‘So Help Me Todd’ Casts ‘Happy Endings’ Alum Eliza Coupe as the Mysterious Veronica

Skylar Astin; Eliza Coupe
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Lindsay Siu/CBS; Deb Gaylor

We’ll be meeting the elusive Wright sibling Lawrence (Matthew Wilkas) in So Help Me Todd‘s Thanksgiving episode, but there’s even juicier news: The CBS dramedy will soon introduce us to the other character we’ve been dying to meet since the show’s September debut: Veronica!

Eliza Coupe (Happy Endings, Reboot) has been cast as the private eye/mentor who seduced and deceived Todd (Skylar Astin) two years ago, making him believe that they were equal partners in their detective agency when she was really setting him up to be the fall guy for her illegal wiretapping and forgery.

Todd’s mother, law partner Margaret Wright (Marcia Gay Harden), kept him out of jail but he was stripped of his P.I. license. In the series opener, Margaret hired him as an investigator at her firm and he’s been working on her cases — whether he’s actually assigned to or not — ever since.

Coupe’s Veronica will appear in the January 5 episode, the show’s winter premiere. When Margaret finds herself on the verge of losing a case involving the murder of a prominent, investigative journalist, Todd secretly turns to his imprisoned ex-girlfriend for help.

Astin’s been looking forward to the characters’ reunion. “I just think that adds a really wonderful color to Todd. He [typically] meets people with a lot of strength, a lot of snark, a lot of sarcasm. And with Veronica, Todd is putty,” he says. “She is femme fatale-level. So to watch him overcome that, to battle the resentment that’s built up — there’s a lot to play there. I’m excited to see how it shakes out!”

So Help Me Todd, Thursdays, 9/8c, CBS