YMMV / Elsbeth

• Catharsis Factor:
  • Even before discovering she killed her own husband because he was going to leave her, seeing the head of the apartment building's co-op board Gloria Blecher from "A Classic New York Character" fall to her death after how much of an unrelenting and unpleasant person she was is still pretty satisfying though.
  • After how much of a petty; raging Alpha Bitch she's been, seeing Gemma Nelson from "Sweet Justice" finally get dumped by her long-suffering boyfriend and exposed in an embarrassing video online definitely feels like the appropriate Laser-Guided Karma she both deserves and has been asking for for a long time.
• Crosses the Line Twice: In "Something Blue", Ashton, the murderer, decides to kill his future son-in-law when he realizes the guy can't be trusted to keep quiet about the family's criminal activities. Ashton and his wife fret over having to get rid of him, since their beloved daughter Nora obviously really loves him. Ashton tuts that, obviously, he can't kill the guy before the wedding—Nora deserves to have the wedding of her dreams! So he'll kill him after the ceremony. Because, in his words, she can recover from a dead husband, but not the humiliation of a canceled wedding. Note that "after the ceremony" means about an hour after.
• Diagnosed by the Audience: Elsbeth displays a lot of unusual quirks, but the most that stand out is her inability to read social cues, her hyperfixation on certain topics, her logical thinking, comfort objects in the form of multiple handbags and No Sense of Personal Space all point to her being somewhere in the autism spectrum.
• Shipping: A following for Elsbeth/Kaya sprouted up immediately when the first season started, especially since there's a lot of focus given to the two women's growing friendship. There's also a lot of appeal in them being a Gleeful and Grumpy Pairing.
• Tearjerker:
  • The very end of the scene in "Artificial Genius" when Quinn is exposed as a murderer and arrested has a surprisingly sad moment, when Lina, Quinn's employee, runs over to the wall where all of Quinn's photos and positive press coverage is pinned up. She starts ripping it all down without a word, before collapsing to sit on the floor, looking like she's about to start crying. Lina really believed in Quinn, only to find out she was a fraud and a murderer—and she used Lina to direct suspicion away from herself. What happened to Josh was in no way Lina's fault, but because Quinn manipulated her, Lina's likely going to feel that guilt forever.
  • After helping Wagner to expose and arrest Noonan for his corruption and clearing Wagner's name at the end of "Sweet Justice", Wagner is still pretty mad at Elsbeth for betraying his trust and demands she leave his precinct, not wanting to see her again.