‘Only Murders in the Building’ Recap: Is Paul Rudd the Killer?

(Warning: Spoilers ahead.)

After last week’s episode of Only Murders in the Building made all the Westies look guilty, “Lifeboat” finally explains their whole deal. Are the Westies the murderers we’ve been searching for all season? No. Turns out, their only crime was honoring a dear friend’s dying wish. Well, that and welfare fraud.

“Lifeboat” begins with a flashback to all the Westies we’ve met throughout the season—Vince Fish (Richard Kind), Rudy (Kumail Nanjiani), Alfonso (Desmin Borges), Inez (Daphne Rubin-Vega), and Ana (Lilian Rebelo). They’re all meeting up with the mysterious Dudenoff (Griffin Dunne), who’s promising to change their lives with his rent control scheme.

The most exciting moment of this opening, however, is the introduction of Helga (Alexandra Templer). She’s the mysterious missing Westie whose name was on Sazz’s desk in the season premiere, and whose face was crossed out in the group picture in the Fish apartment. Although I predicted Helga would turn out to be a character we’ve already met, Helga’s revealed to be a total stranger to the main trio. She really is the pig-owning Finnish woman the other Westies described; the only lie was that she was never Rudy’s girlfriend.

But before the episode can give us Helga’s full story, it must first reintroduce us to the trio’s Hollywood doppelgängers: Eva Longoria, Zach Galifianakis, and Eugene Levy. Each of them are once again inserting themselves into the investigation, and none of them are particularly helpful. My suspicion of Eugene Levy in particular continues to grow, as he spends the episode jumping to false conclusions and pushing Charles into “letting out his anger,” something that is actively unhelpful to the matters at hand. (Admittedly, it’s very funny.) I suspect Levy will be revealed as the show’s first celebrity suspect to not be a red herring, but more on that later.

The celebrity trio don’t contribute a ton this week; all they do is sit alongside Charles, Mabel, and Oliver as the Westies tell their story, repeatedly jumping to damning conclusions about their role in Dudenoff’s death. It’s suspicious behavior, almost as if one of them desperately wants to make sure the investigation stays focused on only the Westies.

Despite the celebrities’ interference, the Westies still get enough time to explain themselves, even if they have to brandish a butcher knife to do it. They explain that they genuinely loved Dudenoff and that he loved them all back. When Helga swoops in halfway through to voice her suspicions that the other Westies killed Dudenoff and were messing with the Only Murders podcast to keep them off their trail, the Westies reveal the final bit of the story: Dudenoff was dying of a terminal illness, and he chose to kill himself in secret so the rest of them could afford to keep their homes.

“Lifeboat” answers pretty much every concern about the Westies: It clarifies that Dudenoff had already taken a lethal dose of pills before revealing his plan to them, it shows that the Westies were horrified and wanted to try to save him, and it reveals that Dudenoff made a video of himself explaining all of this, just in case Helga suspected anything. The Westies seem totally innocent now, at least when it comes to murder; it turns out their storyline was simply a heartfelt tale about the lengths people will go to just to find affordable housing in New York.

We also learn that Oliver and Loretta (Meryl Streep) aren’t just getting married; they’re getting married this weekend, by the end of the season, in the Arconia. Mark my words: this season’s big murder cliffhanger is 100 percent taking place at this wedding. (Let’s hope Loretta’s not the victim!)

The Oliver marriage subplot is notable in that it’s gotten Zach Galifianakis to appreciate Oliver in a genuine way. Zach reveals himself to be a total sappy romantic, so when Oliver gives his beautiful explanation for marrying at the Arconia, Zach is won over. This development’s the biggest indication yet that, if one of the celebrities is the killer, Zach isn’t one of them. When he kisses Oliver on the lips, it feels like an ending for Zach, a conclusion to his season-long arc of learning to appreciate the man he’s portraying.

Helga returns in the final scene to give the trio their latest breakthrough in the case, telling them that she really did talk to Sazz over the ham radio. Helga says Sazz was “looking into the plot holes” back from Season 1, only to be distracted by harassment from Glen Stubbins (Paul Rudd) of all people. Sazz told Helga that Stubbins would be the death of her.

This seems like damning evidence against Stubbins, but like with the Brothers he’ll probably be a red herring. Only Murders has always waited until the penultimate episode to reveal who the killer is, and sometimes (like Season 2) it’s waited until the finale itself. As much as I’d be delighted to see Paul Rudd deliver a villainous killer’s monologue, odds are that Stubbins simply knows something vital about the investigation. But if he’s not one of the killers, who is?

Since next week will likely answer this question, now seems the best time for fans to lock in their final guess. For myself, I’m sticking with the established two-killer theory, and I’m choosing to believe in Charles’ theory that the killers were aiming for Sazz, not him. (Likewise, I now believe the killer was aiming for Stubbins in the “Adaptation” cliffhanger, not Oliver.) With that in mind, I’d like to officially place my bet on the killers being Eugene Levy and the screenwriter Marshall (Jin Ha).

