Only Murders in the Building season 2 episodes 1 and 2 recaps & review

Season 2 episodes 1 and 2 of the comedy murder-mystery series Only Murders in the Building pick up the storyline directly after the events of the season 1 finale. The new season is now streaming on Hulu.

Season 2 episode 1 recap: Persons of Interest

In the last episode of season 1, Mabel is shown right next to the corpse of Bunny Folger, suspected to have murdered her.

When she, Oliver and Charles are taken into custody and questioned, the police find no concrete evidence of their involvement. 

Mabel further catches them off-guard when they reveal that they don’t even have the murder weapon. The three are let go as ‘persons of interest’ in the case but warned not to make more podcasts.

However, Oliver and Charles still want to carry on the show. Mabel, on the other hand, doesn’t want to get involved in a murder mystery again.

Impressed by the mural that Mabel posted on Instagram, Alice Banks, a member of a local artist collective, offers her the choice to join them.

Charles is approached for a Brazzos reboot but contrary to what he thinks the role is about, he is offered the role of ‘uncle Brazzos’, with a young woman named Naomi Jackson cast as the new Brazzos.

To make everything worse, Cinda Canning, a top true-crime podcaster, is documenting them as murderers.

Oliver has a chat with Amy Schumer, who is now living in Sting’s apartment. She wants the rights to their podcast to convert it into a show.

Although the night of Bunny’s murder is still a blur for Mabel, she remembers a detail. Right before dying in Mabel’s hands, Bunny uttered the word ‘fourteen’.

The three think they hear Bunny’s voice, and follow the vent, ending up in her house. The voice was actually coming from her parrot, Mrs. Gambolini, who still repeats her explicit words.

Oliver quickly requests the two to find the death threats that he sent Bunny before her demise, which would clearly implicate him in the murder.

Uma and Howard, two residents of the Arconia, enter Bunny’s house for a certain valuable erotic painting that is found to be missing. The three use a secret elevator in the house to escape.

Smelling that there is more to the murder than meets the eye, the three podcasters decide to resume their investigation and create a second season.

Charles returns to his house to find the missing painting, calling Oliver and Mabel as well. Surprisingly, the erotic painting is of his own father.

Season 2 episode 2 recap: Framed

The creation of Arconia is revealed at the start of this episode. In 1908, it was built by architect and playboy Archibald Carter to establish the Upper West Side.

Archibald’s buildings had their own secrets. He built the secret elevator in Arconia to spy on women while they were changing clothes.

He eventually married and raised his family in the building. His daughter Leonora married Mr. Folger, and raised Bunny in the building, who lived there till her death.

In the 1950s, Charles’ father frequently brought him to the Upper West Side where he claimed to be part of auditions for being an actor.

His father is the subject of the erotic painting and, as Mabel recalls, Bunny also said ‘Savage’ to her, in addition to fourteen, before dying. Someone is clearly trying to frame them.

After Bunny’s death, Nina Lin, another resident of the Arconia, takes up the role of the new Board President.

The situation intensifies when Leonora Folger, Bunny’s mother, arrives at Arconia, claiming to be the true owner of the painting.

She quickly deduces that the three protagonists did not kill Bunny, but senses that they were hiding something.

Charles is tasked with distracting the residents while Mabel and Oliver sneak the painting back up. Mabel confesses that she and Oscar are not romantically involved anymore.

Charles wants to have a chat with Leonora about Rose Cooper, the artist of the painting but all she does is criticise Brazzos.

Terrified about the painting, Oliver chooses to dumb it instead of bringing it back into the building.

Mabel meets Alice again, who wants her to smash a statuette of herself that she created for her as therapy for everything she’s going through.

Mabel goes through with this and smashes it to pieces. In the process, she accepts her affection for Alice and the two kiss.

Oliver meets Amy again, who wants the series to not be about the three, but Jan, Charles’ love interest and the one who murdered Tim Kono in season 1.

Leonora meets Charles again and tells him that Rose Cooper sold her the painting because she was desperate to get away from a man and needed the money. She went missing later and was declared dead.

Charles realised that Rose lived across the street, and his father actually brought him to the Upper West Side to spend time with her. The acting auditions were nothing but facade. He was having an affair.

Amy Schumer reveals that she picked up the painting from the dumpster. Charles, Mabel and Leonora come to her house, but the latter inspects the painting and reveals that it’s a fake.

As the trio attempts to make sense of this, Uma informs Oliver that as per Bunny’s will, he shall inherit Mrs. Gambolini.

Charles has a flashback of the day his father was taken away by the police while he waited for his return in the Upper West Side.

He has another chat with Leonora before she leaves. Turns out, she knew it was his father in the painting all along. She had an affair with him, and so did Rose Cooper.

Mrs. Gambolini throws a curve ball when she tells the three that she knows who killed Bunny, as the episode ends on a cliffhanger.

Review

  • Only Murders in the Building returns with its infectious humour and will make you more than chuckle on quite a few occasions. 
  • The main cast of Selena Gomez, Steve Martin and Martin Short is such a delight that you can never get enough.
  • Cara Delevingne’s character Alice brings an interesting twist to the new season, as there seems to be a certain mystery behind her interest in Mabel.
  • While the episodes only serve as the initial blocks for the narrative of this season, they successfully build up the suspense to the point you want the next episode to air as soon as possible.
  • That said, they’re not at the same level that the show hit on multiple instances during the previous season. Let’s hope this is just the calm before the storm.

Rating: 3.5/5


Also Read: ‘House of the Dragon’ gets new poster featuring Rhaenyra Targaryen

More from The Envoy Web