‘Elsbeth’ Sneak Peek: Christine Ebersole Debuts as Elsbeth’s Mom

It’s hard to put Elsbeth Tascioni (Carrie Preston) in a bad mood, but Elsbeth Season 4 is introducing the person with the most power to stress her out: her mother. Christine Ebersole makes her debut as Lydia Guðmundsdóttir in Elsbeth Season 4 Episode 3, and we have your first look at her first scene in the video above featuring Ben Levi Ross as Teddy Tascioni.

Elsbeth is doing some last-minute tidying before her mom arrives to her New York City apartment for the first time. The Season 4 premiere teased that Teddy has a less confrontational relationship with his grandma than Elsbeth does right now, and that difference in tension is clear once Lydia walks up the apartment stairs and delivers some backhanded compliments about the “cozy” space almost immediately.

“If you remember in Season 2, when Elsbeth saw the psychic played by Tracey Ullman, there was talk about how Elsbeth had this really magical connection with her grandmother,” Elsbeth showrunner Jonathan Tolins told TV Insider.

“The implication was that other people in her family didn’t quite understand Elsbeth,” he continued. “We are being true to that in that Lydia, Elsbeth’s mother, is a recognizable Midwestern mom who doesn’t know what to make of her daughter. You have these two women who love each other but are always having difficulty understanding each other, and it’s a lot of fun, and she’s really great.”

Michael Parmelee/CBS

No one has a talent for “getting under Elsbeth’s skin all the time” quite like Lydia, Tolins said, “making her doubt herself, which is hard to see.”

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“It’s like all of us when we’re with our parents; no matter how old we are, they can just push our buttons and make us regress,” he noted.

Elsbeth Season 4 Episode 3, “Consciously Unsistered,” airs on Thursday, October 22, at 9/8c on CBS. It guest stars Girls alum Jemima Kirke.

Here’s the official logline: “When a former pop star is murdered, Elsbeth probes the bitter sibling rivalry between the victim and her lifestyle mogul sister (Jemima Kirke). Meanwhile, Elsbeth’s mother Lydia comes to visit.”

Meet Lydia in the Elsbeth Episode 3 sneak peek above. She’ll be back in Episode 4, which features the series debut of Erika Woods (Wendell Pierce‘s longtime partner) and Damian Young as Yvette and Glenn Stratton (above), parents of Teddy’s fiancé, Roy (Hayward Leach).

Elsbeth, Thursdays, 9/8c, CBS