For Marshall, my reasoning is simple: Even though there are a million suspicious things about him, the show itself has downplayed him as a suspect at every turn. I’m repeatedly drawn back to that brief moment in “Adaptation” where Marshall walks right by Charles and Mabel as they’re talking about their two-killer theory; it’s clearly an intentional, scripted moment—no show would have a minor character temporarily block the camera’s view of the main characters for no reason—but it’s filmed as if the show doesn’t want us to notice it. Outside of the celebrity trio, pretty much every established suspect this season has gotten their moment on top of the murder board except Marshall, making me think the writers are saving him for last. (Plus, Pachinko fans know how good of an actor Jin Ha is; it would be a waste to cast him if there’s nothing juicy for Marshall in store.)

I’ve already made my case for Eugene Levy back in the premiere, although I’ve changed my reasons why. At first I suspected Levy because I figured Sazz was the one originally cast to play Charles in the Only Murders adaptation, with acting being the career change Sazz was about to embark on. I figured Levy killed Sazz so that he would get the role instead. However, the rest of the season’s indicated that Sazz was never cast in the role, because surely Bev Melon (Molly Shannon) would’ve said something by now if she had been.

Rather, my suspicion of Levy now comes down to two factors. First, there’s the fandom’s discovery that Sazz’s silhouette at the beginning of her Season 3 death scene looks more like Eugene Levy’s silhouette than Jane Lynch’s, or Steve Martin’s for that matter. Second, there’s the season’s ongoing interest in doppelgängers. If Sazz was Charles’ good doppelgänger, perhaps Levy is his evil one.

The element connecting Levy to Marshall in my mind is a small detail from the season premiere: Sazz’s house is the same house used in Mulholland Drive, a 2001 David Lynch film with a few elements in common with Only Murders Season 4. The surrealist film was (sort of) a murder mystery, as well as a story about how envy becomes contempt. A major character from that movie orders a hit on her quasi-doppelgänger, in part because she’s resentful of the success said doppelgänger has achieved in both her acting career and love life. (At least, that’s my interpretation; Mulholland Drive is an ambiguous film.)

I think Eugene Levy murdered Sazz for similar reasons. Perhaps Levy in the Only Murders universe has been out of work for a long time, and maybe Sazz stole his girlfriend at some point for good measure, just like she did to Charles. Perhaps Levy heard that Sazz had discovered a damning secret about the movie, the one she hinted at to Bev Melon over the phone, and he decided to kill her before she could sabotage his first good acting opportunity in years.

How does Marshall play into this? Well, Marshall himself is driven by a fierce desperation to prove himself as a writer, with this movie being his first big shot to do so. But even though he’s earned himself such a huge opportunity, he still suffers from massive imposter syndrome. What if the reason he doubts his talent so much is because he knows his script wasn’t accepted on merit? Better yet, what if the script was never actually his to begin with? Fans have been speculating since “The Stunt Man” over what Sazz’s planned career change was. Perhaps she was trying to become a writer. Perhaps she went to fellow aspiring screenwriter Marshall for advice, and he stole her big idea for an Only Murders adaptation?

This would explain a lot about the tone of Sazz’s voicemail to Bev Melon, where she sounds concerned and angry but hardly scared for her life. It also explains why Levy might get involved: a plagiarism scandal could tank the whole production, denying Levy the big role he’s seemed so excited to play. It’s easy to picture Marshall nervously confiding in Levy that Sazz found out he stole her idea, and for Levy to push him into taking drastic measures to keep his writing career (and the movie) on track.

The only big question in this theory (as far as I can see) is how Stubbins is involved. His reasons for freaking out Sazz so much in her final days could be attributed to anything; as we’ve already learned, Stubbins is crazy enough that he could’ve been scaring Sazz just by being himself. But perhaps Stubbins’ was the one who told Sazz about the Only Murders production? Maybe he learned they were looking for stunt doubles, mentioned it to Sazz, and that was how Sazz realized her script had been stolen? The trio may have taken Marshall and Eugene Levy’s innocence for granted this season, but hopefully they’ll soon give both suspects a closer look.

Clues from the Crime Scene:

• There aren’t a whole lot of new clues this week, as so much of the episode is based around wrapping up a mystery that now seems entirely separate from Sazz’s murder. However, I think some of Dudenoff’s thoughts on his rent control scheme link up nicely with my theory behind Marshall. Dudenoff asks people, “If your life was a movie, what would be its happy ending?” and then he decides to make that ending happen regardless of what the law says. For Marshall, his happy ending would be him becoming a successful, respected writer. How far would he go to make that happen?

• Going back to “Adaptation,” there’s another suspicious moment worth noting: When Charles has his “two killers” revelation, we get a shot of both Levy and Marshall watching in concern as Charles walks away. Levy subsequently disappears for several minutes of screentime before the gunshot rings out.

• Glen Stubbins’ final moments in “Lifeboat” are of him in his hospital bed, his finger moving to indicate he’s waking up. Given that he was likely shot because of something he knows about Sazz’s murder, his life may be in danger again the moment everyone hears he’s out of his coma. Good luck, Glen Stubbins! Surely Only Murders wouldn’t kill Paul Rudd off a third time, right?

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