ELSBETH Post-Mortem: Jonathan Tolins on the Biggest Moments from 'Ramen Holiday' and What's to Come - Give Me My Remote : Give Me My Remote

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ELSBETH Post-Mortem: Jonathan Tolins on the Biggest Moments from ‘Ramen Holiday’ and What’s to Come

May 8, 2025 by  

Elsbeth season 2 finale spoilers

“Ramen Holiday” – Elsbeth finds herself in prison with some of the same high-class criminals she put away. When one of them is stabbed to death, Elsbeth sets out to find the killer’s killer, while her colleagues back at the precinct fight to get her released, on the season two finale of the CBS original series ELSBETH, Thursday, May 8 (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): Carrie Preston as Elsbeth Tascioni, Mary-Louise Parker as Freya Frostad, Alyssa Milano as Pupetta Del Ponte, Gina Gershon as Vanessa Holmes, Elizabeth Lail as Quinn Powers, Retta as Margo, and Donna Lynne Champlin as Mama Martin Photo: Michael Parmelee/CBS ©2025 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

[Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Thursday, May 8 season finale of ELSBETH.]

Though Elsbeth (Carrie Preston) was imprisoned largely due to a judge blaming her for the death of his friend/fellow judge, Crawford (Michael Emerson), the lawyer managed to utilize her time productively on the Thursday, May 8 season finale of ELSBETH. 

In “Ramen Holiday,” Alex (Stephen Moyer)—the first killer Elsbeth caught when she started working with the NYPD for the consent decree—wound up dead, and many of the other foes she put away were suspects. (The actual killer? Donna Lynne Champlin‘s warden.)

As Elsbeth solved the crime, Kaya (Carra Patterson) and Wagner (Wendell Pierce) fought to get their friend out of prison…an important task no matter what, but even more time-sensitive because Kaya had to leave for a new job.

Elsbeth ultimately reunited with her team, and she gave a passionate speech (at Kaya’s prompting), praising Kaya’s new mission and the team staying behind to continue with their work.

But what comes next? Here, ELSBETH showrunner Jonathan Tolins breaks down the season 2 finale with Give Me My Remote and previews what may be coming in season 3.

To dig deeper into what you shared about crafting the episode: What was the process like in writing this episode before you actually had the full cast? 
Well, we did go after certain people as early as possible. We tried to nail down Stephen Moyer, because he was going to be the victim and that would be very important. And Alyssa Milano, we needed pretty early on because we knew that that character’s Mafia ties would play into the story.

And then…in the original outline that I wrote, I had several scenes with characters who ended up not being able to come back. So everyone, I knew what their story would be, what their piece of the puzzle was like.  

Here’s the thing: I mean, to talk really nuts and bolts, the fact that the murderer ultimately turned out not to be one of our people, that made it easy, because all of the things you explored—their motivation and their alibi—ultimately were meaningless. That was sort of the trick. 

Two of your guest stars—Ethan Slater and Champlin—are obviously very big in the musical theater world. Was there ever any intention of having the episode be more musically centered or working them into the big “Cell Block Tango” number? 
No, “Cell Block Tango” was always the idea. Also, we could totally justify that Elsbeth is like Roxie Hart, and she sort of dreams this musical version of these murderesses that she’s there with.

To start having musical numbers in the precinct would be another level of breaking the form that I wasn’t interested in at this point. Maybe down the road we’ll do a more full-length musical episode. [Laughs.] This was practice.

I know Donna Lynne Champlin is a great musical performer, but just the character wasn’t conceived that way. I cast her, basically, because I love her so much in THE PERFECT COUPLE where she played a similar kind of character. And I think she’s the best at that right now. And so I just asked her to do it.

I have to say, our show, we don’t really write to performers other than our regulars. We write the script and story that we feel good about, and then we cast it. This was obvious, a little different, that we’re bringing people back, but I always believe very strongly in the Sondheim dictum, which is content dictates form. And knowing that an actor can sing is not the content, the story is the content.

