throughout this entire episode because at
this point I'm like, oh yeah, you better,
because otherwise like World War III is
going to start if you don't go.
Yeah, but with some people,
it's never enough.
Oh, no, agreed.
Some people can have a whole cabinet of
people calling him and telling him he's
great, but he'll keep starting stuff.
He'll keep doing stuff.
Not to say a specific thing about a
specific person,
but it's sometimes just never enough.
Also, like...
semi-related i'm watching the boys right
now and home lender is also that way
like he has just tons and tons of
people around him telling him he's the
best literally telling him he's god and
it's still not enough but it's different
than like a therapist well an altruistic
therapist who's not trying to get
something out of this calling them out on
some stuff um but yes at this point
i was like okay maybe therapists could
save the world i don't know
The right therapist.
Sure.
So Mal goes to talk to Jason.
All right.
Why are you freaking out about the
motorcycle color?
He's like, actually,
I'm not forgetting about the motorcycle
color.
I called you here under false pretenses.
Now, at this moment, I was like,
are Mal and Jason having a thing?
Did he call her over here to bang
it out on the motorcycle?
I don't know.
But he's like, actually,
the problem is I'm getting investigated by
the SEC because there are some shenanigans
with my dad's company's stock,
and people think I'm insider trading.
And one thing I know, Mal,
is that the only other person I talked
to about my dad's company and who may
know insider information to trade stock is
you.
So I feel like you are behind this
and I'm taking the fall for it.
He's like,
how could you do this to me, Mal?
I taught you how to hang glide.
I at this point this is where I
was like okay like again every scene like
constantly trying to reevaluate this
character I'm like okay so maybe she is
like Robin Hood right now right like she's
like oh my gosh she's like insider trading
for good like this is great like at
this point I'm like oh my gosh is
this gonna be like a murder who gets
away because and in the world benefits
Obviously, it turns out differently,
but sharing what I was thinking.
Jason is freaking out on her.
He's like, you were never one of us.
You never will be.
And in fact,
I'm telling all my friends to drop you
as their wealth therapist.
I was like, uh-oh.
And I'm thinking, all right,
what is an easy reach of Mal right
now that you're going to grab and kill
Jason with?
Is it a wrench?
Is she going to pick up the motorcycle
and kill him with the motorcycle?
What's going to go on?
And it's like, oh, well,
we're not doing the murder right now.
I said, okay.
we we flash over to uh mal wallowing
her sorrows at a diner she's like she's
eating we we can hear we can hear
the the the line cook in the background
yelling out all these orders yelling out
all this nonsensical stuff that probably
no one but the people who work at
the diner can understand uh all these
there's a slinging in the mud and i've
been a
barn on the table and all this like
a waffle house yeah yeah exactly except
there's no it's no bare knuckle brawling
going on right now in this diner like
we go to the waffle house um so
while she's at the diner she's calling
evan and lying to him and says well
you know i'm still jason it's going to
be a wild time home and i know
we can hear that we can hear the
line cook in the background and i'm like
i'm like okay this is going to come
into play like
There's things like now once you pick up
the pattern, the tempos of Elizabeth,
you're like, OK,
this is going to come into play later
because we can hear the guy screaming in
the background.
I'm sure that advocate hear the guy
screaming in the background on the phone
as well.
It's like, all right,
keep that locked into the mind.
We know it's going to come back later.
So then once that scene is over,
we see Mal going sneaking back into
Jason's apartment and turning off the
power from the circuit breaker.
It's like, OK,
we see the security cameras going.
go off.
We see the power going off.
We see Mal approaching the motorcycle
again.
It's like, okay, cool, cool, cool.
What's going to happen?
What's going to happen?
Boom.
All of a sudden,
we're back home with Jason.
sorry back home with met with evan uh
mal comes back home to her boyfriend and
he's like all right well you didn't really
give me an answer to my proposal she
goes okay i realized that i need you
you keep me grounded and yes i will
marry you like oh yay which i'm sure
she did something crazy to jason but yeah
she's getting married did you pick up on
like what happened at this point
With the in and the out and the
power out and all of that stuff.
Well,
I'd assume that she had turned the power
off to maybe kill Jason.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And to not get on security cam while
doing it.
That's what I was assuming,
but then she found the motorcycle.
I was like, okay.
Now, at this point, I was like, okay,
well.
cut the brakes like that's like that's
like okay that's pretty easy to pick up
and so we then go over to the
next day jason's getting on his bike i
was like okay yeah here we go the
brakes are cut he's speeding down this
this street he's trying to break as he
gets to like a dead end where there's
like i guess the harbor is right there
and oh my god wouldn't you know it
he cannot break and he crashes and goes
over into the harbor and jason's dead
Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no.
So what's going to happen?
What does this investigation look like?
OK,
we go to the investigation part of this
episode.
When we first come in to the precinct,
there is a report on the news.
big happenings at the dock there are
multiple arrests and elizabeth is watching
this news report she's like oh my god
is that kai's case that's what i was
saying i was like oh my god it's
kaya it is is is kaya okay is
there a case that was happening what's
happening well i was like yes that was
kai's case and she's fine because
And Ellsworth says, well,
we're all thinking,
does this mean Kaya's back?
Like, she's back at the precinct?
And she's like, for now, Kaya is back.
She's taking a small break from undercover
work.
But for right now, she's back.
Kaya wants to go, oh,
what's been happening?
She's like, oh, my God,
you know how it is around here, Kaya.
Every week, it's something new.
they do look at each other like they
do all kind of pause and look at
each other and i was like well done
like get it get it because we're we're
a show that has new episodes get it
you get it um so wagner wagner's all
right kaya you we have an issue case
down in the uh down in the um
what do they call it the financial sector
not kaya detective blanc
oh detective block we're gonna put you on
this case in the uh in the financial
district and uh you can go to elspeth
which is like it's it seemed like he
just did this favor for kyle elspeth to
like hang out together because at this
moment this is we don't know what to
this is necessarily a homicide this is
just like a guy went off his bike
see what's up
yeah see what's going on so it's like
elizabeth you can just go with your friend
like it's fine just take your friend to
work day um so elizabeth who i'm gonna
call kaya beth kaya beth go to the
crime scene and wouldn't you know it
officer nicky is here too yes and also
kaya is wearing a fantastic oh my god
like the coat and the suit and everything
like the fantastic green i loved the
entire the entire outfit was was amazing
Listen, Kyle was always fine,
but it seems like Detective Block is,
like, on another level, okay?
