“The besties are back!” That’s the opening line of the newest episode of Only Murders in the Building (the podcast, not the show), this time recorded as a trio rather than by Mabel flying solo. And it also happens to be Mabel’s birthday in “Thirty,” the 9th episode of Season 3. We’re all the more closer to solving the case of Ben Glenroy’s murder. Let’s recap the latest details.
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Episode 9: “Thirty” – Written by Elaine Ko
Mabel Mora (Selena Gomez) narrates this episode, talking about where she thought she’d be when she turned 30. By age 10, she was certain she’d marry Josh Hartnett and be a mother of two. But in reality, she’s in a hospital as Dr. Turbovsky (Ashanti J’Aria) delivers her baby. Scratch that, make it babies. It’s triplets! Mabel is confused as she is handed a giant microphone wrapped in swaddling clothes, followed by two babies with adult heads – Charles-Haden Savage (Steve Martin) and Oliver Putnam (Martin Short)! Thankfully, this was all a dream. Oliver wakes her up at his bedside to share the good news that he can go home now. It’s been five days since his heart attack, and after having a stint implanted, he’s ready to go back to his regular routine, albeit with a heart-healthy diet (bye-bye, dips). Oliver is eager to get out because there are just two days before opening night, and his leading lady is about to be charged with murder.
Back in The Arconia, Mabel, Charles, and Oliver gather around the suspect board. They begin to record the next episode of the podcast, their first as a trio on this case, kicking it off with the line “The besties are back.” Mabel wants to start by questioning Dickie, but mentions they should be careful not to let it slip that Loretta is his mother. When they open Oliver’s door, they find a pile of packages waiting for him. There’s a get-well package of Schmackary's cookies from Donna with a note demanding that Oliver find a new leading lady. And Charles receives a large package that he opens, which contains Joy’s wedding dress. It was her mother's and was being altered for their wedding.
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Soon after, Dickie Glenroy (Jeremy Shamos) is sitting across from the trio in Oliver’s living room. Mabel mentions that she knows that Ben stole CoBro from him, and Dickie admits that he resented his brother. Mabel asks Dickie if he covered up Ben’s bloodwork on opening night, and he confirms that he did but says this was usual in order to keep the public from knowing about Ben’s bad habits. Asked where he was when Ben was pushed, Dickie claims that he was uncomfortable with everything that happened that night, so he got drunk, put on Ben’s CoBro suit, and “Went looking for drugs and whores” at Broadway and 35th, something Ben did every Thursday night. Whenever Dickie would ask more questions, Ben would simply say, “Snitches get Stitches,” but he knows the names of the five women Ben was known to consort with – Trixie, Merigold, Emerald, Dot, and Mei Mei. Dickie takes out his phone and shows them a picture of a man in a CoBro suit outside of a building, saying he got it from security footage the police showed him when he was brought in for further questioning. “I just can’t believe it’s Loretta who did it,” Dickie adds. Oliver says they don’t think she did it either. Dickie steps away to call his lawyer as the trio huddle. It’s clear that Loretta took the fall for someone who didn’t commit the crime. Mabel suggests they start their search on Broadway and 35th.
“Snitches Get Stitches” is the name of a fabric shop, the trio realizes as they arrive at the intersection. Oliver claims that brothels always have pun alias business names. He marches in with a ladder and announces he’s there to replace a lightbulb in the back. The clerk (Matt Manuel) stops them, and Charles tries to use his acting prowess to make the man uncomfortable with a tear, but he ends up looking like he needs to use the bathroom. The clerk tells him there’s one in the back.
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Instead of a brothel, the trio simply finds five women at sewing machines in the back room. Trixie (Marylouise Burke) introduces herself and explains that they’re part of a sewing circle that meets every Thursday. Sewing was a healthy way for Ben to spend time and stay away from drugs. They made a quilt that hangs on the wall, the patches of which make up an image of Ben Glenroy’s face. The last time they saw Ben was just before the opening night of Death Rattle. They Stayed up all night with Ben helping to sew hankies as a gift for the cast. The women would help Ben run his lines, and he would vent to them about his frustrations. He told them he hadn’t treated the cast very well and hoped the gifts would make up for it. They finished the task just in time for Ben to head to the theater. Trixie asks Mei Mei (Wai Ching Ho) to bring her phone, and she plays them a voice message Ben left on opening night. He asked if they were coming to the show and sounded upset. “I’ve never felt so alone,” he adds just before a knock is heard at his door. Oliver’s voice can be heard offering help getting over Ben’s opening night jitters.
