Warning: spoilers are ahead for the fall finale of Elsbeth Season 3, called "A Hard Nut to Crack" and available streaming with a Paramount+ subscription.
The final episode of Elsbeth in the 2025 TV schedule has aired on CBS, and "A Hard Nut To Crack" was a reminder that the show (now billed as a comedy) packs in some extra fun in holiday-themed murder mysteries. After SNL alum Vanessa Bayer guest-starred as woman who killed her husband last season, Broadway star and I Don't Understand You vet Andrew Rannells was on board for some bloodshed this time around, involving a take on The Nutcracker so absurdly twisted that this may go down as one of my favorite episodes. Only on Elsbeth!
How Elsbeth Season 3 Celebrated The Holidays
"A Hard Nut To Crack" is the second episode this season with what struck me as an especially long cold open, but like with the one that featured Dianne Wiest as a murderous nun, that wasn't a bad thing. The episode opened on the board of the Midtown Ballet Company discussing a new take on The Nutcracker that would be produced this year, and it was... unconventional, to say the least, to the dismay of ambitious stage dad Harris Parson (Andrew Rannells). Here's how Donovan Chase, the avant-garde choreographer who was ruffling some feathers, described his new vision for the traditional Christmas performance:
I bring you 'Drosselmeyer's Revenge,' a modern pop-goth ballet about the terror of a young girl reaching puberty. If you read E.T.A. Hoffmann's original Nutcracker story, you'll see that this is the true theme of the piece. As I'm sure you know, or you've read in the Times, I prefer a stripped-down production.
Even if you've never seen The Nutracker, you may know enough of the whimsical Christmas production to know that "modern pop-goth" is not a typical description, and the scary sequences are traditionally pretty brief (and rodent-themed). Donovan Chase went on to explain the central set piece that basically looked like an evil giant nutcracker head:
My team calls it 'The Contraption.' Equipped with AI sensors, the mouth opens and closes with the motion of the dancers as they leap through it to the Land of Acid... Lucky for us, there are no children in Drosselmeyer's Revenge. And no nuts, I'm allergic. That [lead] role is split between prepubescent Clara and teenaged Marie, both played by dancers in their 40s. And another thing – there will be blood. Lots of blood.
Like when I was kind of on Nathan Lane's character's side back in Season 2, I'm with Andrew Rannells' Harris protesting "No Sugar Plum Fairies? No magical Christmas tree?" While he had the support of a ballet teacher who pointed out that their "Nutcracker ticket sales fund the company for the entire year," they were outvoted and Drosselmeyer's Revenge was set for the Christmas production of the year. Admittedly, Harris' deeper motive was wanting his young daughter to get the lead role of Clara, but I saw where he was coming from.
Donovan Chase was right about one thing: there was lots of blood after Harris sabotaged the Contraption to chomp down on him and end his life. Harris was ultimately successful in using Donovan's death to get the production switched back to the normal Nutcracker with his daughter as Clara, but he only got a glimpse of her performance before Elsbeth and Co. carted him off to jail for the murder.
Why It Has Made My Christmas Merrier
I'll come right out and say it: I love The Nutcracker, going back to when I was a kid. I'll even listen to Tchaikovsky's score for the ballet just to enjoy it. Like the Elsbeth killer of the week, I like seeing Sugar Plum Fairies and magical Christmas trees and Clara's (or Marie's) journey through the Land of Sweets on the arm of the Nutcracker prince. What can I say? I spend enough time watching crime dramas that a little bit of whimsy isn't wasted on me!
So, I knew I was going to love the comedy of "A Hard Nut To Crack" as soon as Donovan Chase named his take on The Nutcracker as Drosselmeyer's Revenge. In the ballet, Drosselmeyer is a magician and toymaker who delights in distributing toys to all the children at a Christmas party. In some productions, he's also seen conducting Clara around the Land of Sweets.
The closest that he comes to any kind of revenge is fixing the toy nutcracker after Clara's brother breaks it in the beginning! There's no blood, no 40-year-olds playing the lead girl, and definitely no evil Nutcracker head set piece threatening to chomp on the dancers. Kudos to Sarah Beckett and Anju Andre-Bergmann as the Elsbeth writers credited for the episode that introduced me to Drosselmeyer's Revenge.
Of course, the biggest problem facing the leading lady in the 2026 TV schedule isn't nearly as silly as Drosselmeyer's Revenge, with Teddy and Captain Wagner discovering some holes in Alec Bloom's story, just as Elsbeth was getting closer to him. Unfortunately, fans are in for a wait to see what's next, as Elsbeth won't be back until Thursday, February 26 in the new year. In the meantime, you can always revisit earlier episodes streaming on Paramount+.
"A Hard Nut To Crack" is just further proof to me that some of the show's most fun episodes involve the entertainment industry, which have included guest stars like Stephen Moyer, Nathan Lane, Laurie Metcalf, and of course Stephen Colbert earlier this season.
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