Love and lies are in the air.
With a new character to a different perspective, there’s suddenly an array of undiscovered possibilities.
On Only Murders In the Building Season 1 Episode 9, we inch closer to the final revelations that will answer the question of the series — who killed Tim Kono?
So, phew! Jan is alive after a stabbing.
Her opening voiceover is beautiful, complete with bassoon underscoring. Given what we learned about her in this episode, it makes sense that she’s our penultimate narrator.
It’s a shame we only get a little of her perspective, but it makes sense — she has been keeping SO MANY secrets from the gang. Why does she lie about the symphony of all things? Is she just embarrassed? Is it just a way for the writers to show that she’s unreliable?
The end was a blindside — my jaw was on the floor.
Did anyone call Jan and Tim as lovers?
It’s wonderful that a show that’s been subject to so much dissection can still surprise with something so huge but totally explicable.
Jan’s always been a little shady simply by virtue of how she’s been orbiting Charles. Someone with so much screen time has to be up to something (see also: Oscar, who we’ll get to later). Jan subtly charmed her way into Charles’s life — does she even have feelings for him?
Was she just ingratiating herself into the investigation so she could help bring her lover’s killer to justice? Or was she just trying to make sure she wasn’t a suspect? But if that were the case, why wouldn’t she have gone along with the Dimas theory?
I’d like to point out that when I offered to help, everyone sent me home to get stabbed.
Jan
Does she have a secret vendetta against Howard? We know Tim hated Evelyn the cat, does that mean Jan hated her too? Or did Jan kill Tim because he broke up with her? Something doesn’t add up here.
If the notes in Tim’s garbage were Jan’s, does the handwriting match what we’ve seen of Jan’s? She did slip that note under Charles’s door.
The lover-as-killer feels like a misdirect, but we’re so close to the end now it’s as possible as anything else.
Looking at Detective Williams’s toxicology report, Tim died from secobarbital poisoning, which is the same poison that killed Evelyn (as Howard pointed out) and presumably Winnie. Secobarbital is often used in veterinary medicine. Who do we know that’s a vet?
Will Putnam.
Look, there’s no motive for Will as far as we know — no “why” or “why now.” Maybe this is a way to get Oliver to finally leave the Arconia?
We don’t know much about Oliver’s son, except that’s he’s reasonably well off, he is married with kids, and that Oliver squandered his college fund on Splash! The Musical. We also know that Will expressed a dislike of Mabel early on and discouraged Oliver from working on the podcast before.
Was this just a way to try and get his father to stop investigating Tim’s death? Admittedly this is a stretch, but it wouldn’t be the first time little details have added up to much more. We’ll see.
It would also be a thematic complement to the Teddy-Theo/”Daddy’s Little Helper” theme. This brings us to…
Oscar. What is he up to?
He’s always just there, except when he’s off “running errands” or going to meet a lawyer with his father. Let’s not forget we’re just taking him at his word when he says he didn’t go in to see Tim. Did he see more than he’s letting on? Did he have a hand in Tim’s death? Did his father?
It’s tough to consider because Oscar makes Mabel happy. They’re so darn cute together. Her spirit already seems brighter and she seems more at peace — after all, she’s already gotten justice for one friend. Even if she does get evicted, she knows her time at the Arconia won’t have been for nothing.
She’s not a kid. We only think she’s a kid because we’re old.
Charles
Oscar wouldn’t break her heart after all they’ve been through, would he?
Another thing to consider — in the first two minutes of Only Murders In The Building Season 1 Episode 1, Mabel is hunched over a body when Oliver and Charles find her. The body has a stab wound that is not unlike Jan’s.
The body is also in a tie-dyed hoodie.
We can be fairly certain that Mabel did not stab this person. We can also consider at least the possibility that this person is Oscar. The only other people we’ve seen in tie-dyed hoodies are Oliver and the Arconiacs.
It’s likely that whoever stabbed Jan stabbed this person and Mabel found them.
We have stabbings, gunshots, and poisonings, all in one building! No wonder it looks like the entire NYPD has been dispatched in that scene.
The attention on Howard has to be a misdirect, right? Obviously, there is some connection between Evelyn and Tim, since it was the same poison, but it’s still hard to say what that is.
It’s funny how Oscar, Charles, and Mabel now appear to have some allies, despite Bunny getting them evicted. Bunny has been antagonistic from the get-go, but it almost feels like that’s just her personality.
Tim Kono’s death has now been ruled a homicide and apparently one of you jerkoffs did it.
Bunny
Ndidi, despite hating Tim, stands up for the trio. It feels like something of an oversight that they hadn’t interviewed Tim’s next-door neighbor until now — her information could have saved them a lot of trouble!
But then again, if they’d pursued the lover avenue from the get-go, they might not have discovered the Dimas cover-up of Zoe’s death and Oscar’s innocence.
And then, there’s Sazz Potacki.
I am riveted. She is so the better you.
Oliver
The whole double thing was a little weird, honestly. It’s sort of funny, but the gag of mistaking one for the other didn’t always land. Also, it felt strange to bring a new character in this late and give her so much screen time.
However, the trio needed someone else to come in and give a fresh, new perspective and Sazz certainly delivered there. The “lover” angle might not have come up without her.
Despite Sazz’s egocentric and entitled behavior, Charles clearly respects her opinion. Despite having been a pain in his side for many years, she’s also his greatest cheerleader, and their one-on-one dynamic was actually pretty sweet.
Points for the clever double entendre (see what I did there?) episode title that refers to both Sazz and the tempo of music from a secretive bassoonist.
There are still so many details and loose ends. Some will no doubt become pieces that fit together perfectly, some will be revealed as red herrings or misdirects.
There’s so much to consider — Winnie, Evelyn, Cinda Canning’s podcast, what is going on in the prologue of Episode 1, Ursula and her Gut Milk, Oscar and his father, Dr. Stanley, Lester, Uma, Amy, Bunny… and more!
One half-hour remains of Only Murders In The Building. It’s been such a fun ride! Though it’s sad to know it will soon be at an end, I have a feeling we’ll be talking about the conclusion for a while and rewatching before Season 2 comes out.
How do you think it will all play out, Arconiacs? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Mary Littlejohn is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.