The suspect board has been moved to Charles’ apartment, and he wheels in a marker board. He suggests they watch the interrogation videos and try to create a timeline of the 30 minutes before the curtain call on opening night. First is stage manager K.T. (Allison Guinn), who mentions her strict rule for the cast to be present no later than 30 minutes before curtain call, but Ben was late. In a flashback, we see Ben Glenroy (Paul Rudd) arrive backstage with his arms full of gift bags as K.T. yells at him to get into costume.
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In producer Cliff’s (Wesley Taylor) interview, he recalls witnessing K.T. yelling at Ben. Cliff was holding a box of cookies from Schmackary's, which had a frosting rattle on top. Ben had a hard time being around them, picking one up, smelling it, and willing himself to put it back in the box. He told Cliff he was on a fast.
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Dickie’s interview adds more to the bond he shared with Loretta Durkin (Meryl Streep), who encouraged him to quit being Ben’s manager in a flashback. We see her being very motherly to him, having shared cortisone cream to help with his hives caused by anxiety from his brother. She had helped him make a bullet point list for his resignation speech, something Ben saw as he walked on stage. “You losers passing notes?”, Ben joked as he grabbed the paper, but then he saw what it said. Dickie tells Ben he was going to wait until after the show, but it’s too late. Ben is angry, crumpling up the paper and shoving it into Ben’s chest. He calls Dickie a lousy manager and brother, saying he’s gone from “CoBro” to “NoBro,” as in he no longer had a brother.
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Howard Morris’ (Michael Cyril Creighton) interview brings up the locked stage manager’s office door and the shredding sound. As the trio meet, Howard is in his own apartment with all of the shredded pieces, trying to put them back together. Mabel texts him for an update, and he says he needs more time.
In Loretta’s interview, she describes how Ben accused her of trying to steal Dickie away from him. They were rehearsing their stage fight on the lighthouse, but Ben was actually angry and began to get too aggressive with Loretta as he accused her of weasling her way into the show. “Get away from me, you [expletive] pig,” she screamed. That’s when Charles arrived and became the recipient of more of Ben’s verbal abuse, which resulted in Charles punching Ben. Knowing that Joy touched up Ben’s bruise and left her lipstick behind by mistake, they add that to the marker board, too.
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Donna (Linda Emond) tells Detective Williams that she was giving her son Cliff a pep talk when she saw Ben for the last time before curtain call. She had promised Cliff that she wouldn’t let his first show fail when Ben interrupted to ask if his five guests had arrived. He noticed that their reserved seats were still empty. Donna points out that Ben looks terrible. “Go to your dressing room,” she tells him. “Be nice to Ben. Do whatever it takes to get your ass ready to go on that stage.”
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As Ben returns to his dressing room, Tobert (Jesse Williams) appears with his camera to capture the moments before the show stars. Ben snaps at Tobert, grabbing his camera and slamming his dressing room door.
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Mabel writes, “Who is Ben talking to?” on the board. She plays the video of Ben saying, “I want you,” followed by, “You’re going to ruin my career… and I’m gonna like it.” Charles is filled with regret for the way he treated Ben that night, having no idea how much Ben had been through. Oliver says whoever Ben was talking to must’ve poisoned him. With time running out to save Loretta, the trio fall into a slump. As they wallow in self-pity, Mabel pulls out a MASH prediction sheet she made when she was 10. She asked her mother to give it back to her when she was 30 so she could see if it came true, and it arrived today in the mail. Charles and Oliver realize today is Mabel’s birthday. “There’s no way I’d rather spend it,” she says.
Howard enters with a sheet of paper he was able to tape back together. Oliver looks at it and realizes it’s Maxine’s review from the press preview. It hadn’t been published yet by opening night, so Oliver doesn’t understand how it ended up in a shredder backstage. As he reads it, he sees that it describes Ben Glenroy’s performance as the show’s weakest link. “What if someone read this that night,” Mabel asks. “Maybe they decided to get rid of Ben to save the play,” Charles adds.
