Only Murders in the Building Episode 7 Review: The Answers Lie in the Silence

It seems that the silence screams the loudest as we find out more than ever before in the nearly silent Only Murders in the Building Episode 7, “The Boy From 6B.” The episode has only a few lines of voiced dialogue, the rest covered in subtitles as we see from a deaf man’s POV. This man is known as “the boy from 6B” or Theo (James Caverly, Chicago Med), and he happens to be Teddy Dimas’ (Nathan Lane, The Lion King) son.

We see all of the crew’s plans through Theo’s eyes as he spies on his neighbors. He finds out everything they know by breaking in and discovering the crew’s investigation board full of evidence, using his smarts to get the key from the lobby and snoop around. While this is occurring, Mabel (Selena Gomez, Hotel Transylvania) and Charles (Steve Martin, Cheaper by the Dozen) decide to break into Teddy’s place and find out what he’s hiding while Oliver (Martin Short, Schmigadoon!) distracts him.

What the pair discovers in Teddy’s apartment is a secret room full of urns from a funeral home. Later, Mabel and Oliver go to the funeral home that was written on the urns on the hunt for clues. Theo tries to warn his father that they are onto them and know more than it seems, but Teddy says that’s nonsense and that he has it under control but we later find out that he, in fact, does not. The episode shows us that despite the fact that Teddy always tells Theo he’s protecting him, he’s never been a caring father and exploits his power. 

We also find out more about Theo’s past, namely the fact that he knew Mabel’s dead friend Zoe (Olivia Reis) in some capacity. The ring on her finger that Tim was after was one she got from Theo’s apartment when the Hardy Boys were sneaking around in others’ rooms. Zoe also flirts with Theo a few times, and eventually, Teddy catches onto the fact that she has the ring, yelling at Theo to get it back. This is when things blow up. Of course, this all happens on New Year’s Eve, a.k.a. the day Zoe dies. Theo follows Zoe to the party and meets her on the rooftop after she fights with Oscar (Aaron Dominguez, Shaft). He sort of proposes to her (kind of?), or at least hopes for a future between the two of them, but Zoe laughs at his suggestion, and when he gives her life advice, she says she only paid him attention out of pity. She shoves the ring back at him and starts hitting his chest and when he pushes back, he causes Zoe to fall off the roof. And Tim witnesses the whole thing. 

Theo gets the ring back and brings it to his dad in a fit of tears. Teddy asks how bad it was and says he can make it go away. This involves threatening Tim Kono to say he saw nothing or he’ll end up like Zoe (and so will Mabel). This is enough for Tim to give in, and we all know this is the reason why Oscar is put behind bars. Tim was trying to protect himself and Mabel, and hopefully she finds that out so she knows the real reason behind his silence. 

Meanwhile, we see Charles on another date with Jan (Amy Ryan, The Office), engaging in a sexy round of the board game Scrabble (that leads to “Scrabble”) as Mabel and Oliver follow the urns to the basement of the funeral home. There, they run into Theo with a dead body and begin to connect the dots. They don’t know the full story yet, but they uncover that this whole time Teddy has been a grave robber and that Theo helps out with his corrupt business. Theo knows it’s too late and tells his dad so; we then see Mabel and Oliver trapped in the back of a van that Theo’s driving and their fate is still unknown. 

Thankfully, many of their text messages went through to Charles who – after spending some time with Jan – catches up on what’s happening at the funeral home. The most important text? A message telling Charles to try the password “THEO” to unlock Tim Kono’s phone. Luckily for the crew, it works! That’s when Charles lets out words we can hear for the first time that episode, celebrating the victory.

This episode was really compelling with back-to-back revelations. We finally know the truth behind Zoe’s murder, and the kind of person Teddy truly is! Not only that, but the choice to tell the story in near silence as we view the world through Theo’s perspective was unique and made the significant moments even more intense. 

If anything, Only Murders in the Building Episode 7, “The Boy From 6B” proves just how much goes on in the Arconia behind closed doors. Yet, the question still remains: who killed Tim Kono? Was it Teddy, years later, trying to take down the remaining witness and get rid of a lingering problem? Or was it someone else entirely? The whole time we’ve believed it’s the same person that killed Zoe, but considering the secrets that shroud everyone who was involved with Tim, maybe we’re in for another surprise. 

Only Murders in the Building Episode 7, “The Boy From 6B” is now streaming on Hulu.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-V1rQdXXXyI&t=2s