Felicia Nickens
The following recap contains spoilers for the Only Murders in the Building S3E3 “Grab Your Hankies” (written by Matteo Borghese & Rob Turbovsky and directed by Adam Shankman)
Editor’s Note: This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn’t exist.
As we see in this episode of Only Murders in the Building, the suspect list is starting to grow. As if it weren’t already long enough, Ben’s brother/manager, Dickie, is now on it as well. From the standpoint of the characters, pretty much anyone associated with the play can be a suspect, however, it doesn’t necessarily make sense from a viewer standpoint. I have my theories which I’ll get to, but first, let’s do a quick recap.
Oliver
In a desperate attempt to impress Donna and Cliff with his new and improved, musical version of Death Rattle, Oliver begins turning out song after song (more like fail after fail) in the hopes that he will create something mesmerizing. His attempts don’t seem to go well, as he puts Howard to sleep during one of the songs.
Donna and Cliff show up and have a quick make-out sesh on Oliver’s couch (reminder: they are mother and son) before giving their limited attention to Oliver’s pitch. They aren’t convinced that he can produce a hit but give him three days to come up with something before they go off on vacation.
Oliver invites the cast over to his place to rehearse. None of them are into the new musical theme and don’t want to be a part of it anymore, but they don’t say that. They leave that up to Charles.
Later, Loretta shows up at Oliver’s place and informs him that Dickie is now her manager since Ben is dead. He got her an audition for Grey’s Anatomy: New Orleans Burn Unit. I thought this was funny since Jesse Williams (former Grey’s Anatomy star) plays Tobert “Robert with a T” this season on the show. Perhaps a little homage to him?
Loretta and Oliver share a moment by the piano. She clearly has feelings for him. It appears he may feel the same, but is oblivious to all her hints. She encourages him not to give up and asks him to play “Nanny’s Lullaby,” one of the songs he wrote and discarded for the musical. He obliges momentarily and the composition actually sounds lovely.
Loretta is offered the part on Grey’s which means she would have to quit the musical. Oliver’s selfish side kicks in and he informs her and Dickie that she is under contract and he will not be releasing her from it.
Three days have passed, and Donna & Cliff are on their way to Oliver’s place. The cast shows up with a lack of enthusiasm. Loretta shows up as well and Oliver apologizes. He asks if she will perform “Nanny’s Lullaby” just this once for Donna & Cliff.
Loretta begins singing and it’s beautiful. Jaws drop all across the room. Kimber even gets up and joins Loretta on stage to sing. There’s a hint of jealousy in her eyes as everyone is in awe of Loretta.
Donna still wants to pass on the show, but Cliff is ready to take it on. Together, they agree they will produce the musical. Oliver is thrilled. Loretta tells him she isn’t going anywhere and they share a kiss.
Mabel, Charles, & Tobert “Robert with a T”
Mabel and Charles have their suspect board set up. Last week I listed out the suspects and why they had a grudge against Ben. It seems Charles and Mabel have the same list. Their first task is to figure out who is missing their handkerchief that Ben gifted everyone. Since Charles has been working with Oliver on the musical, he has a more direct connection to the suspects. Oliver, not wanting anything to do with the podcast at the moment, tells Mabel she isn’t invited to rehearsal. With that, it is on Charles to figure out the handkerchief situation.
Charles attempts to bond with the group by trash-talking Oliver and the musical. They use this as an excuse to send Charles to tell Oliver that they don’t want to do the play anymore.
After being wowed by Loretta’s performance, Kimber tells Charles she lost or maybe donated the handkerchief and doesn’t have it anymore.
In the meantime, Mabel wants to sneak her way into Ben’s penthouse and look for clues. She makes mention that it is her third time in the apartment and it amazes her every time. It seems Tobert has the same idea as they both catch each other in a lie as they look through Ben’s place. While they confront one another, Dickie enters the penthouse. Mabel and Tobert hide in an armoire. Inside, Tobert admits that Ben was upset right before the play and kicked Tobert out of his dressing room. However, Tobert’s camera was left inside filming whatever took place. Tobert flashes the drive he was looking for and Mabel asks to see it. He refuses and says it will go in the documentary he is making about Ben.
Dickie is sad/angry and smashes a lamp at which point he begins crying and apologizes to Ben.
Once he leaves, Mabel and Tobert make their way out as well. Tobert doesn’t realize that Mabel swiped the footage from him.
Later on, Mabel finds Tobert in his favorite restaurant and gives him back the password-protected footage. They watch it together and realize someone was in the room with Ben. He speaks to another character offscreen and says “I want you so fuckin’ bad but it’s going to ruin my career.” After some back and forth they agree to investigate Ben’s murder together.
Clues
Ok, so the end of the episode made it clear that they want us to focus on Kimber. Between what Ben said to her last week about letting things get messy between them and her losing her handkerchief, we are being led to believe it is her that Ben is speaking to on camera in his dressing room.
The obvious question would be why would she kill Ben if she cared about him, but I suppose if you watch any number of Dateline episodes, then it becomes easy to see that love can turn into hate and lead to murder.
Did Kimber love Ben? Other than the smiles at the table read and his comment to her last week, there haven’t been any other clues that they even had a relationship. We are only three episodes in so for the killer to be so obvious, so soon, indicates a red herring.
Then there’s Dickie. Why is he apologizing to his dead brother? What did he do to him? Of course, he could’ve been jealous of Ben. Who wants to be a manager when you could’ve been the star? Could jealousy cause him to murder his own flesh and blood? I don’t think so. Maybe he’s sorry he wasn’t there to protect him. “Sorry” can mean so many things in retrospect.
The most important thing to me was the comment Mabel made about it being her third time in Ben’s apartment. Why was she there before? I still believe she and Ben were closer than we are being led to believe. It’s possible maybe she was the one in the dressing room. I don’t think she killed Ben but she is certainly lying about something. I love Mabel but she has a tendency to keep things to herself and not share with her “olds.”
There is also something up with Tobert. He can’t just be some innocent documentarian. That’s not how this show operates. Everyone is a suspect.
Loretta still seems like an obvious choice, with Ben being the star of the show and her being a secondary character. She could be another red herring but maybe that’s what the writers intended. Make her look so obvious that we think it can’t be her but in the end, it really was her. It could happen. I do like that she and Oliver have a bond. It’s nice to see Oliver find someone he cares for, I don’t see it ending well one way or another.
Good point about Mabel saying that it was her third time in the apartment. I’m sure we’ll get some flashback scenes of why she was in his apartment the first two times.
The general consensus on who Ben seemed to be talking to his his dressing room was a plate of cookies. Likely poisoned cookies. But obviously whoever did the poisoning didn’t put enough in the batch to kill him…which perhaps was done on purpose. Excited to read you review/theories next week!
You’re absolutely right about the cookies! I can’t believe I forgot about that tidbit from the first episode. It would be hysterical if his speech was directed towards a batch of baked goods. It would explain him kicking Robert with a T out of the dressing room as to not catch that moment of weakness on camera. It makes sense they would be poisoned. Is it possible Mabel poisoned them slightly? She knew the name of a poison this episode. Maybe her and Ben had a little something going on but it couldn’t last because he is an actor. Perhaps that was her way of making him stay put for awhile. Probably not, though.
Thanks for reading!
Hi!!! Mabel technically has been in “that apartment“ twice before. Once when Sting stayed there when they were questioning him because of the first murder. The second was when Amy Schumer lived there and the painting of Charles’ dad. Going this time with Tobert would make it 3 times. I don’t think she’s been there before with Ben.