Warning: Contains SPOILERS for the Elsbeth season 3 finale. No matter how far she runs, Elsbeth just can't seem to escape her past. From this season's Chicago reveal to landing in jail with former foes, the titular character has had quite an eventful time since moving to New York. The season 3 finale, titled, "Ramen Holiday," sees Elsbeth solve Alex Modarian's murder from inside the prison and even includes a dream-induced musical number with her fellow inmates.

Ahead of the installment, Deadline reported that main cast member Carra Patterson would be exiting the CBS show as a series regular. Episode 20 sees her character, Kaya Blanke, prepare to depart on an undercover assignment in light of her promotion. However, this isn't the last we've seen of Blanke, as the actor has promised to return as a guest star in the already renewed third season.

I caught up with showrunner Jonathan Tolins about reuniting Elsbeth with the prisoners she put away, what Blanke's new role means for the show, and whether Angus could return in season 4.

Tolins Explains Why It Made The Most Sense For Alex Modarian To Be The Murder Victim

"It was a very 'Me Too' situation. It was extremely premeditated the way he tried to make it look like a suicide."

ScreenRant: Elsbeth is reunited with the prisoners she helped put away. Was there one in particular you thought would serve the story most to bring back?

Jonathan Tolins: I think early on we decided that Stephen Moyer, because we love Stephen Moyer, but also since he was Elsbeth's first suspect that she caught, it would be nice to have him back. And then also Alyssa Milano's character, because of the character's mafia ties, it would help us with the plot that she would have a family member who had been in the same prison.

I wrote a lot of scenes in the outline for all different characters that ended up not being able to be in the episode. It was almost like a game of clue. If we have Colonel Mustard, then he could have this motive and this alibi. It was a scheduling Jenga finding out who was available and willing to do it.

But on the whole, we thought we would end up with maybe four or five guests able to come back, and we ended up with eight, which was pretty amazing. We did lean toward using people from earlier in season 1 and earlier in season 2, so it would be more of a surprise to see them again.

Why did you choose Alex to be the victim of the murder case?

Jonathan Tolins: Partly because he was the first one, but also, when we talked about it, we needed the other prisoners to have motivation to kill the victim. And as we talked about it, Alex's murder was kind of the worst. He killed this young girl he was having an affair with to protect his job.

It was a very "Me Too" situation. It was extremely premeditated the way he tried to make it look like a suicide. And we just felt that that would p*ss off the other female prisoners in a way, and it gave us something to play and explore. Now, of course, it turns out that had nothing to do with why he gets killed, but that was sort of why we ended up going there.

That Elsbeth Musical Sequence Was Shot In Six Hours

"I think we shot it on maybe a Tuesday, and I think the rights finally came through on the Friday before."

Maybe it's just me who didn't know this, but I had no clue you could make a weapon out of ramen. I was even looking it up. How did you land on that idea?

Jonathan Tolins: I think we found somewhere online that ramen had replaced cigarettes as a common currency behind bars. And I just think there's something inherently funny in the word ramen and the fact that it's noodles. [Laughs] People in prison obsessed with ramen felt Elsbeth to me. And then someone found this video on YouTube of how to make a knife using pasta.

It's fascinating because you file it down, and it really is sharp and looks deadly. We tried to get the rights to that video, but it was made in Japan, and we never could get in with people. So that's why we created our own little tutorial to say, "This actually exists."

Obviously, our show is a little quirky, and we try to be unusual in our methods of murder, and that just felt like an opportunity for us to do a crazy ramen weapon. It also made it possible to work in the whole Chef Vive story and how Elsbeth would solve it from her cooking and the particular smells that would be on the ramen knife. I sound crazy even just saying this stuff, but that's our show.

Funnily enough, one of the most disconcerting things for me was seeing Elsbeth in a plain jumpsuit. I love that you added the pompom vest. Was that originally in the script?

Jonathan Tolins: Actually, I think in the first draft, I had that after she comes back from arts and crafts, she has painted her uniform all different colors. And Dan Lawson, our genius costume designer, said, "I'm thinking about making a pompom vest instead." I said, "Absolutely." That was a great idea.

Now what was most challenging about putting that musical sequence together?

Jonathan Tolins: Doing it in six hours. That was our last day of shooting for the season, actually. We had budgeted six hours. I think we went a little bit over, but we got it done. The hardest part was just waiting to get the rights. We were moving forward as if the rights were going to come through.

And I hope they would, and I thought they would because it really is actually an affectionate use of the original number, but it was scary because we were going so far. We were already rehearsing the choreography and stuff. I think we shot it on maybe a Tuesday, and I think the rights finally came through on the Friday before.

