One of the trademarks of the eponymous lead of Elsbeth is that she carries a lot of bags. The character has been known for her eccentricity since she first appeared on The Good Wife, though she now uses her quirks to help her solve homicides for the NYPD. Elsbeth season 2 will continue to focus on these types of lighthearted mysteries and play into the title character’s idiosyncrasies, which make it a far different show from the ones it was spun off from.
While Elsbeth has not featured other characters from The Good Wife, the title character has the same personality and strange habits as she did on that show, including carrying a lot of bags. Elsbeth’s quirks often endear her to potential suspects, which allows her to build rapport with them while digging into who might be guilty of murder. However, carrying bags is more than just a quirk for its own sake, and Elsbeth has a specific reason for carrying them while she is investigating murders.
Elsbeth Carries So Many Bags Because It’s Part Of Her Work Process
She Uses Bags To Carry Everything She Might Need For A Given Investigation
At any given moment, Elsbeth carries up to three bags with her. The bags tend to be of different sizes and colors that match her unique fashion sense for that time. Each bag contains a number of seemingly random items that she can take out as needed while working a case, and she often surprises others by carrying something with her that most people would not expect her to have while investigating. The bags could contain anything from case files to unusually long measuring tapes.
Carrie Preston explained that Elsbeth has “bags in her brain” (via Deadline). She has compartmentalized all the information she has learned over the years and pulls it out when she needs to in order to solve a case. This process is analogous to carrying her bags, which contain items she needs to help prove her point or investigate a particular lead. Elsbeth packs the bags each day with items that she thinks she may need, based on the vast wealth of information about the case she has stored in her brain.
How Elsbeth’s Multiple Bags Help Her Do Her Job Better
She Is Prepared And Organized Even Though Suspects Don’t Realize It
Elsbeth is able to do whatever she needs to while on a case because she is carrying multiple bags that have all the supplies she may need; as quirky as they seem, they’re vital to her process. She is never unprepared or unable to pursue a lead, although occasionally the bags get in her way or knock something over. The bags have a secondary purpose, however: they allow her to catch suspects off-guard because she comes across as a non-threatening person with strange habits. Thus, suspects are unaware of how prepared and organized she is.
When she has finally solved the case, Elsbeth doesn’t need her bags and usually leaves them at home before traveling to the suspect’s house to confront them.
Suspects often learn too late that Elsbeth is far from scatterbrained despite her habit of carrying so many bags. When she has finally solved the case, she doesn’t need her bags and usually leaves them at home before traveling to the suspect’s house to confront them. This helps reveal to the suspect that she was far more serious a threat than they realized and that her bag carrying habit did not point to an inability to find and understand the truth. Thus, Elsbeth’s bag-carrying habit will likely not change in Elsbeth season 2, as it works well for her.
Source: Deadline