#omitb imagine

[confoodles]

Every single interaction Charles and Oliver had this episode was so unrequited romance coded and I will not be taking criticism !!

[thefakerachelray]

Hey Hulu execs, are you listening to me? I have a great marketing idea for you.

Make the actual OMITB podcast.

[sergeant-angels-trashcan]

finished season 3 of omitb and all i can think is: where is my Theo/Mable/Tobert date. where is it.

[sophieskarsgard]

guys.. what if.. sazz is still alive?

[harrietmjones]

This was kind of how I imagined certain scenes to go, before I actually started omitb. I thought their characters were a couple and they had roped in their younger neighbour into the murder mystery. 😅

[cryptidjeepers]

Omitb bringing it back in the last quarter oh my god

[fierykitten2]

Wait, you’re telling me there’s a Japanese dub of Only Murders in the Building and the guy who voices over Oliver (my favourite character) also voices Cobalion (I’m currently obsessed with its Paradox counterpart)!

[kimwexlers-brownhair]

Been thinking about little similarities between Shiv and Mabel, and I have concluded that Shiv needs to start over by moving to the Arconia and starting a murder podcast with a washed up boomer TV actor and a washed up boomer Broadway director and them adopting her.

[wannabe-kafka]

After this episode, I'm pretty sure that the first murder was committed by cliff's mother... The motive seems pretty strong and the monologue in the bathroom further convinces me.

But I don't think she committed the second murder. I think there is something more twisted behind that, something that has been sorta foreshadowed all along and when it finally gets revealed, we all will have that sorta 'oh' moment (at least I hope so)

also i agree a lot with the patter song theory. what if it was actually no one from the cast? because the entire time we have kept the suspect list limited to the cast and crew members. What if it's someone completely different?

So far, the show has been pretty good at planting red herrings. E.g: Loretta (I don't think she actually killed ben), Dickie (I mean he could have but that would be pretty straightforward don't you think), Tobert (idk about killing but that man is sketchy as hell)...

It's just that the killer reveal in S2 was so dramatic and amazing ohmygod I just hope they find a way to keep up with that.

only murders in the building s3e8 spoilers under the cut (theories and thoughts)

i’m finally properly up to date

DAMN i’d seen the theory that loretta was dickie’s mother on this app, whoever that was, they were reallly ahead of the curve!

meryl streep is just such an incredible actor. nails the role every time.

okay so they said it was dickie, and he seemed to admit to it, which means it can’t be dickie. or, like, he can’t be the only one involved in the killing, at the very least.

right, so there is now a confirmed poisoning according to the detective (remember, before, the poisoning was technically just mabel’s speculation) which is good to know. i definitely think that ben was talking to cookies, and the cookies contained the poison.

what was getting shredded?? personally i think there’s a good chance that it was maxine’s review, but i’ll make a separate post about that. regardless, it’s definitely an important detail since they didn’t give us the answer this episode. what documents would be important? maybe the autopsy report - considered one was definitely faked or missing?

loretta just always has tape on her. normal

i know loretta points towards poison as a woman’s method, but they’ve all but outright said it’s a male murderer this time around (when they said how it was so strange and unlikely to have women as murderers both times so far).

i wonder if the pickwick triplets patter song is gonna give us some clue in hindsight… i’m trying to figure out if there could be a meaning in it. "should i look outside this nursery? what if none of the pickwick triplets did it?" makes me think that it’s perhaps no one in the cast of the musical… "who’d have had a menacing motive and hid it?" makes we think that the motive will be unexpected… ie it’s not just that someone thought ben was a dickhead or whatever.

lol i thought charles and oliver’s weird interruptions were to plant a much easier bug like their phone recorder i guess they did it in a weird complex old guy way

i feel like maxine has something she’s not telling us… not necessarily that she’s the murderer, but i just think she’s been introduced for a bigger reason. i mean, she was writing a pan. ben might have read her words and attacked her at the elevator, she pushed him away and he fell.

cliff and his mother do seem dodgy as i’ve said before… his mother basically says she’d do anything for her son, the son has pretty high stakes with this play, surely there’s some kinda insurance if a tragedy strikes or whatever… what would they do if they knew it was gonna flop? for example… if they’d read maxine’s review?

