‘Only Murders in the Building’ Season 2 Recap: What to Remember Before Season 3

“Only Murders in the Building” Season 3 has arrived, backed by several powerful new stars including Meryl Streep, Paul Rudd, Ashley Park and Jesse Williams. Rudd’s character Ben Glenroy first appeared in the Season 2 finale, suggesting he will be the murder victim for the third season of the Hulu comedy show when he collapsed on stage in the final minutes of last season.

You’d think on their third murder mystery, viewers would know the drill of unlikely trio Charles-Haden Savage (Steve Martin), Oliver Putnam (Martin Short) and Mabel Mora (Selena Gomez) as they slowly but surely piece together the clues, but last season’s combination of solved case followed by new case may have confused some.

Don’t worry, we’ve got a brief recap of what happened in Season 2 that will be helpful to refresh memories for Season 3. Here’s our “Only Murders in the Building” Season 2 recap.

Bunny Folger Died

The Landlord of the Arconia building became Season 2’s victim when Mable heads back to her apartment to find the landlady bloodied in a tie-dye sweatshirt. Mabel became the prime suspect because she knits, and because Bunny died in her apartment. Bunny left behind a precious painting and her pet parrot, Mrs. Gambolini. Uma dumps the parrot on Oliver’s doorstep because she can’t stand the bird. It’s also important to note that someone did try to warn Charles, Oliver and Mabel to get out of the building before Bunny was murdered.

Detective Kreps, AKA Glitter Guy, Gave Mabel a Lead

NYPD Metro detective Kreps (Michael Rapaport) dominated the investigation of Bunny’s death. Later on in the show, after Charles breaks up with Jan (Amy Ryan), the killer of Tim Kono in Season 1, and Oliver worries over whether Will (Ryan Broussard) is actually his son, the trio plants a trash can glitter bomb to track whoever has been trailing Mabel on the bus and who they presume was stalking Charles’ daughter Lucy (Zoe Margaret Colletti) in the secret passageways of the Arconia. Mabel trails the fishy cop to Coney Island one day, and Theo Dimas (James Caverly) accompanies her. She later traces Kreps to a boxing gym and figures out that he has some sort of connection to Cinda Canning (Tina Fey) and her true crime podcast, “All Is Not OK in Oklahoma.” All of this was deduced from a chicken logo for a chicken joint in Oklahoma.

Mabel Thought Cinda Canning Was Trying to Frame Her

Wearing the badge of “Bloody Mabel” with as much honor as possible, the young artist — who started dating Alice Banks (Cara Delevigne) in Season 2 — eventually came up with a plan to expose Cinda Canning for her ploy in trying to frame Mabel for the murder of Bunny Folger. The trio consults Cinda’s underappreciated assistant Poppy White (Adina Version) at the classic diner across the street from their apartment building to put together a scheme to get Cinda to confess that she was trying to cover up her crime by pinning the blame on Mabel. Poppy reveals that Cinda hates slow motion as well as the inside of a tomato. She also orders sandwich #14 — marmalade and liverwurst as she leaves the diner, summoned by Cinda to drop the episode of “Only Murderers in the Building.”

The Killer Reveal Party

The trio bribed most of their neighbors and the Arconia staff to join them in a reveal of Bunny’s killer. Cinda and Poppy arrived, and Poppy set up the mic equipment to capture what Cinda thought would be a confession of Mabel’s. Slow-motion action and a tomato were used to freak Cinda out, but she still didn’t admit that she was the killer. Mabel turned around and pointed at Alice as the killer. Alice grabbed the cake knife and stabbed Charles, who bled to death, but not really! Cinda then offered Mabel her own podcast if she partnered with Cinda, and Poppy grew outraged. Her outburst, and sneezing, revealed that she was the one who killed Bunny. The killer had sneezed while fleeing the scene of the murder, and Poppy’s anger made her sloppy in her words, so she revealed that she knew there was a girl (Lucy) in the secret tunnels in the Arconia, which only the killer would have known since they used the hidden passages to get around undetected, and they happened to be doing so the night Lucy discovered the network of tunnels.

Charles popped up from under his bloodied sheet to point out that they caught onto Poppy when she ordered the #14 Sandwich, which Bunny uttered before she died (it sounded like 14 Savage). The three also informed Cinda that Poppy was actually Becky Butler, the subject of Cinda’s first hit podcast, “All Is Not OK in Oklahoma,” and Poppy approached Cinda with the idea to make that podcast after she had fabricated the whole story based on her actual life. Poppy was the one who slept with Detective Kreps, so he got arrested too. Cinda was in on the Killer Reveal Party the whole time, and she helped bring Bunny’s actual killer, Poppy/Becky, to justice

One Year Later

On the opening night of Oliver’s play, the main star, Ben Glenroy (Paul Rudd) seemed to have opening night jitters. Oliver was shown outside Ben’s dressing room, telling him that nerves were normal, when Glenroy stormed out, claiming he was ready. He also told Oliver that he might need to talk to the other guy (Charles), who might not be prepared to take the stage. Ben went behind the curtain for his opening soliloquy, but before the curtain rose, Charles approached him and told him to “Be smart, and stay away from her.” He also said to Ben, “I know what you did.” Ben then walked out on stage, but he barely made it through his first few lines before blood started seeping at the corner of his mouth, and he collapsed.

Season 3’s first two episodes are now out, where viewers can dive into the death of Ben Glenroy.

What Else Happened in Season 2

• Oliver finds out that Teddy Dimas is, in fact, Will’s biological father. He tells Will, who got into directing a play, in the finale, but Will says Oliver is the only father he’s known.

• Charles-Haden Savage gets some closure over his father. Rose Cooper (Shirley MacLane) pretends to be Bunny’s mother, Leonora Folger, to try and get that painting Bunny had back (because it’s of her nude with Charles’ father.) She reveals a second painting under the first, of Charles and his father, saying that —though his father fell short — that’s the man Mr. Savage wanted to be.

• Charles also got recruited for a “Brazos” reboot, in which he guest-starred as an older version of his former character, who had dementia and sat in a wheelchair. Reunited with his old makeup artist, Joy (Angela Martin), he made the most of the experience, and eventually, his dementia went into remission so he can stand again.

• Mabel struck up a relationship with Alice Banks (Cara Delevigne), who ends up using Mabel’s trauma as inspiration for her artwork. Mabel ended things eventually.

• Mabel’s love for puzzles shed light on her past, particularly her relationship with her father.

• Howard (Michael Cyril Creighton) started dating his neighbor Jonathan (Jason Veasey).

The first two episodes of “Only Murders in the Building” Season 3 are now streaming on Hulu.

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