Everyone has a “tell” in Only Murders in the Building Episode 5 … but for some suspects, it might tell us less than we think. In fact, if this episode proved anything, it’s how many characters are still hiding the truth, despite the true crime trio’s investigation.
Only Murders in the Building Episode 5 kicks off with Martin Short’s Oliver helping his son Will (Ryan Broussard, Sistas) with the school play. Will narrates a scene in which he reveals how his dad is great at finding out others’ secrets by discovering everyone’s “tell,” something they do when they lie (or don’t) that gives them away.
We specifically see that (in a great flashback with Samuel Farnsworth playing a spectacular young Oliver) Oliver played this game called the Son of Sam back in the ’70s, which is basically a mafia card game. And Oliver has always been adamant about sniffing out who the killer is, able to find everyone’s “tell” easily, even as he grows up and plays the game with his wife and others like Teddy Dimas (Nathan Lane, The Lion King). Now we’re back in 2022, and Oliver still plays this game, only this time with Steve Martin’s Charles and Selena Gomez’s Mabel of course!
It takes place at Mabel’s apartment, where she’s hosting an art party on behalf of her new flame Alice (Cara Delevingne, Suicide Squad). Sadly, once Mabel tells the crew about her connection with Alice, Oliver and Charles get suspicious of Alice’s intentions, even if she says all the right things to them. It’s mainly because Jan (Amy Ryan, The Office) – yes, Jan – tells Charles over the phone that the killer is probably someone artistic, considering the flair they put into composing the crime scene.
And so, Oliver’s on the case, playing a game of Son of Sam with everyone at the party to figure out Alice’s tell and expose her as a killer. Oliver does just that, finding that Alice plays with her hair when she’s lying…but she’s not lying about the murder. She’s lying about being rich so that more people trust her in the art world. Oliver exposing this in front of everyone is really overwhelming and both Charles and Mabel are against it, but it also doesn’t change the fact that Alice was really lying to Mabel about something.
It makes you think about what else Alice could be hiding, especially after we see the Son of Sam killer card secretly in her bag, even after Mabel forgives her for lying and opens her heart to Alice. While the last episode centered more around family, this one was definitely all about the romance, not only spotlighting Mabel’s new relationship but also having Charles rekindle some sort of connection with Jan via telephone. This is, quite honestly, a horrible idea bound to backfire on them, as she mostly sounds like she’s using Charles.
But he and Jan are far from the only odd pair the episode brings up. It turns out Will Putnam did an ancestry test for his son’s project and discovers that Oliver may not be his dad. Instead, it might be none other than Teddy Dimas! Now that is a twist we can all safely say we did NOT see coming.
But if Only Murders in the Building is good at one thing, that’s certainly it. Here’s another twist we may have not predicted: the day before Bunny’s death, she met with someone at the diner and they’re caught on tape, taking a matchbook – one that likely belonged to the killer, since Mabel finds it in the secret passageway outside her apartment. Hopefully, this gives the true crime trio more insight into who did it.
Who knows, maybe it’s yet another lover, getting close to the crew in order to be close to the investigation. Or maybe it’s more than one person, with motives we have yet to discover. Only time – and everyone’s habits when they lie – will tell!
