Only Murders in the Building Season 4 Episodes Ranked

Only Murders in the Building Season 4 Episodes Ranked

The fourth season of Only Murders in the Building has ended, that means I’m going to stop and rank all 10 episodes of the season. Let’s get started!

NOTE: This post will contain SPOILERS for the entire season, if you haven’t watched the entire episode, I will spoil stuff here so be careful. 

• Season Review: Before I rank the episodes, I wanted to share my thoughts on the season as a whole. Season three left me disappointed, I still had fun with it but it was easily the worst season of the show. For me, season four was better than season three. I still don't think it’s quite as good as season one and two were, but it’s a solid season. Most of the positives about the season is that it’s just fun to get to spend more time with these characters. I love these characters because they have such great chemistry. The unlikely trio Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez is so much fun and it works. I thought the Hollywood vibe over the entire thing with having Eugene Levy, Zach Galfinakis, and Eva Longoria play fictionalized versions of themselves was fun. There’s some fun jokes and set ups that come with that, they poke fun at all of the actor’s careers which I did enjoy. I think the biggest problem with this season is that by now, fans of the show have figured out the formula. Where they might set up somebody to possibly be the killer, that’s the cliffhanger of the episode then the next episode we learn it’s not them. Not that this season was predictable, but I do hope going to season five they change up the formula just a bit to keep the audience off course a bit more. Then also, Eva Longoria was very annoying to me and she felt out of place with the rest of the cast. She's acting opposite comedy legends like Steve Martin, Martin Short, Eugene Levy, and even Zach Galfinakis is funny as well. To me, it felt like Longoria was trying too hard to be funny, that it didn’t come off naturally the way that Selena Gomez’s humor does. Overall, a solid season that I thought worked well enough. I’m still invested, I’m excited for season five and to see if season five is the final season. 

10. Once Upon A Time in the West (Episode 1): I thought this was a fairly underwhelming start to the season. This episode does have its moments, when our trio gets to Hollywood there is some funny fish out of water comedy that comes with that. Some of the dialogue between the trio and the actors is a lot of fun, mainly between Martin Short and Zach Galfinakis. I think some of the set up ideas for the season about using the studio to dive into the trio and show their flaws was a bit weird. That was some of my least favorite stuff of the entire season, especially with how it's set up in here I thought could have been done better. I also thought some of the writing was a bit weird in this epsiode, where it took our characters to long to realize that Jane Lynch’s character was murdered. That struck me as weird that they didn’t figure that out sooner. Overall, not a bad episode by any means but also not one that was great. 

9. Two for The Road (Episode 3): This episode kind of blends together the first two episodes where you get the Hollywood aspect of things with the trio solving the murder. Because of that, I have it ranked between these two episodes. It’s fun to see more of the trio with the actors, some of the bits in the episode are a lot of fun. It’s nice to see Oliver and Zach Galfinakis bond. Steve Martin and Eugene Levy are comedy geniuses so seeing them bounce off one another was a lot of fun. The stuff with Eva Longoria and Selena Gomez I thought to be a bit much, that was my least favorite stuff of the entire episode. I found Longoria to be annoying and it went too far, the episode dragged whenever it cut to that. This episode is good enough, I didn’t hate the episode, I didn’t love the episode. It’s one that I found to be right there in the middle as good enough and sometimes being good enough is ok. 

8. Gates of Heaven (Episode 2): After a disappointing premiere, I thought this episode was an improvement over the last, still not perfect but solid enjoyment. Episode one went very differently with things, they’re in a new setting and all. This episode takes the trio back to NYC, so it feels like a classic episode of the show and I appreciate that. From there, I like how this episode explores Charles’ psychological state and how he would react to learning that maybe the murderer was trying to kill him. We see how Oliver and Mabel respond to that and are worried about him. It’s fun to meet a new set of characters, they got fun actors to play them. This is an episode that I thought was fun, there’s plenty of that charm and magic that you expect from this show. Of the episodes of the season, this was the one that was sort of just there for me. I didn’t think this episode did anything that wowed me, but it also didn’t do anything that bothered me. It fits right in there in the middle as a good enough episode of the show. 

7. Adaptation (Episode 5): This was a frustrating episode, there’s a lot in here that I really dug into and things that I was disappointed in. Episode four had a bit more forward momentum. We were putting things together, answering questions while raising new questions. This episode continues, we see our trio investigate and figure out who the murderer is. The episode ends on a nice cliffhanger that made me excited to see where episode six was going. I thought the writing of the episode wasn’t great. They wrote our trio to be a bit stupid, I was able to put clues together faster than they were and that’s not good. I shouldn’t be smarter than the characters in the show. You get some of the putting down the trio without the changes that are made to the script that we got in episode one, I didn't like how that was handled. An episode that had a whole lot I really enjoyed and a lot that I didn’t care for that much. 