OLIVERRRRRRRRRRRRRR

[blaesth]

since season 1 of OMITB i had the "asexual Mabel" headcanon(because she looks like sex repulsed when Oliver talk about the Tim's adult toys), but now does this line make it canon or is it just my imagination????

[seafoamstatice]

I want the Arconiacs to come back... I feel like now would be a good time for them to show up again since they're making an omitb movie. I imagine that the og superfans would have very strong opinions on it. Some might hate the idea and think they're selling out, and some might be super excited.

[cookinguptales]

I am not for a minute the kind of person who believes that bio parents are always more important than adoptive parents, but I will say there is something so... wistful to the dynamic playing out in s3 of OMITB with Loretta and Dickie.

I grew up in a religious area with a strong emphasis on having and raising children, so... honestly, I've seen it happen before IRL. Couples who thought they couldn't have bio children so they adopt a child, only to then have a "real" child who they end up doting on far more. It's a cruel thing to do to a child, and it would be an even more awful dynamic if your brother was rich and famous and the whole world loved him. Especially if you know that it was your ideas that made him famous, but he was just so charismatic that he got the love and fame and accolades anyway.

I can only imagine how much Dickie longed for a family that prioritized him. That put his needs first. I can only imagine how much he wanted just one person to look at both him and his fancy, famous, selfish brother and choose him. I can't help but think that he wondered about his bio parents and why they, too, didn't want him.

And then for him to find this woman who's treated him more like a son than his own parents ever did, who is finally prioritizing his needs, who finally cares about his mental health, who is finally seeing his talent, and... he doesn't even know it, that she's his bio mother. That she always missed him, but assumed he was living a better life without her. That she always watched him from afar and loved him.

It's almost like something out of a neglected child's fantasies, isn't it? That he has a real parent somewhere who loves him desperately. That he really is special and precious and worthy of love; he just had to find the right person to give it to him.

But at the same time... how much will it hurt when he realizes who Loretta really is? When he realizes how much time they've lost? When he realizes how long she's stayed away? When he realizes that she's lied to him as long as she's known him?

Loretta has spent her whole life sacrificing her own happiness for his, staying away because she believed he was happier with his adoptive family, and then as soon as she meets him IRL... she does it again! She sacrifices for him in a way that ends up leaving him all alone again. It's both kind and terribly cruel, isn't it?

It seems like love and stability are two things that he's craved all his life, and they're two things that have largely been denied to him. His brother loved him, but he treated Dickie like dirt. (But still a possession to be hoarded.) His parents presumably love him to some degree, but they made it very clear to him that he was always the backup plan, never the talented, perfect bio child they actually wanted. Even Loretta, with her flighty, dreamlike Broadway lifestyle, could never have given him the stability he needed, even if she did love him.

idk, Dickie's a really fascinating character to me. He really, really creeps up on you, doesn't he? But I feel like I'm so invested in his happiness now. I really want him to finally get the life he's always wanted, even if it had to be born of a tragedy that he never asked for.

[potterandpromises]

@ anon stop me if this isn't the footage you were talking about

(Discussion about possible Theo sighting in the leaked spoilery Arconia courtyard video.)

ENHANCE!

And at a slightly different angle:

Yeah this was filmed on a phone several stories up and I can't tell. But let's investigate:

I think the differentials here are height, hairline, and general build.

Height: According to those sketchy celebrity info websites, James Caverly (Theo) is 5′8″ and Jackie Hoffman (Uma) is 5′4″. That really doesn't look like a four inch height difference, or even a six inch height difference, but I don't know to what extent the angle of the video distorts things.

