Felicia Nickens
The following recap contains spoilers for Only Murders in the Building S4E2, “Gates of Heaven” (written by John Hoffman, Steve Martin & Kristin Newman, and directed by John Hoffman).
The investigation into Sazz’s (Jane Lynch) murder continues. Except, it’s not Sazz’s murder that is being investigated. Now, it is Charles’s. This episode confirms that Charles (Steve Martin) was indeed the intended target and Sazz just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Mabel (Selena Gomez) and Oliver (Martin Short) understand this, but it takes Charles the whole episode to come to terms with it.
Charles is understandably grieving the loss of his friend after finding her ashes in the incinerator in the last episode. Oliver and Mabel want to give him space as they continue to look at the clues. They determine that the bullet had to have come from the west tower of the Arconia where all the “renters” live. They narrow it down to one of three apartments and head over, leaving Charles alone to call 911. In typical 911 fashion, he is put on hold and is #68 in line.
While he waits for 911 to answer, he begins seeing Sazz. Is she a ghost? or a figment of his imagination? It’s unclear, but probably doesn’t matter. She is his voice of reason, feeding him ideas, and helping him connect the dots. As he waits in his apartment, there is a noise coming from the closet door. He opens it to see Jan (Yes, his killer ex-girlfriend from Season 1) standing there. She tells him that he should’ve never mentioned the secret passages in the podcast. Jan explains she only escaped from prison because she is worried about Sazz and hasn’t heard from her. Charles updates her on the current situation and she is not happy. She says the only reason she hasn’t killed Charles is because she loves Sazz and Sazz loved him. She has to go change because “she has prison guard brains on her shirt.”
Meanwhile, Mabel and Oliver are over in the west tower, checking out their first suspect, Vince Fish. Now while he wears an eye patch, it’s because he has antibiotic-resistant pink eye. Hmm. They explain they are scouting locations to film the movie in and want to check out his apartment and see if it is appropriate for their needs. He all too willingly allows them inside and is a little too chatty. He refers to the people outside as little insects that he can “squish.” He mentions that he has a great view of Charles’s apartment and watches him make omelets. A little too obvious of a suspect, but he mentions that his windows are painted shut and are unable to open. Does this immediately eliminate him? Not sure yet. He invites them over to the other apartment they came to see because they are all going to play Oh, Hell together.
He walks them over to the next apartment of interest. As they are walking Mabel takes notice of another apartment (also one of the three), but it has a keypad lock on it. They arrive at Inez’s apartment where she resides with her daughter and husband. Her husband is jealous of Charles because she has a huge crush on him. Another suspect?
They begin playing Oh, Hell and are having an oddly good time until one by one each of the participants disappears into the bathroom to get “a pick me up” while carrying a knife with them. Mabel and Oliver begin to panic until Oliver is invited in there as well. Turns out it is just a ham hanging from the shower rod.
Back at Charles’s apartment, Jan and Charles are bonding over Sazz, but then Oliver and Mabel begin knocking on the door. Jan disappears into the secret passages, apologizing to Charles that they couldn’t have a quickie. Charles tries to explain that Jan showed up, but they think he lost his mind as they saw him speaking to no one earlier when he saw Sazz. Mabel notices that Charles started a murder board and that there is a piece of paper on which Sazz had written a number. They use that number back at the west tower to open that locked apartment. It works!
Oliver notices that there are paint chips on the window sill which means the window was pried open at some point. There is also a footprint on the radiator below the window and an actual pig (notorious P.I.G. according to Mabel) in the bathroom. Otherwise, the apartment is empty and looks vacant. There is a pounding at the door but no one is there. Mabel and Oliver leave, ASAP.
Charles continues speaking to Sazz when the NYPD comes bursting in. They are there to warn Charles about Jan, but he tells them about the murder just as Mabel and Oliver return. While the cops are in the basement checking the incinerator, the team uses luminol on the floor. They determine she died in the kitchen and see the message she wrote out, “Tap, In.” The team looks out of the window and sees everyone from the West apartments staring back at them. Oliver looks at the paper with the number one more time, but this time upside down. He is shocked to see they are not numbers at all, but letters that spell “Oh, Hell.”
Does this mean it is someone from the other building? Does the game have anything to do with the murder? Where does Jan fit in all of this? More importantly, why would anyone want Charles dead? So many questions, but we have time. This is about the time I and others would theorize but I feel the show isn’t being as forthcoming with information as it usually is. We will just have to sit and read between as many lines as we can.
