Only Murders in the Building Season 2 Episode 9 review: The criminal mastermind orchestrating Glitter Guy’s moves unmasked

3/5

Story: After figuring out Glitter Guy’s identity after the blackout in last week’s episode, Mabel decides to talk to him and figure out why he’s been targeting her and on whose behalf. Glitter Guy, as it turns out, is detective Krepps, who has been doing odd jobs to supplement his income as an NYC cop, like security duty at Coney Island or assisting small-town stations in investigations.

Review: Well, after several episodes that led absolutely nowhere as far as the murder investigation of Bunny Folger (Jayne Houdyshell) goes, today, there were a string of reveals. We still don’t know who killed Bunny and why, but we do know who is hell-bent on pinning it all on ‘Bloody Mabel’. This reveal was expected, given that Detective Krepps (Michael Rapaport) is not the smartest cookie in town to pull off any of this stuff by himself. But, more importantly, because of Poppy’s (Adina Verson) revelation from a few weeks ago of the extents to which her boss, Cinda Canning (Tina Fey), will go to prove her version of events.

Cinda’s All’s Not Well in Oklahoma podcast about the murder of Becky Butler, a case she helped solve, was the inspiration for Oliver (Martin Short), Charles (Steve Martin) and Mabel (Selena Gomez) to start their own podcast in the aftermath of Tim Kono’s (Julian Cihi) death. Turns out, the Becky Butler case may have a connection to Bunny’s murder – Cinda knew Krepps from the time they ‘worked together’ back then. She’d ensnared Krepps into planting evidence that she’d ‘find’ to solve the case.

When Mabel figures out that Cinda is the puppet master behind Krepps, she decides to speak to her about it, but runs into Poppy, who asks her to drop it instead. Poppy, as it turns out, has a secret identity, one that Cinda may or may not be aware of. That is a mystery that should unfold next week, on the season finale of Only Murders in the Building. The more pertinent question, though, is, will Cinda resort to murder and then try to pin it on someone else all for the sake of a podcast? Why is Poppy so mortally in fear of Cinda?

Mabel, meanwhile, wasn’t the only one making vital discoveries. Charles and Oliver find the real Rose Cooper painting - Mrs Gambolini wasn't a useless plot point, after all. Charles calls Lenora Folgers to return it to her, but then finds out that the woman who’d been at the Arconia to get her hands on the painting was someone else after all. Fake Lenora (Shirley MacLaine), he deduces, is the mysterious artiste Rose, who’s been in hiding to get away from an abusive relationship.

Oliver’s big news was the DNA result, which he chooses to lie about to his son and friends, while he swears Teddy Dimas, Will’s real father, into secrecy. Will, will always be a Putnam, he says.

So, the big reveal of the episode, which we probably saw coming from several miles away, is that team OMITB now knows Glitter Guy and the Criminal Mastermind, but did these two actually conspire to commit murder?

Verdict: Second seasons are tough, especially when the first has been quite successful. Only Murders in the Building has really been struggling to live up to the standards set in season 1. No doubt, the lead trio are still a riot when they are together, but the narrative’s been painfully dragged out with not too many memorable moments to speak of. Even if showrunner Steve Martin comes up with a cracker of an episode to wind up season 2 next week, it is unlikely it will make up for the lost opportunity in the time gone by. Truly makes one wonder just why the show has already been renewed for a third season.