6. Lifeboat (Episode 8): Another frustrating episode, because on the one hand it was very interesting. A couple of times in this season, the show has addressed real life movies that inspired the episodes. This episode talks about one of Alfred Hitchcock’s films and how that inspired this episode. That’s what makes some of these episodes stand out from one another. The stuff with Kamali Nanjiani reciting Jack Nicholson’s speech from A Few Good Men did put a smile on my face. All of the characters get a moment to shine and be funny. I think it’s cool that we’re spending time with Dudenoff and understanding more about his relationship with the websites. I felt like this episode didn't add much new information beyond that. All of the stuff about the westies being innocent and throwing us off guard and revealing they didn't do it and then proceeding to exposition dump about Dudenoff, there’s not that much new that really interested me. 80% of the episode was great, 20% of the episode was not great. 

5. The Stunt Man (Episode 4): I thought this had a lot of solid elements that had forward momentum to them. It perfectly picks up where episode three left off and we have fun with that. Given the title of the episode, this episode focuses on stunt men which is what Sazz was. We get the return of Paul Rudd but he’s not playing Ben Gilroy but rather his stunt double. Those were some fun moments, it’s fun to see Paul Rudd be this Irish guy that’s not very smart, he’s charming because Paul Rudd is charming. I liked that we got to know Sazz a bit more, we saw a bit more of her stunt double career and her relationship with Charles that added depth. It also felt like we were getting more clues to what the final twist of the season would be. I just loved the scenes of Oliver trying to use an iPad, that was really funny. 

4. My Best Friend’s Wedding (Episode 10): The season finale where all of the answers are given and we learn what’s been going on this entire time. There’s something fun about these finales that I do enjoy, it’s nice seeing how information that we thought was thrown away came back. I thought the motivation of the Pope was interesting, I could see it coming off as cheesy to some but I thought it made enough sense and it did work for me. The episode did a good enough job of explaining his relationship with Sazz and what went down that led to Pope killing her. I thought it set up season five nicely and it’s sad that it had to be Lester, but they set that up in the episode in a nice way. They also make you feel about the fact that Loretta is going to be the one that gets killed to set up season five. That doesn’t happen, but the way the wedding scene is portrayed certainly makes it seem that way. I don’t really have any negatives about the episode, it’s just a very solid episode that came together nicely, it paid off season four while setting up season five. 

3. Escape From Planet Klongo (Episode 9): The penultimate episode of the season and in typical fashion, we get some of the final reveals as to who the killer is. There’s something exciting about the final episodes where it’s revealed who the killer is and our team trying to figure out some final mysteries. This episode was able to balance having the funny moments that you’d expect with this show. There’s a lot of fun that comes with that, they put our characters in ridiculous situations. But you also get some nice heartfelt moments between Oliver and Charles, it’s an episode that really focuses on them. We don’t get a lot of episodes that focus on that and I thought that was a nice touch, I feel like we don’t get a lot of those moments in this show recently. I love that they were able to get Ron Howard to be in the show, that was a lot of fun. They somewhat subvert your expectations, because Oliver tells a story about Ron Howard, but we don’t believe him because it’s Oliver, it turns out the story is true. All leading up to Charles and Oliver learning about who the murderer is. 

2. Valley of Dolls (Episode 7): This episode really started to tie the entire season together. Where we get Levy, Galfinakis, and Longoria helping our trio solve the murder. We meet Melissa McCarthy, I’m surprised she was introduced so late into the season. Loretta reunites with Oliver and we see how weird Oliver’s choices towards their relationship was. It’s a very chaotic episode that has a lot going on, but there’s a lot of fun taking place. All of the actors are clearly having fun in this madness of an episode. We also get a lot of forward progression with who the murderer is. I thought it was a nice touch that the actors are more involved with the mystery and figuring out what’s happening. The episode ends on a cliffhanger that points the finger towards certain characters. I thought the casting of McCarthy was a bit strange, it was distracting and felt like stunt casting. Besides that, I thought this was a solid episode. 

1. Blow-Up (Episode 6): I thought this episode was very creatively done and it’s an episode that stands out because of it. This episode is told in mockumentary style, every shot is filmed from the perspective of a camera. With having this technique used in the episode it makes it stand out, it makes you feel like you’re in the scene with the characters. Even with having the twins narrate the episode and structuring with a four act structure it’s clever writing and it helps us understand the twins more. I also appreciate this episode answers a question that I feel like most people are wondering. Why doesn’t our trio get out of the building with all these people being murdered? This episode answers that, we see the panic that our characters are in. You feel this sense of danger because of it and that’s something that was lacking in other episodes. All around, this was a great episode.