Only Murders in the Building Season 3 Episode 4 and 5 SPOILER Review
We are now half way through the third season of Only Murders in the Building. So today I’m going to be sharing my thoughts on episode 4 and 5 of the season, let’s get started!
NOTE: As the title suggests this will be a SPOILER FILLED review of these episodes and the show up to this point in time. So if you haven’t seen the season so far, please don’t read this!
Episode 4 (Quick Thoughts): I meant to post a review of episode 4 last week, but life got in the way and I wasn’t able to. So this is going to be my quick thoughts on episode 4, I liked the episode. I thought the episode had a lot of fun moments inside of it with some twists and turns. But I thought it’s the weakest episode of the season so far and one of the weakest episodes of the show in general. In my previous reviews one of the issues I mentioned was how the trio was broken up and therefore the charm of the show was lacking, I feel like this was the episode so far where that was really an issue. The stuff with Charles going into the white room was an interesting idea, but it seems a bit weird to me. Oliver is really focused on the play and is dealing with whether or not he should ask out Meryl Streep’s character. And Mabel is really the only one that is focused on the murder, so that was just very frustrating to me. I really like the show when it’s focused on the lead trio doing the investigation. Again, not a bad episode but when I do my episodes ranked at the end of the season probably going to be towards the bottom of the list.
EPISODE 5 BREAKDOWN: One of the interesting things about this episode is that it focused a lot on love. Our three leads all had a romance plot line that was heavily focused on in the episode. As I said before, my big issue with the season is how the trio is split up a lot. And that’s very much the case here, episode 5 they have one scene together they go off their separate ways. But I thought this episode took the characters in an interesting direction, we got a lot of clues and mysteries as to whom it may or may not be. So yes, they were broken up but I thought this did it right the plot lines were much more interesting to me in this episode. Once again, it ends on a cliffhanger that makes you want to see episode 6, so this is a solid episode that is a BIG improvement over episode 4.
Charles and Joy’s Engagement: So episode 4 ended with Charles going into the white room and coming out of it and accidentally proposing to Joy. While also learning it was her lipstick that was in Ben’s dressing room. So in episode 5 Charles was trying to figure it out if Joy was the killer or not. And I’m very curious to see where they take things episode 6 and beyond. I’m curious as to how much Joy is going to be a factor in the back half of the season. One of the things the show does well is make you think it’s one character but then throws in a twist to make you think it’s somebody else. Episode 4 and 5 was focused on Joy possibly being the killer, I hope it’s not. Because that would mean that ⅔ of killers of the show would be Charles’ girlfriend. And if that’s the case, then this feels like very lazy writing like they ran out of ideas very quickly. So I hope it’s not Joy, however I do have a suspicion about another character…Jane Lynch’s character. Jane Lynch is playing Charles’ stunt double in the show. And she returned for the episode and at a very weird point, because she found out about the engagement and it’s not revealed how. Maybe Joy texted her or posted it on social media, but after the engagement happened she showed up. That makes me suspicious about her, in the episode she is doing this therapy with Charles to basically get out of his head that Joy was the murderer. I’m wondering if Joy and Jane Lynch are working together to try and divert Charles’ mind from Joy being the killer. We know that Charles met Paul Rudd’s character when he was a kid, so maybe Jane Lynch knows who Ben is and there’s some sort of connection here. So as of now, I’m leaning towards Jane Lynch either being the killer or being involved with the killer.
Oliver and Loretta’s First Date: Up to this point in time the season was much hinting at a romance between Oliver and Loretta. And of the plot lines going on in the episode, this is probably my favorite. Where the romance between them works, I buy into the chemistry between Martin Short and Meryl Streep. That’s a couple that I never thought would happen, I would never have thought to team-up those two for a romance. But it worked and you really bought into it, so that was a nice touch. I like how the season is really giving Oliver a lot of character development. Now they have a conversation in here talking about pigs where Loretta says that Ben is a “f**king pig”, that’s what was said in Ben’s dressing room. And this episode really hinted at the fact that maybe Loretta is the killer, which makes me very curious if he is the killer or not. I’m very curious as to where episode 6 is taking this and how far this goes down this path of Loretta being the killer. Similar to why I hope Joy isn’t the killer, I hope Loretta isn’t the killer. If Loretta turns out to be the killer, that means it’s the 2nd time in a 3 season long show that a love interest to one of our leads is the killer. If it is either Loretta or Joy, then I’m going to be very disappointed with the creative team and writers. I hope they’re leaning towards Loretta and Joy being a false flag.
Mabel and Tobert’s “stakeout”: One of my favorite aspects of the season so far is the romance between Mabel and Tobert. I love the flirty remarks they have towards one another, very clearly they’re attracted to one another but don’t admit it to the other person. That’s what I think elevates episode 3 and then a bit with this episode, is that dynamic between the two of them. Where Tobert basically tricks Mabel into going on a date with him, Tobert thinks it’s Ben’s understudy and learns he’s talking with Ben’s doctor. So I’m guessing episode 6 is going to have a big focus on Mabel and Tobert investigating more into Ben’s understudy and maybe he’s the killer. In my review of episode 3 I said that I think Tobert is a high suspect. My evidence was he’s trying to get into a romance with Mabel in order to point them in the other direction, with Tobert being the real killer and getting away with it. Now after 2 more episodes, do I still think that? Honestly, I’m not as high on that theory as I was after episode 3 but I’m not ruling it out. I think it’s about 60% he is and 40% he isn’t the killer. Now it does run into the same issue with Loretta and Joy of a love interest being the killer and for whatever reason. I don’t think I’ll be as disappointed if Tobert was the killer even though it would be another love interest being the killer.
Final Thoughts: In general, my closing thoughts on the episode is this is one of the better episodes of the season. I think episode 4 went a bit downhill, but I think episode 5 got back to more of what I love about the show. And once again, episode 3 and 4 was focused on Kimber being the killer. Episode 4 and 5 was focused on Joy and Loretta being the killer. I’m curious to see what twists and turns they have in store for the rest of the season. And episode 4 hinted at Tina Fey’s character returning in some way, kind of wondering how Tina Fey fits into the season.
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