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Oliver goes to Charles’ fridge and pulls out a tub of dip. He puts a candle in it, lights it, and returns to Mabel with it. He and Charles sing “Happy Birthday,” prompting Mabel to make her birthday wish and blow out the candle. As they sit down, Oliver happily talks to the dip, bragging about how he won’t be sticking to his heart-healthy diet. Mabel’s face goes white. “I know who Ben was talking to!”
We see Ben Glenroy alone in his dressing room, looking at the Schmackery’s cookie on the table. “You’re not supposed to be here,” he says to the sugary confection that’s off his Hollywood diet. “We both know you’re bad. God, I want you. I want you so [expletive] bad. We both know you’ll ruin my career… and I’m gonna like it.” Ben goes to his makeup chair, sits down, and sniffs the cookie before shoving the entire thing in his mouth and devouring it. He looks at himself in the mirror and doesn’t like what he sees. “You’re disgusting,” he scolds himself. “Loretta was right.” He picks up Joy’s lipstick and writes a hateful message to himself, quoting Loretta word-for-word and adding a drawing of a pig. On the verge of a panic attack, he takes his phone and calls Trixie, getting her voice message. “Hey, it’s me, Bennie. Are you guys coming to the show? I really need you to be here. I’ve just never felt so alone.” Oliver knocks on the door, interrupting. “I’m surrounded by people I can’t trust who are all out to get me,” he concludes his message before hanging up. He takes a deep breath, looks in the mirror, says, “I’m good,” and goes to his door to exit his dressing room for the last time.
Charles realizes that if Ben’s night hadn’t gone so horribly wrong, he probably wouldn’t have eaten the cookie and would therefore be alive. Oliver realizes that Donna quoted Maxine’s review word-for-word after Ben’s death and realizes she must have read the review. Even though Donna has been heavily involved, she kept insisting this was her son’s production, his first big Broadway show. Mabel suggests that she was the one inside the locked stage manager’s office. When Howard tried to get in, she freaked out and shredded the review. She then saw the rat poison and took the cookie from K.T.’s desk, sprinkled some onto it, and then took it to Ben’s dressing room, which was empty. Then, when she saw Ben looking upset, she told him to “Be nice to Ben. Do whatever it takes to get Ben ready for that stage.”
“We have our motive – the review,” Mabel says. “We have our murder weapon – the cookie.” Charles chimes in, “And when the cookie doesn’t work, she pushes him down the elevator shaft.” Oliver has a realization. “She was in and out of that party all night!” Loretta’s arraignment is in 20 minutes, and they worry they won’t make it to court in time, but Mabel gets an idea as she stares at Joy’s wedding dress. “Nobody stops a bride,” she smiles.
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“Want to know what I wished for? You’re looking at it,” Mabel says as she rides in a cab to the courthouse wearing a wedding dress. “Me with my two besties doing murder stuff. Not a bad life.” Charles and Oliver both put on tuxedos. When they arrive, they are stopped by a security guard (Makia Martin). Mabel says they need to be let in because it’s her wedding day. The guard asks if Charles and Oliver are Mabel’s dads. “That’s right, we’re the fathers of the bride,” Charles responds. “Oh, that’s fun,” Oliver delightfully replies (a nod to one of Martin Short’s and Steve Martin’s many shared credits, Father of the Bride). They are admitted and rush in to see Loretta in an orange prison suit about to speak. Oliver yells for her to wait and approaches.
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“We know who murdered Ben,” Oliver tells Loretta, adding that it wasn’t Dickie and asking for her trust. Loretta wants to know who they think did it now, but Mabel stops Oliver from saying another word. She points to the pews where a familiar face is looking back at them… Donna!
The Ben Glenroy case (presumably) comes to an end on Tuesday, October 2nd, with the Season 3 finale of Only Murders in the Building on Hulu. Here’s the description of the season finale, titled “Opening Night.”
Curtain call on Season 3! Charles, Mabel & Oliver race to entrap the killer on Opening Night. As the musical thrills its Broadway audience, the trio brave further twists & turns from behind, above and all around the stage.