Only Murders in the Building Season 3 Episode 6 is full of fear – and not just because of the ghost Howard suspects is haunting the theater Ben almost died in. It’s because the culprit is feeling further and further away.
At the start of the episode, it seems like all is headed in the right direction. Howard (Michael Cyril Creighton, Dexter: New Blood) says he killed Ben, but really he means he didn’t stop the ghost Gideon from haunting the stage and murdering Ben. The crew is skeptical, but in order to find out more, they have to dig deeper. So, we take a trip to the theater.
The great news is that the trio is back together, investigating like old times…although this doesn’t last for long. The crew splits up and we get to meet all of the theater’s different characters, from learning more about KT (Allison Guinn, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) to finding another director secretly living in the space.
This director goes way back with Oliver and is able to spill some secrets about Loretta. Oliver was already suspicious, especially since finding Loretta’s Ben-filled scrapbook and handwriting that looks like the words on the mirror. On top of that, we can’t forget the whole “fucking pig” speech Loretta gave in the last episode. The night Ben died, he fought with Loretta and she also called him the same words on the mirror; finally, thanks to his director pal, Oliver learns about this moment in detail. He also discovers that Charles punched Ben and kept it a secret.
Meanwhile, Charles and Mabel are beginning to get upset with one another while investigating clues. Charles – recently dumped by Joy – goes off on his own to take care of his last remaining fish, President McKinley, but ends up stuck in a closet while one of the smoke props goes off and nearly suffocates him.
He’s able to escape, and runs into Mabel, who was with Tobert (Jesse Williams, Grey’s Anatomy). Though Mabel and Tobert have a budding romance, Tobert was really there following Jonathan (Jason Veasey, Chicago Fire), who seems suspicious after last week’s episode caught him red-handed with Ben’s medicine guy.
Still, Mabel and Tobert realize that Jonathan may not be a murderer; he was mostly just nervous about performing on stage, and he was taking the same medicine Ben was to ease that pain. However, the exact traces of what was in Jonathan’s medicine wasn’t found in Ben’s autopsy report, so it seems there might still be a bit of a question mark around this whole situation.
There are some sweet moments, like Howard and KT bonding over their theater dreams. But Charles is still upset when he sees Mabel with Tobert, as she’s bringing another person into their close-knit true crime circle. Charles and Mabel are both also pissed with Oliver when they see him trying to erase the “fucking pig” on the mirror. Oliver seems to have decided to let go of the investigation in favor of his feelings for Loretta and his dream of this musical (even though a lot of the evidence is pointing to the fact that they really haven’t caught Ben’s killer yet).
The trio basically have a screaming match, which is heartbreaking to watch. They are the core of this series and make each episode what it is. It’s sad to see that not only has this rift grown between them, but that they aren’t involved in their podcast as much this season as they have been in the past. Charles quits the play, Oliver says he doesn’t care about investigating clues, and Mabel lets them know she can do this without them, even mentioning the podcast offer Cinda Canning gave Mabel earlier this season.
This scene feels like a punch in the gut, and we can only look to the future episodes to repair this and bring back our true crime trio to solve the murder at hand. Truthfully, if they all did put their heads together and did a deep-dive into this crime, they would likely have way more information than they thought between them. All we can do is hope for a loving reunion – and some more leads – very soon.
