Only Murders in the Building Season 2 Episode 8: Glitter guy’s been unmasked, finally!

3/5

Story: There’s a blackout in New York City and the killer is using the cover of dark to go after Charles’ (Steve Martin) ex-stepdaughter Lucy. Can he, Mabel and Oliver make it back to the Arconia in time and get her to safety?

Review: I’m not sure whether to call it smart writing when the showrunners of Only Murders In the Building (OMITB) repeatedly drop lines that perfectly sum up how painfully slow and pointless much of the narrative in the last several episodes has been. Even the podcasting trio’s fans are looking at shifting loyalties because they’ve been stuck for a while and have no lead whatsoever about who glitter guy could be, if he is the killer or is working with someone.

I can’t get enough of stating how annoying it is to have had to wait a whole day for the new episode to be available on Disney+Hotstar. Not the smartest move in a day and age when even the most guarded film/show is pirated in high-definition quality within hours of it being available. This is not an endorsement of piracy, but it would, perhaps, not be wrong to say that die-hard fans who wanted to know what’s on episode 8 of Only Murders in the Building would have found a way to get hold of it. Just saying!

Anyway, back to OMITB… at the time of the blackout, Oliver (Martin Short), Charles and Mabel (Selena Gomez) had just had a happy reunion, after her day out with Theo Dimas (Caverly) at Coney Island, where she’d gone looking for ‘Glitter Guy’. Charles’ ex-stepdaughter may just be on the killer’s radar, because Mabel found a picture of him with her on Glitter Guy.

As they head back to the Arconia, Marv (Daniel Oreskes), one of their fans, tries to tell them about his serial killer theory involving the 6th Avenue Slasher. Our trio, of course, is not interested, but Marv follows them back anyway, which is revealed much later. If you remember, Marv had once said that he was familiar with the building’s secret passageways because he’s worked on removing mold in the Arconia.

So, as the killer’s chasing Lucy down this passage, with Charles, Mabel and Oliver in ‘hot’ pursuit, it’s Marv who saves the day eventually. And then, just when you think that the showrunners have put up yet another filler episode, the lights come back on and Mabel realizes who Glitter Guy is from among the many, residents and non-residents, who’d gathered in the lobby of the Arconia. Is he the killer or is he working with/for someone? Only two more episodes to find out.

Verdict: Does Lucy’s observation that the killer sneezed while in the secret passage have anything to do with Howard’s new crush, the Broadway singer, who is lethally allergic of cats? A new suspect this late seems unlikely, but we can’t write him off just yet.

PS: For reasons best known to the streaming platform, Disney+Hotstar, which brings the Hulu show to India, decided to shift its streaming date from Tuesday 12.30 pm to Wednesday 12.30 pm. Given that it was anyway coming to the streamer a few hours after the Hulu telecast, even by Tuesday 12.30 pm, the internet would be full of spoilers of the episode that just aired. Imagine what 24 hours can do to die-hard fans who are waiting for it to drop? How long does Disney+Hotstar expect fans to avoid social media or the internet for that matter, when Only Murders In the Building is on its last three episodes of the season?