Today I’m going to complain about Only Murders in the Building and I reserve this right for each season, although I usually bite my tongue right after. Now I’m with you guys since the Lifeboat episode was new to me and yes, I can discard some perceptions and theories that were wrong.

If I’m wrong about who killed him, it’s a delight. However, I’m worried that the series, which was brilliant until now, is being killed by its success, parading a never-ending parade of famous people who don’t add anything and, worse, so focused on “surprising”, it’s creating tricks. An even greater irony when exploring cinematic narrative techniques this season.

That’s right, Vince Fish (Richard Kind) is not Milton Dudenoff (Griffin Dunne) and yes, Dudenoff is dead. However, there are so many gaps in this forced mission to stretch a simple mystery into something complex that there are many more questions than answers. And they are not good questions…

Where are we and who killed Dudenoff?

As expected, the formula of the season is like this: we choose a suspect and in the next episode we destroy this suspicion by contextualizing the character. In this case, the Westies walked more than once – together or separately – among the most likely killers. They are con artists, liars, and strategists and had the right angle to shoot the podcasters.

That said, Charles (Steve Martin), Oliver (Martin Short), and Mabel (Selena Gomez) return to Manhattan to try to decipher “who killed Sazz and Dudenoff”. So, without any major goodbyes to a sister that we didn’t know Charles had or what difference this discovery makes. With the shadow and support of the actors who will play them, they once again decide that the Westies killed Dudenoff and return to the Arconia to confront them.

In a joke that Martin had already used in the sensational Dead Men Wear Plaid, there is a moment when the detectives declare their version of the crime, as well as the classic moment when the killer also confesses, contextualizing his reasons. That’s not exactly what happens here because, in the end, we meet a lonely and benevolent Dudenoff, who embraced people in need and helped them find a company, a home, and a purpose in life. No one killed him, he got sick and hastened his own end, creating a complex scam to keep his friends pretending that he had only traveled to Portugal and thus maintaining the lie that he was alive.

I hope that this disappointing version is the last one to put them both on the scene and under suspicion. Maybe that’s not the case because they’ve lied a lot since they first appeared and here again it doesn’t make sense. If they were in the basement burning Dudenoff’s body, didn’t they see Sazz’s body in the same place?

Of course, this reinforces my version that Sazz is still alive, but if that’s not the case, then the timeline doesn’t work.

The cinematic reference: Hitchcock

All the episodes of the season are titled after famous films and this week’s episode is Lifeboat, a hit from 80 years ago and one of Alfred Hitchcock‘s least-mentioned films, but one of his most praised.

The film is an adaptation of a story by writer John Steinbeck and features the diva Tallulah Bankhead, as well as William Bendix, Walter Slezak, Mary Anderson, John Hodiak, Henry Hull, Heather Angel, Hume Cronyn, and Canada Lee. The action is 100% focused on a lifeboat that is thrown into the sea from a freighter that was attacked and sunk by a Nazi submarine. In the fight for survival, as Only Murders In the Building highlights, we follow the drama, the disputes, and the overcoming of a group that in the end, creates an unshakable connection.

People forget, but Lifeboat received three Oscar nominations in 1944: Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Cinematography – Black and White, with Tallulah winning the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress.

There is another film quote in the episode, a quicker and more important one: It’s a Wonderful Life, by Frank Capra. Here, we have Dudenoff explaining that the right cast is what makes a work timeless. Unfortunately, even due to the lack of subtlety in saying this in a season with so many people that it barely makes sense to have them in the plot, Only Murders In The Building didn’t listen to its own advice because having an ensemble is okay, but that’s not what they gave us here.

So, who killed Sazz?

Most confusingly and weirdly, if no one killed Dudenoff, it makes it even worse to find a sense that the shot that shot Sazz came from his apartment. But even stranger is the connection Sazz made between Dudenoff and the movie that hadn’t even come out yet. The next episode is about Glen Stubbins (Paul Rudd), one of my top suspects for the season. We’ll probably be ruling him out because that’s the formula and it’s not the episode yet.

As always, let’s pay attention to those who have NOT yet been questioned and who have been somewhat missing… yes, we are talking about the screenwriter Marshall (Jin Ha) who, let’s remember, was a student of Dudenoff and, for a very lame excuse, wears a fake mustache and wig.

That’s right, folks, next week we will see what Stubbins has not yet revealed, but for now, my main suspects are:

1- Sazz (Jane Lynch) and Jan (Amy Ryan): there was no murder and they are just covering up their escape

2- Marshall: there is something strange in the production (Sazz warned about this), he was a student of Dudenoff and is always nervous when they talk about the killer.

3- The Brothers sisters (Catherine Cohen and Siena Werber): the two could have tried to kill Charles to avoid making the film Only Murders In the Building or to get more attention for the production. They have already been technically ruled out, but it could have been a cover-up.

4- Bev (Molly Shannon): always shows up when we least expect it, and she knew there was something wrong with the production… didn’t she just want to get rid of Sazz to make the movie?

5- Glen Stubbins: Glen is angry with podcasters because, with Ben Glenroy’s death, he lost his job. And yes, it would be a way to justify having Paul Rudd back. I hated Paul’s Irish accent and his exaggerations, having an overactor like Martin Short is enough. Two? Only if he’s the killer…

What’s your theory?

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