Stephen Colbert and Amy Sedaris Guest Star

Welcome to Elsbeth Season three, dear readers! Don't worry about the unusual schedule for Sunday's season premiere; Starting this week, the show returns to its regular Thursday night schedule, so you can look forward to both normalcy and a second episode and a recap before you look around.

Elsbeth often explores workplaces as places where tensions and resentments simmer, and this becomes a big deal in the season premiere as this week's murder victim, Scotty Bristol, is a successful late-night host/hapless man played by the outgoing host Late Show and national treasure Stephen Colbert. Scotty is a true prince: he's rude and unkind to his employees, doesn't bother to prepare for guest interviews, and torments his writers by making sure they see and hear him destroying their jokes.

After all, Scotty It's too late Producer Laurel, played by Colbert's real-life friend and collaborator Amy Sedaris, has had to deal with Scotty's draconian freakish control one too many times and uses her long history of what could have been to feign his seduction, but instead ends up in Scotty's hated, powerful office shredder. At first everyone assumes it's a terrible accident, a death by strangulation, but Elsbeth, even in her severe jet-lagged state after returning home from visiting Angus in Scotland, notices some suspicious things at the crime scene. Scotty left the headphones on the table rather than removing them, suggesting that there was another person in the room with him at the time of his death. Besides, his tie must have been tied quite tightly for the strangulation to occur, and why was he lying on his back over the shredder anyway?

Detective Smullen takes the case, and Elsbeth is assigned by Officer Hackett (Lindsay Mendes) to look after her in Kaya's absence (sob!). Smullen wants to pin the murder on Scotty's oft-humiliated pal, Mickey Muntz (Andy Richter!), but Elsbeth notes that Mickey seems genuinely upset about Scotty's death, while Laurel, Mickey's wife, mostly just wants to get on with her day and protect Mickey, whose heart condition was the reason she killed Scotty in the first place.

Once Officer Hackett (is her name an homage to Buddy Hackett?) manages to get all the shredded paper from Scotty's office back into its original form, the team realizes that it was a package of jokes submitted on assignment by would-be comedy writers, and we get a little more of a picture of the work culture in It's too late. Scottie was a well-known joke-taker, and while this would be incredibly infuriating for the average person, Officer Hackett draws on her experience as a part-time comedian and former victim of Scottie's practices to assure Detective Smullen and Captain Wagner that this is a badge of honor and significant support. But perhaps being mistreated and disrespected by one's boss/former idol so many times over the course of many years can push a writer over the edge and back into the studio!

The writers all have the same, easily verifiable alibi, thanks to having attended both of the comedy productions of head writer (and likely heir to Scotty's desk) Ronan Gaines the night before, bringing the scorned writer hypothesis to a dead end. On the other hand, they explain the meaning of Scotty's shredder name, Mickey II – a tribute to Audrey II in Little Shop of Horrors and some mockery of the real person Mickey, who, like the chopper, was forced to eat crap all day. There is nothing better than respect among colleagues! Luckily, Matthew Page is here to fill in more knowledge gaps for the investigative team, including how Scotty, Laurel and Mickey got their start in improv comedy and his own pride in being named the staff's Shredder Devastator. Matthew also confirms that everyone Downton Abbey And Above, below the viewer knows: “in front of the pages people will say the wildest things.”

Elsbeth is no stranger to this phenomenon, as getting people to say wild things to her is an important part of her mystery-solving toolkit. She gets prickly and suspicious Laurel to let her guard down by inviting her to an improv class. Although Laurel eventually regains her caution, this tactic works just enough to give Elsbeth a vital element—the “yes, and” principle—that ultimately helps her discover the truth about what happened to Scotty.

Everything Elsbeth notices about the company's toxic work environment It's too late – overworked, humiliated, unsupportive and over-controlling boss – not at the station, but after being away for a while, she sees the place with fresh eyes, and some of what she sees is clearly not very good. Previously free coffee is now $1 per cup; There are no more three-by-five cards in the closet and she is on the waiting list for a marker. Sharpie! It's grim. To make matters worse, Detective Smullen is very rude to Lt. Connor in all of this, since he was the one who implemented these belt-tightening measures.

Smullen starts an unfortunate trend when the detectives present Connor with their unemptied trash cans, as if to say, “You created this problem; You deal with this,” and Elsbeth eventually opens up a bit with the captain, convincing him to intervene and absolve Connor of the blame. It takes a minute, but Wagner does the right thing and later explains to Elsbeth that as disgusting as these changes are, they are worth it because they allow her to remain on staff, emphasizing that he is unwilling to even consider the alternative.

