Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Only Murders in the Building Season 1, Episode 10, “Open and Shut.”
Like the besttrue crimeseries the show aims to ape,Only Murders in the Buildingisn’t really about solving a crime. It’s about interrogating the humans and the systems that fostered the environment surrounding the crime. And in the case of the Hulu comedy, those humans and systems are the people who produce true crime content themselves —Steve Martin,Martin Short, andSelena Gomez, who have all started a podcast after a resident of their apartment building is murdered. Where does the line between professional safety and personal fulfillment blur? Is it in any way ethical to use other people’s suffering for your own sense of advancement, even glee? And where on earth can I get myself one of Gomez’s perfect orange fur coats?!
But like actual true crime series,Only Murders in the Buildingalso has a crime to solve — and in the case of its Season 1 finale, “Open and Shut,” the open case is indeed shut (before another one is ripped wide open again). Let’s get into every facet ofOnly Murders' final Season 1 moments, from case specifics to thematic ripples to what the hell the podcast crew is gonna do next.
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First off: Jan (Amy Ryan) is the killer. It’s bluntly hinted at in Episode 9’s cliffhanger, as Mabel (Gomez) and Oliver (Short) discover an alleged sex toy found in the victim Tim Kono’s (Julian Cihi) apartment is actually a bassoon-cleaning device, and completely canonized as the truth here in the finale. As Jan colorfully confesses to Charles (Martin), she had a fling with Tim that ended, and under the auspices of “one last drink,” she poisoned him with a delayed-reacting chemical (the likes of which Mabel and Oliver find in her apartment, helpfully labeled) then shot his dead body to look like a suicide. Now, Jan has applied a nerve-slowing agent of sorts to Charles' person via ice pack, leaving him to attempt an escape with an incapacitated body and slurred level of speech, Leo-in-Wolf-of-Wall-Streetstyle (to the point where Oliver makes a quaalude joke).
Mabel, Oliver, and Charles eventually reunite (Charles strapped into a rolling basket) and rush to the basement, where Jan is planning on gassing the entire apartment building to death (Ryan is having so much fun playing this villainous killer to thehilt). Jan pulls a gun, Charles gives a heroic speech of self-actualization, and when the scene cuts to reveal that was in his head and he’s actually just babbling incoherently, Oliver rushes Charles-in-a-basket toward Jan, thwacking her! Mabel, who’s had personal stakes around Tim since the beginning, smashes Jan in the face with Zoe’s (Olivia Reis) emerald ring, and down goes the killer.
The case is closed, and our heroes have moments of personal triumph. Oliver hugs his embittered son (Ryan Broussard) with open, reconciliatory arms. Mabel and Oscar (Aaron Dominguez) examine her finished artwork and kiss. Charles texts Lucy, the estranged daughter figure of his ex, and she actually responds. As the final voiceover of the trio’s podcast comes to a close, with the ghostly visage of Tim Kono used to essentially bless his own murder as a necessary catalyst for the trio’s burgeoning friendship/social service/content-generator, I felt undeniably satisfied, but undeniably icky. Throughout its masterful early run,Only Murdersin the Buildingthrived in queasiness, sharpness, and melancholy about its satirical and emotional lacerations. Isn’t this fairy tale ending a bit too pat, hand-holding, forgiving of its characters, of its pre-established tone and aims?
Well, the final cliffhanger is here to shut me up. Our trio, who has now been granted permission to stay in this apartment building everyone previously wanted them kicked out of (who’d wanna come to the murder building?), celebrates their successes on the apartment building’s rooftop. But when Mabel exits briefly to get some more champagne, Oliver and Charles receive a panicked text from an unknown number instructing them to leave now. And a cavalcade of sirens shows up at their front door.
And when Oliver and Charles go to help Mabel, they see her covered in blood, kneeling before the body of crotchety landlord Bunny (Jayne Houdyshell), her knitting needle rammed into Bunny’s throat. Mabel insists it’s not what it looks like, but before she can deliver any more details, the trio is escorted away from the building, handcuffed by the police, as a crew of gaping onlookers stares at their latest attraction of carnage.
The final moments of the season go to podcast impresario Cinda Canning (Tina Fey) and her put-upon assistant (Adina Verson), who brainstorm what kind of podcast they could create based on this new, burgeoning case of podcast-murder-solvers-turned-murderers. Ofcourseit isn’t going to be that easy for our trio to find their happiness through real-life stakes of death, sadness, and anguish. Ofcoursethey’re in too deep, the dominoes falling around them. And ofcourseI’m going to watch a Season 2 to see what happens when our content creators become content themselves.
Only Murders in the BuildingSeason 1 is streaming now on Hulu.
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