Photo: Patrick Harbron/Disney
First things first: Tawny Brothers’s voice sounds exactly like Gigi Hadid’s. It’s perfect. Now, the question is whether this Gigi Hadid-soundalike is our killer. As it turns out, the shots that rang out at the end of last week’s episode were real after all — with two out of three Olivers getting hit. The bullet bounced off the metal plate in Glenn Stubbins’s head and into Zach Galifianakis — but luckily, all parties survived. Unluckily, it seems like Oliver joins Charles in being a target. But oddly, the details of this shooting don’t get all that much attention in this episode. Instead of considering logistics like what kind of gun was used and where the shooter could have been stationed, the episode instead just focuses right in on the Brothers Sisters — and it does so in a way we’ve never seen before.
Rather than a typical episode of Only Murders in the Building, this week’s entry is formatted as a found-footage documentary that the Brothers Sisters are assembling from different sources, including their on-set documentarian Howard and various hidden cameras. The project was inspired by their old film professor’s adage to always “keep shooting,” and the story will reveal itself. The reference to a “professor” stood out for obvious reasons that will come up later (*cough* Dudenoff *cough*), but so did this mantra and the double meaning of “shooting.”
In any case, this change in format was jarring at first, especially since Only Murders is normally shot in such a well-polished, stylistic way. To see these characters suddenly exist via rough cuts and raw footage was strange — like seeing a teacher at the grocery store. It also reminded me of the “Queen of Jordan” episode of 30 Rock, or the inverse of the final moments of The Comeback, when Valerie Cherish abandoned the camera crew and the show switched from mockumentary to single-cam. While it’s a little visually disorienting, it’s a fun way to keep us on our toes, and ultimately the format did lend itself to the episode’s subject matter. It was just as off-kilter as the Brothers Sisters themselves. (If I type “Brothers Sisters” one more time, a Sally Field family drama will appear…)
With it clear that someone is out there hunting podcasters, the trio take cover in Oliver’s apartment — where Detective Williams drops off Sazz’s remains and lets them know that both Dudenoff and Jan are apparently back in New York. But when they hear that an emergency production meeting has been called upstairs, they realize that the camera following them could actually work to their advantage as a security blanket of sorts. As long as they’re on camera, they’re convinced that the Brothers Sisters won’t kill them — giving them free rein to investigate. Flawed logic, but it keeps things moving!
Marshall tells them to check out the Brothers’s student film — which very well could be a deliberate attempt to direct the investigation away from him and toward them instead. I know the trio has moved on from him as a suspect, but I’m still not convinced. The weird film is about an elderly artist and identical twin sisters that he created to do his bidding, and based on the footage, it kinda looks like they almost made Poor Things. And who is playing this “creator,” you might ask? Vince Fish. That’s right, just like all of us, the trio has the experience of watching something and having Richard Kind unexpectedly show up. Finally, a connection between the Dudenoff units and the film production emerges.
But that’s not all. When they go across the building to ask Vince about what he was doing in this film, they find out that Dudenoff was a film professor — and both Vince and the Brothers were his students. So was Rudy, who is there setting up a new drone with Vince, but he awkwardly interjects to clarify that they all took classes at “different times.” Despite that, he seems to know a lot about the Brothers, calling them sickos and saying they would film dying animals and set things on fire. He also says they were kissasses who would do anything for Dudenoff and that they were his favorites. Just like with Marshall, these disparaging remarks about the Brothers seem a little too pointed. And what’s even more suspicious is when Rudy helps pry open the apartment’s window so they can fly their drone. Wasn’t a major factor that cleared Vince’s name as a suspect the fact that his windows were apparently painted shut, making it impossible for a sniper to shoot out of them? And now suddenly they open? Very suspect.
However, the biggest development in the case comes when Howard’s cadaver dog accidentally knocks over Sazz’s remains — which, fittingly for a stunt person, have already gone through so much. Thanks to Gravey, they realize that there are two left shoulder replacements — meaning it wasn’t just Sazz’s remains in that incinerator. There had been another murder in the building. Someone must have a real gripe with people with fake shoulders.
With no time left to waste, the trio finally goes to interrogate the Brothers Sisters. There seems to be a pattern this season of suspects answering the trio’s questions very matter-of-factly — almost too matter-of-factly, like they saw them coming. Vince had no hesitation talking about the film, and now the sisters are laying it all out on the table without fear too. They admit that they were in the building the night Sazz was killed to visit their former professor, who they even admit they’d kill for. What an odd thing to admit to people who think you’re a killer. Even if it’s true, just keep that to yourself until the murder investigation is closed, like, c’mon have some sense.
Nothing seems to rattle them until the trio gets a call from Detective Williams, who is able to ID who the shoulder belonged to from the serial number. It wasn’t somebody that Dudenoff killed (as they first thought), but it was Dudenoff himself. The news that their beloved mentor is dead is finally what shakes the sisters. They explain that he had cut them off when they moved to Los Angeles to become sellouts years ago — and they had signed on to this movie about his building in hopes of reconnecting. So I guess their attempt to visit him the night Sazz died didn’t come to fruition?
As for their suspicious suitcase that looks like it could hold a rifle? It turns out it was for all the hidden cameras they had scattered around the trio’s apartments for their behind-the-scenes documentary. But when they all begin taking down all of the hidden cameras, they find one that doesn’t belong to the Brothers Sisters. Right as they come to the realization that somebody else has been spying on them, all three of them get a message from Sazz’s number — with different hidden camera clips of themselves and the message, “I’m watching you.”
It seems as though the killer has had tabs on the entire first half of this investigation, which means they’ve been able to stay one step ahead this entire time. That would allow them to misdirect and steer the investigation as it progressed, or it could have given them a heads-up about interrogation questions before they were even asked. Essentially, this entire investigation thus far has been tainted by being leaked. It feels like we’re back to square one for a fresh start, which can’t happen at the apparently surveilled Arconia.
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