I think the height difference is why I dismissed this person as Theo when I first saw the video in May.

Hairline: I think it could be and that's all I'm gonna say.

Build: I think it's off but the longer I look at the picture the less I can tell. It also might just be the suit, as it doesn't look form fitting.

Another data point is the wardrobe. At another point in this episode (or at most the episode before it), Mabel is wearing the same exact shade of blue she wore in 2x07. In the OMITB podcast, the wardrobe people have repeatedly said they dress the characters to match the set or each other. It's possible Mabel was dressed for a scene in Theo's apartment.

Possibly-Theo is also matching the children whom I assume to be Will's. Cute!

Let's consider some other suspects:

Cliff:

Wesley Taylor (Cliff) is 5′9″, I can't imagine why Cliff would be at the wedding (even if he's not in jail,) and the ears look wrong, though I'd need more pixels to say for sure. The hairline, however, is very similar.

Paul Rudd:

Ben Glenroy is dead, but reviews and casting information indicate Paul Rudd is coming back as a new character (as Paul Rudd, perhaps?) He is 5′10.″ We have no idea, at present, if this character would have a reason to be at Oliver's wedding.

Other:

John Hoffman is the one officiating the wedding. With that in mind, it seems likely other behind-the-scene-ers are in the audience. I'm not going to post his picture for obvious reasons, but in this video you can see a makeup artist (?) who could be our guy. (Mostly I'm mentioning this just to like, say I called it if it is him.)

It could also be some other extra. A lot of the audience is not recognizable and we can assume many of them are just friends and relatives of Oliver and Loretta that are unknown to the viewer.

We've reached the end of this post. I think... it's more likely then not that this is Theo. As Mabel's friend/roommate he has a clear reason for being there. But I wouldn't give it super high odds, maybe 60/40. Maybe that's too hopeful, or maybe it's overly cautious. It's really the height that gives me pause.

Let's do a poll:

[what-gs-watching]

“Everything you do, you’re doing for someone you care about.”

Fun fact, kiddos - it’s now been just over a year since I was fired and that is absolutely wild to me. It doesn’t feel like that long, and it feels infinitely longer. I honestly wasn’t sure I was going to get through it for a while there, but I’m pretty thankful for where I ended up. It turns out, workplace trauma is a real thing even if I feel stupid saying it, and it’s weird and thrilling to finally be in a situation where I feel seen and supported. 

And I have to say, I appreciate that I’ve had this little corner to rage through all of those inconvenient and gross and upsetting feelings, while content has kept my spirits up (or appropriately down). The internet can be a wonderful place. 

And so is this season of Only Murders In the Building. It can be hard for a show to maintain quality the longer it goes on sometimes, but honestly OMITB is only getting BETTER. My sister was texting to say this might be the best season yet, and she might be right. 

DISCUSS.

Episode 2: Gates of Heaven

GANG. Steve Martin is fucking incredible. This episode was soooo good. After discovering Sazz’s remains in the incinerator, Charles is still covered in her ashes and it’s heartbreaking to see him shaking and panicking about trying to wash ‘her’ off - the entire scene of him in the bathroom trying to wash it into a bowl so he can pour the water into a mason jar and let it evaporate - jesus. It was ridiculous but like, how else do you react to that? I can’t imagine. 

And then the crew has to figure out what to do, deciding to capitalize on having some time before the police arrive, because NYC’s 911 line has an incredibly long wait.

So Charles and Mabel go to investigate the tenants of the Arconia’s west tower, who apparently are all lowly renters (GASP! The horror) since they’re convinced the shot must have come from across the courtyard. They insist that Charles stay in his apartment, he was clearly the target, and so he waits and he frets and he’s on hold and of course he’s seeing visions of Sazz. Just like Mabel had with Tim Kono. But it’s more devastating, more satisfying this time, because we’d seen some of their friendship and I love that they delve into it even further. 

