Only Murders In The Building (Season 3 Finale), Episode 10: Oliver Putnam, Mabel Mora, and Charles-Haden Savage sat and walked through the entire cast’s motives and alibis. They seemed to zero in on one person as the killer. Donna, the producer, seems to be the guilty individual, but there are a few things to consider.
- Did she actually spike the cookies, or was she just the one who took the plate to Ben Glenroy’s dressing room?
- Even if she did spike the cookies, she can only be booked for attempted murder as Ben survived the poisoning attempt. This leaves the identity of the person who pushed him down the elevator a mystery.
- The theme of the series where that parent will do whatever is possible for their child. (this theme can make Donna be the killer to save her son’s show, or Donna taking the fall as the killer to protect Cliff from jail.)
- Donna is innocent and taking the fall as Cliff (also innocent) is implicated and the original killer/s has some dirt on her.
Although many names got cleared last week, it could be a case of only one side of the story coming to the fore. Tobert and Kimber’s names were not discussed in ‘Thirty.’ With the last episode, the benefit is that there is no more waiting (except for the runtime of the episode) and all speculation will end. Who really killed Ben Glenroy in ‘The Show Must…’? Find out in this recap of ‘Opening Night.’
Only Murders In The Building (Season 3 Finale), Episode 10 ‘Opening Night’ Recap:
Opening Night begins right where Thirty left off. Charles, Oliver, and Mabel (dressed as a bride) are in the courtroom where Loretta is present for her arraignment.
Donna begins the ‘Opening Night’ explaining what a producer does. She doesn’t just pay for it but gives birth to the entire idea. Audiences see a flashback of her giving birth to Cliff and promising to protect him. She talks about how producing can be rewarding. Or just “dangerous”.
Loretta is in Charles’ apartment with Oliver, Charles, and Mabel. They stand at the murderboard and Loretta expresses her surprise at being invited to the inner sanctum. Loretta thanks them for paying her bail. Oliver and Loretta engage in borderline PDA, and Mabel cringes. Charles asks her a question and Loretta looks impressed to hear that she is with Tobert.
They move the discussion to Donna. Charles talks about Donna seeing the review and Mabel speaks about how she tries to save her son’s play. Oliver chimes in about how he put Mabel on the right track with his love for dips.
Loretta tells the trio that Donna is sick. The producer was throwing up in Sitzprobe, just before having a chat with Loretta.
Mabel asks Loretta when she will break the news to Dickie. She replies she just wants to get through the opening night before doing so.
Loretta presents Ben’s gifted handkerchief and asks the trio if it will tie Donna to the push. They stare at it and struggle to get words out.
It is opening night at the Goosebury Theater. Howard is sweeping the floor to satisfy the Gideon curse which we saw in Ghost Light. The cast and crew walk into the premises. Donna gets a note and heads to the stage manager’s office. The thing she does before this is her routine with Cliff. A kiss on the lips and then one on a handkerchief that she hands to him so he can keep it close to his heart. She sees the trio present in the room, where Oliver speaks to her from notes taped to Charles’s back.
Donna calls it painful and comes out with the truth. She admits to poisoning Ben and asks them to prepare for opening night. Donna takes the mic and says she did not want to kill Ben; she just wanted to take him out and buy the show some time. However, she did not know the exact amount of non-lethal amount of poison. The producer, however, denied pushing Ben.
The trio presents the handkerchief to Donna and matches it to the lipstick shade she has on. She admits to pushing Ben as she could not risk him performing the next night. Donna requests that they don’t call the police as she will turn herself in after curtain. She admits she has stage 4 lung cancer and is not a flight risk.
Howard sprints into the room in complete panic as Jonathan (Ben’s understudy) is unable to step onto the stage. He has a suggestion for the understudy to the understudy.
Uma walks in and sits next to Matthew Broderick and behind Maxine Spear as the curtain rises, revealing Oliver as the detective in the song ‘Creature of the Night’. Uma calls him a quadruple threat, who “can’t sing, dance, direct, or act.”
Tobert hands a recording of Donna’s confession to Mabel backstage. She chats with Tobert, where sparks seem to fly. He informs her he received an indie film part in LA and invites her.
Loretta’s song moves Dickie (standing off stage) to tears, and garners rapturous applause from the audience. He calls it extremely moving, and she decides to break the news to him. Dickie stops her and says he knew it.
Mabel watches them and then looks at Cliff and Donna in the audience. She sees Cliff look upset and walk away. Mabel runs backstage to locate Cliff. As Charles sings the Pickwick Triplets song, Mabel ascends the ladder to the storage room where she sees Cliff.
Only Murders In The Building (Season 3 Finale) Episode 10 ‘Opening Night’ Ending Explained:
Who pushed Ben Glenroy down the elevator?
Cliff pushed Ben Glenroy to his death in ‘The Show Must…’ Mabel observes the two mother-son interactions and joins the dots. She rushes to find Cliff and tails him to the storeroom (where Jerry Blau and Oliver spoke in ‘Ghost Light’).
Mabel confronts him about the truth of the killer. She positions him as the one who pushed Ben Glenroy in ‘The Show Must…’ and shows him the handkerchief.
In the flashback, audiences see Ben zero in on his poisoner; especially as he was fasting. Ben wants to call the police, but doesn’t know how to. He asks Cliff if this is a thing to Google. Cliff, upset at being called “boy”, comes forward and says he is his own person. He also confesses he told Donna that Ben is a superhero hack who has no business on Broadway. Ben is furious, and as tempers flare, the two men scuffle. Ben throws the first push but receives the fatal push.
Cliff is overwhelmed by this and decides to throw himself to his death.
Who saves Cliff?
Cliff opens the trapdoor and threatens to throw himself onto the stage. He sees Ben Glenroy on the set and singing. This greatly startles him. Cliff, visibly sweating, says he can’t let his mother take the fall. Mabel screams and the audience notices. Charles, dead in the play, pops back onto the stage and runs off. Matthew Broderick is impressed as it is how a Nova Scotia policeman would run.
Oliver and Charles head to the storage and see Cliff dangling from the roof. Cliff, just about to jump, sees his mother reach out and stop him from letting go. He sobs and labels it as an accident.
Where is Mabel moving?
Mabel turns down Tobert’s offer to join him in LA. This is because the things she needs to “unstick” are in New York.
What does Joy’s text mean?
Joy suddenly texts Charles with the words, “Scott Bakula says hi.” The meaning isn’t explained and Charles does not bother to shed light on it.
Charles brushes it aside and heads up to his flat to get a bottle of alcohol. Or does he?
Is Charles-Haden Savage dead?
A figure walks into Charles’s apartment in the dark. A few moments later, audiences hear a gunshot and see the figure flat on their back. The individual is bleeding out and there are no follow-up gunshots. As the camera zooms in, audiences realize the victim’s identity.
In another frame, Charles walks in and talks to Oliver and Mabel. This leaves no doubt as to who it is. Someone who looks like Charles, dresses like him, and has been his stunt double.
The victim is Sazz. Who shot Sazz? Is it connected to the sensitive information she wished to share with Charles?
What did you make of Season 3 of Only Murders In The Building? At this point, we do not know if there will be a Season 4. The open ending does make it seem likely that the trio will investigate the murder of Sazz while balancing the daily shows of Death Rattle Dazzle.
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