So they start doing their thing.
They say, okay, this is Jason Rathbone,
Rathborn, whatever he's called.
He's a part of this big family who
makes all the airplanes.
Like, it's not just something.
They basically make all the airplanes.
So it's part of this big, you know,
airplane empire.
Jason's wife shows up.
She is like, oh my God,
I can't believe he's dead.
I can't believe he was in perfect health.
The bike was brand new.
This doesn't make any sense.
How could this happen?
Kaya says, well, I don't know.
Sometimes, you know,
people do these things on purpose.
Was he like in any like, you know,
mental health trouble?
Was he like, was he okay?
And the wife says, no, I mean,
he was stressed, but he was motivated.
He was about to take over his father's
company.
Well, at this point, too, I was like,
it doesn't have to be like this.
Like, we don't know.
You know,
I was always ready to take something to
another level.
She's always ready to rule.
It's a homicide.
Always ready to investigate something.
And so Kaya Beth is just like,
I mean,
so but who else could talk to his
mental state?
Very specifically.
Mental well-being, not mood, not anything.
It's a very specific mental state.
So for right now, the hypothesis may be,
well, maybe he did this on purpose.
Maybe this was a suicide.
So who can we talk to that would
know something about how he was dealing
with his emotions?
So that gets us into for Kyabeth to
talk to Dr. Mal herself,
Jason's therapist.
Mal says, you know,
Jason was pretty troubled.
He was acting erratically.
I thought I had done my work to
calm him down.
We find out at that point that Mal
is a wealth therapist helping high net
worth individuals deal with the stress of
everyday life being a rich person.
She says, you know, Jason had problems.
He had negative self-talk,
fear of commitment, sexual inadequacy,
and legal problems.
He was a man.
He was a man.
Not the legal problems part.
Not like all of that.
Not all of that.
But I'm just saying,
these aren't rich people problems.
Wow.
okay all right mercer man problems okay oh
jason all right okay cool cool cool uh
but you know mal said like i can't
really talk about it now smith goes well
you talked a lot about it just now
so it seems like it seems like you
kind of went very far you feel like
it says problems um at that point evan
because they're interviewing dr mal in her
house at that point evan comes home with
some groceries and uh mal jumps up oh
my god evan you won't believe it jason
killed himself
kai's like well i mean we didn't
necessarily like we haven't really ruled
that yet you're kind of jumping the gun
there saying that jason killed himself
which is like which is all really that
elizabeth needs to be like something
something's not right here like uh evan's
like i gotta go throw this out and
elspeth's like i'll come with you or like
whatever like he's like i'll go i'll go
with you let me let me use this
moment
So yeah, Elizabeth does her thing,
starts talking to Dr. Mal's fiance.
It's like, so was it weird that Dr.
Mal would be with Jason like after hours?
Evan's like, yeah, well,
that guy had a lot of problems.
He was pretty needy.
So, you know,
she was always going to his places,
you know,
different hours of the day and night,
blah, blah, blah.
she's like oh well i mean just like
for no reason at all but how long
do you think mal was with jason and
it was like i mean probably till about
after midnight or so and it's at this
point like dr mal is officially on
elizabeth's radar like yeah definitely
going to be investigating my office for
sure
At that point,
Kyabeth gets a text from Officer Nikki
saying, well,
Jason had ordered ahead for breakfast.
So it seemed like he was planning on
continuing his day, eating breakfast.
So that kind of rules out the suicide
angle.
Which, important to note,
Kaya is the one that comes up with
this.
I think they're working overtime.
Not overtime,
but they're really working to make sure
that we know that Kaya is not like
our usual detectives that are just ready,
willing,
and able to take the quickest explanation
to get out of this case.
yeah and to show that like she not
that she didn't know she was always like
this but you know she did go away
and have this experience of being an
undercover cop and learn some things yeah
the evolution of kaya has been interesting
right because when when she was first
starting and we were like i remember
saying like
Kaya seems to take a lot of credit
for some of Elizabeth's work.
Good job, Kaya,
when Elizabeth really did all the work.
And then as she went and started to
become a detective,
they were making sure that we saw Kaya
doing a lot of the groundwork,
a lot of the coming up with things
herself.
Like, okay, Kaya's kind of leveling up.
It's leveling up.
Yes.
And, you know, they go, well,
it seems like we can rule out suicide
as a thing that Jason did.
And Mal's like, oh, I mean,
you never really know, though.
You can't rule out suicide, you know,
trying to really drive home this suicide
angle.
And it's at that point,
Kai and Ellsworth exchange a look,
which is like,
hmm, girl, you know.
You know and I know.
And I think it's really important because
it's like, again,
is Kaia on Elspeth's level now?
Kaia has a sixth sense as well that
Elspeth has of like, yeah, it's her, girl.
It's her.
Because every other detective we see
always doubts Elspeth,
always is trying to look for that easy
angle.
But not Kaia.
Kaia's like, I get what you're picking up,
Elspeth.
Do you think Kaia was like,
this is the person?
Or she was like,
this is definitely something we should
check out.
Because I think Elisabeth will be like,
this is the person and I have to
work backwards to prove it.
I think Kaia here was like, okay,
this is enough of a hunch to go
on.
This is enough of a lead to take
as opposed to just dismissing it out of
the way.
I think Kaia understands that
um hunches can lead to work because she
was on this undercover case right like she
didn't know she didn't know what was going
on she had to play into this she
had to line things up she had to
do all of that so i think you're
she might she might be seeing might be
checking in with elspeth you've seen what
i'm seeing you feeling what i'm feeling
okay like let's go let's go forward with
it but i think like maybe they're not
on the same like
conviction level yet i think they might
but i don't know they might have been
who knows can you imagine can you imagine
what this show would have been instead of
having the mayor alec storyline if we
could have followed kaya on her undercover
mission and seeing what that was like i'm
taking that i'm taking that but anyway
We get back to the precinct and I
said, oh shit.
I said, Cam is here too.
And he's got a beard.
I was like, oh my God.
Cam's here.
That only had me thinking, I was like,
does he have a beard on the Gilded
Age this season?