Having Sazz do the voiceover on this episode really was perfection. 

And how good was the surprise visitor Charles gets while he’s hiding out in the apartment? It makes me think that Sazz’s killer got in to drag her body to the incinerator through the tunnels. “A mix of parkour and psychosexual manipulation” is up there on the list of best quotes of the series, for sure.

Meanwhile, the Westies are WEIRD and Mabel and Oliver end up playing a card game with them called “Oh Hell” which the internet tells me is actually a real thing and apparently they also hang a pig leg in the bathroom that they chop at with a knife? It’s all very suspicious.

But the most important part of the episode is when Charles describes working with Sazz, how he’d do his scene up until the most dangerous part and they’d yell “CUT” and Sazz would say “tap in” and finish the stunt. She took every single hit for him.

Also, the scene where Charles describes Sazz helping him make friends on the set of Brazzos? Jesus. “You took care of me in every way a person could take care of someone.” My heart, y’all. 

Eventually, once the police have come and gone (I love that Detective Williams shows up and is exasperated with them as always - “shut the fuckin’ fuck up”) they luminol the floor and discover that with her last bit of strength, Sazz scrawled “tap in”. She absolutely knew what was going to happen. How effing devastating.

Episode 3: Two For the Road

Obviously I’m going to say I loved this episode because of my frankly unhealthy love of Zach Galifaniakis. I can’t stop, I won’t stop - detective Williams and I have that in common. She shows up at the beginning to feed the gang information since the FBI has taken over the case, and when she sees Zach walk into the apartment she loses her mind, and I’ve never felt so seen - “scrumptious fuckable baklava” indeed. 

Of course Mabel is upset their movie doppelgangers have shown up by Oliver is over the moon, he wants to convince Zach to get into his character, so they decide to split up with their actors to investigate.

Y’all, Eva Longoria is obnoxious immediately. Like, absolutely the worst. Talking about “her Mabel”. But I just finished rewatching Schitt’s Creek so I really enjoyed Eugene Levy being SO into Charles. It’s adorable. He’s convinced Charles is some deep, fearless savant. 

Eugene and Charles trying to get the Westie with the eye patch to remove it because they are wanting to see if he has a bruise from a potential gun kickback, is pure awkward comedy gold. They’re “yes and”-ing each other. Hilarious.

Eva and Mabel end up at Christmas-all-the-time guy’s apartment and Kumail Nanjiani plays it really well. Kid really is fit. And Eva is still the worst, but I love that it turns out that he actually hates Christmas, but keeps up the charade because his most successful fitness video was Christmas-themed and he’s now he’s trapped because social media is a fucking disease (she says, writing a blog entry she’ll post to complete strangers).

OBVIOUSLY though,  my favorite part of the entire thing though is the fucking montage of Zach and Oliver learning Oliver’s character. Zach playing the flute and their matching shoes  and their creepy ass smiles and running with shopping bags and the little kick at the end. Holy hell, he’s beautiful. 

But he’s also a dick, he pretends he’s invested in Oliver only to talk shit behind his back. He’d told his agent he wanted to play deep, psychosexual dramatic characters and he thinks Oliver is just a pure fluffy narcissist. Howard’s speech in defense of him is sweet and also depressing as hell but it turns Zach around, at least. “You’re this technicolor cockroach refuses to die. I HATE you, but I love you.” 

Funnily enough, at the end of the day, Eugene realizes Charles isn’t complex, he’s just a chicken shit. How the turn tables. 

They do end up with some clues though - a picture of the Westies with one person’s faced scratched out, the ‘tinsel’ they found in the sniper’s nest isn’t tinsel at all, and after Mabel decides she’s going to squat in the empty apartment/crime scene in the West Tower, they get a warning from a stranger on the ham radio they’d stolen and monitored. Shit’s coming together…

Episode 4: The Stunt Man

I think y’all know what my favorite part of this episode was, but we’ll get there in a second because right away we’re back to Charles seeing visions of Sazz. This time he’s dreaming she’s wandering through a forest and he’s trying to catch up with her. I really appreciate that he isn’t discounting what he’s going through, he immediately gets up and sets to work creating a murder board especially for her, and he includes what he says to her in the dream, she’s trying to get to “paradise”. Charles does not seem like the type to lean into his mind running away like this, but he’s doing it for her. 

