The Deadly Truth Starts To Unravel In Only Murders In The Building Episode 4
While episode three served as a productive filler episode that separated our team, the gang is finally back together in episode four of Only Murders In the Building season 4. This episode finally gave us answers to some of the burning questions of the season, and, yes, your eyes weren’t deceiving you when it comes to that crazy cameo. Let’s discuss everything that happened in the latest chapter of our favorite crime comedy.
One of the best things that came out of season three was Oliver’s relationship with actress Loretta, played by Meryl Streep. After her big break called her to Hollywood, she and Oliver are competing in a game of phone tag to keep their spark alive. However, Oliver’s spirits are noticebly down in this episode’s opener. He reveals to Charles and Mabel that he’s been stalking Loretta online under his face account as Ronnie, a midwestern grandma who is a superfan of Loretta.
The episode gives new depth to Oliver, who we see has more insecurities than we were aware of. He’s scared to lose his girlfriend to the glitz, glam, and younger men of the silver screen. Mabel helps Oliver let go of his fear with the first step being laying Ronnie’s online account to rest. Streep and Martin Short have amazing, pure chemistry that has even led to real life rumors, so fans are hoping we won’t see the end of this relationship. Will Loretta and Oliver survive this season as a power couple or will their relationship be another untimely death we’ll be forced to face?
Selena Gomez’s Mabel helped us uncover some much needed answers this episode. Mabel enlists Howard to stand guard in Dudenoff’s apartment to keep her squatting rights in tact while she chases a lead with Oliver and Charles. However, when Charles is lured out of the apartment by an audition in front of Molly Shannon’s Bev Melon, the wacky west tower tenants try to push Mabel out of Dudenoff’s apartment, literally. When she confronts the group, they finally reveal what in the world is going on between this odd group. It turns out that Dudenoff is the ringleader of an illegal subletting scheme in the west wing of the Arconia.
All the quirky residents we’ve met this season are some down-on-their-luck people who Dudenoff decided to help. They promise to let Mabel in on this deal if she promises to keep the information out of the podcast. When Mabel asks who threatened her over the ham radio at the end of episode three, Kumail Nanjiani’s character writes that mystery off as his crazy ex who likes causing problems. While getting answers to this mystery was satisfying, I still can’t help but wonder what was the point of this storyline. Will we learn there is something more sinister going on with this scheme or was this just a fun way to integrate some awesome guest starring roles?
Perhaps the most puzzling part of this episode was the crazy return of Paul Rudd. Don’t get your hopes up though, Ben Glenroy is still dead. Rudd returns as the Irish stunt double of season three’s murder victim Ben Glenroy. The trio goes to a stunt double bar Sazz frequented and even visited on the day of her death. As they struggle to get any answers from the bartenders, Rudd hilariously falls to our groups feet as Glenn Stubbins. Mabel naturally thinks they’re seeing a dead man walking, but they’re soon made aware that this isn’t Ben. Stubbins is an unhinged and unstable man who might have taken a bit too many hits to the head, but he does help the group by bringing Charles to the back room of the bar where Sazz was seen on the day of her death. Rudd breathes joy, humor, and his contagious personality into every role he has and this short and sweet cameo was a fantastic surprise for fans.
Glenn brings Charles to the backroom of the bar to meet a mysterious chiropractor who performs procedures on ailing stunt doubles. This doctor only agrees to answer questions for Charles if he lets her operate on him. As she unlocks tension in Charles back, she seemingly unlocks secrets he never knew about his best friend Sazz. Charles is transported to this dream-like state where he is following Jane Lynch’s Sazz through the woods as she tries to reach “paradise.” What is paradise? We don’t know… yet. As these dream sequences progress in the episode, Sazz is seen more and more beat up with every glimpse. This unnerving dream reveals to Charles that Sazz took the hit for him too many times, ultimately resulting in her own personal pain. Charles also realizes this “paradise” Sazz was running to was a trampoline park she was building to train aspiring stunt doubles.
Charles is overwhelmed with guilt and he decides to stand in as Sazz in order for her stunt double family to lay her to rest. We learn that stunt double code includes the mantra “no body, no funeral,” so Charles volunteers to be her body in this ceremony. Audiences watch as Glenn and a plethora of stunt doubles say their goodbyes to “Sazz” who is actually Charles laid out on a pool table in the bar. As each stunt double approaches with kind words to say, they then hilariously break bottles over Charles head. While it was a painful experience both emotionally and physically, this episode let Steve Martin explore more of Charles’ emotional depth and it was beautiful to see him stand up, or in this case lay down, for his lost friend.
Molly Shannon finally returns in this episode after her initial introduction at the beginning at the season and she leaves us wondering if Bev Melon is truly rotten to her core. Bev Melon holds auditions at the Arconia for the upcoming film adaptation of the podcast. She breaks poor Howard’s spirit when she tells him he didn’t get the role to play himself in the film. However, this wasn’t the last time we’d see Melon in this episode.
In the final moments of episode four, Mabel, Charles, and Oliver visit the land Sazz had bought to build her trampoline park. As they enter an abandoned building on the site, they are greeted with an angry Bev holding a pistol at the trio.
In true Only Murders in the Building fashion, the screen cuts to black and we are left with a new slate of questions. Is Bev our killer? Why would she want Sazz dead? Did she lure Howard out of the apartment on purpose?
Only time will tell when Only Murders in the Building returns next week on Hulu.
