Hulu's 'Only Murders in the Building' Closes Out Its First Season With Another Mystery
Luckily, another season is in the works.
This post contains spoilers for Only Murders in the Building Season 1.
The case of who killed Tim Kono is closed. Only Murders in the Building—the delightful ugly sweater of a Hulu series starring Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez—closes out its first season by solving its central mystery. The culprit in the death of the annoying young businessman who pissed off everyone in the fancy Upper West Side co-op The Arconia is the bassoonist Jan, the new girlfriend of Steve Martin's Charles-Haden Savage, whose love of instrument puns was, frankly, always suspect. She's not just a nice, lonely symphony member. She's a murderous psychopath. Isn't that always the case?
But Only Murders in the Building isn't quite done with its bloodshed. The series co-created by Martin and John Hoffman has already been renewed for a Season 2 and they are keeping the intrigue running with a cliffhanger of an ending.
Our central threesome—Charles (Martin), Oliver (Short), and Mabel (Gomez)—are celebrating on the rooftop of their building when Mabel decides to run down to her apartment to grab some more champagne. The next thing you know, Charles and Oliver are hearing loud sirens. When they run down to get Mable they find her covered in blood kneeling over the dead body of Bunny (Jayne Houdyshell), the nasty head of the co-op board who had been trying to evict them. Bunny has been stabbed by one of Mabel's knitting needles while wearing one of the tie-dyed hoodies Oliver had been selling to advertise the trio's podcast about Tim Kono's murder. Hence, all three look like the prime suspects and the episode ends with our heroes being led into a cop car.
Now begins the new question to entangle: Who killed Bunny? And who framed Charles, Oliver, and Mabel for the deed? It can't have been Jan, who we see getting arrested. And we assume it's not actually Mabel, though her last word spoken to Bunny is "bitch," which certainly won't help her case when others start doing some digging.
Speaking of: One of the most curious details of the finale was just who is present when the police arrive to take Mabel, Oliver, and Charles in. Yes, there are residents of The Arconia gawking, but Cinda Canning, the fake Sarah Koenig-type played by Tina Fey, is also watching along with her trusty producer who pitches that their podcast about this crime should be called Only Murderers in the Building.
While the show probably won't be retitled for Season 2, there is a decent chance that Cinda will take on a more prominent role moving forward. Or perhaps Mabel, Oliver, and Charles will continue their podcasting efforts as they try to exonerate themselves. It's hard to pull off a mystery for more than one season, especially when you solve the core case. (See: Lies, Big Little.) But Only Murders in the Building has a nice foundation from which to hop into further adventures. Certainly, there are still a lot of suspects in The Arconia, and both Bunny and our investigators have a lot of enemies. Hey, maybe even Sting did it. He does live at The Arconia, after all.