Michael Emerson Teases Final ‘Elsbeth’ With Wife Carrie Preston: ‘We Were Ready for Writing This Strong’

It’s been a treat to watch real-life spouses Carrie Preston and Michael Emerson face off as foes in Elsbeth‘s second season, but all good things must come to an end. Emerson’s final appearance as Judge Milton Crawford airs this Thursday, April 24, at a special time, 9/8c, on CBS. Every remaining episode of the season will air at 9/8c, with the Season 2 finale airing on Thursday, May 8. In a preview for his last stand with Carrie Preston’s Elsbeth Tascioni, Michael Emerson tells TV Insider that the episode is “laced with danger.” While their onscreen dynamic is that of rivals, the husband and wife have had a thrilling ride as costars. “We were ready for writing this strong,” he says of sharing the screen this season.

Viewers have known since Emerson’s debut episode (Season 2 Episode 7, “One Angry Woman”) that Crawford’s guilty of murder. Elsbeth has been suspicious of the judge ever since she served as a juror in the case against Delia Kirby (Meredith Holzman), who stood accused of murdering her lover, Andrew (Quincy Dunn-Baker). But the audience knows it was Crawford who killed Andy and framed Delia, making his presiding over this case a truly evil conflict of interest. Elsbeth isn’t sure what exactly Crawford is guilty of, but she is sure that he’s dangerous and needs to be stopped, and Captain Wagner (Wendell Pierce) and Kaya (Carra Patterson) are committed to helping the cause after they’ve seen Crawford’s abuses of power to thwart Elsbeth’s work firsthand.

As implied in the episode’s title, “I Know What You Did Thirty-Three Summers Ago,” fans will meet the young Crawford in flashbacks that connect to the present day. Elsbeth is the closest she’s ever been to taking Crawford down when this hour begins, but Crawford is still hard to beat. And with a Supreme Court nomination on the line, he’s hellbent on eliminating every obstacle in his path.

“She’s the smartest adversary he’s ever had, and he’s a formidable and dangerous man, so I think particularly this last episode, it’s laced with danger,” Emerson tells TV Insider. “The threat level is very high, and we keep waiting for something to maybe explode or someone to gain, someone to make a move that thwarts the other. But it doesn’t work out easily like that for either of them. It’s a good matchup. Both of them are highly challenged. They’re both super skillful and smart. It boils down to power and connections, as so many things do.”

Michael Emerson and Carrie Preston behind the scenes of Emerson’s final episode of ‘Elsbeth’ (Michael Parmelee / CBS)

The NYPD’s connections pale in comparison to the power apparatus at Crawford’s disposal through his network of judges and attorneys general nationwide. But “Elsbeth is relentless, and she’s building a story in her mind,” Emerson explains, and the Crawford flashbacks will serve “a narrative she’s building with very few pieces” about his past and how it connects to Delia’s case in the present. “Bit by bit, if she sticks with it, it begins to hold together and certain things begin to be explicable,” Emerson reveals, adding that, “the connections she’s finding, they go every which way: time and space, office, power, connections, social life, professional life, all of that.”

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Was Crawford born wicked, or did he have wickedness thrust upon him? The flashbacks will answer that question, but Emerson offers his take. “He is the person we know him to be already,” the actor teases. “I think he’s not a good person, but he gets by. I think there are people with power and influence in our culture that are not good people, but they get by.”

Crawford already used his power and connections to expose the scandal that made Elsbeth leave Chicago at the start of the series, and he’ll flex his power again in this last installment. Elsbeth will find herself downtrodden once more, but she never gives up hope.

“It’s a game of chess between the two of them,” Emerson reveals. Elsbeth’s “the intrepid investigator, always finding a new angle, always following up clues no one would’ve ever dreamt about, things that he wasn’t prepared originally to defend himself against,” he says. “But he can pick up the phone and make things happen, not just in her New York City present, but in her old life as well in Chicago. And he can keep her off balance. He can give her more problems than she may want to have and maybe wear her down eventually.”

Wagner is not without power in the city himself, and he’ll use his resources to further their cause. This episode will prove once and for all if this villain who’s about to ascend to the nation’s highest court can be struck down by the very criminal justice system over which he presides.

“They are law enforcement officers, but a judgeship, it’s a big thing,” Emerson warns. “And [Crawford’s] history, his connectivity is hard to touch. It runs deeper and more complexly than they can grapple with altogether.”

Emerson’s final scene in the episode was the last scene he filmed, a rarity in TV production. What was husband Emerson thinking while acting out his final scene on his wife’s show? “I was thinking, this has gone very well. This is playing out well,” Emerson says. “We were ready for writing this strong, and when we got it, we could play it.”

Elsbeth, Returns Thursday, April 24, 9/8c, CBS