Kaya Will Remain A Part Of The Elsbeth World In Some Capacity

"We love her, and we love Carra, and we will have her back as often as we can."

The episode also had the added worry that Kaya and Elsbeth might not get to see each other again before she left. Did you purposely want to separate them in the finale?

Jonathan Tolins: I don't know if that was the case or it's just that we knew we had Elsbeth in prison, and we had Kaya leaving. It just felt like a natural way to add stakes to the story. Obviously, our characters wanted to get Elsbeth out as soon as they could, but that just added a little extra motivation to that. As you may have heard the expression, "a ticking clock," to get her out.

On that note, Deadline reported that Carra Patterson will not be returning as a series regular for season 3, but she'll still be a guest star. Was that a creative decision?

Jonathan Tolins: I don't want to speak for Carra. We're thrilled that the character is actually achieving this dream that the character had from the very first episode of becoming a detective. And so it does feel organic that there is some shift because they're not going to be on the same cases all the time. But again, I don't want people to get too worried. Kaya is still a part of the Elsbeth world, and we love her, and we love Carra, and we will have her back as often as we can.

Because she is in this new undercover role, will she still get to work with Elsbeth, or will it be a friendship outside of that?

Jonathan Tolins: I don't know yet. [Laughs] I'm on my brief break between seasons, and then the writers' room will start up again on May 19th, and I'm trying not to predetermine. I want to let us start the conversation and see where we go.

Ethan Slater's Officer Chandler has started working with Elsbeth. What did you want to accomplish with this specific dynamic that’s been introduced? How will it shake up season 3?

Jonathan Tolins: I will say that once Kaya was promoted, we decided we wanted to start to do, with the uniformed officers, something like what we do with our detectives. We've developed, over time, a stable of detective characters who we kind of rotate through.

We have all these different detectives, and each one is a really great character, and we're starting to do that with uniformed officers too, except that you don't know which one is going to pop up in the next case. So we introduced B as Nikki Reynolds and Ethan Slater as Reese Chandler. We'll probably have some more too.

The one thing I will say is I have no intention of shoehorning someone into being "the new Kaya," because that was a very special character and relationship, and again, she's not disappearing from the world. But I'm sure we'll have some new relationships that Elsbeth is going to build in season 3.

Tolins Isn't Ready To Pair Up Elsbeth (But A Romance With Angus Could Still Be Possible)

"I would love to have him come back and visit New York again or take the show to Scotland."

Speaking of relationships, fans love the romance between Elsbeth and Angus. Is that chapter closed?

Jonathan Tolins: All I'll say is, I hope it's not closed. I would love to have Ioan [Gruffudd] back on, and I think he's interested. I would love to have him come back and visit New York again or take the show to Scotland. Although I will say that we are not looking to sort of pair up Elsbeth.

I think one of the things about our show is that this is a woman who's reinvented herself, who is divorced, and is really focused on her work and not looking to be permanently attached to another person. And I think that's fresh and true to the character. But yes, we love Angus, and I would love to see him back on.

I love that you leave Elsbeth on an optimistic note. I'm a huge proponent of shows that make you feel good. What makes you value that over shocking cliffhangers that other series tend to end on?

Jonathan Tolins: I guess I'm just taking the lead from the character and from Carrie Preston. There's a certain kindness and joy and enthusiasm there that I always want to honor, and I think that's what makes our show special. Also, in this finale, I've had so many people come to me and say, about the show, "Oh, Elsbeth is just what we need right now."

And so I kind of wrote to that in the final speech where she recognizes that this is where she's needed, and she's going to stick it out, and redouble her efforts to do the right thing. And that was very moving to me. So that's where that comes from.

Is there anything you can tease about overarching storylines in season 3?

Jonathan Tolins: No. [Laughs] I really don't know yet. All I know is that I do think that Judge Crawford set some things in motion, like we saw in episode 218, and those may not be played out yet.

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More About Elsbeth Season 2 On CBS

Based On The Character Featured In The Good Wife And The Good Fight

Emmy Award winner Carrie Preston is back as Elsbeth Tascioni, the astute but unconventional consent decree attorney working with the NYPD to catch New York’s most well-heeled murderers utilizing her unique point of view. Season two of the critically acclaimed series brings new cases and challenges when mistakes of the past come back to haunt Elsbeth, her boss Captain Wagner (Wendell Pierce), and detective in training Officer Kaya Blanke (Carra Patterson).

Check out our other Elsbeth season 2 interviews here:

• Cast & Showrunners At NYCC 2024
• Ben Levi Ross
• Carrie Preston
• Jonathan Tolins

Elsbeth season 2 is currently available to stream on Paramount+.