Like what's going on?
Like, I don't know.
I don't know.
uh but yeah cam is here too which
i mean i guess we should have like
assumed because with kaya back but cam's
been gone for so long cam cam was
here when kaya was gone like we were
checking it with cam for a second and
then he was just gone but well he
was there with the the coroner report says
yeah exactly for a couple for a
Because it was like, all right,
what's going on with Kaia?
He's like, I don't know.
I don't know what's going on with Kaia.
But he's back now.
And Cam says, well, yeah,
according to these medical exam reports,
I mean, it could have been suicide.
But you never know what's going on in
someone's head.
And Cam and Kaia kind of exchange a
look.
A lot of looks exchanged this episode.
It's like, okay,
something funky is going on with Cam and
Kaia, so we'll get back to that.
But I think at that point, okay,
they might still be together because Cam,
once they leave the room, is like, hey,
any special requests for dinner?
And Kaia's like, oh, I don't know.
I'm not sure.
I'm going to make dinner.
I don't know.
It's super awkward,
which Elizabeth takes note on.
She's like, what's going on?
And Kaia's like, oh, nothing, nothing.
She stays quiet on that front right now.
I thought I didn't know what to make
of this.
At first I was like, oh no,
did something happen that we don't know
about?
Like, I didn't know what this meant.
And I was a little worried.
I was like, don't do this.
Don't do this to me.
We just got her back.
Like, don't break them up.
Yeah,
so we go to the garage that Jason's
bike was housed in,
which I think is also Jason's apartment.
And Kaibeth is there.
They notice that they're told there was
brick fluid on the ground.
And the mechanic is there.
He's like, hey,
I take care of this garage.
I take care of this place every day.
This was not here when I left yesterday,
so it definitely had to be done overnight.
And, you know,
anyone that has access to this house could
have cut the brake line.
Because at this point, it's like, okay,
so someone cut the brake fluid line.
That's what we are surmising from this.
Anyone could have done it with access to
the house because the bike was working
fine yesterday.
It's a thing of beauty.
But now the bike's gone, unfortunately.
Like, yeah.
And Jason, too.
He's like, oh, yeah, sure, Jason.
He's like, yeah.
I mean,
me and the mechanic and Jason weren't,
like, very close.
But he does note that, you know, Dr.
Mal did egg on a lot of extravagant
purchases, right?
uh from that that jason made so this
was a was a lot on her a
lot a lot of lots of you know
done by her
It was also interesting because he was the
guy who took care of the cars and
everything.
He was like,
he never wanted me to look at him
in the eye.
And I wasn't supposed to look at her
and Dr. Mel in the eye either.
But he felt like he was just such
a gregarious guy of just like,
let me talk.
Hey, what's going on?
You know what I mean?
Like shop talky type of stuff.
I thought that was just like an
interesting detail to show again that like
these people aren't necessarily able to be
their full selves in the presence of the
people they're serving.
Truly.
Kai and Beth goes to talk to Jason's
wife again,
and they ask about the power routers.
Like,
you guys experienced a power router
shortly before, at some point last night.
And she goes, yeah, that happens.
That happens a lot.
We have an old house,
and we have so much stuff hooked up.
We got like five hot tubs hooked up
to this electrical system.
So a lot of times,
we do trip the breakers,
and the power does go out.
We're supposed to have a breaker system,
but it doesn't work sometimes.
It is also noted there are cameras all
over the apartment except for on the back
door.
She's like, yeah,
I just thought he was trying to cheat.
That's why I didn't want to have a
back door camera.
Which is like to a surprise,
like I'd have been fine if he was
cheating as long as I still get,
you know, get this lavish lifestyle.
But that was kind of funny.
I've also been watching Friends and
Neighbors on Apple TV,
which also deals with a lot of rich
people.
And it's really interesting, like just
putting appliances in houses is a big part
of their life and like talking about like
how you know just upgrading the house the
fact that this woman was like you know
the usual like a hot tub and two
tanning beds and a sauna on the roof
and all of this stuff like it's like
normal but it also speaks to like
i mean if you really want to get
big brained about it like they're putting
all of this into an old house all
this new stuff is like taxing the old
house taxing the old structure it's almost
like the rich people are like taxing the
structures in which they are feeding off
of and maybe collapsing i mean i'm sure
that's what they meant when they wrote the
show but i'm just gonna this one little
moment really like really was that deep
But I just see the writer of the
episode going, oh my God,
that is so smart.
I didn't even think of that.
So after Jason's wife leaves,
Kaia Beth and Officer Nikki kind of talk
about it.
Also something Nikki found out is everyone
on the street that Jason lives on hates
him because his house sucks up all the
power and it blacks out the entire
neighborhood.
So a neighbor could have also been
responsible for cutting Jason's break
lines.
And Kaya chimes in and says,
you know what's something else?
I found out that Jason was under
investigation from the SEC because of some
insider trading allegations.
So there's a lot going on here that
we need to kind of suss out.
Meanwhile,
Mal is in a therapy session with someone.
I was like, OK,
I know we're supposed to know who that
is.
I know I've seen that person.
I had the same reaction.
I was like, who is that?
Yeah, we're supposed to know who this is.
And this was True Rose,
which she was connected to the big plot
line last season where, what was it?
It was with that guy Carter.
Yeah,
so that was part of the introduction to
like the judge.
What's his name?
Judge Crawford.
Crawford used the True Rose story to sort
of exploit Elizabeth in the press.
So we needed to talk about True Rose
to kind of learn about her divorce,
which was handled in the good verse.
We didn't see that.
Right, but it was talked about there.
And so she was introduced as unsettled
business.
Yeah,
because that was part of the reason why
Elsbeth came to New York.
Because she felt bad about how this case
ended.
Because she worked for her ex-husband.
True Rose's ex-husband.
She worked for the bad guy.
And it was something about a prenup that
Ellsworth did not divulge some information
that could have given True Rose the bulk
of the estate.
