In the episode Valley of the Dolls, another reference to classic films, Only Murders In the Building takes us back and poses the main question: who is Dudenoff, after all? Literally!

Before moving on to the BIG question of the season, let’s do a quick recap.

Our podcasters flee to Long Island, to the house of Charles’ (Steve Martin) sister, Doreen (Melissa McCarthy), who is the opposite of him in every way: loud, outgoing, aggressive. Besides the fact that we spent three seasons dealing with a lonely Charles, who got attached to his stepdaughter precisely because he had no one, we discovered that he has a sister, nieces, and a brother-in-law. I don’t like to complain about my favorite series, but what a plot hole! And Melissa overacting, without making us laugh or engage. If we ignore that, we’re out of Manhattan where Charles, Mabel (Selena Gomez), and Oliver (Martin Short) are hoping to hide from whoever wants to kill them. If only Howard could keep the secret!

One by one, from Bev to the actors and even Loretta (Meryl Streep), they all go down to Doreen’s house, who is in some hysterical episode where one minute she’s trying to seduce Oliver and the next she’s fighting and biting Loretta. Another one in a frenzy is my suspect Bev (Molly Shannon), who starts cursing the cast and complaining about Hollywood and then becomes all business. The others are bored and trying to protect themselves.

This time, the actors are the ones tying up the loose ends, that is, they’re the ones who highlight the unanswered questions from the first season, and they make it clear that whoever the killer is has been at work since the beginning. They mention the unsolved mysteries: who poisoned Winnie? Who wrote the note threatening them if they didn’t end the podcast? And who left the “I’m watching you” note on Jan’s door? I know that actors “are the best detectives”, but maybe after journalists… hahaha… all this just reinforces my theory.

Anyway, we go round and round until Oliver and Loretta decide to get married and, in the end, Howard discovers that the ones cashing the checks in Dudenoff’s name are the “Westies”. What’s more, when he calls Dudenoff’s phone, the person who answers is Vince Fish (Richard Kind) — who quickly tells the other Westies that they’re after them, but, more importantly, introduces himself as Milton Dudenoff.

I still rule out the Westies as murderers. Scammers? Suspects, of course. Among them, I exclude Vince Fish. I know the mystery is who Dedenoff is, but maybe the fake name is precise “Vince Fish”.

My main suspects are still the duo Sazz (Jane Lynch) and Jan (Amy Ryan), but let’s focus on “Dudenoff”.

Milton Dudenoff was Charles and Oliver’s (the two targets of the season) neighbor in the “poor” part of Arconia, with a past as a director (so he certainly ran into them at some point in his career) and was a teacher to the only ones absent from the episode: the Brothers sisters (Catherine Cohen and Siena Werber), and the screenwriter Marshall (Jin Ha). In other words, the link between the film’s production and someone who knows Arconia well is called Dudenoff.

And yes, in the Brothers pilot film, we saw Vince Fish as an actor. He claimed that they “sold out to Hollywood”, which was exactly what they explained as having been a problem between the sisters and their mentor. No one has lied so far, but in our imagination – induced by the writers of Only Murders in The Building – we saw Griffin Dunne as Dudenoff, but the fact that in the credits he is never mentioned as “Dudenoff” means that the person who doesn’t exist is “Vince Fish”.

With that, it seems that my favorite suspects are innocent and that Dudenoff manipulated his three disciples to – somehow – achieve his revenge. I can’t imagine what would help in the film yet, but we’ll find out at the end of the season next week. Considering that we’ll have a 5th season, not everything will be resolved, but I’m enjoying it. What are your theories?

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