Put on your best sweater and make sure a warm, pumpkin-flavored beverage is in hand. This is the coziest Only Murders in the Building episode of the season, perfect for the chill in the October air. But don’t worry: there is a helping of spooky mystery that helps make’“Silver Alert’ another winner of the season.
We kick off Only Murders in the Building Season 5 Episode 7 ‘Silver Alert’ by seeing a couple in the Connecticut countryside receiving a “silver alert” for a missing person, describing who to look out for – and that scarf-wearing missing man is Oliver. He runs through the windows into the couple and we flash back to nine hours earlier, back with the crew in the Arconia and very curious about what will unfold.
Back in our building that we know and love, the true crime trio have to film podcast interviews now – as per Wondify’s contract. Murder mystery episodes are simply not enough for the big, scary company in charge. The first interviewee up is the mayor of NYC, who’s been begging to be on the podcast. Mayor Tillman (Keegan Michael Key, Key & Peele) is now looking slightly suspicious. He’s desperate to be on the pod, which could be a possible motive, but it’s even more curious that he’s eager to throw someone else under the bus. When the trio mention they’re suspicious of Bash Steed (Christoph Waltz, Inglorious Bastards), Mayor Tillman is all too quick to agree with them and explain why Bash is definitely guilty.
To add to the pot that Mayor Tillman is stirring, he confesses that his assistant Romy (Caitlin Houlahan, Mare of Easttown) is Bash’s niece and was basically hired to watch Tillman. It turns out that he took money from Bash when he first ran for office, and then he had to pay him back, but Bash’s asks kept growing bigger and bigger. Bash’s power can’t be usurped – but it does beg the question, if the mayor is low on cash, what if he actually lost some of his money in the underground poker games? What if he took it out on Nicky and Lester?
It’s true that anyone on the show for more than five minutes could be a suspect, but the mayor is looking plenty fishy. Like Lester, he’s also conducting undercover business in the Arconia, and it just might be tied to the murders this season.
KEEGAN-MICHAEL KEY, STEVE MARTIN, SELENA GOMEZ, MARTIN SHORT
More on that later…it’s time to get spooky, as promised! The mayor leaks that the billionaires host secret parties at their estates, and it takes Mabel, Charles and Oliver on a trip past the gray skyscrapers and into the Connecticut fall foliage. When they arrive at the house, they see a creepy little boy (who we learn is Bash’s son Algie) lingering in the bushes. If that wasn’t scary enough, they walk into the three billionaires playing a game of operation in the middle of the afternoon. It’s bizarre, but what filthy rich people aren’t?
The three swear up and down that they’re just having a silly little game night. This ends up sparking a different idea: Mabel challenges them to a game – and the winner takes all. If our beloved protagonists win, the billionaires owe them answers about the night Lester died and what they’re hiding. If they lose, the trio will leave them alone forever. As if it wasn’t already enough for the billionaires to dangle their Wondify power in front of Mabel, Charles, and Oliver, they also throw out some thinly veiled threats.
Oliver doesn’t want to play, because he has things to lose, which stings just a bit. Charles and Mabel have plenty on the line, too. But just because Oliver storms out and doesn’t join them, doesn’t mean his presence isn’t felt; the group plays a pop culture guessing game. The billionaires get the historic figures category, and after they’re surprisingly successful in a moment that will definitely have you laughing out loud at your screen, it looks like all hope is lost. But when Charles and Mabel receive the broadway category, they’re able to use the wacky stories Oliver tells them in order to name all the right stars and pull out a victory.
Back to Oliver: he’s walking through the woods with no service and a worried Loretta actually submits a “silver alert,” claiming he was missing since he wasn’t responding to her texts. We finally catch up to the clip in the beginning of the episode, where Oliver runs into the couple. He tries to explain his situation, but he sounds out of his mind – his life is a movie (or a podcast, rather) after all. He’s spilling about Mabel and Charles, and realizes that maybe he has been selfish, leaving them in what could be a murder house. He decides he has to save them – Oliver to the rescue!
Since Charles and Mabel pulled a win from their asses somehow, the billionaires have to cough up the truth. When they reveal their real motive, we find out they are all on a mission to make NYC’s first casino. It sounds like a horrible idea, and how would they even get the power to do so? That could be from the mayor, of course. The episode doesn’t explicitly say anything like that, but this writer has a feeling this is the path our murder mystery is going down.
But that’s not all – it turns out their twisted game night is related to the night Lester died. The fake trophy the billionaires had for their so-called game night breaks open and out falls the missing finger from Charles’ fridge. Meanwhile, Jay (Logan Lerman, The Perks of Being a Wallflower) tries to convince Mabel he’s a good guy, and even asks her out, but the truth and the finger are out in the open, and it feels like he might just be doing it to find out more about the case and keep his name in the clear. Still, there’s definitely still some tension lingering in the air between them.
Only Murders in the Building Season 5 Episode 7 ‘Silver Alert’ deserves a shiny gold trophy from Walgreens. It’s somehow a perfect combo of cozy and scary and a much-needed next step to explain so many loose ends, such as the finger and who put the offer in on Oliver’s place. This writer had a hunch it was Camila (Renée Zellweger, Chicago), since she remodeled his place without even owning it yet, but her motivation comes from wanting to turn the Arconia into her casino. Sadly, the beloved halls of the Arconia could become the elegantly blah-looking Camila Club unless someone stops it, and soon! We’re running out of episodes, getting closer to the clues all coming together and the murderer being unmasked. Let’s hope our trio can crack the case before the walls of their building are all stripped down and painted beige.