And Ellsworth, you know,
in Ellsworth ends up doing the right
thing.
and getting money for true rose because of
this other prenup it was i forgot all
the details about it but that was
basically what happened true rose now has
a bunch of money because of what elspeth
did and uh we see true rose talking
to mal about about her issues uh and
elspeth and kaya kind of like crashed the
session and true rose is like elspeth else
is like true rose oh my god
um so once true rose leaves the scene
uh kaya beth talks to dr mal about
you know it's funny jason was facing a
lot of uh insider trading allegations did
he say anything to you at all about
what these might have been about or he
was having trouble with it and because
this gets too close to dr mal what
she's been there she's like nope he didn't
talk to me about anything about that ever
nothing so nope nothing to see here so
stop asking questions about it uh stop
And we get a little more information about
Dr. Mao and her background.
Dr.
Mao was this poor kid that went to
private school on a scholarship.
So she was kind of the poor kid
that was around the rich kids.
And so that really kind of influenced her
and made her see the other side of
life.
And she reveals that she got hired by
one of her rich friend's dads right out
of school to be his personal assistant.
So that kind of also delved her deep
into the world of wealthy people and how
to really kind of
figure out the ins and outs of wealthy
people because she was around it all the
time,
being this assistant to this wealthy guy.
Mal,
as Elizabeth started to dig a little
deeper,
Mal goes on the offensive and kind of
calls Elizabeth out and says, oh, you're,
you know,
Talking about me helping these rich
people,
but you yourself are wearing some
expensive clothes.
You got this suit on that costs more
than most people's monthly rent.
And what I'm reading from you is that
you wear this big wig at some white
shoe Chicago law firm based on the fact
that you worked for True Rose's husband.
I can surmise that fact.
And she says, hmm,
I wonder why you're now working for the
police.
is it guilt is it what you had
to do to earn all that money and
while she's she's like clocking elspeth t
you can see elspeth like oh my god
she's like yeah she's like piercing she's
like piercing elspeth's soul like oh my
god she sees right through me she sees
who i am she's like why else were
you running from your life in chicago was
it divorce what else were you what else
were you dealing with like reading elspeth
for filth i was like oh my god
like we have never like we've seen some
instances where else gets like really like
kg of like oh my god like she
offered a game because someone's reading
her as like but dr mal did it
so well well and i think it also
had to do with the fact that she
was confronted by the fact that this is
a wealth therapist and i don't think she
sees herself in that world like she
doesn't operate in that world however we
do know she has a lot of money
she has talked about that she's had a
lot of money
And she's also talked about what why she
does what she does because she has that
money.
So she I mean,
I guess like this is kind of like
the wealth therapy,
the wealth guilt conversations I would
like to see, as opposed to my,
you know,
my assistant can't stay overnight,
you know, five nights a week.
um but yeah i and it also shows
that dr mel has very good pattern
recognition very good she knows exactly
like what to say to get to to
push people's buttons to get underneath
their skin um and the power that that
gives her because elspeth before this
reading was basically like i know you
murdered this man like
She was very confident.
She was very there.
And then all of these little comments kind
of just chipped away and we got to
see that vulnerability side of her that we
normally don't see.
And that kind of gave for at least
a moment power to Dr. Mel.
Yeah,
and Ellsworth tries to get back on her
game.
Says, oh, yeah,
you have some very impressive powers of
induction.
That must help you read the ins and
outs of all your clients' businesses, huh?
So maybe you know a little bit something
about their business.
And you infer all that by reading them.
And so yeah,
we go back to the precinct.
And Ellsworth is like, you know,
these outfits aren't that expensive.
And Kai's like, oh, OK, this Dr.
Man really got under your skin there,
Ellsworth, huh?
and then wagner because she also was like
i'm over my divorce i've been over my
divorce i don't know why i'm thinking
about it yeah it's like okay all right
okay and wagner in what i deem as
one of the moments of the episode comes
off his office it goes cagney lacy get
in here it's like oh finally so good
um he tells them you know the sec
is called and they want to they want
some info on you guys investigation to see
if they can help their investigation
And, you know, Wagner says, well,
the SEC now knows that Jason was not
the one insider trading because they found
a lot of other trades from other companies
associated with that with that trading
account as well that Jason would have no
insider knowledge of.
So this is someone that has a lot
of information about a lot of companies
and else.
But it's like, OK, well,
you know who all these wealthy people also
go to all the same person they go
to this a wealth therapist.
And we cut to Mal in her apartment
looking at notes,
tearing notes out of her book.
So it's like, okay,
we are now as these murders are wont
to do,
Mal does not do very well at covering
her tracks because it feels like I don't
even need Elsmeth to come to this
deduction.
So all these people that are accused of
having insider trading all have one thing
in common.
It's their therapist.
So bing, bing, boom.
I don't need some super detective to
figure that out,
but it's still fun watching Elsmeth and
Kai go through it.
We also, we see,
we once again see the client from the
beginning of the episode being questioned
by the SEC.
And there's an SEC officer there giving
some like really serious questions.
And then there's Ellsworth and Kaya on the
sidelines.
So like, so do you, well,
you said you talked to your therapist as
well about your business dealings, which,
you know,
the SEC guy is annoyed because Ellsworth
and Kaya are bumping into his
investigation.
And you would not say anything.
And so the rich lady goes, no,
I don't say anything about my business to
Mal.
And Elsa goes, well, you know,
anything you really talk about could
really kind of tip her hand into what's
going on in your businesses.
You know, would your travel plans,
you know, some personal issues,
anything could really lead to Mal knowing
more about your business.
And we find out that the rich lady
started seeing Mal four months ago when
the shady transaction started.
This is like, okay, again,
Mal's not doing a good job of hiding
your tracks.
Ellsworth and Kaya go to Wagner and
basically lay out their whole case for
him.
They basically, they basically have,
they now have it all figured out.
They lay out everything.
And again, and Wagner goes, oh,
still finishing each other's sentences,
huh?
Good to see you all back together.
But then we get the line that we
get from Wagner almost every episode.
There's just not enough evidence, Elspeth.
Kyabeth, you need more evidence.
He's like, okay.
Nikki comes in clutch, says, okay, well,
we finally are able to talk to the
one neighbor we've been wanting to talk to
from Jason's apartment complex or
whatever.
So he's ready to talk now.
All right, cool.
Wagner does say,
I'm down with your mal theory.
You are able to talk to her some
more.
And maybe this time,
try and push a little harder and see
what you can get.
