Warning: spoilers are ahead for the Season 3 premiere of Elsbeth on CBS, called "Yes, And..." and available streaming now with a Paramount+ subscription.
Elsbeth Tascioni made her triumphant return to primetime in the 2025 TV schedule, closing her first case of Season 3 while jet-lagged, dealing with unexpected budget constraints at the office, and moving forward without Kaya as her full-time partner. News broke in late Season 2 that Kaya's promotion to detective would facilitate Carra Patterson's exit as a series regular, and the premiere provided an update on her off-screen adventures. Fortunately, Carrie Preston spoke with CinemaBlend about Kaya and the rest of Season 3.
Upon her return from Scotland and her rendezvous with the dreamy (and also sadly off-screen) Angus, Elsbeth got an update on Kaya's status from Cameron: she completed her training for undercover work, and has started her first undercover assignment. While Elsbeth wasn't jumping for joy at not having her best friend on hand at work anymore, Cameron shared that Kaya sounds "pretty damn happy" with her professional life.
Working undercover doesn't mean that the duo will never see each other again. When I chatted with Carrie Preston about joining forces with Stephen Colbert for the Season 3 premiere, she also opened up about getting back to work without Carra Patterson as a regular:
That was sad. Right before we started shooting, I reached out to Carra. I gave her a call, and I was like, 'Oh, we're going to miss you so much!' And then my first day on set, I texted her and said, 'We miss you but we can't wait to see you!' She'll be back.
Yes, Kaya will be back! Even if Elsbeth ends up spending most of Season 3 partnering with others, Carra Patterson didn't leave the show for good. In fact, we already know precisely when Kaya will appear again, and the wait isn't too long. Patterson will appear in the third episode of the season, airing on October 23. Take a look at the two former partners hanging out again:
Called "Good Grief," the episode also features Julia Fox as a "grief influencer" whose presumed-dead husband turns out to be not so dead after all, while Elsbeth's encounter with Kaya is described in CBS' logline as a "surprise reunion." It could expose an undercover operation, so that surprise may not be a good one for Kaya.
In fact, that goes a long way to explain an Instagram photo that Carrie Preston shared over the summer, in which she's dressed in her Elsbeth best while Patterson is wearing a name tag that says "Denise Jackson." Will Elsbeth run into Kaya while she's pretending to be Denise?
While we can only wait to see how warm their reunion is in Episode 3, Carrie Preston went on to highlight one relationship that is still going strong for Elsbeth with Kaya gone. The leading lady shared:
Elsbeth is having to deal with her bestie not being with her at work. Luckily, she has Captain Wagner, and the two of them are pretty solid right now. Whatever that trust issue they had in Season 1 is long gone, and so that's great. You know, every episode, we get these new criminals to come in, these murderers that come in, and Elsbeth is busy with that. She loves her work, and she puts her whole heart and soul into her work, and that's her life and her passion. And I can relate to that.
The frostiness between them after Wagner learned that Elsbeth betrayed him back in Season 1 has entirely melted away by the beginning of Season 3, and it sounds like viewers can count on seeing plenty more of Carrie Preston and Wendell Pierce sharing the screen moving forward. My fingers are crossed that we see all three together in a few scenes of Episode 3 when Carra Patterson appears as a guest star!
Elsbeth returns to its usual time slot on Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET starting on Thursday, October 16, with an episode featuring Arrested Development's David Cross as an ex-con who turns a toy store into a hostage situation. Despite this only being the second episode of Season 3, Cross will be the fourth comedian to guest star after the premiere featured Amy Sedaris and Andy Richter as well as Stephen Colbert. As for Carra Patterson as Kaya, be sure not to miss Elsbeth's October 23 episode.
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