Is this the most confusing Only Murders in the Building death yet?

6 days ago 7

This story contains spoilers for the first three episodes of Only Murders in the Building, season five.

The last season of Only Murders in the Building ended on a now extremely familiar note, with the titular murder of someone in the titular building. Unfortunately, Lester (Teddy Coluca) the cheerful doorman of the Arconia is the latest casualty to feed our voracious appetite for quirky, humorous deaths that are ably solved by Selena Gomez, Martin Short and Steve Martin.

Teddy Coluca (RIP) and Steve Martin in the new season of Only Murders in the Building.

In the new season, Charles, Oliver and Mabel are quickly on the case, keen for a new topic for their podcast – only to discover that the police have ruled Lester’s death an accident. However, considering it’s called Only Murders In The Building and not Accidental Deaths That Are Still Very Sad In The Vicinity, we can be pretty sure something hinky is going on.

This hit whodunit is now in its fifth season, with no signs of wrapping any time soon. It’s a perfect formula, balancing our love for murder mysteries with brilliantly funny dialogue and some sly commentary on the true-crime-entertainment industrial complex. But if you, like I, have watched the first three episodes (which dropped all at once on Disney+), you likely have some questions that need answering. Let’s discuss.

Who murdered Lester?

Of all the murders in this building, Lester’s seems to be the most confusing. In the first season, for example, the murdered Tim Kono (Julian Cihi) is quickly revealed to be a suspicious figure. In season three, it seemed that everyone had a motive to kill obnoxious actor Ben Glenroy (Paul Rudd). But Lester seems to just be a sweet old man who loves the Arconia and treats the tenants like slightly naughty children. Why would anyone want to murder him? And why have the police ruled it an accident?

Episode two gives us a long flashback to his first day on the job as a young man. It’s a beautiful little summary of a life spent in service to a building, that immediately makes us more invested. But it also starts to throw up some complications: namely revealing the Arconia’s historic connection to the mob, including a secret underground casino.

At present, we have to assume that Lester’s death is connected in some way – along with the disappearance of mobster Nicky Caccimelio (Bobby Cannavale), who by the end of the first episode is revealed to also be yet another murder in this dang building. Who murdered Nicky and Lester? How is it connected? It seems too obvious for this to be some kind of mafia-related cover-up (but perhaps that’s what they want us to think?) My money is on a much more personal vendetta.

us deciphering the evidence on the Only Murders Reddit threads.

How many murders is too many murders?

Lester is the fifth suspicious death in the Arconia in just a few years. I’m unaware of the exact culture of the Upper West Side, but five murders seems like at least four too many to me. I would say after roughly the second murder, I’d be considering moving somewhere else due to my selfish desire not to be murdered myself.

It obviously suits our podcasting protagonists perfectly to live in a cursed building, but I have to wonder why the rest of them aren’t moving. Literature (the TV shows Friends and Broad City), however, has taught me that real estate is a serious business in New York so we’re potentially nowhere near the number of murders it would take to make the Arconia toxic enough to leave.

My bet is that one of the new characters, Althea (Beanie Feldstein), an old friend and potential nemesis of Mabel who has moved into the penthouse, will be murdered in time for season six.

Selena Gomez, Steve Martin and Martin Short in Only Murders in the Building.

What’s going on with this missing finger?

The first “clue” we’re given is a severed finger which makes its way into Oliver’s leftover wedding shrimp – which I reckon is a clue in itself. Who has leftover wedding shrimp? In much the same way as Chekhov’s Gun means that if there is a gun mounted on a wall in a play it will definitely be shot at some point, a severed finger in a pile of shrimp will have a meaning in a murder story.

But whose finger is it? At the end of the third episode, we’re introduced to some shadowy billionaires including Jay Pflug (Logan Lerman), the heir of a pharmaceutical magnate, who is revealed to be missing a digit. This changes the question from “who?” to “why?” Probably just an accident, right?

Do Americans know what fish fingers are?

Speaking of the shrimp finger, I was left screaming at my television when the requisite wordplay around the discovery of a finger in leftover wedding shrimp only gave us a “something fishy” pun. SURELY this was a ripe moment for a fish finger reference. But after checking, I discovered that the culturally anaemic Americans refers to fish fingers as “fish sticks”. There are so many more jokes that they could play with… Do you think the fish finger is a red herring?

Is the new doorman hot?

In the first episode we learn that the residents of the Arconia are taking a survey to work out if Lester’s replacement, a new doorman named Randall (Jermaine Fowler), is hot. We’re told that so far, he’s getting a high percentage of smash ratings. By episode three, he’s well and truly entwined in the plot, and I think it’s safe to say: he’s hot. But does the building think so? And does this matter? Probably not.

With Renée Zellweger (sporting red hair) and Christoph Waltz, two more Oscar winners join the cast.

What’s in the ledger?

After three episodes, we have plenty of clues and red herrings and a grand total of TWO murders to keep us hooked. We have the mob connection. We have the fish finger. We have a shadowy cabal of figures in the secret gambling room including Pflug; tech billionaire Sebastian Steed (Christoph Waltz); and hotel magnate Camila White (Renée Zellweger), “the human incarnation of a Nancy Meyers’ kitchen”. And we also have Lester’s cryptic ledger, now in the hands of Hot Randall. What’s its significance? And why was a page full of bird names scrunched up in Dead Nicky’s mouth?

Still, with two more Oscar winners joining the ranks, I think the biggest mystery in this entire show is how they can afford such consistently high-class casting.

Only Murders in the Building is streaming on Disney+ with new episodes dropping weekly.

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