Only Murders in the Building Recap: Bodies, Bodies, Bodies

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If you’re still wondering about the origin of the hidden casino beneath Arconia and haven’t yet managed to suspend your disbelief, here’s an intriguing piece of information for you. In the episode, Charles shares some background: As cars became more popular in the 1910s, the horse stables located under the building lost their purpose. The mob saw this vacant space as a prime opportunity and established The Velvet Room there – a location where significant city decisions have been made for close to a century. However, Charles had always believed it was just a legend until they discovered it.

While exploring beneath the dry cleaner, I accidentally discover a vent leading up to where Oliver usually works. Through this vent, I hear Oliver’s voice coming from above, just moments after Nicky’s body had fallen nearby. They instruct me to wait upstairs and ensure no contact with the deceased mobster’s remains, due to obvious reasons. Unfortunately, it’s already too late as my DNA is likely contaminated. Frightened by the mob, I panic and bring the body up using a laundry cart – not an ideal situation at all.

They plan to thoroughly remove Oliver’s DNA from the body and put it back at its original location before the dry cleaner opens in the morning, seemingly not caring that this might also eliminate any potential DNA evidence. Given their lack of trust in the police, the destruction of evidence seems irrelevant to them. Additionally, their distrust of law enforcement contributes to their decision to perform their own autopsy, making for an intriguing DIY experience.

One thing that immediately stands out is Nicky appears to have all his fingers, and just like a severed finger from a game at the casino below, he also sports green substance under his nails, which Charles identifies as green felt. This either suggests Nicky might have strangled Kermit the Frog or it could be from the casino table downstairs. Mabel speculates that the two deaths could be connected, although it seems obvious, but Charles points out they happened a week apart. To further complicate matters, Nicky is dressed in the same attire he wore the day Lester died, yet his gardenia remains fresh. The autopsy results offer more confusion regarding the exact time of death. Although the cause of death is clearer due to the visible meat cleaver lodged in his chest, it’s still unclear when exactly the fatal blow occurred.

After making a significant discovery, Mabel ponders an intriguing theory: perhaps the burn on Nicky was not caused by a fire, but rather freezer burn. This could mean that he was frozen, kept in the freezer, thawed, and then the conflicting evidence surfaced. As she delves deeper into this theory, Mabel also unearths a crumpled piece of stationery from Arconia station in Nicky’s mouth. However, before they can fully explore this peculiar finding, they notice that it’s already become morning. The scene mirrors the one in ‘Singin’ in the Rain’, where they sing “Good Morning” after staying up all night, but instead of a musical number, there’s a corpse present this time around.

In the 15 minutes before the dry cleaners reopened, they hurriedly made their way downstairs with the body, but there were a few detours during their journey. Upon noticing that the stationery in Nicky’s mouth matched the paper found in Randall’s ledger, Oliver decided to investigate further. Later on, Mabel unexpectedly encountered her old friend Althea (Beanie Feldstein) from the Tim Kono days, who had transformed into a famous pop star known as Thé and had recently moved into the penthouse. While there was a brief interaction between the two, showcasing their strained relationship with Thé displaying some condescension towards Mabel, Charles found himself alone, responsible for disposing of the body.

In my film-loving perspective, let me rephrase that scene:

I successfully stash the body just on the brink of discovery, blending in with a pile of laundry as the police arrive on the scene. The silver lining? This means I got an earful of their conversation – they were expecting the body to be hanging up on the carousel, but one cop suggests noting down merely “what they said,” which turns out to be, “Time of death this morning, prime suspect: Caputo crime family.” Frankly, I’ve always suspected that Theresa Caputo, with her knack for communicating with spirits in grocery stores, doesn’t have time for organized crime. And secondly, these crooked cops certainly provide enough motivation for the trio to take matters into their own hands in this instance.

Upstairs, Oliver comes back with the ledger, snatched from Randall and hastily departed. Upon examination, they locate where the missing page was. Mabel manages to fill in the adjacent page to reveal pencil markings that initially appear to be bird notes. However, they recall Mrs. Randall mentioning he used various birds as aliases for people. With this knowledge, it appears he was employing these aliases to track everyone who visited the casino on Saturdays. Given it’s Saturday, the group plans to surveil the casino in an attempt to match some of these bird names with real faces. Unfortunately, they neglect to ponder if this could be a bird-themed casino instead.

In the interim, Oliver hands the ledger back to Randall, who appears burdened by his newly acquired duties. Filled with regret for not being a better friend to Lester, Oliver sees this as a chance to make amends and provides assistance to his new doorman. Meanwhile, Mabel is dealing with her personal inner conflict, which seems to stem from her former rival moving in above her, into what was once her sanctuary, triggering old habits of judgment much like their youthful days. As for Charles, he’s been tormented all episode by the ghostly presence of Nicky, who continually taunts him about mortality – a topic that may have some explanation when we see him contact a pharmacy regarding drugs as part of an unknown clinical trial, though more details will likely be revealed later.

Upon descending to keep watch at the casino, they find themselves taken aback when instead of mob leaders, three high-profile CEOs step inside. Among them are tech billionaire Sebastian “Bash” Steed (Christoph Waltz), pharmaceutical heir Jay Pflug (Logan Lerman), and hotel magnate Camila White (Renée Zellweger). Camila’s style prompts Charles to quip, “She’s a living embodiment of a Nancy Meyers kitchen,” which is an apt remark for Steve Martin to deliver, given his role with her most iconic kitchen in the film “It’s Complicated“. Interestingly, three episodes in and there’s no sight of Loretta yet. However, the unexpected twist unfolds as they inch closer to the bar where their non-billionaire trio is concealed, revealing that Jay’s hand, bandaged, is missing a finger.

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2025-09-09 21:55