Only Murders in the Building Season 2 Episode 10 review: Bunny Folger was killed for a podcast, after all!

3.5/5

Story: On the season finale of Only Murders in the Building, Charles (Steve Martin), Oliver (Martin Short) and Mabel (Selena Gomez) get DNA evidence from the murder weapon found at Charles’ apartment, which points to the identity of the real killer of Bunny Folger (Jayne Houdyshell). And it isn’t who we thought.

Review: It was almost mid-way into the season finale of Only Murders in The Building that the slow reveal of Bunny Folger’s murderer began. We’d got an inkling that podcaster Cinda Canning (Tina Fey) could have had something to do with the murder because of her connection to Detective Kreps (Michael Rapaport), which helped her ‘solve’ the Becky Butler case in Oklahoma. But aside from being a terrible boss, was she evil enough to orchestrate murder and then pin it on someone else… all for the sake of a podcast?

Well, turns out, Bunny was killed for a podcast, one that Cinda wasn’t kicked about. Her assistant Poppy White (Adina Verson), though, thought it was great material – Bunny owned a painting by the mysterious artiste Rose Cooper, who vanished without a trace years ago. But Bunny wasn’t interested in Poppy’s proposition. Could she still give her boss material for another killer podcast like All is not Okay in Oklahoma?

Last week, when Mabel attempted to confront Cinda about ‘Glitter Guy’ Detective Kreps, she’d run into Poppy instead, who, strangely enough, told her that she was actually Becky Butler, the missing and presumed dead girl from Oklahoma. Becky leads Mabel to believe that Cinda and Kreps manipulated evidence to stage Becky’s disappearance, the investigation of which led to the popular podcast.

Charles, Oliver and Mabel knew Cinda was ruthless, but the pieces were just not fitting together. They’d need a confession; how do they get her to do that? By throwing a party for the killer reveal and having her over for it. There’s a lot of theatrics, thanks to Oliver’s planning of the do, Charles even gets ‘stabbed’, the ‘murderer’ is apprehended, all of which is an elaborate set-up to have the real killer reveal his/her self. It works, but isn’t that ‘Oh, I didn’t see that coming’ moment. Bunny’s last words were the biggest clue and they weren’t ‘14 Savage’.

With two solved murder mysteries and a new-found popularity, things look brighter for Charles, Oliver and Mabel. Charles’ part on Brazzo gets rewritten and he isn’t the grandpa with dementia in the wheelchair anymore. Oliver gets another shot at Broadway and Mabel’s ready for a fresh start with Alice, which they kick off by refurbishing her apartment – all of her paintings get whitewashed for a clean slate, you see.

Only Murders in the Building has already been renewed for a third season, so the final few moments of Season 2 set up the mystery they’d be looking into. The action, this time around, does not unfold at the Arconia, but in the presence of most of its residents and many more. The lead actor of Oliver’s return to Broadway show drops dead on stage on opening night, only moments after having a little chinwag with Charles.

Verdict: Season 2 was not the greatest follow up to the immensely enjoyable first one. Selena Gomez is, without an iota of doubt, the star of the season. The singer-actress gets the most unflattering outfits and her face barely moves, but she more than makes up for it with her dialogue delivery. It helps that she gets some of the best lines, beside Martin Short, of course. I had mentioned in an earlier episode in which she takes off to Coney Island with James Caverly’s Theo Dimas, how difficult it would be for someone who doesn’t do too well at lip reading to decipher anything she says because she barely opens her mouth while speaking.

I wasn’t quite enthused about the Season 3 renewal news, but the casting of the murder victim has made sure I’ll be streaming it the minute it drops. Here’s hoping that Steve Martin and fellow show writer John Hoffman don’t just rely on the appeal of this name and step it up as far as the writing goes. Also, as much as we love Mabel, can we get rid of Alice (Cara Delevingne) already?