So he's kind of encouraging them to like,
all right, follow this thread.
um back we're in the precinct still kaya
is she's avoiding cam she's avoiding
anything to do with cam she doesn't want
to talk about cam she tries not to
talk to cam uh and elsewhere again like
i'm so worried at this point i'm like
no don't do this don't do it
And Kaya talks about the fact that,
you know, Mal,
she comes up with all these terms,
money dysmorphia, joy paralysis,
all these hoity-toity terms to describe
rich people and their rich people
problems.
She has some expensive workshops where she
goes to different countries and does
different experiences,
excursions to help rich people deal with
their rich people problems.
And like, you know, they basically say,
you know,
Mal has created this whole persona
earn people's trust and then use it
against them and kaya relates that to her
undercover work she says yeah you know it
was it was tough you know i had
to be people's friends and to to gain
knowledge about them and then i had to
like turn them into the cops i had
to arrest them after that and she's kind
of feeling really affected about it and
then she talks about cam she says yeah
you know i thought about cam all the
time when i was undercover but now that
i'm back things just feel different
And she's really scared to talk to him
about it.
Oh, yeah,
because she's also talking about the fact
that she had to be this other person
and she had to manipulate people.
And Cam is, like,
so pure and so good.
And that was, like,
the one thing that she could hold on
to during this time.
But she is, I think,
worried that she's a different person
because of this.
And how is that going to, like,
change their relationship?
Is it going to change their relationship?
What's going to happen there?
Yeah.
yeah it maybe feels like kaya is not
the squeaky clean kaya that she was when
she left to go undercover and maybe she's
not you know she had to do things
she's seen some things she as as one
would expect you know like this and for
her job she had it's not like she
it's not like she had to make choices
but when you're in
a job your choices have a dire more
dire consequences because like especially
in a job like that like she if
she chose not to manipulate someone or if
she chose to not play along people could
get hurt people could die she could get
fired like there's just so many different
things that could happen as opposed to
like am i going to turn right or
going to turn left like yeah i mean
they don't they don't really get to we
have no clues
They don't really get too in detail about
how Kaya is different,
but however Kaya is different,
it doesn't match up to Cam anymore.
She can't just come home and shoot the
shit about their days and talk about
reality TV.
Kaya, in whatever way, is different now.
They don't really delve too deep into why
Kaya is different, how Kaya is different,
but whatever it is,
it doesn't match up with Cam anymore.
So we dropped that for the time being.
We're back with Kyabeth.
And they kind of accost Mal as Mal's
on her way to do some wealth therapy
with some clients in the park or whatever.
And they confront her about the SEC stuff.
Says, you know,
the funny thing is all the people with
SEC infractions and insider trading
allegations,
they all are connected to you.
Mal.
And Mal says, well, you know,
it could be anybody.
It could have been the bartender,
could have been the hairstylist,
could have been a private playing crew.
All these people have the same people they
mix up with.
And then say, no, no, no, no, no.
You are the only common denominator.
Mal says, but I mean,
you're accusing me of doing stuff like
making up shell companies,
all this other insider trading stuff.
I don't know how to do any of
that.
She says,
but you know who does know how to
do that stuff?
Oh, boy.
My fiance, Evan.
And he has access to my notes.
Oh, my gosh.
I can't believe Evan would do this to
think I was going to marry him.
So she's throwing her man straight under
the bus.
Very much.
And then also, like,
backing up and then rolling over and
then...
yeah yeah several times she has no
compunction about like throwing this man
under the bus and next thing you know
evan's getting arrested by the sec they
traced everything back to his stock
account and they found notes from mal's
sessions in his desk
And so Kaibeth goes- Conveniently.
I wonder how they got there.
I wonder.
So Kaibeth goes to talk to Evan in
his jail cell, and he tells them,
you know, crazy, Mal broke up with me,
left me her ring,
left me a nasty note,
accusing him of stealing information about
her clients.
And as bad as that is,
he can't even sell the ring because it
was damaged.
So he couldn't sell it.
Because at that point, it's like, okay.
Put that in your mind, Jason.
That's coming back.
That's coming back.
There's no other reason they would have
said that other than this is a clue.
And Evan is like, yeah,
she planted all this stuff to incriminate
me.
This is crazy.
And Kaibeth asked him,
so what about the call she made to
you that night of Jason's, like,
of the night before Jason's death?
He says, yeah,
it was weird because I could hear someone
yelling in the background.
That Jason guy must have been having a
lot of issues because I could hear him
yelling in the background.
and yes as we talked about like when
that scene happened it was like remember
this happened because it's gonna come back
it's gonna come back but at the same
time i was like and maybe i am
just a different phone person i am not
someone that necessarily makes phone calls
in public or uses my speakerphone or any
of this but if i had made that
phone call at that time like if i
were dr mal
And I'd be like,
I don't know if my noise cancellation is
strong enough to handle this situation.
I would have said like, hey,
let me call you back.
Like that was that I know she was
like in her in her head about a
lot of stuff and trying to figure out
what to do.
But I just it was really surprising
because the guy shouted like three times
during that phone call.
So it was just really interesting that
this was like, she could have gotten up,
she could have walked somewhere,
she could have moved and continued to have
the conversation.
But this being such a key point in
the story was interesting to me.
yeah i just make sure he was thinking
at that point to be like oh let
me let me get away from the screaming
line cook um so yeah they've had this
information about the the phone call
there's some screaming in the background
so kai beth talks to jason's wife and
she goes that's odd because
Jason was never a screamer.
He never screamed anything.
He never yelled.
She also talks about the fact that, yeah,
Mal was very involved with our life.
Jason would let her into the house all
the time.
She'd be all around.
She'd be in our different trips,
our different houses,
and different places.
She was all over our life.
And so Kaiba's like, huh.
Did Mal happen to have keys to your
house?
And the wife goes, well, I mean,
she had an electronic key fob to let
her into any of our houses.
So yeah, she definitely had access.
She's like, okay, all right.
We take a little break from the case
to have the talk.
with Cam and Kaya.
Cam says,
why are you acting so weird towards me,
Kaya?
And Kaya says, hey,
it's hard to jump back into Kaya Blanc's
life.
I was Denise Jackson for a while.
Denise Jackson was single, fun,
had no one to answer to.
