EUGENE LEVY, STEVE MARTIN, RICHARD KIND
Our big batch of supposed suspects get to meet each other face to face in the latest installment of Only Murders in the Building. Martin Short’s Oliver, Steve Martin’s Charles, and Selena Gomez’s Mabel team up with their actor counterparts, set to play them in the Hollywood film, in “Two for the Road.” While the actors help clarify some things, it leaves us with twice the mystery in the end.
The actors flew in from LA to study the true-crime trio in action for their roles. Oliver is eager to impress and charm Zach Galifianakis, while Eugene Levy tries to live up to Charles and Eva Longoria actively annoys Mabel. While this may seem like a recipe for disaster – and in some ways, is – the trio will stop at nothing to continue solving the mystery.
Charles and Eugene chat with one of the Westies, Vance, a.k.a. Pink Eye Guy (Richard Kind, Inside Out). They try to get him to take his eyepatch off to no avail, believing he has a fake pink eye and is actually guilty of killing Charles. When he eventually peels it off – after their plans continuously go awry – they realize he was the real thing and might have to cross him off the suspect list. Eugene also realizes Charles isn’t all that, but at the same time, he helps Charles find a photo of the Westies – with one face crossed off. Could this be Dudenoff, the resident of the empty apartment?
Meanwhile, Mabel and Eva also have little luck, confronting Rudy Thurber, a.k.a. Christmas-All-the-Time Guy (Kumail Nanjiani, The Big Sick). This episode winds up as one of the most star-studded yet. First, Eva is pissing Mabel off by inventing her own version of Mabel, who she calls “Mabél.” Rudy then showcases a series of…very interesting Christmas decorations and snacks, only for Eva Longoria to go off the rails and aggressively confront him. This unhinged sequence ends with Rudy confessing he actually hates Christmas, which is definitely a twist, and eliminates his reason to hate Charles, who started a petition to ban real Christmas trees. He’s just a viral fitness influencer pandering to Christmas-loving fans and viral views. Huh.
Still, their time in his apartment isn’t fruitless. Mabel did see a ham radio, like the one Oliver is monitoring with the help of Zach and Howard (Michael Cyril Creighton, Dexter: New Blood). Howard does most of that work, while Oliver and Zach are busy frolicking the day away as Oliver teaches Zach to be the perfect version of himself for the film. Zach ends up saying some hurtful things to our theater-lover, before realizing exactly who Oliver Putnam is at his core.
It’s great to see the actors get a grasp of the trio we know and love, even if mostly all they do in the episode is cause chaos. Still, Oliver finds out that Howard heard the Perfect Strangers theme song on the ham radio he was monitoring – the same thing Mabel hears in Rudy’s apartment, over his ham radio. With the addition of Charles’ clues about the photograph, all clues point to Dudenoff.
Lucky for us, Mabel is preparing to squat in Dudenoff’s place for the time being, also hoping they’ll return. They also use Dudenoff’s radio and reach a voice on the other end, telling them to stop looking for clues, or they’ll wind up dead, like the last person who tried. Are they talking about Sazz? What does this mean for the future of the case? This episode has only built up the mystery and suspicion shrouding Arconia. One thing’s for sure, the trio will never stop hunting for hints, so we’ll just have to see who’s truly behind it all – and if we’ve even met them yet!
MARTIN SHORT, STEVE MARTIN, SELENA GOMEZ
Stunt paradise, here we come! The latest episode of Only Murders in the Building focuses on the pros who stand in for the big names in Hollywood, a.k.a. stunt doubles! This is the perfect episode to pay tribute to Sazz, but also discover which characters are really putting on a face and aren’t who they seem.
The episode kicks off with Charles once again having visions, or rather, dreams, about Sazz. They’re also about her going to “paradise,” and Charles is on a mission to find out what Sazz means. He brings his concerns to the others, and they decide to look into Sazz’s (Jane Lynch, Glee) history. They wind up at a stunt-person bar, appropriately named Concussions, where Sazz and all the stunt doubles in NYC hang out.
They find this out through Instagram, where Oliver also gets to snoop on Loretta (Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada) and the mysterious man in the back of her pictures. Oliver then creates a fake account to interact with Loretta as a fan, but Mabel tells him to shut it down by the episode’s end. Still, we have little to no information on the mystery man, and it will definitely come up later.
We also find out more about the Westies as Mabel is squatting in the Dudenoff place. She leaves Howard (Michael Cyril Creighton, Dexter: New Blood) in charge while she investigates. Unfortunately, he’s lured away by the prospect of a Hollywood audition and leaves the place empty, allowing the Westies to get in there. We find out that they’re not a cult, but instead are part of a rent-control scheme and pay Dudenoff $200 a month for their places. That’s a price that has never been uttered in NYC…ever. Mabel’s offered a spot in the hall and it looks like she’s about to become a Westie, since she needs a place and the price is unbeatable.
Most of the episode, however, is spent with the stunt doubles, the various quirky characters who frequent the bar. Getting a peek into Sazz’s lore is a welcome surprise, and we learn about the chiropractor who Sazz spent much of her time with – who is ready to dish about Sazz’s life when Charles comes asking. The true crime trio, though, is not welcome at Concussions, since they aren’t stunt doubles and are instead “faces” who don’t respect the work stunt doubles do. But hope is not lost!
We meet with none other than (drumroll, please) Paul Rudd again, who lets Charles into the back room the trio was curious about. This time, Paul’s character is Irish, hallucinates invisible rats, and is also Ben Glenroy’s stunt double. If we know one thing about Only Murders in the Building, it’s that they’re always up for a good old celebrity cameo.
The chiropractor, Dr. Maggie (Veanne Cox, You’ve Got Mail), tells Charles that Sazz was in a lot of pain and was tired of a relationship that didn’t give her much in return – which Charles realizes is his own bond with Sazz. Still, he tries to make it up to her by going back to Concussions and giving her a proper stunt funeral, by standing in for her dead body and letting everyone pay their respects (which involves slamming glass bottles into his head).
He then remembers Sazz’s dream to open up a trampoline park and academy for stunt doubles, which is in paradise. Well, in Paradise, NJ. The true crime trio head out there and find someone lurking in one of the buildings. To their relief, it’s Bev Melon, the Hollywood producer…only, not all is what it seems. She has a gun, and maybe she’s not really just a producer after all.
This is a killer cliffhanger to leave us on – literally – and we’ll be hanging onto the edge of our seats for another week, eager to find out what’s going on behind this Hollywood adaptation of their podcast and how it all ties back to Sazz.
