Only Murders in the Building EP Talks Season 4 Finale, Season 5 Start


spoiler ALERT: The following contains spoilers for the season 4 finale of “Only Murders in the Building”.

Goodbye, Saiz.

“Only Murders in the Building” bid a final farewell to a fan-favorite character with Monday's season 4 finale, which concluded Charles-Hadden Savage's (Steve) investigation into the murder of his daring gay stunt double Saiz Pataki (Jane Lynch). Hui. Martin). After following several threads throughout the season, including the question of whether Charles was actually the intended target of the shooting, Charles, Oliver (Martin Short) and Mabel (Selena Gomez) learn that Saez was killed by Marshall P. Shot by Pope (Jin Ha), whose real name is revealed to be Rex. Marshall is credited as the screenwriter for the “Only Murders” film he has been participating in all season, but in a bittersweet twist, he learns that it was actually Saez who started his relationship with Charles. The script was written in honor of friendship. Marshall, then an aspiring writer working as Saez's stunt hero, stole his work and took over the greenlight, then killed him after threatening to expose him.

But when the trio discover what Marshall has done, Mabel is left alone with him in the Arconia unit in which she is boarded, and he fears for her life. But thanks to a distraction from the Vestiges – a group of people who live in the western tower of Arkonia and were initially suspects in Saiz's murder, the trio realized they were simply illegally renting out the controlled apartment. Were guilty of conspiracy to subvert the rent – ​​Charles and Oliver quietly entered the apartment through the window to rescue her. They manage to get Marshall's gun, but things seem difficult when he takes the gun back, until he falls forward and begins to bleed. The trio look out the window and see Jan (Amy Ryan), who has shot Marshall from Charles's apartment on the other side of Arkonia, where she has been hiding all season, via secret passageways. Jan was dating Charles before he was revealed as the season 1 murderer, and then she dated Saiz, so Marshall doubles as a favor to Charles and removed to avenge her lost lover.

The three do not get a chance to celebrate their solved murder for long. They soon discover the dead body of their doorman, Lester (Teddy Coluca), in the fountain of Arkonia. Like the previous season, his death sets up a new investigation for Season 5 – as does a conversation with a woman named Sophia Casimelio (Téa Leoni), who is trying to find her husband, Nicky “The Neck” Casimelio, aka Urges the trio to investigate the disappearance of. Brooklyn's dry cleaning king, who also has ties to a notorious crime family. He declined the offer to hire her, as his focus was on the murders in Arkonia, although Sophia insisted that her case “has everything to do with this building.”

Talked to “Only Murders” showrunner John Hoffman Diversity About Marshall's assassination – and the importance of New York City's gatekeepers.

Now that you can include spoilers in your answer, how did the decision to kill off Saiz come about?

It was the idea of ​​Jess Rosenthal, one of our executive producers. When we were shooting Season 3 he came to my office in New York and said, “What do we think about this? And I said, “Well, that's the most terrible idea, so maybe that means that's what we should focus on. Before we do anything else, let's talk to Jane Lynch. So I sat down with Jane, and she lit up. She was very playful.

It provides a rare opportunity to explore the relationship we're used to for humor – to get Charles to understand and understand who she was to him, and who she was to herself too.

This series has always been a little meta, critiquing the culture of true crime while the characters produce a true crime podcast — then season 4 is set in your own industry. What were you trying to say about Hollywood when the trio participated in the movie “Only Murders in the Building”?

It was really funny, this idea of ​​what Molly Shannon says in Episode 1: “When I see a hot piece of IP that horny rival studios are going crazy for, I get there.” That sense of, “What's there, and how do I modify it further?” And it was really fun for us to imagine who would play these roles and how the natural frustration around the project would expand, and how intense it might get until the moment of the green light.

Considering podcasters, it's a story, and how you tell it is everything. If you hold onto it as long as possible and have some control over it, it's the purest form of entertainment. This is a vision. It is a voice. It's a perspective that no one else will have in storytelling – and here they are looking at their story and connecting with people and trying to influence it, like Oliver is trying to inspire Zach. Is. That investment felt like comic fodder for us – and also more personal reflection, until the satire of the world overshadowed it and felt more background. It's always about the relationship between our trio and how the story is being told. In the finale, there was a sweet moment of standing with a new appreciation for the film that his dear friend died. It was a beautiful opportunity to find my own way of telling that Hollywood story.

