Oh, Oliver Putnam did not read the room on Only Murders in the Building Season 2 Episode 5.
Murder mystery party games are my jam, but there’s a line that you simply cannot cross—accusing a party attendee of actual murder.
This season’s mystery seems to be getting the best of our trio. We’re five episodes deep, and yet, they’ve somehow gotten away from any actual theories. It’s almost as if they never solved a mystery before in their lives. Are they simply too close to it this time? Closer than Charles dating the murderer?
Even their podcast groupies are onto the fact that they have a whole bunch of nothing after all this time investigating.
And their work has gotten sloppy—they’re talking through theories out in the open for everyone to hear at what is possible a place the murderer frequents. They are being carless with facts. And they are openly revealing that they have absolutely no suspect in the whodunit by accusing Alice at the party.
Now, don’t get me wrong, there’s not one bone in my body that trusts Alice. I always thought she was an opportunist for pursuing Mabel, and after she basically admitted to being a poor man’s Anna Delvey in order to make a name for herself in the art world, I’m even more convinced of it. She knew that associating with Mabel would bring a lot of attention to herself and the gallery. There’s no doubt about her motives, though, it’s possible that at some point along the way, she actually fell in love.
However, I’m with Oliver on the whole “you have a tell” thing. When confronted, Alice came clean about her fake identity, which made everyone, particularly Mabel, sympathetic to her cause. Of course, no one would suspect her of murder if she was just outed for being a fraud. But anyone who can blatantly lie to people like that about their upbringing is a master storyteller that can weave exceptional tales and, also, likely cover up murder.
By making herself Oliver’s target, she has gained Mabel’s trust and created a rift, a fracture in the ecosystem of our amateur detectives.
I’m hoping that they don’t count her out entirely because there was definitely something off about Alice from the moment we met her. And while I don’t ever want to agree with the lunatic Jan on anything, she does have a point about an artist staying close to her work.
With the heat off of Alice, she can now move in the shadows, and by gaining Mabel’s trust, she can always stay one step ahead of them because she’ll know what the plan is. It’s exactly why Jan remained so close to the case; she could steer it in the direction she wanted.
On the other hand, it’s a bit too on the nose to have the killer be a romantic partner once again. It’s almost too predictable at this point.
Admittedly, I’m truly disappointed with Charles for continuing to communicate with Jan. I understand that he’s lost and lonely, and no one has ever understood him the way Jan did—they had a genuine connection, aside from all the murder business— but there’s just no overlooking the crime she committed.
It would be one thing to talk to her for insight, but he’s falling into old patterns, which is a slippery slope.
Jan provides them with a look inside the mind of a killer, but this killer is intentionally framing them and they don’t seem to be the least bit interested into the why.
This season has provided backstories for both Charles and Oliver, so it’s fair to say that all these pieces likely fit into the overall puzzle. But for now, it’s unclear who.
Oliver’s backstory focused more on his ability to sniff out when someone is lying, and a lot of that had to do with his son Will.
It’s been nice to see the two of them patching things up and establishing a relationship, especially since they were so close when Will was younger, but it also underscored that the rockin’ ’70s party host had a bit of a blind spot when it came to the people he loved.
While helping his son with a family tree project at school, Will did a DNA test and realized that half of his DNA was Greek and not Irish as he was led to believe.
When he confronted his father, Oliver put two and two together and realized that his wife had an affair with Teddy Dimas. And thus, Will was never Oliver’s son, he was the son of Oliver’s archnemesis.
This gives a whole new meaning to Teddy’s “I’m going to f**** you, Oliver” threat from a few episodes prior! Teddy has been messing with Oliver for years, but this is the biggest blow.
How is it going to shape the story moving forward? And how does it fit into the murder mystery loosely holding the season together?
Teddy has plenty of reasons for wanting to frame Oliver, but I don’t think he’d do it by faking that the murder weapon was Mabel’s knitting needle. The paternity doesn’t seem to play any part in Bunny’s murder unless Bunny figured it out and threatened to expose the truth. If that’s the case, it’s possible that even Will’s mother and Oliver’s ex could be the killer!
Amid all the chaos, Mabel stumbled upon a clue while exploring the secret passageways (not so secret anymore), and the matchbook led them to a diner that Bunny frequented. Oliver befriended the waiter, Ivan, who pulled up the surveillance footage from a few days prior to her death. Unfortunately, it’s hard to figure out who the hooded figure might be, even if they do seemingly have a DNA blood sample on the matchbook.
Is the killer connected to Oliver’s past? Charles’s past? Is Alice somehow involved? After all, she was the son of Sam and kept it a secret.
We’re digging deep into the relationships of Mabel, Oliver, and Charles to shape them as characters, and it turns out, they have a lot of deeply rooted isuses that could be exploited by anyone with nefarious intentions or a grudge. Could they all have a darkr side that we’ve never seen? Or are they the perfect victims to turn into suspects?
Are they too preoccupied with their own drama to give this case the attention it deserves?
Share your thoughts in the comments below!