RECAP: “Only Murders in the Building” Season 4, Episode 5
Now THAT is more like it. I was getting nervous about “Only Murders in the Building” Season 4, as the past few episodes haven’t felt like the show I’ve come to love. Tonally, the proceedings — specifically the suspects and tertiary characters — seemed to be coming from a much more broadly comic, almost absurdist show. But Episode 5 brought together the two disparate elements of the season (the Sazz murder plot, and the movie plot), gave us some excellent acting from our leads (I suspect Steve Martin and Martin Short will be submitting this episode for next year’s Emmys), and — per Brazzos — took the investigation into a totally new direction.
Spoilers ahead! Consider yourself warned!
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There weren’t really separate arcs for most of this episode; the Arconia 3 spent most of it working together, which may be a big part of why this chapter felt so much closer to the show’s DNA. Picking up from Episode 4’s cliffhanger, which saw producer Bev Mellon aiming a gun at the Arconia 3 and threatening to blow their brains out in a shack on Sazz’s nonexistent trampoline park, the gang deescalates with Bev, who swears she didn’t know it was them at first. Bev explains that Sazz had left her a voicemail on the night she was killed, alerting Bev to some kind of scandal with the film. How that led Bev to Sazz’s property is never explained, not once. Either a big plot hole, or an indication that Bev is actually involved in whatever conspiracy was going on here. I also continue to believe there was someone else in that building with Bev when the Arconia 3 came upon it — I swear we heard a door slam before they went in — and my suspicion is that will end up being the suspects ID’d by the end of this episode.
The best part of this scene was the tour de force of Molly Shannon. It is literally always great to see Shannon on my TV screen, and she seems like she’s having a ball as Bev. Sure, it’s a variation on a character we have seen Shannon perform many, many times. But it’s still such a hoot to watch. She’s the kind of eccentric that we have come to expect from this show, instead of the totally bonkers characters that have frequently populated this season. I love it. I still do not trust Bev, at all, but this episode went a long way to making me think she may be largely innocent of the crime. (Though she does have an unhealthy fixation on Mabel.)
After returning to the Arconia, Charles shows Detective Williams (loving all this Da’Vine Joy Randolph we’re getting!) his murder boards — yes, plural — which Detective Williams tells him is way too much; basically, they have a whole lot of nothing, and they’re overthinking the case. She goes to run forensics on the gun Bev found in the trampoline park (they assumed it’s Sazz’s, we’ll see), as our intrepid heroes go to investigate the film production team, as the evidence now points to the murder being someone working on the film (a logical lead from Sazz’s voicemail that I’m not sure is entirely correct).
There are a few interesting moments in this sequence, and a great bit of comedy with Steve Martin and the camera phone. First, we get a quasi-update on what was going on with Howard following his bizarre audition for film directors The Brothers Sisters last week. Howard is not acting in the film, but is serving as a kind of behind-the-scenes documentarian (although he also seems to fetch drink orders). Second, Mabel realizes that the tacky mats that Eva Longoria produces to keep dust from being tracked onto a movie set also allow them to capture people’s shoe prints, and the shooter left a distinctive shoe print on the windowsill of the abandoned apartment crime scene in the West Tower. Third, they are drawn to move screenwriter Marshall Peepope — who actually narrates this episode — who is extremely nervous to catch the attention of the Arconia 3.
They suspect that means he’s guilty of something, but per Marshall, the only thing he’s guilty of is not deserving the opportunity given to him. Marshall has poor self esteem, up to and including creating an entirely fake physical appearance — purely aesthetic glasses, a beard wig — to pass himself off as a typical screenwriter. He claims to have an airtight alibi, as he was allegedly doing stand-up in L.A. the night Sazz was killed (though we never see the proof he was producing). Ultimately Charles shares with him his murder boards, which Marshall immediately stars calling into question, especially the fact that there were only 12 minutes between Sazz being shot (I believe they’re using her call to Bev to set this) and her body being put into the Arconia incinerator (which they know because the power failed). It would require someone of incredible skill and physicality to pull that off AND clean the crime scene in the very short amount of time they’re talking about.
This leads to two absolutely hilarious sequences, in which first Charles, then Oliver, attempt to show how a person COULD conceivably pull off the crime and the clean-up in a dozen minutes. Charles provides an overly stylized, Hollywood version of the crime — such great work by Steve Martin. Then Oliver takes his crack at recreating the acts, and hilarity quite literally ensues. This was one of my favorite bits I’ve ever seen from Martin Short, giving us amazing line readings and a wonderful physicality. Shot has played many iconic roles in his career, but I think Oliver Putnam may be the richest of them all. And man, does he know how to extract maximum value from this character. Incredible.
They realize that it’s highly unlikely any one person could pull off the crime and the clean-up in such a short amount of time, and head to an elaborate promotional photo shoot at the behest of the Brothers Sisters, with Charles in particular certain that he has lost the plot in this case. It’s also worth noting that Glen Stubbins, Ben Glenroy’s stunt double (also played by Paul Rudd), is waiting in the Arconia for the investigators, bearing an Irish soda bread as thanks for them getting him work on the “fil-em.” This whole scene was very odd to me, and not just because I find this particular character from Rudd completely over the top (the invisible rats thing is so wacky). I find it very sus that Ben was just hanging out waiting for them — how did he even know where Charles’s apartment was? — even if he was working on the film.
At the photo shoot, the Arconia 3 are matched up with the Hollywood actors playing them in the movie, as well as the stunt people doubling the Hollywood actors, all surrounded by mirrors. That will become important next episode, I assume. Mabel is using the opportunity to put down more of Eva Longoria’s tacky pads (shout out to Eva Longoria, who continues to be by far the MVP of the three Hollywood actors in this plot; I LOL’d at her gay-marriage joke) in the hopes of picking up a matching shoe print to the one in the crime scene.
And she gets one. At the same time that Charles realizes that one person couldn’t have pulled off Sazz’s murder and hidden the body…but two conceivably could. And as he goes to tell Mabel what he’s realized, she points out that the footprints from the crime scene are also on the tacky pad, and belong to one of the Brothers Sisters, the directors of the film. Furthermore, one of the Brothers is shown to be freakishly strong, picking up and moving Oliver out of her way.
The Brothers Sisters were on my radar in Episode 1. There was something “off” about them from the jump, starting with the fact that they are pretty clearly not actual sisters, and a including a general air of malicious haughtiness. We got nothing from them for episodes, but the interaction with Howard last episode also made me suspicious. I’m still not clear on what the motive is supposed to be here, and given that we’re only halfway through the season I doubt it’s going to end up being the final solution to this mystery. But it’s pretty clear there is something not right about these two, period.
THE CLIFFHANGER
As Mabel and Charles make their realizations, they wonder aloud where the second Brothers Sister is. The Arconia 3, Hollywood 3, and Stunt 3 are all standing against a backdrop of mirrors — so there are numerous “identical” versions of the same person on that stage — when a series of shots ring out. Someone yells, “They’re hit” and then the screen faded to black. Quite the cliffhanger!
I do not think any of the Arconia 3 will have shot; if they are, I don’t think it will be fatal. But as Jan told Charles last episode, If someone tried to murder you, and they ended up taking someone else out by mistake, they’re not going to stop trying to murder you; they’re just going to get more and more bold. I think that’s what we’re seeing here. The Brothers Sisters are probably a bit too obvious to be the actual shooter, but there are so many suspects in that room at this point — Bev, Glen Stubbins, possibly Marshall —- that I think someone did explicitly take aim at Charles, but will have hit a double or possibly even a mirror. I guess we’ll see.
What did you think of the episode? Leave your takes in the comments!
