Only Murders in the Building season 5 is already off to a scandalous start with groping at a funeral, transporting of a body in broad daylight and an unconventional autopsy.
The three-episode premiere, which aired Tuesday, September 9, hit the ground running when it came to solving the murder of Lester (Teddy Coluca). Or at least that’s what Mabel (Selena Gomez), Oliver (Martin Short) and Charles (Steve Martin) assumed when they started to look into how the doorman became the next victim at the Arconia.
First, the trio went hunting for clues after finding someone’s thumb in the shrimp cocktail from Oliver’s wedding to Loretta (Meryl Streep). That’s how Charles found himself feeling Lester’s body up in the casket to make sure he wasn’t the person who lost a finger.
Fast-forward to later in the day when Mabel, Charles and Oliver connected Lester to the missing Nicky Caccimelio (Bobby Cannavale), a.k.a. the person Sofia Caccimelio (Téa Leoni) asked them to find in the season 4 finale. This took them to the Caccimelio residence — otherwise known as the house from The Godfather — where they realized Nicky didn’t exactly have any ties to the mafia (unless you count his sons’ podcast about organized crime).
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The search for answers led Mabel and Charles to an underground casino in the Arconia that Nicky was connected to (and Lester got involved in when he was recruited to let people in late at night for secret gambling sessions). Oliver, meanwhile, took a detour to a dry cleaner connected to the Arconia, which is where he found Nicky’s body.
Episode 2 took Us back to Lester’s origins as the audience learned more about how he started working at the Arconia, why he gave up his dreams of becoming an actor and how he eventually met Nicky. Then viewers were back in present time where Oliver was transporting Nicky’s dead body from the dry cleaner to the Arconia.
This paved the way for Mabel, Charles and Oliver to live out their joint dream of performing a late-night autopsy. Despite confirming that Nicky was murdered, they were no closer to figuring out why just as Lester’s death was suddenly ruled as accidental.
The crime-solving friend group pieced together when the next meetup at the casino would be, which is how they ended up overhearing a conversation between affluent members Jay Pflug (Logan Lerman), Camila White (Renée Zellweger) and Bash Steeg (Christoph Waltz). It also feels important to note that Jay has a finger missing, which could mean nothing or could be a clue to solving both murders.
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Before season 5 premiered, cocreator John Hoffman teased the vision for season 5.
“Our beloved doorman has a hold of a large amount of tenants in our buildings’ secrets, and many other things about his life were interesting for me to sort of explore. The very nature of a doorman in a prewar apartment building, a New York City in 2025,” Hoffman told Decider in October 2024. “[It] felt very, very interesting to look at in terms of what our show has always been about, which is classic meets newer. We really are dipping our toe into a New York City in season 5 that feels particularly ripped from the headlines in certain ways that we’ve not done before.”
He continued: “And going into some modern new take on the power in New York along the lines with, ‘What happens with the power in New York in regards to the classic respect and sort of protocols that have always been there that exist in these sort of buildings?’ with a doorman and the respect and all of that. And how does modern technology come into all of that? So some of these things are being brought up within the next season, granted in comedic ways and fun ways, but also hopefully in pointed ways like we haven’t shown before.”
Only Murders in the Building airs new episodes Tuesdays on Hulu.
