Dr. Vanessa Holmes (Elsbeth)

Evil plastic surgeon Vanessa Holmes

Dr. Vanessa Holmes (Gina Gershon) is the main villainess from "An Ear for an Ear," episode 1.06 of Elsbeth (airdate April 25, 2024).

Introduction

Dr. Vanessa Holmes is a prominent plastic surgeon and the owner of her business, Holmes Plastic Surgery. In the episode's opening, Vanessa is shown congratulating her protégé, Dr. Astrid Olson, and offers her a full partnership, only for Astrid to surprise Vanessa and her colleagues by announcing that she would start her own practice. However, as Vanessa saw, Astrid had been using her own business to criticize her elder counterparts, including Vanessa, whose wife, Carolyn Holmes, had been worked on by Vanessa.

Heel Turn

Vanessa's heel persona displayed towards Astrid

Vanessa had been repairing Carolyn's dance related injuries, which included work on Carolyn's ears. At some point, Vanessa noticed that Astrid had worked on Carolyn's right ear, which was done to correct Vanessa's work, with the revelation sending Vanessa into a rage. Afterwards, Vanessa turned heel by plotting to murder Astrid, with her scheme beginning by using a phone belonging to her colleague, Dr. Yablonsky, to email Astrid and instruct her to check on her patients. Vanessa later went to the Museum of New York, and slipped a $20 bill to the museum's security guard, Jaycub, before heading to The Reveal, Astrid's business.

The villainess appeared as a patient under the name, Ingrid McQuillan, with her face bandaged as part of the ruse, which included using Carolyn's profile. After entering, Vanessa was being prepped by Astrid, who removed the bandages and was stunned to see her former mentor. At that moment, the evil Vanessa snarled while displaying her heel persona to Astrid, and shortly afterwards, the maniacal villainess jabbed Astrid 23 times with Noxitoline, with 22 of them striking her face before delivering a fatal jab to Astrid's spleen. Vanessa's return to the museum saw her encounter a group of people leaving in a rush, as protesters tossed paint at the group, leading to the murderess heading to a hardware store and splashing paint on her own shoes to complete her alibi.

Reveal and Arrest

Elsbeth Tascioni and Kaya Blanke's investigation saw them suspect Yablonsky, but a reenactment of the murder leads Elsbeth to suspect Vanessa, who Elsbeth learned had posted scathing reviews of Astrid's business. After learning about Jaycub being bribed, Elsbeth asked Vanessa for her paint-covered shoes, figuring that the paint would not match the paint on Jaycub's shoes, only for a match to be confirmed. Elsbeth and Kaya's conversation with Carolyn saw Vanessa loudly eject the pair from her property, only for Elsbeth to take Vanessa's recycling, doing so after Carolyn mentioned that she took it out--something Vanessa didn't normally do.

After learning from Yablonsky that Vanessa had regularly operated on Carolyn, and that Astrid corrected Vanessa's work on Carolyn's right ear, Elsbeth and Kaya returned to the Holmes house with Captain C.W. Wagner and Detective Edwards, under the guise of Elsbeth apologizing to Vanessa. In actuality, Elsbeth was proving her case against the villainess, beginning with detailing Vanessa's entire scheme--which included purchasing the paint and splashing it on her shoes. Vanessa scoffed at Elsbeth's statements even after her footprints were shown on a discarded piece of newspaper, but once Elsbeth placed Vanessa's shoes on the prints, with the added revelation that they matched the prints, Vanessa was handcuffed and arrested. As Vanessa was being taken into custody, she snarled at Carolyn for allowing Astrid to work on her ear, revealing her true motive.

Videos

Vanessa Holmes' Maniacal Revenge (Elsbeth)