6 burning questions before Only Murders In The Building's second season

Before the Hulu comedy's anticipated return in June, let's revisit the loose ends we want to be tied up after the season-one finale

Clockwise from top left: Steve Martin and Amy Ryan; Selena Gomez, Martin Short, and Steve Martin; Jane Lynch and Steve Martin; Selena Gomez, Ali Stroker, Jaboukie Young-White, Daniel Oreskes, and Aaron Dominguez (Photos: Craig Blankenhorn/Hulu)

Update, 3/25: In a video announcement that dropped today, Selena Gomez, Steve Martin, and Martin Short, stars of the Hulu hit Only Murders In The Building, tried (and failed) to tell us just when their show will be back. (Spoiler alert: It’s June 28.) Check out that vid below and revisit our roundup of the most pressing questions we had way back in October after the end of season one.

Hulu’s Only Murders In The Building ended its first season with customary humor and verve—and a whole new case to investigate from our couches.

The identity of Tim Kono’s (Julian Cihi) killer was finally revealed. Mabel (Gomez), Oliver (Short), and Charles (Martin) even managed to redeem themselves to their Arconia neighbors, who just last week had voted them out of the building. But the mysteries are far from over. As seen in the final moments of “Open And Shut,” Mabel finds herself in a bloody precarious position—she was found in the same room as a now-dead Bunny (Jayne Houdyshell).

We’ll definitely be wondering about “the who, the how, the why, and the why now” as we wait on season two, but The A.V. Club’s in-house sleuths also have some lingering questions following season one.

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1. Who framed Mabel for Bunny’s murder?

This is the $64,000 question, the one that will undoubtedly make up the backbone of the already-ordered second season. The final moments of “Open And Shut,” directed by Jamie Babbit and written by John Hoffman and Rachel Burger, take us back to the series opener. We see Mabel crouched in front of a bloodied and be-hoodied body, and finally learn the victim’s identity: Bunny, the irascible leader of the tenants’ board. She’s been stabbed in the chest with Mabel’s knitting needle—you know, the one she spoke of so fondly in the premiere?

Of course, we know Mabel didn’t kill Bunny. But someone’s gone to a lot of trouble to make it look that way, and even managed to bring down Charles and Oliver as well. As Mabel noted shortly after Jan (Amy Ryan)’s arrest, Bunny had just become the “most hated woman in the building.” But did someone really want her dead, or was she just collateral damage in some plot against Mabel and/or Charles and Oliver?

Also, where was Oscar (Aaron Dominguez) when all of this was going down? (For that matter, where is Mabel’s aunt?) He and Mabel had a tender moment before she made her way to the rooftop for a toast with her podcasting buds. Could Oscar be harboring some resentment over what happened in their youth? And while we’re on this subject… [Danette Chavez]

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2. Who told Charles and Oliver to get out of the building as the police approached?

Image for article titled 6 burning questions before Only Murders In The Building's second season — Photo: Craig Blankenhorn/Hulu

After Mabel heads to her apartment for more bubbly, Charles and Oliver hear sirens, which they observe are getting louder and closer to the Arconia. Then they both get a text message from an unfamiliar number, telling them to “Get out of the building now!!!” They race down the stairs to get Mabel, only to find her with Bunny’s body, mere seconds before they’re all apprehended.

This question is related to the one above, about who framed Mabel, because we also have to wonder if the text warning is part of the same scheme. Or did someone really try to help Charles and Oliver get out of the building before the police arrived? Could it have been Oscar? [Danette Chavez]

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3. Who will take over podcasting duties from the trio?

Season one ends with Mabel, Oliver, and Charles in police custody. Their podcast is wrapped up now that Tim Kono’s murder has been solved, but their arrest for Bunny’s death opens the door for a brand new podcast to stem from within the Arconia. Yes, Cinda Canning (Tina Fey) is already earning mileage with Only Murderers In The Building, but who will take over rookie podcasting duties now?

The trio, if they’re behind bars for long, might not be able to solve their own mystery. Will their superfans from episode eight have a larger role in season two, kicking off their own investigation to aid their heroes? Or will someone else from the building, like Howard Morris (Michael Cyril Creighton) or Ndidi Idoko (Zainab Jah), dive into the world of true crime/amateur sleuthing? [Saloni Gajjar]

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4. What role will Detective Williams play in clearing the OMITB podcasters’ names?

When the series began, Detective Williams (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) was no fan of the podcasting trio; she was sick of true-crime obsessives exploiting other people’s lives and tragedies. But she shook off her true-crime fatigue to take a closer look at the evidence in Tim’s case, which she tried to share anonymously with the group (as seen in the clip above, she wasn’t really able to maintain her distance).

Detective Williams is at the Arconia as Mabel, Oliver, and Charles are led away in handcuffs. While wearing one of the show’s many great trenchcoats, she tells the group “Don’t say a fucking word.” Is she just offering up a very succinct version of their Miranda rights, or is she trying to help them? Will the detective be swayed by the evidence against the trio, or will she try to help them prove their innocence? [Danette Chavez]

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5. Will Jane Lynch be back for season two?

There were so many good moments in Only Murders In the Building, but few could rival Jane Lynch’s appearance as Charles-Haden Savage’s stunt double Sazz Pataki in episode nine. (Just the multiple sight gags of everyone doing a double-take when they saw her alone.) Sazz is not only the perfect stand-in for both Charles and Tilda Swinton, she is a vital connection to Charles’ former life as the star of Brazzos, one of the few people he’s ever really opened up to.

The cast of OMITB was already functioning at an extremely high level, but in the penultimate episode “Double Time,” Lynch’s character was a welcome jolt of charming adrenaline, as well as unexpectedly savvy about murder investigations.

So Sazz Pataki really should return, right? (Series co-creator John Hoffman did tell us that the show has “invited back” many of the season-one cast members, so…) In fact, if Charles et al. are actually incarcerated at the start of season two, it seems like having a Charles lookalike may come in handy—not only for possible jailbreaks, but as a link to the outside world to help find Bunny’s real killer(s). Hopefully while unfurling myriad entertaining anecdotes as she does so. [Gwen Ihnat]

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6. Why does no one notice that Jan looks an awful lot like Holly Flax from The Office?

OMITB makes a cheeky reference to The Office in episode two, “Who Is Tim Kono,” when Oliver expresses his hope that Arconia’s murder victim, Tim Kono, wasn’t “dickier than Steve Carell” was in the NBC sitcom. If Tim was worse than Michael Scott, that would make it difficult for the listeners to care for him. This also means that The Office show exists in the OMITB universe.

In the very next episode, “How Well Do You Know Your Neighbors?”, Amy Ryan makes her first appearance. The actor portrayed Michael Scott’s love interest, Holly Flax, in Office seasons four through seven. Yet no one, not even Oliver, geeks out over how their fellow Arconian resident looks just like an Office character? To top it all off, OMITB names Ryan’s (quite unhinged) character Jan, which also happens to be the name of one of Michael Scott’s other memorable, unhinged partners, played by Melora Hardin. Looks like season two will have to bring Steve Carell on to answer this very important lingering question. [Saloni Gajjar]

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