Villainess Review: Dr. Vanessa Holmes (Elsbeth)

I remember learning some time ago about a spinoff series to the long-running CBS series, The Good Wife, coming out, and it was at the end of 2023 that I first saw promos for said spinoff: Elsbeth. The series is actually the second spinoff of The Good Wife, with the first being The Good Fight, and regarding this one, it centers on Carrie Preston's character, Elsbeth Tascioni, the Chicago-based defense attorney who now works alongside the NYPD as a defacto detective. The series premiered on Leap Day 2024, and I remember that the promo for the premiere episode revealed that it was a True Blood reunion, as the episode guest starred Stephen Moyer (both Moyer and Preston played on the hit HBO series).

The show caught my full attention a few weeks ago, as the promo actually showed a villainess in the midst of committing a murder. So I started watching on Paramount+, and I was very elated over what I watched. For one, this is a howcatchem series, just like Columbo, Motive, and Poker Face. Also similar to those shows, the killer in each episode is played by a big and familiar name. I mentioned Stephen Moyer--his character was the premiere episode's baddie. The villainess I saw in the promo was from episode 1.04, and she was played by comedian Retta. And that amazing group also includes the featured villainess in this review, from the episode, "An Ear for an Ear."

The episode kicks off with Dr. Vanessa Holmes, a longtime plastic surgeon, congratulating her protégé, Dr. Astrid Olson, at a public gathering in front of their peers. The celebration sees Vanessa offer Astrid full partnership, but Astrid has other plans, as she announced that she will open her own practice. Everyone was surprised, but Vanessa appeared to be the most stunned by the news, though she wished Astrid well in her endeavors. However, those endeavors would include Astrid pretty much burying her older former colleagues, including Vanessa, who watched Astrid's latest promo before Carolyn Holmes, Vanessa's wife, appeared.

We later see Vanessa and her other colleagues, including Dr. Yablonsky, vent about Astrid, with his statement about social media not being allowed at the dinner table prompting Vanessa to collect the group's phones. We see Vanessa tinkering with one of them, and on the following day, she's seen entering the Museum of New York and doing some playful flirting with the security guard, Jaycub, before slipping a $20 bill in his hand. At The Reveal, which is Astrid's place of business, we see a patient, Ingrid McQuillan, with her face completely bandaged and wearing shades, making her way to see Astrid, who preps her for surgery.

Astrid removes the bandages, but halfway through, she sees a familiar face emerge. After completely unwrapping the face of her "patient," Astrid is shocked to see that the woman is none other than her former mentor, Vanessa Holmes.

"Hello, Astrid," Vanessa says with a sinister snarl, right before she attacks and brutally murders her former protégé. After returning to the museum, Vanessa learned that protesters tossed paint at a number of people at the building, and later on, Elsbeth was on the case, along with officer Kaya Blanke. Elsbeth's interview with a woman at the office didn't go anywhere, but it was only because the woman was a patient who was unresponsive. Vanessa appeared and stated that she was at the museum, her planned alibi. However, Elsbeth was not convinced, and the suspicions towards Vanessa increased after it was revealed that Astrid was killed with Noxitoline; she was jabbed with the chemical 23 times, but the attack to her spleen did her in.

Yablonsky was eliminated as a suspect, leading Elsbeth and Kaya to Vanessa, who gave her shoes to Elsbeth to inspect. This came after the pair met Jaycub and saw that his shoes were covered with the same paint that was on Vanessa's shoes, and Elsbeth figured that the paint didn't match. Unfortunately for her, she was wrong. Perfect match. Elsbeth had also been talking to Carolyn, though their latest meeting saw Vanessa eject both her and Kaya from her property, with the pair leaving--but not before Elsbeth took the discarded recycling.

The pair's latest visit to Yablonsky came after Carolyn mentioned that Vanessa had operated on her, repairing her dance injuries. This visit would reveal quite a shocker: though Vanessa's repairs included work on her wife's ears, Yablonsky revealed that the work on the right ear was corrected by none other than Astrid. Oooh man. Elsbeth banked on Vanessa's discovery of this fact being a motive for murder, and that leads her back to Vanessa's home, where she appears to apologize for the "harassment," only to list out Vanessa's entire scheme, which included buying paint and splashing it on her shoes as part of the alibi. Regarding the aforementioned recycling, Carolyn's mention that Vanessa had never taken out the recycling until that one moment led Elsbeth to take it herself. Part of the recycling included some paint covered newspaper, with footprints.

Vanessa's attempted denial only saw Elsbeth place the shoes on the prints. A perfect fit. Vanessa was taken away in cuffs right after that. Her last parting response:

"Why did you let that bitch touch your ear?!"

"An Ear for an Ear" was the sixth episode of Elsbeth's first season, and aired on CBS on April 25, 2024. The episode's main villainess, Dr. Vanessa Holmes, was played by the legendary and iconic Gina Gershon. I truly, truly mean those words. Bound, Face/Off, recurring role on Riverdale, even appearing on Chucky, among other things. You name it, she's done it, and she's done it very, very well. If you can't tell already, I've been a fan of Gina Gershon since I was a was a teenager in the late 90s/early 2000s. When I found out about this role and appearance on Elsbeth, I dove right in. Gina Gershon as a maniacal and crazed murderess?! Yes, please!

Which brings me to this:

I loved, loved, loved Vanessa's villainous disguise and her heel persona in this very moment! So Vanessa decides to use her wife's medical history to create "Ingrid McQuillan," and she wraps her face in bandages and dons shades, giving us Invisible Woman vibes. Once the bandages are removed, we see Vanessa snarl at Astrid with every bit of venom that she had, and then she literally went for the kill. Gina Gershon's villainous roles have always been deliciously epic; Vanessa Holmes is no exception. Vanessa is unhinged, ruthless, controlling, insane, and outright bloodthirsty, and honestly, this capture of Vanessa under her heel persona shows all of those adjectives put on display in such beautiful fashion!

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Check out Dr. Vanessa Holmes' profile on Villainous Beauties Wiki!