It’s the emotional stakes that are making this season so satisfying, for sure. 

While Charles is doing that, we find out that Oliver is down a social media rabbit hole because he’s worried about his relationship with Loretta and he found a picture of her posted with a mystery dude hugging her so he does what any insane teen would do, and he creates a finsta. Which is hilarious. And even more hilarious because he’s doing his internet stalking on the world’s largest ipad. The back and forth about his brightness setting was absolutely hilarious. 

But social media leads them to a bar Sazz had been at the day she died, and here is where we get to my favorite part. It’s a stunt man bar because that’s totally a thing, and who do they stumble upon while trying and failing to get any information? Ben Glenroy’s stunt double!!!!!!

AKA, Paul Rudd with a weird Irish accent and a missing tooth. Fucking amazing. What an incredible way to utilize him. I just can’t. His attempts at impressing them with his stunt double moves is so ridiculously silly. What a charming little weirdo. 

Turns out Sazz was there to see a chiropractor because she was in consistent pain from all her years as Charles’ double, she’d told the doctor that she was retiring because of a relationship she was in - she said she was tired of giving more than she got, but she didn’t know how to get away. Obviously, Charles thinks she was talking about him but could that be a red herring, y’all? 

Charles’s guilt drives him to ‘tap in’, and he volunteers to lay in state for Sazz’s funeral at the stunt man bar because they said “no body, no funeral”, and it’s really sweet. He gets pelted with breakaway bottles and the entire affair devolves into a brawl because Ben Glenroy’s double somehow ended up with a real bottle and while Charles is passed out from the blow, he remembers that that Sazz had a life dream to open a trampoline park for kids so she could teach them how to fall. 

Oh, and Mabel discovers that the Westies are probably not a cult, and are just participating in a rent-control scheme - Professor Dudenoff had rented all of the apartments on the floor, and he lets them sublet from them because they are just straight up weirdos. He sends them ham and they pay him $200 a month (???! holy shit), and they tell Mabel all of this because they’re gonna cut her in, as long as she keeps it out of the podcast - she’s the right kind of weirdo for them, apparently. 

So I guess that makes sense, but there’s got to be other shit going on, right? There has to be. And clearly there is, because when the gang heads out to the site of Sazz’s never-built trampoline park, they stumble upon the producer of their movie, who immediately proceeds to point a GUN at them. What the eff? 

Here’s my thing about shows like this: I never really want to try and figure out what’s going on. The ride is the best part. And so far, OMITB is delivering like only it can. What a gift.

[zannolin]

i love how s4 of omitb is going so far it has never let me down but in my ideal world i would like you all to know that it would have been charles who was shot BUT NOT KILLED. he'd be hospitalized and/or under witness protection of some sort for most of the season, and while he's doing that, sazz could have filled in for him on the podcast and in general. even if it was just for an episode can you imagine it's sazz the whole time but everyone just refers to her like she's charles. the ENTIRE episode. and she's playing it up too. think of the potential. think of what they took from us.

[witchofthemidlands]

Ben's version of ‘For the Sake of a Child” is so interesting to me because whilst I personally prefer Oliver's version, Ben's version is still very good which then made me wonder if in the omitb universe it would have been good if Ben hadn't have died OR is it just a terrific performance though the eyes of a guilt ridden Cliff & it is in his imagination that Ben would have been good in the musical had he not have pushed him. Perhaps Death Rattle just didn't work as a play & the character worked better as a musical performer & if it had been a musical from the start maybe the first review wouldn't have been so scathing & Ben would have survived.