And she's having trouble letting the
Denise Jackson life
and cam was like yeah me and you
used to be like on the same page
but i just don't know i just i
can't get a grasp on this new kaya
that's back after the undercover life and
all i could think of in my head
sorry for this moment is like i am
for real like like this is the life
that she's like living she's like miss
jackson right like she's out there she's
like living this life and i don't know
if it's the life that she didn't allow
herself to live before you know she got
into the academy and did all of this
stuff
um but it was interesting that like that
was the reasoning because i totally
thought up until this point in the episode
i thought it was like i i've murdered
people and now it's like you know what
i mean it's like cam you don't get
it denise jackson does blow every day okay
like it's like how is denise jackson that
much different than kaya bonk like what is
what is denise jackson doing that can't
just jive with the camera like
What is happening?
Denise Jackson drinks every day, Cam.
Denise Jackson doesn't take down a
six-pack of beer.
Denise Jackson doesn't watch reality TV
shows, Cam.
Denise Jackson don't do none of the stuff
Cam used to do.
Denise Jackson does not eat baked goods
any longer.
Denise Jackson does not have boyfriends
that bake.
That is not Denise Jackson's lifestyle.
It feels too gazy to me because I'm
just like, they're not...
being specific enough about what has
changed from Kaya to Denise Jackson to
make this breakup feel...
sensical to me i was like okay i
i understand why we have to do this
but you're not being specific enough for
me i would have i really would have
enjoyed if it was like hey cam so
this i haven't told you this part of
my experience yet this is what happened i
had to like pretend to do this thing
it really kind of messed me up something
like that but not just like i could
live my life i was i was but
she didn't have that freedom like she had
that freedom but she didn't have that
freedom because she was working undercover
So it's just kind of weird.
Living my life.
I'm a paper chaser.
Living my life.
Like, what is this?
But yeah, that was weird.
The weird part is,
this wasn't the break of conversation.
No.
But we don't get to see the break
of conversation later.
I was just like,
that's a weird way to do that.
But okay.
Wait, did that happen?
Yeah.
So Kai basically is like, all right,
we'll talk more about this later.
I got to get back to work.
So Kaibeth then goes back and talks to
Mal.
They show her the notes that Evan
supposedly stole from her.
And in the funniest moment, maybe,
of the season, they go, okay,
so this is one of the notes that
Evan supposedly stole.
It is from a CEO that experienced erectile
dysfunction in September of twenty twenty
four after the failure of SpaceX's launch.
Yo.
I wonder who that could be.
Wow.
Just like we had a direct punch into
Bill Belichick's face earlier in the
season,
this is a direct punch in Elon Musk's
gonads.
Elon Musk is a bitch that can't get
his dick up.
It's like, damn, that's harsh.
That is harsh.
So apparently...
The indirect thing of saying is that Elon
Musk is one of her patients,
and he had erectile dysfunction due to the
failure of the SpaceX launch.
Allegedly.
Allegedly.
And we can't name the client because of
a client's privilege.
We're not going to name this person we're
about to talk about.
That was so freaking funny.
But the problem with these notes are the
dates don't match up.
So they say, so how could Elon be,
I mean,
how could this person be having this
erectile dysfunction before the space
shuttle failed to launch?
So that's weird, right, Mal?
And Mal's like, oh, I don't know.
Maybe I just wrote the date wrong in
my notes, blah, blah, blah.
they go or you or whoever did whoever
snuck evan the notes uh just made up
these notes and wasn't careful with the
dates okay it's like all right cool cool
cool um now also test uh how old
the ink is on the paper if they
really wanted to get that fancy but i
mean i think they did that before these
episodes i think
And Mal does what a lot of these
suspects do.
They go, oh, you know what?
I'm done with this.
I'm through with talking to you people.
If you want to talk to me,
you can talk to my attorneys.
I'm out of here.
And Elsa's like, oh, now you're scared?
Were you scared when Jason was on to
you with the SEC insider trading?
Huh?
Huh?
Huh?
Like Elsa is now directly poking the bear.
And Mal fights back.
She says, all right, well,
what your problem is, Elspeth,
is you have some divide in your nature
that needs to be solved.
And again, Elspeth's like, oh, oh my God,
you clocked my tea.
You got me.
Or, as Elspeth points out next,
You're holding up a mirror to yourself
there, Dr. Mel.
Maybe that's some projection on your part.
Bam.
So yeah, after that,
Nikki comes back in and says, hey,
guess what?
Jason's neighbor, that guy,
is finally ready to talk.
He wants to meet up right now.
So they meet with this neighbor guy at
the same diner that Mal was at earlier
in the episode.
Conveniently.
Okay.
So apparently this was a diner that is
in that neighborhood.
So I guess it was like, okay, cool.
Very conveniently.
Extremely conveniently.
So we find out that the neighbor had
an alibi for the night before Jason died.
He was on the phone with three one
one complaining about the power outage.
Yeah.
side note i listened to this entire
podcast about new york's three one one
system and it is mind-blowing to me it
is like basically i did not know the
extent to which like it's actual people on
the phone so total alibi totally get that
it's like a human database for information
to the city and then they like route
different pro problems to different people
I am amazed by it.
It was on a ninety nine percent invisible.
And it was I just they talked to
some lady who's been working there from
the beginning.
They talked about how it like went from
zero to everything.
Like, obviously,
this is like Marissa nerd territory
because I love like processes and stuff
like that.
But I was like,
three one one is the greatest thing ever.
So like when and I don't even live
in New York.
And so is that different?
We have a three one one.
But New York's three one one like.
connects it connects all the city
departments it's not just information it's
like it's like i need like i see
a pothole on this thing okay let me
send a request to the pothole department
basically and we're going to get it fixed
not just like did you know that potholes
are you know taken care of by this
department you have to call these people
they actually like connect you to the
people that you are it's like it's like
a miracle of
like,
nineteen eighties technology that is still
alive today.
And I can totally see how valuable it
is to the city of New York.
And I know just recently,
like if you just recently,
the current mayor of New York, Mamdani,
did also work with three one one people
and took a three one one call.
So like three one one is a huge
part of New York life.
And I didn't even know it until I
listened to this podcast.
I mean,
I just kind of assume that's what my
three-one-one does.
I never had to call my three-one-one,
but I kind of assume that's what the
three-one-one was.
I mean, it could be in other cities,
but this is like the model of,
if I call my three-one-one,
it's going to be like,
you have to call this department.
