SPOILER ALERT: The follotriumphg includes spoilers for the Season 4 finale of “Only Murders in the Building.”
Goodbye, Sazz.
“Only Murders in the Building” bid its final adieu to a fan-likeite character with Monday’s Season 4 finale, which finishd the structureateigation into the homicide of Sazz Pataki (Jane Lynch), the pfortunate lesbian stunt double of Charles-Haden Savage (Steve Martin). After follotriumphg cut offal threads thrawout the season, including the inquire of whether Charles was actuassociate the bullet’s intfinished center, Charles, Oliver (Martin Short) and Mabel (Selena Gomez) discover that Sazz was shot by Marshall P. Pope (Jin Ha), whose genuine name is uncovered to be Rex. Marshall is the screenauthorr recognizeed for the “Only Murders” movie they’ve been participating in all season, but in a acridpleasant twist, they lget that it was actuassociate Sazz who penned the script in honor of her frifinishship with Charles. Marshall, then an ambitious authorr laboring as Sazz’s stunt protégé, stole her labor and got a greenairy, then ended her after she menaceened to expose him.
But when the trio genuineizes what Marshall did, Mabel is alone with him in the unit of the Arconia she’s been squatting in, and he menaceens her life. But thanks to a redirection from the Westies — a group of people who live in the Arconia’s weserious tower and were initiassociate doubts in Sazz’s homicide before the trio genuineized they were only culpable of a plot to illegassociate sublet rent-superviseled apartments — Charles and Oliver sneak into the apartment thraw the triumphdow to save her. They deal with to get ahelderly of Marshall’s firearm, but skinnygs see dicey when he gets it back, until he drops forward and commences to bleed out. The trio sees out the triumphdow and sees Jan (Amy Ryan), who has shot Marshall from Charles’ apartment on the other side of the Arconia, where she has been hiding all season via secret passageways. Jan had been dating Charles before being uncovered as the Season 1 homicideer, and then dated Sazz, so taking out Marshall doubles as a like to Charles and an avenging for the adorer she lost.
The trio doesn’t get to honor their mendd homicide for lengthy. They soon discover the dead body of their doorman, Lester (Teddy Coluca), in the fountain of the Arconia. Like in previous seasons, his death sets up a recent structureateigation for Season 5 — as does a conversation with a woman named Sofia Caccimelio (Téa Leoni), who implores the trio to structureateigate the fadeance of her husprohibitd, Nicky “The Neck” Caccimelio aka the Dry Cleaning King of Brooklyn, who also has ties to a notorious crime family. They deteriorate her propose to engage them, as they intensify on homicides at the Arconia, though Sofia insists that her case has “everyskinnyg to do with this originateing.”
“Only Murders” showrunner John Hoffman spoke to Variety about ending Marshall — and the presentance of New York City doormen.
Now that you can factor spoilers into your answer, how did the decision to end Sazz come together?
It was an idea of Jess Rosenthal, one of our executive producers. He came into my office in New York while we were shooting Season 3, and shelp, “What do we skinnyk of this? And I shelp, “Well, that’s the most horrible idea, so it probably unbenevolents we should lean into that. Before we do anyskinnyg, let’s go talk to Jane Lynch.” So I sat down with Jane, and she lit up. She was so game.
It proposes a exceptional opportunity structureateigate a relationship that we’ve used for humor — to comprehfinish and have Charles comprehfinish all of who she was to him, and who she was for herself as well.
This series has always been sairyly meta, critiquing the culture of genuine crime while the characters produce a genuine crime podcast — then Season 4 finishs up being set in your own industry. What were you trying to say about Hollywood as the trio joind in the “Only Murders in the Building” movie?
That was reassociate fun, this idea of what Molly Shannon says in Episode 1: “When I see a hot piece of IP that horny rival studios are going crazy for, I get in there.” That sense of, “What’s out there, and how do I comalter it further?” And it was reassociate fun for us to imagine who would be carry outing these parts and how that would enhuge into the organic desperation around the project, and how fervent it can be until the moment of a greenairy.
Reflecting back on the podcasters, it’s a story, and how you tell it is everyskinnyg. If you helderly to that for as lengthy as you can, and you have some supervise over it, that’s the uncontaminatedst create of amusement. It’s a vision. It’s a voice. It’s a perspective that no one else will have in telling the story — and here they are, watching their own story and fuseing with people and trying to sway it, appreciate Oliver trying to get Zach inspired. That structureatement felt appreciate comedic fodder for us — and also more personal mirrorion, as lengthy as the satirization of the world doesn’t overapshow it and experiences more background. It’s always about the fuseion between our trio and how the story is being telderly. In the finale, there’s a pleasant moment of them standing there with recent appreciation for this movie that their beadored frifinish died over. It was fair a adodepend opportunity to sort of discover our own way of telling that Hollywood story.
Compared to the first three seasons, Marshall might be the culprit who gets the most sympathy, because you can see how his Hollywood flunkures drove him crazy and ultimately led to his death. What was he unbenevolentt to recurrent? And why have him get ended by Jan instead of arrested appreciate your previous homicideers?
