Season 4 of Only Murders In The Building has finally come to an end, and what a delightful season it was. Charles, Oliver and Mabel cracked the case once again, and once again discovered a body in the Arconium. I’d say that our sleuthing podcasters can’t catch a break, but it’s really their neighbors that ought to be worried. Spoilers ahead.
Basically, the big twist I talk about in the headline is that there was no twist. I should be upset about this. After all, I wrote a really in-depth post trying to solve the murders and figure out the killer after last week’s episode. I thought “Surely they couldn’t have revealed the true killer in Episode 9!” I also believed there were two killers, and missed that this was just another red herring—one planted directly by the actual killer, the nervous and soft-spoken Marshall, who is really Rex Bailey.
Of course, there are mysteries still left unsolved; ones that our heroes, satisfied in catching the killer, forgot about all over again. The hidden cameras were certainly not placed by Marshall. The poisoned dog, Willie, and the ominous notes and text messages? Those were definitely the actions of somebody else. Or maybe multiple people in the form of the mafia. All signs point to a mafia-themed final season (if Season 5 is the final season, which it reportedly is) and it’s entirely possible that the body found at the end of the finale has something to do with it, and with the mysterious disappearance of Nicky “The Neck” Caccimelio, the Dry-Cleaning King of Brooklyn, whose wife shows up and offers to hire the gang to find him.
The episode itself was quite fun, even if we had the main mystery solved the week before. Some thoughts on how it played out:
- I loved the scene when Charles goes full Brazzos, figuring out how Marshall got from the West building to his flat—along the ledge! Had anyone come up with that theory? I certainly hadn’t! He then decides to do it himself to save Mabel when Oliver has “the first good pitch since this whole thing started” and suggests they simply go from the flat nextdoor. This makes the perilous journey much quicker, though it requires Oliver to go out on the ledge with his friend, get them both to pivot to a wall-facing stance and then do the merengue in order to traverse the rest of the way. A wonderful scene that’s not only tense and exciting, but also hilarious and a great character moment for both men.
- When they surprise Marshall, Charles tries to shoot him with th Eva Longoria’s Lady Longoria-19 in 1 Multi-Tool, which was introduced earlier this season. We should have known it would be used again later. It’s one of two Chekov’s Guns this episode—or, rather, Chekov’s Lady Longoria 19-in-1 Multi-Tools.
- The other is the last minute save by serial killer Jan, who snipes Marshall in the back before he can kill our heroes. Turns out, she’s been hiding in the Arconia’s secret passages, and Charles’s apartment, this whole time. Again, they introduced her early on so this should not have come as a total surprise, but I was still surprised. I thought Detective Williams would be the one to show up and save the day.
- Oliver kept saying that Loretta would be the next murder victim, so I basically knew she was safe. Thank goodness, too. They had a really sweet wedding that called to mind Four Weddings and a Funeral and Father of the Bride.
- It ends badly, of course. Poor Lester! They find him dead in the fountain, just after he told them about his own wedding and remarked on what a good, lucky day it would be (and Charles and Oliver, understandably in a hurry, are kind of pricks about it). We see the blood spurting out of the fountain’s mouth—a grim contrast to the sunny, flowery day—before we see Lester. But why would anyone kill him? The only answer I can come up with: He’s a man who knew too much. He’s seen things. He’s let every killer into the building, and maybe he let in our new killer also. Again, this feels like a mafia thing.
- Bev Melon is still a suspect in my book, though I’m not sure what I suspect her of, only that she showed up in weird places like Sazz’s home with her gun and I don’t think we’ve seen the last of her or her involvement in all of this. I also wonder if Howard might be behind the cameras and notes, and used the poisoning of Winnie to throw suspicion away from him. Howard is great, but his whole schtick could be an act.
All told, I really loved this season. So far I’d rank Season 1 the best, followed by Season 4, Season 3 and finally Season 2. I think the one thing this season is missing is more podcasting. They did such a great job with all the podcasting bits in Season 1, showing the trio making goofy attempts at recording, working out scripts, releasing episodes. They had the fan-club. Slowly all that stuff has fallen by the wayside.
My other big criticism of this season and the show’s trajectory in general is there are simply far too many celebrity guest stars. I mean, please keep bringing back versions of Paul Rudd, obviously, but can we just cool our jets on all the rest? It’s too much. I liked the lesser-known character actors we got this season as the Westies more than the bigger names in the movie. I really would love to see a fifth season that attempts to recapture the feel of Season 1—only with a mafiosa spin, if that’s the direction this goes.
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