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ELSBETH’s Michael Emerson Warns Crawford is ‘a Man on a Mission’

April 23, 2025 by  

ELSBETH Michael Emerson return

“I Know What You Did Thirty-Three Summers Ago” – As Judge Milton Crawford (Michael Emerson) inches closer to becoming a federal judge, Elsbeth searches his past to prove he’s a murderer before it’s too late, but Elsbeth’s attempts to take Crawford down puts everyone around her in jeopardy. Meanwhile, Teddy considers following in his mother’s professional footsteps, on the CBS original series ELSBETH, Thursday, April 24 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network, and streaming on Paramount+ (live and on demand for Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers, or on demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the episode airs)* Pictured (L-R): Michael Emerson as Judge Milton Crawford and Carrie Preston as Elsbeth Tascioni Photo: Michael Parmelee/CBS ©2025 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

ELSBETH’s Milton Crawford (Michael Emerson) returns in a major way on the Thursday, April 24 episode of the CBS drama, as Crawford goes through the vetting process to become a federal judge. (The series moves to its new 9/8c time slot with this episode.)

“He’s a man on a mission,” Emerson warns Give Me My Remote. “He’s on the verge of his every dream coming true, and there’s a pest out there trying to spoil it and distract him from the pleasure of this great victory. And so he’s got to spend—against his will—a bunch of time, energy, and capital to fend off this pest, Elsbeth, who is trying to make trouble for him and muddy the waters of his ambition.”

Crawford and Elsbeth (Carrie Preston) first crossed paths late last year when Elsbeth was assigned jury duty—and the lawyer quickly realized the judge was throwing the murder case they were assigned. (Crawford secretly killed the man in question.) As a member of the jury, Elsbeth was limited by what she could do about the unethical trial antics she saw, but she was able to convince her peers there was reasonable doubt.

Naturally, Crawford was unhappy Elsbeth thwarted the trial, leaving the murder case officially still unresolved. The duo have circled each other for months, trading barbs and trying to find dirt that could take the other one down.

Now, with Crawford on the verge of getting even more power, the stakes have been raised. And Elsbeth has proven to be quite the formidable foe for the judge.

“I think he hopes that it can all be done through the system,” Emerson notes of Crawford’s attempts to out-maneuver Elsbeth. “That he [can] leverage old relationships or present-day relationships. That he can call in [favors], that he can smear her in some way, that he can revive old cases, old problems of legal protocols. Things where maybe he could make it appear that she took expediencies, or stretched the law at some point.”

“He’s gonna call her to account for all her past, if he can,” he continues. “And he has the connections to dig that stuff up. And so he’s going to throw enough stuff at her that maybe she will become distracted or discouraged.”


ELSBETH Michael Emerson return

“I Know What You Did Thirty-Three Summers Ago” – As Judge Milton Crawford (Michael Emerson) inches closer to becoming a federal judge, Elsbeth searches his past to prove he’s a murderer before it’s too late, but Elsbeth’s attempts to take Crawford down puts everyone around her in jeopardy. Meanwhile, Teddy considers following in his mother’s professional footsteps, on the CBS original series ELSBETH, Thursday, April 24 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network, and streaming on Paramount+ (live and on demand for Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers, or on demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the episode airs)* Pictured (L-R): Meredith Holzman as Delia, Carrie Preston as Elsbeth Tascioni, and Michael Emerson as Judge Milton Crawford Photo: Michael Parmelee/CBS ©2025 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

As Elsbeth and the team race against the clock in the present day, the show also flashes back to a young Crawford (played by Ethan Dubin) and a defining incident in his life. Though Emerson hadn’t seen the flashbacks at the time of the interview, “I read the script so I know what happens—but that’s not the same as seeing how this younger incarnation of the judge…looks and breathes and what flashes across his face as he becomes less human,” he notes. “Or when he gives way to his violent or sociopathic impulses…I hear [it was] really effective. And I’ll be curious to see it.”

Emerson saw photos of Dubin thanks to Preston—his long-time real-life wife—and he was pleased by what he saw. “I said, ‘Oh yeah, he looks good for the part,’” he recalls. “‘He looks kind of intense.’”

Though Emerson says he knew from the start that Crawford’s initial crime was major, the flashbacks allowed for it to be “spelled out so plainly and in such detail, it made the picture a little more complete,” he teases. “[It makes] the villainy a little more complete, a little more unambiguous, a little more perfectly evil.”

“And that’s good,” he continues. “Now we don’t have to pussyfoot around about him being ‘misunderstood,’ or having had childhood problems. Or it’s just something psychological or something like that. Well, it’s certainly psychological, but so is evil. We’re dealing with a full-on bad guy. And a guy that is unreformed.”

ELSBETH, Thursdays, 9/8c, CBS

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