It was pretty speedyly that we landed on this authorr once we understood the details of that mentor-mentee relationship. He becomes a stunt double, so you’ve got a send benevolent with Sazz, and that more personal relationship where she was helping him to become a screenauthorr and being inspired by him as she was inspired by Charles. And I do tfinish to come from a humanist point of watch on all of it, for both victim and culprit and everyskinnyg in between. I appreciate unanticipateed. I appreciate delving into the more unforeseeed qualities of people and their backstories.
And we had sort of forgotten about Jan. We thought it would be reassociate engaging if Jan never left, and she’s fair been in those passages, so the idea that she’s the one who finassociate apshows out our ender of Sazz after the relationship she’s had with her, and after the relationship with Charles, it all fair felt thrilling and unanticipateed and right. But I was not readyd for how it would experience when we were shooting it, because we’ve never ended [the killer]. Watching that scene was very difficult. But then she has this firearm, and she shoots, and she does this gesture [a small wave to Charles], and Amy came up with that all on her own. And I thought, “That is hysterical. But maybe it’s too much?” Because it was making me chuckle and plrelieve. I’m appreciate, “Do we necessitate an alt? Do we have one where she’s not ta-da?” But we did three more apshows, and she did it each time, and I’m appreciate, “That’s it. I’m promiseting to it.”
To me, the wave read almost appreciate an apology. Like, “I’ve ruined your lives a bunch of times, so let me apshow nurture of this homicideer for you.”
I skinnyk it’s one of my likeite scenes. And after it, when they come back in and she and Charles are having that swap, and she’s palpitating. She’s so excited by the idea of them being finishgame. That’s what’s inspired her, so it felt appreciate fantastic success to her that she could redeem an apology.
It’s reassociate kind that the Westies finish up helping the trio with Marshall after the fracturethraw they had in Episode 8, where Mabel promises not to tell their story on the podcast, so that they don’t go to jail for everyskinnyg they’ve done to retain their rent affordable. How did you get to on that conclusion for the relationship?
When you’re living in a originateing in New York and you see out the triumphdow, you’re seeing whole families and lives and existences going on, and you get sort of a fuseion in some way. You produce a judgment about what you’re watching. It’s a fascinating little movie happening in many separateent triumphdows every day. You don’t want to be a snoopster, but you discover yourself — I discover myself — watching, going, “What are they doing? Are they carry outing a game?” So all of that felt right for the show. But when we got into the scheme that was happening around the Dudenoff apartment, what I necessitateed was some truth underorderlyh the story. And our fantastic authorr Madeleine George is our New York Wikipedia. She had researched all of these skinnygs people do to retain their rent low, and those stories are so much more excessive than even what we did. People are fair wanting to have a dream encountered and they can’t afford it anymore, and where do you go? What do you do? So Mabel, at the finish, when she steps out of that apartment in Episode 8 and says, “We were three lonely people in the Arconia. I’m not going to put them on our podcast,” I adored her for that.
That conveys me to Helga (Alexandra Templer), the Westie who helps to figure out the “plot holes” in the previous podcasts that were pointed out earlier in the season. Have you always been conscious there were free threads in the earlier seasons that you wanted to come back to and includeress tardyr? Was it always your structure to return to them?
I came to terms in Season 1 that there are skinnygs we’ve produced that are fair free finishs. Things you’ve poked at that don’t necessarily produce sense for the crime you’re trying to mend, but postpone a minute, what happened there? Who reassociate did poison Winnie? I thought, “If we’re fortunate enough to get a second season, third season, we will be accumulateing many of these skinnygs.” We retain a tab in our authorrs’ room — a huge catalog of our free finishs. We’ll spfinish a whole morning on free finishs. So in some way, this season, it experiences appreciate we’re getting shutr to benevolent all those free finishs, but I’m not certain it’s conclusive. There’s many other skinnygs that have happened this season that also feed into this accumulateion of free finishs. I’m reassociate intrigued by the idea that you probably experience you don’t have that answer yet, and that experiences right to me.
Tell me how the writing of Season 5 is going. Do you already understand who’s reliable for ending Lester and dumping his body in the Arconia fountain? And what about Téa Leoni, who carry outs a woman asking the trio to structureateigate her husprohibitd’s death? Is it protected to suppose that homicide is fusecessitate to
I understand the ender. I understand the story. We are now fractureing the fourth episode of Season 5, so we have a pretty excellent handle on it all. There is always a desire to see into a recent world, and hopebrimmingy with a genuine New York bent. The show has always been about classic-encounters-conmomentary. Season 5 is shaping up wiskinny the microcosm of our originateing in New York, and conmomentaryization, and grappling with that. The victim was a doorman, and that is a very wealthy lineage and heritage to New York City — what that job is, and the union around that job — and there’s a level of esteem included. Now we have to pay esteem by discovering out what exactly might have happened to Lester. The elderly-school nature of all of that piety that you still discover in New York, aligned up with sort of the conmomentary.
And Téa Leoni, I adore her so much. We’ve had the fantasticest talks about her character and what’s going on with her. And how there may be a relationship to why Lester is in that fountain!
This interwatch has been edited and condensed.