Looking at the final scene, what can you share about the tone you wanted to strike there in getting to pay respects to Patterson—who is leaving the series as a regular—and Kaya, but also making it clear that the show itself is not changing?
Well, finales are sentimental to me because even though we’re fortunate enough to be coming back for another season, we’ve run this marathon, we’ve made 20 episodes all together as a group. And so it was kind of the final party and the chance for everyone to say goodbye for a while. 

But so many people have come to me and said, “Oh, ELSBETH is just what we need right now.” I hear that all the time. And I wanted to sort of play with that and honor that in Elsbeth’s speech—that she recognizes that her brand of kindness and intelligence and enthusiasm is needed right now in the world. So she’s going to stay; she’s not going anywhere. She’s going to keep at it. And that was moving to me. I think Elsbeth is a force for good, and so that’s what I was trying to do.

Elsbeth was confined to the prison for most of the episode, so she wasn’t able to see most of the people she loves. What can you share about the decision to do that and whether there were any other versions of the episode where Wagner, Teddy, and Kaya were able to come visit her during the hour?
Well, we like the stakes inherent in the fact that she couldn’t see them, and would she get out in time to say goodbye to Kaya? It gave us a nice ticking clock. And we did have a nice scene of Kaya and Wagner visiting her in jail at the end of 2×19, the previous episode. 

Again, though, a lot of it is just a function of, if you’ve got 43 minutes, and I’ve got eight former guest stars on the show who all need their moments, we like the idea of, okay, that’s what’s going on in prison. Meanwhile, we have this whole other mission to get her out in time. So that’s how it just broke down naturally that way.

How did you land on which prisoners you wanted to interact given you couldn’t do something like a chemistry test before pairing them up on-screen?
There was no chemistry testing. We trusted all these people. I mean, everyone has their own cell, except we put Vanessa and Freya in the cell together. Part of that is because they were both the two lesbian characters, which is funny…Freya killed her husband to be with their female throuple partner. But the set that Nick Francone designed, there would be some cells that were singles and some doubles. And since Freya had been in a throuple, it’s funny when she says, “I got stuck in a double.” And most things on our show start out as a silly joke in the room, and then we just pursue them.

But a lot of it is whatever strikes our fancy. I mean, there was something funny about having both Vanessa and Joe, the bartender, fixated on Quinn, who’s like the pretty young blonde in prison, and competing for her affections. Things like that. Anything that just made us that [amused and go], “Yeah, that’s what would happen.”

Looking ahead to season 3, Crawford played such a huge role in this season. From what you know, do you anticipate having any kind of longer arcing stories next season, in a similar way? And what kind of fallout might continue on given the damage Crawford did before he was killed?
Well, Crawford did set some things in motion before he died that were putting the pressure on the precinct and an investigation into Wagner. I think we will want to deal with repercussions of those things. I did like having that long arc this season. So I’m very interested in seeing what other arc we can come up with for season 3. But I don’t know what it is yet.

Do you anticipate picking up pretty close to where we left off? Or would you like a bit of a time jump to give everyone a little bit of time to get adjusted to Kaya’s absence?
We will start talking about that on May 19. I mean, between season 1 and 2, we did sort of say that we had taken a summer break, and that kind of worked in an interesting way. The nice thing about doing that is that it feels [like you’re] sticking closer to reality, season-wise, and all that kind of thing. But I’m trying to stay really open going into the writers’ room in season 3.

One of the fun things that you guys got to explore this season was the Teddy of it all. What are your hopes about what you want to see of that relationship going forward?
I love Teddy, and I love Ben Levi Ross as Teddy. And I also really love Hayward Leach as Roy. I do think they’ll probably become maybe even a more prominent part of the show, just because I think they’re wonderful, and Elsbeth’s relationship with her son is a really great, warm, fun part of the show. 

We haven’t decided yet what Teddy…Teddy turned away from a possible career as a lawyer, and we haven’t decided yet [what he’ll do]. Teddy and the writers are still figuring that out.

There was the comment about him being a detective…
I know. Well, he played that moment so well. It makes you go hmm.

As you head into season 3, what is your biggest hope for what you hope to get to do next season?
I guess what I’m hoping is that there are as many fun surprises next season for all of us as there were this season.

ELSBETH, Thursdays, 9/8c, CBS

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