Yahoo News Everything to Remember About ‘Only Murders in the Building’ Season 2
Bust out the gut milk, Arconiacs, because “Only Murders in the Building” is back (almost). Season 3 of Hulu’s charming comedy starring Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez returns August 8 with a two-episode premiere and then new episodes weekly.
Season 3 also stars Paul Rudd (first seen in the Season 2 finale) and Meryl Streep (revealed on-set with the cast via social media back in spring). The trailer debuted on July 26 and showed Oliver (Short) scrambling to mount a play and resurrect his Broadway career after Rudd’s Ben Glenroy — the leading man — dropped dead on stage opening night.
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“Only Murders” delivers its fair share of serpentine twists and jaw-dropping guest stars in Season 1 and 2, some of which leave a killer impression, while others may have blurred together like Charles’ (Martin) many stories from the set of “Brazzos” (and the reboot). While the show resets to some extent with each new murder and guest cast, there are through lines and recurring characters worth refreshing before the show returns. Here are 6 key things to remember about “Only Murders in the Building” Season 2.
1. Who killed Bunny (Jane Houdyshell)?
While Season 1’s murder of Tim Kono (Julian Cihi) was memorably committed by Charles’ then-love interest Jan (Amy Ryan), Bunny Folger’s murderer was not hiding in plain sight at the Arconia. Instead, it was Cinda Canning’s (Tina Fey) assistant, in a twisted ploy to be noticed by her employer.
Poppy (Adina Verson)turns out to be Becky Butler, the missing girl at the center of Cinda’s podcast “All is not OK in Oklahoma” — and also the person who gave Cinda the idea. Oliver, Charles, and Mabel (Gomez) were already circling Cinda and Detective Kreps (Michael Repaport) when they meet with Poppy at the diner, and she fatefully orders the liverwurst and marmalade sandwich — number 14 (“14, Savage” turned out to be “14, sandwich”). They invite Cinda and Poppy to the Arconia’s “killer reveal party,” where they pretend to accuse Cinda, stab Charles, and eventually get a confession from Poppy.
2. Bloody Mabel
Bunny was found stabbed to death with a knitting needle while Mabel crouched at her side — making Mabel the prime suspect. The hashtag #BloodyMabel followed her everywhere, and led to Cinda’s invasive investigation and competing podcast, “Only Murderers in the Building.” She tracked down an old player from Mabel’s past to call her violent and vengeful (false), and when Mabel attacks someone on the train, the video goes viral and implicates her even further. To top it all off, Alice (Cara Delevigne) used the Bloody Mabel narrative to fuel her art, including an installation at Mabel’s apartment and recreation of the murder scene (without her consent). Give our girl a break!
3. Oliver’s family secret
Season 1 introduced Oliver’s son Will (Ryan Broussard), but in Season 2 he orders a DNA test and learns that Will is part Greek — which means he’s not Oliver’s son, but the progeny of one Teddy Dimas (Nathan Lane). After attacking Teddy in the elevator (“I’ll kill you!”), Oliver has a composed conversation with the owner of Dimas Delis (and dips), and they agree never to tell Will. It doesn’t last, but when Oliver finally prepares to share the truth, Will tells him “If you’re not my father, then I don’t know what a father is.” The hug it out, we wipe our tears.
4. Cinda is still at large
She didn’t actually kill anyone, but Cinda Canning is quite the obstacle for our heroes and their podcast — which they admittedly retired after Bunny’s death, but which obviously has to come back in Season 3. Cinda and Kreps had it out for the podcasters and Mabel in particular, and though she owes them one for catching Poppy, she’s never been good at sharing the spotlight.
5. Charles is in a relationship
At the end of Season 2, Charles reconnected with Joy (Andrea Martin), the makeup artist on “Brazzos.” They started flirting on-set during the reboot, when Charles was still talking to Jan, but he finally ended that perverse entanglement and committed to Joy for real. Things must be going well, because…
6. Season 2 ends with a time jump
A whole year without murder! Too bad that count has to be reset.
“Only Murders in the Building” returns to Hulu on August 8.
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