Compared to the first three seasons, Marshall may be the criminal who garners the most sympathy, as you can see how his Hollywood failures drove him crazy and ultimately led to his death. What did he want to represent? And why was he killed instead of being arrested like your previous murderers?

As soon as we understood the details of that guru-teacher relationship, very soon we reached this author. He becomes a stunt double, so you have a skill understanding with Saiz, and she has that more personal relationship where she was helping him become a screenwriter and being inspired by him like she was inspired by Charles. And I come at it all from a humanitarian perspective, for both the victim and the perpetrator and everything in between. I like to surprise. I love learning about people's more unexpected qualities and their back stories.

And we kind of forgot about life. We thought it would be really interesting if Jan never went, and she just happened to be in those routes, so this idea that she's the one who ultimately takes out our killer after Saiz has an affair with him. To her, and after the relationship with Charles, it all felt so thrilling, amazing and right. But I wasn't prepared for how it would feel when we shot it, because we'd never committed murder. [the killer]It was very difficult to watch that scene. But then she has this gun, and she shoots, and she points this [a small wave to Charles]And Amy came up with it all on her own. And I thought, “This is crazy. But maybe this is too much?” Because it was making me laugh and happy. I'm like, “Do we need alt? Do we have one where it's not? TA-DABut we did three more takes, and she did it every time, and I was like, “That's it. I am committed to this.”

To me, the wave read almost like an apology. Like, “I've ruined your life so many times, so let me take care of this murderer for you.”

I think this is one of my favorite scenes. And then, when they come back and she and Charles are talking, and her heart starts racing. He is very excited by the idea of ​​this being their endgame. This is what motivated her, so it felt like a big success for her that she could get revenge by apologizing.

It's really nice that the Westies helped the trio with Marshall after the success they had in episode 8, where Mabel promised not to tell her story on the podcast so they don't have to go to jail for what they did. . Keep their rent cheap. How did you come to that conclusion for the relationship?

When you're living in a building in New York and looking out the window, you're watching entire families and lives and existences going on, and you find a connection somehow. Make a decision about what you are watching. It's a fascinating little film that takes place in several different windows every day. You don't want to be a spy, but you find yourself— I Find yourself – looking, going, “What are they doing? Are they playing a game?” So it all felt right for the show. But when we got into the planning that was happening around the Dudenoff apartment, I needed some truth to the story. And Madeleine George, our New York Wikipedian. Did research on all the things people do to keep their rent down, and those stories are even more extreme than what we did. People just want to live a dream and they can't afford it anymore, and where do you go What do you do? So Mabel, at the end, walks out of that apartment and says, “We were the only ones in Arkonia. I'm not going to put them on our podcast.” Because I liked her very much.

This brings me to Helga (alexandra templar,Vesti who helps address “plot holes” in previous podcasts that were pointed out earlier in the season. Were you always aware that there were some loose threads in the first season that you wanted to address when you came back later? Did you always plan to return to them?

In Season 1 I learned that there are some things that we've created that just suck. The things you talked about don't necessarily matter to the crime you're trying to solve, but wait a minute, what happened there? Who actually poisoned Vinnie? I thought, “If we're lucky enough to get a second season, a third season, we'll collect a lot of these things.” We take a look in our writers' room – a big list of our loose goals. We will spend the whole morning doing loose ends. So in a way, this season, it feels like we're getting closer to understanding all those loose ends, but I'm not sure it's conclusive. There are many other things that happened this season that are included in this collection. I'm really intrigued by the idea that you probably feel like you don't have that answer yet, and that feels right to me.

Let me know how the writing of Season 5 is going. Do you already know who is responsible for murdering Lester and throwing his body into the Arkonia Fountain? And what about Tea Leoni, who plays a woman who asks the trio to investigate her husband's death? Is it safe to assume the murder is connected?

I know the killer. I know the story. We're now breaking down the fourth episode of season 5, so we have a pretty good handle on it all. There's always a desire to see a new world, and hopefully with a real New York slant. The show has always been about classic-meets-modern. Season 5 is taking shape, and modernizing, and grappling with, in the microcosm of our building in New York. The victim was a doorman, and he has a very rich lineage and heritage to New York City – what that job is, and the associations around that job – and there's a level of respect involved with that. Now we have to pay tribute by finding out what really happened to Lester. The old-school nature of all that piety that you still find in New York juxtaposes with the modern.

And Tea Leoni, I love her so much. We've talked a lot about his character and what's going on with him. And what could this have to do with why Lester is in that fountain!

This interview has been edited and condensed.


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