It’s Been Who All Along? Only Murders in the Building Episode 7 Delivers a Puzzling Twist
Only Murders in the Building episode seven was a character-centric, doll-filled episode that left audiences with more questions than answers.
Mabel, Oliver, and Charles have ditched New York City to outrun their impending murder attempts. They run into the arms of Doreen, the eclectic younger sister of Charles played Melissa McCarthy. Doreen is the exact opposite of Charles: bold (too much leopard print doesn’t exist for Doreen), talkative, and head over heels for Oliver. Doreen’s suburbia home is the perfect sanctuary for the gang, other than her super creepy doll obsession. Doreen’s currently exiled husband is a cop who sleeps on a boat in the driveway, which makes Doreen’s Doll Dreamhouse the perfect investigation station.
Even though Selena Gomez’s Mabel pleads with Howard to not reveal their hideout, Bev Melon struts up the driveway in a full-on crisis. Molly Shannon’s character is stressing about the fate of the movie and she’s decided to hide with the gang until she sorts it out. Shannon’s comedic timing is a godsend to the world of television. Melon’s pink power suit, ultra-stressed persona, and complete indifference to anything other than film contrasted against the mundane, familial suburbia was one of the funniest gags throughout the episode.
Oliver muddles through the opening scenes, heartbroken after breaking up with Meryl Streep’s Loretta, who he believes doesn’t love him. Doreen takes a liking to the eccentric theater man and she can’t keep her hands off him. Guess who shows up? Loretta. Streep’s character walks in on Oliver in quite a suggestive situation on the couch, when in reality, he was fighting off Doreen’s advances. McCarthy steals every scene she’s in throughout the episode. As flirtatious as she was with Oliver, it was the moment between her and Steve Martin’s Charles, who finally confronts their family trauma, that steals the spotlight. Minus the one serious portion of the episode, Doreen caused utter chaos and I loved every second of it.
Loretta’s surprise arrival throws Oliver for a loop. His emotional whiplash is finally thwarted when Loretta reveals she wasn’t the one on the other end of the phone when Oliver professed his love for her. It was her stand-in who was bandaged up for a scene and couldn’t speak. Loretta and Oliver laugh the instance off and they’re quickly together again after their brief, thirty-second breakup.
Trouble in paradise returns when Oliver reveals he had stalked Loretta online via a fake account. The betrayal sends Loretta into a spiral and she finds solace alone in the house. However, Loretta literally fights for Oliver when Doreen busts into the living room. The quick fight was a chaotic scene that will go down in television history. I mean, did you ever think you’d see Melissa McCarthy and Meryl Streep punch each other in the face? Legendary. The fight inevitably brings Loretta and Oliver back together and Loretta adorably proposes to Oliver with a doll’s bracelet she stole from Doreen. Martin Short and Streep’s chemistry is off the charts!
What’s one thing this episode taught us? Never trust Howard with a secret. Eugene Levy, Zack Galifianakis, and Eva Longoria arrive at the safe house too. Mabel is initially annoyed when they crash the party, but Loretta advises Mabel to let them help with the investigation. She claims that actors know more than you’d think. Mabel decides to let the actors take a swing at the investigation, and they do not disappoint.
Mabel is awoken by an excited team that has all the answers. Longoria, Levy, and Galifianakis took over Doreen’s living room with the most complicated murder board this show has ever seen. They admit they believe whoever killed Dudenoff is after them. With Howard investigating those mysterious cashed checks by a dead Dudenoff, they’re hoping that will reveal the killers. However, the acting team believes Sazz’s murder wasn’t the true beginning of this story. Through Levy, Longoria, and Galifianakis, the show calls itself out on some major plot holes from past seasons including season one when someone poisoned Oliver’s puppy. The team assumed it was Jan, but Galifianakis reveals it couldn’t have been Jan because the letter left to threaten Oliver had a smudge at the beginning of the note. That smudge is a clear indication of a left-handed writer, but a photo of Jan playing the bassoon reveals she was right-handed.
Longoria continues the revelations with the fact that Jan also received a threatening note in the past that had the exact message our trio received in the prior episode: “I’m watching you.” With that, it’s clear that someone’s been after Mabel, Oliver, and Charles since the beginning. Charles starts to wonder if Sazz knew this all along.
That’s not all! Howard finally bribed the bodega owner to let him see who’s been cashing Dudenoff’s checks. The security footage reveals that the checks have been cashed by every member of the West Wing Arconia group. Howard calls the number left behind, and Richard Kind’s Stink Eye Joe answers the phone. Howard hangs up the phone and Stink Eye Joe ominously tells the rest of his friends that the podcast team knows their secrets.
While the episode had amazing twists, such as the revelation that the murderer has been after the team since the beginning, the idea of the Arconian tenants being the killers seems a bit underwhelming. I hope this is just another classic red herring the show loves ending their episodes with. This episode was carried by the side characters. Howard, Loretta, Doreen, and Bev were the most captivating part of every scene, giving the traumatized podcast team a much-needed reprieve. However, even though the team has more answers, there seems to be a treasure trove of new questions the rest of the season has to answer.
Only Murders in the Building season four is streaming on Hulu, with new episodes every Tuesday.
