Elke Hubsch, a.k.a. "The Needle," is a freelance spy and assassin hired by Nikolai Jakov to assassinate Torvald Utne of the UN in the episode "Killing Utne."
Mission
Elke Hubsch impersonated an escort to gain access to Malory's dinner party through Sterling with the intention to kill Torvald Utne. Her backstory was that of a Finnish lingerie model and she used a cosmetic communicator to communicate with Major Jakov while in Malory's bathroom. Elke intended to kill Utne by injecting poison into him but failed, as she was mistakenly killed by Uta when she was fed a bite of poisoned food meant for Torvald. While unintentional, Mannfred and Uta had planned to kill her anyway to be certain they got credit (and the pay) for killing Utne.
When hired by Sterling as an escort, she was asked to pose as a lingerie model working her way through medical school. Out of jealousy, Lana refers to her as "Dr. Panty Model" after catching Cyril ogling her. After death, her body was shot and burned in Trudy Beekman's bathroom in order to fake a murder-suicide scenario.
Appearance
Elke Hubsch is a tall blonde with a shapely figure, dressed in a femme fatale style. Her eyes are blue and her beauty is complimented by the crew, who believes her to be an European lingerie model. Her character design is possibly inspired by 1960s German movie star Elke Sommer. Her surname is descriptive, as the German word hübsch means "pretty" or "attractive".
Expertise
Elke is an expert in poisoning her victims, thus being nicknamed "The Needle". She intends to poison Utne by injecting poison into his thigh. Her alias may be inspired by the main character in the Ken Follett spy novel "Eye of the Needle", a German male spy with the same nickname.