They won't directly connect you.
or even like take the information and send
it to that department because then it
would have like the backing of the city
like this person called and said like this
is what's going on so anyway i highly
recommend checking it out on nine nine
percent invisible so yeah this guy total
alibi is probably on for like hours not
hours but like talking to someone for at
least five minutes around what's going on
with the power outage
Yeah, and also Fielding mentions, yeah,
I couldn't talk to you guys before now
because I was in Scotland attending my
son's wedding.
And I was like, oh my God, Scotland?
I know Scotland.
Isn't the food super heavy there?
Just like, okay.
Which, I don't know.
Well, yeah.
I don't know if it was a plot
hole.
It was like...
this is like at least only two days
since jason has been dead were you you
were scotland for literally the one day of
your husband's like your son's wedding and
then decided to come back like the next
day like i'm not sure if the timing
adds up like so you were from scotland
oh yeah he could tell the cameras were
out in his building because the power
outage they call through on one from
scotland
I was like, okay,
that's a weird timing issue, but okay,
I'll let it go.
And while they are talking to this guy
in the diner,
Elizabeth hears the line cook yelling
these nonsensical orders, and she goes,
oh, interesting.
A shrill voice saying nonsensical things.
That's the same thing that Evan,
Mal's fiance,
said he heard on the phone with Mal.
And so Elizabeth shows the same waitress
that waited on Mal.
She shows her Mal's picture.
And she says, yeah, that lady was here.
She was here before the power outage in
order to like some coffee.
And so this is the moment where Mal
was talking to Evan.
So that's what we saw.
and then we didn't know which is what
the witch tells us she says also she
was here after the power came back on
and she had a whole bunch of stuff
all over her hands and she wouldn't use
all of our paper towels in the bathroom
to wash all the stuff off her hands
it's like okay interesting uh so we find
that out we now cut over to dr
mal doing coffee okay or at least like
do something
Yeah,
especially don't do anything to piss off
the wait staff to like snitch on you
when people come back in to ask about
you.
And so Mal's doing some rage therapy with
some of her clients,
smashing some very expensive items and
time for the bust.
Kaya, Beth, and Nikki are all here.
They came in to bust Dr. Mal.
They break the whole thing down,
talk about everything that happened.
But what I noticed is this is kind
of a true reveal team up from Kaya
and Elizabeth.
It's not just Elizabeth breaking it down.
It's both of them going back and forth,
breaking it down.
Kaia pushed everyone out of the room
except for Dr. Mel before they did.
Usually Elizabeth will just bust in and
they'll have this audience.
Kaia was like, get out.
Everyone out of here.
We have some things to do.
What I did notice,
which I don't know if this is, again,
another kind of continuity error,
but they single out the fact that Dr.
Mal turned the sauna on to cause a
power outage.
That's not what we saw.
We didn't see her turn the sauna on
at all.
We just saw her go to the circuit
breaker and turn the power off.
Before,
we saw her turn the power back on.
No,
because we saw her turn the power off
the breaker,
and then we saw her approaching the
motorcycle.
Yes, I know.
Order of operations would be turn on the
sauna, power goes off,
go to the circuit breaker,
turn the circuit breaker back on.
I don't know.
Interesting.
But I don't know.
Yes, I know.
The fact that Asana was mentioned by his
wife,
but we didn't see her with Asana was
a little weird.
Yeah,
I was just wondering if they shot Asana
thing and they were like,
for whatever reason, we're like, well,
that won't work.
We'll just reshoot her,
turn it off with a power breaker,
and then they just forgot to edit it
out of the scene.
I don't know.
It was weird.
But yeah, so yes.
You know, you did all this.
We
laid all that out, what you did,
and also the ring that she returned to
Evan, we examined that ring.
And we found some brake fluid in it.
That's why it was so damaged.
And it's the same brake fluid that came
from Jason's garage.
Why, Mal?
Why would you do this?
You have plenty of money.
And Mal says, but not plenty enough.
You can always have more.
She's like, what?
Basically, like,
what is a lot of money when you're
surrounded by people who have fortunes?
And Elsbeth says, I don't know.
Enough?
Yeah.
And I think that's where Elizabeth is
coming from in her wealth journey.
She's just kind of like, I have enough.
I don't need to go.
I don't need to do more.
It seems like she has a little more
than enough.
Yes, yes.
But she's not venture capitalizing.
She's not trying to do all this stuff.
She's just buying her fancy clothes,
living her fancy life.
It's like enough will be shopping at
Target.
Like more than enough is buying a outfit
that costs more than some people's rents.
But whatever.
This is beside the point.
It's just more of like we didn't really
delve.
We didn't really have time to delve into
more of Mal and her psyche of like
she came from poverty.
So it just felt like once you come
from poverty,
you feel like there's never enough because
at any moment it could all be gone.
So she has to get more and more
and more and more.
But yeah, so Mal gets arrested.
That's all done.
We then go over to a scene where
Kyah Beth is hanging out, I assume,
in Elizabeth's apartment.
Yes.
Elizabeth asks Kaya,
how did Cam take the breakup?
She's like, oh, he took it very well.
It's like, all right,
we didn't get to see it.
Well, wait,
at first I think the conversation was
like, hey, how do you take it?
At this point,
I think they're talking about the other
conversation that they had earlier.
And Kaya's like, oh,
he took it pretty well.
And she goes on and says, well,
and I can't commit to anything right now.
And I was like, oh, my God,
did you just break up with him?
I was like, what?
How did I miss this?
Yeah.
And Kaya talks about the fact that,
you know, I had,
she had a lot of, you know,
issues being undercover.
She had to hold so much in and
she's just not ready.
She's not ready to commit right now.
Different than I was single Miss Jackson.
Yeah.
Oh, so I mean,
I'm glad she had an honor,
honest conversation,
which I know Elizabeth had mentioned,
like,
you at least got to have the honest
conversation.
Um, so I'm glad she had it,
but I just think there's so much with
Kaya's story.
Like we've invested so many seasons with
this character.
And then to not get anything concrete to
really kind of understand what's going on
with her psyche at the moment.
And then knowing what you shared at the
top of like,
she's not going to be around until the
season finale.
Just, ugh,
she needs her own show for a little
bit.