Of course, everyone is happy to see Elsbeth back from Scotland and to enjoy the gifts she brought with her: whiskey for Wagner, shortbread for Smullen, a very discreet dark blue and green checkered scarf (with the finest red thread for a discreet pop of color) for Connor, who is clearly touched by the gift.

The plot is very mysterious, so we don't see much movement on Elsbeth herself, but we do get quite a bit of table setting this week. Things may not be entirely rosy with Angus, who she's not even sure she should call her boyfriend. She brushes off Teddy's surprise at her early arrival home, saying that she needs to be in New York to support her friend. Cheryl from the wellness center Episode, who is on a press tour for her new memoir about the four years she spent at various health resorts. Teddy has a new job as a fact checker in New York. Viewwhere, as we remember, one of the reporters was killed with a stun gun. Elsbeth is so proud of him and notes that she knew everything about this murder because she solved it and Gonzo was that reporter's dog. These are at least two references to previous episodes! They're not important to new viewers, but they provide fun “if you know it, you know it” moments and add to the sense that the show is a fully realized world.

Along with references to previous cases and relationships, Cameron, the hunky and kindly forensic scientist, appears briefly and quietly confirms to Elsbeth that Kaya has completed her training and received her first secret assignment, yay! “Yes, And” pulls out all the visual stops to remind us just how vibrantly colorful Elsbeth’s world is. In this episode we have four tote bags, all sheep themed, and one of them is in the iconic black design became famous thanks to Princess Diana back in those days. We also have three all-time Hall of Fame-worthy suits, starting with a hot pink plaid suit and finishing with a Tam O'Shanter suit worn over a white blouse with puffy lace cuffs and a scarf collar that goes perfectly with Austin Powers in its most extraordinary form (free). I think my favorite this week is the white and autumnal floral suit, single breasted blazer and smart flares, but closing out the episode is an ensemble of tropical fruit flowers – mango, starfruit and papaya – all coordinated quite beautifully too.

As the investigation continues and the list of suspects narrows down to Laurel and Mickey, Smullen is convinced that Mickey killed Scotty in retaliation for all those years of routine humiliation, but Elsbeth and Officer Hackett aren't buying it. Mickey is clearly not a boatman, let alone a killer, especially with his serious heart condition. In fact, in the elevator, he was psyching himself up to give Scotty an ultimatum: give him time off to stabilize his health, or he would quit. When he later confesses to Laurel at home, her face shows something like regret. Mickey will get a vacation now, but he could do it without committing murder!

Unfortunately for Mickey, he doesn't have time to defend himself formally because the shock and horror of realizing Laurel killed Scotty causes a fatal heart attack. When Elsbeth hears Laurel “yes, and” Smullen agrees that Mickey's intense guilt he confessed to her must have triggered his heart failure, her suspicions are confirmed. But she can't fully solve the case until she has an epiphany while contemplating the appearance of Smullen's trash in her office trash can. He put it there to prove a point, so couldn't someone do the same with the scraps of paper in Mickey the Second's trash can?

Indeed, someone (Laurel) could, and that same someone (Laurel again) did! Seeing that Matthew Page had already emptied Mickey II's trash can, she covered her tracks by destroying the joke bag in her own office and then placing it in Mickey II. As always, What And How not as interesting as Why. Scotty, Laurel and Mickey shared a special and particularly strong bond thanks to the early days of their careers as an improv trio, but over time Scotty's exploitation of this bond led to all sorts of excessive control over his employees. Convincing Laurel and Mickey not to have children, refusing to give Mickey time to recover, and his callousness and cruelty towards them all added up and pushed her over the edge.

As almost always, all's well that ends well: Matthew Page gets promoted to Mickey's old job and Ronan takes Scotty's chair. It's too lateand Officer Hackett decides to return to comedy. Ronan even buys one of her $200 jokes. Indeed, this is the case!

• I don't know why I see several Mike Myers references in this episode, but it's not all about the lace cuffs and ties. The cup of coffee that Elsbeth pays $1 for maximizes both caffeine and humor as she uses an NYPD logo mug that is almost the same size as her face. This immediately reminded me of massive cappuccino Myers character order So I married an ax murderer.

• Lindsay Mendes has had many roles on screen and stage, but I know her primarily for her role in 21 Champ StreetA funny, memorable and heartbreaking 16-minute musical written by pre-Hamilton Lin-Manuel Miranda for live performance This American Life. Listen at the link above or watch on YouTube.

• I choose to believe that the whimsical decorative elements in Mickey and Laurel's kitchen—two mid-century cookie jars with bunny-and-kitten-shaped lids and a ceramic raw chicken used as a large spoon rest—are items Amy Sedaris was kind enough to borrow from her own home to make. If anyone can confirm or correct these thoughts, please let me know!