‘Elsbeth’ Welcomes First ‘Good Wife’ Character in Christian Borle (PHOTOS)

The Good Wife alum Christian Borle will reprise his role as Carter Schmidt in Elsbeth‘s second season. Photos from Season 2 Episode 2 of The Good Wife spinoff reveal Carter visiting Elsbeth (Carrie Preston) in New York.

Elsbeth Season 2 premieres on October 17 on CBS. The premiere is called “Subscription to Murder” and guest stars Nathan Lane. Episode 2 is titled “The Wrong Stuff” and features previously announced guest star Rob Riggle. Borle’s casting in Episode 2 is a surprise. The episode is directed by Criminal Minds: Evolution‘s Aisha Tyler.

Here’s the logline for Elsbeth Season 2 Episode 2, “The Wrong Stuff”: “When a billionaire dies in a freak accident during a space training simulation, Elsbeth suspects a fellow magnate and wannabe astronaut with a grudge named Neal (Robert Riggle) is responsible. Also, Elsbeth’s day is turned upside down when she is reunited with a former colleague from Chicago.”

Borle’s Carter Schmidt is a lawyer who always worked opposite of Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies) in The Good Wife. See Borle with Preston in Elsbeth below. They’re seen in a car with Elsbeth’s beloved dog.

Borle appeared in three episodes of The Good Fight on Paramount+ after his five-episode run on The Good Wife. This marks the first time in the Elsbeth series that a character from its predecessors other than Preston’s has made an appearance. Cary Agos (played by Matt Czuchry) was mentioned in the Elsbeth series premiere but hasn’t been seen.

Showrunner Jonathan Tolins previously told TV Insider in May that he was “open” to having characters from the first two shows appear in the second season but admitted it would be “tricky.”

“People keep saying, are you going to have guest stars from The Good Wife? I mean, we’re in a different city. We have very little real estate, and it’s hard because the real money for guest stars usually goes to the murderer. And I don’t think Diane Lockhart [Christine Baranski] is going to kill anybody,” he said at the time.

“I’m certainly open to it. I would love for it to happen if we can work it out somehow,” he continued. “I always think TV fans sometimes think of characters as crayons that you can just pick up and use. But it’s like, there’s budget, there’s schedule, there’s lots of things going on. So it’s tricky.”

Clearly, it was able to work out with Borle! See more photos from the episode, including Riggle’s guest star appearance as well as Terry Serpico‘s, below.