Like you need like a mini series to
kind of like catch up with her.
elspeth ironically suggests kaya go to
therapy to cope we just busted a therapist
isn't that funny and then they watch an
episode of beyond the black veil so
apparently denise jackson is still into
reality tv so that's that's not even just
not with cam just not with cam for
whatever reason we still don't really know
so elspeth and kaya are rebonding over
reality tv and that's where the episode
ends you know what you know what though
you know what a breakup from cam leaves
the room for
leaves the room.
It leaves plenty of room for River Kaya
or Kayaverse.
Why do you want to hook up with
Kaya?
I don't know.
The vibe I got from the first time
River showed up and his...
like interactions with kaya was like it
gave me feelings of these two people can't
stand each other right now but later
they're gonna be together that's what it
gave me vibes of it's gonna be like
oh my gosh i went to i was
an undercover cop i changed so much oh
my gosh you were gone and i learned
how to be a normal human and not
a jerk face
exactly and you know you know who could
relate to kaya and her issues of being
a cop another cop it happens all the
time and it's like i feel like i
feel like this leaves that leaves the the
chasm open for rivers and kaya to get
together i'll let you ship that one on
your own i mean i'm not necessarily
shipping it i'm just saying i could see
if the show is going in that direction
will kaya be around enough to have a
yeah i don't know but i could just
see it i don't know maybe that's where
they'll leave us in the season finale is
like vibe more vibes between rivers and
kaya i don't know i also hope that
this was not the last we see of
cam like i mean it might be but
like it's just so weird
it's weird i don't know if it was
just like we're done with like the kaya
cam stuff we don't need cam around anymore
more of the kind of bud slashing of
like all right who can we get rid
of we can get rid of cam uh
he's not another bank over there if we
do do the kaya rivers thing rivers is
already around so we don't need cam
anymore i don't know
But yeah, Kaya's back for now.
We'll see how much longer she's in it.
We'll see if she gets assigned another
undercover operation.
I would love to see...
We saw it a little bit,
but I would love for Kaya and Ellsworth
to interact where Ellsworth has to
interact with the undercover Kaya.
We saw some in that episode where Kaya
made a quick cameo earlier in the season.
But I'd love to see a prolonged episode
where she has to act like she doesn't
know who Kaya is for a long time
in that episode.
There was one other Elsbeth, Kaya,
Kelsbeth, Kaya, what is it?
Kaya Beth.
Kaya Beth, sorry.
Kaya Beth moment that I was just like,
so Elsbeth was telling Kaya, like, hey,
you need to have this honest conversation
with someone and, or with Cam.
And she was like,
y'all like that did you with angus and
oh yeah i was like well first of
all first of all like how did you
get that communication how did you know
right like the alec thing sure fine
whatever a little bit more public but like
were they communicating how was that
information wagner like i how did that get
through but also like you don't know the
whole story like what's going on where is
this coming from kaya like what
Well, listen, maybe when we,
because we saw that further down the
episode, maybe by the time this happened,
maybe on the way to like going to
talk to Mal,
Ellsworth downloaded her on all the
information about Alec and Angus, maybe.
But yeah, listen,
this was a great episode.
Kai is back and that chemistry between Kai
and Ellsworth is still there.
They're in their PJs.
They're watching reality TV.
We're back.
I had really been thinking, like,
when Kaia was, like, off the screen,
I was like, is there something with, like,
Carrie Preston?
Yeah,
is there something with Carrie Preston and
Cara Patterson that is off?
But I, for some reason,
just felt like they are besties, like,
off screen.
Do not, do not.
juliana margulies the situation i know i
know it's like it did feel like carrie
preston was happy to have her friend back
like just just the yeah the vibes was
so good i was like yes these two
and again like this is the show guys
stop futzing with it and just make this
the show kyan ellsworth solving cases
together because
You know,
you don't have to compare her with inept
detectives.
You can just have her with the same
detective every week, just solving cases,
being great together.
No one would complain.
Everyone would celebrate.
But who knows the best to come?
I do hope we get some sort of,
like, you know,
confirmation after season four.
Like, hey, you guys loved Kaia back.
Or I'm sorry,
at the end of season three,
end of season four.
You guys love Kaia back.
Guess what?
She's back to being a series regular.
She's with Elizabeth all the time.
Everyone rejoices.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Or at least if for whatever reason,
it's not like Paramount doesn't have
enough money these days because they're
out there buying a bunch of crap.
It's never enough.
I would say if she's not on every
episode, if she's in more than three,
I would take it like just to have
that relational check in between the two
of them in a more frequent basis
throughout a season,
I think would be very good for the
show.
yeah for sure for sure uh but that
was the episode this week uh marissa can
you tell people where they can find you
what you're up to nowadays yeah you can
find me at itsmemarisag.com where there
are links to all of the things including
the youtube link for this particular
podcast um over on youtube we do have
different feeds for elspeth and for the
good wipes so if you're looking to catch
up on either one of those shows it's
a little bit easier to do over there
Um,
you can also subscribe to us there as
well.
That would help us out a real lot.
Um,
you can also find links at it's me,
Marissa g.com for my coverage on whirlwind
podcasts of pretty little liars,
which we cover when previously on at a
time.
And then my sister and I are very
slowly,
but very shortly making our way through
the final frontier by watching Star Trek,
the next generation, uh,
as our first watch over at USS sisterhood.
Um,
So that is what's going on with me.
Jason, what's going on with you?
You can find me talking trash TV,
talking relationships over on A Perfect
Match Podcast where me and Asia Welch talk
about the show Married at First Sight.
We are currently starting our rewatch of
season twelve.
We're in the early stages of that.
We've got seasons eleven, one, ten,
all in the bank for you to check
out over if you like Married at First
Sight.
Join us on Patreon at The Perfect Match
Podcast.
That's where you can find that.
Also,
I was on the Tastemakers podcast with our
mutual friend Grace Leder.
speaking of rich people speaking of taste
speaking of high society the tastemakers
uh we talked about the boys uh the
boys is like in uh is about to
wrap up but we talked about the latest
episode episode five of this season fun
episode uh we got into a lot of
nerdy account comic book material talk so
that's something for you both going over
there and listen to me and grace talk
over on the tastemakers podcast about the
boys
Yeah, that's it for me.
That's it for Marissa.
Until next time, stay good.