TV Recap: “Only Murders in the Building” Season 2, Episodes 1 & 2 – “Person of Interest” and “Framed”

Are you ready to return to The Arconia? Season 2 of Only Murders in the Building kicked off today on Hulu and, after last season’s shocking finale, you won’t want to miss what happens next. It’s another puzzle to solve and with our detailed episode recaps, hopefully, we’ll be able to solve the mystery of Bunny Folger’s murder together. This recap is a twofer, recounting the first two episodes – “Person of Interest” and “Framed.”

Persons of Interest

Narrated by Charles-Haden Savage (Steve Martin), we find him in the middle of a fantasy sequence, delivering a soliloquy about the two ways to make a name for yourself in New York City – become famous for doing good or become infamous for something terrible. His fantasy crashes down into an interrogation room across from Detective Williams (Da'Vine Joy Randolph) and Detective Kreps (Michael Rapaport). The scene is intercut between their interviews with Oliver Putnam (Martin Short) and Mabel Mora (Selena Gomez), all of whom are “persons of interest” in the death of Bunny Folger (Jayne Houdyshell). Kreps plays Mabel an audio excerpt from the first episode of the “Only Murders in the Building” podcast in which she describes a recurring nightmare about stabbing an intruder with a knitting needle, similar to the way Bunny had been bludgeoned in Mabel’s apartment. However, during the scene, the detectives reveal that Bunny’s actual cause of death was from knife wounds – a murder weapon they have yet to find. They are free to go, but Detective Williams warns them on their way out not to interfere with the investigation and not to make a podcast about it. In private, Charles asks her if she is the one who warned them to get out of the building in the previous season finale, an act she denies having any part of. Outside, Oliver is the only one excited by the presence of reporters, basking in their attention.

Returning to The Arconia, Oliver notices Lester (Teddy Coluca) wheeling a luggage cart full of musical superstar Sting’s boxes out of the building as they get in the elevator. The ride is awkward, with Oliver trying to recall how the three of them all met in the elevator last season by telling Mabel that he likes her Beats, which she isn’t wearing. Oliver is ready to start a new season of the podcast, but Mabel doesn’t want to participate, reminding them that Detective Williams asked them not to and saying she’d like to just have a boring life for a while. “I’d rather be dead than boring,” Oliver says, before bringing up the knife wounds they learned about during their interrogation.

We see Mabel return to her aunt’s apartment alone, peeling the police tape off the door and walking inside. Her attention is drawn to the blood-stained wood flooring and she has a flashback of finding Bunny stammering around her apartment moments before falling down and dying on her floor. Mabel grabs a bucket and a scrub brush and begins the arduous process of trying to remove the stain. The next day, we see her relaxing on her couch and checking out Instagram, where a post of the mural of Arconia residents she painted in her Aunt’s apartment has gone viral in the wake of the headlines, with commenters referring to her as “Bloody Mabel.” She gets a video message from an artist named Alice Banks (Cara Delevingne) inviting her to the opening of her art gallery. As Mabel contemplates going, she lifts up her long hair and considers a change.

Oliver gets in the elevator and recognizes the woman standing in it, comedian Amy Schumer (playing herself), who recognizes him and confesses to being a fan of the podcast. She is the new occupant in Sting’s former apartment and she’s even a fan of Oliver’s dog Winnie, bending over to ask if we ever found out who poisoned her (presumably Jan, but she’s right, that was never made clear!). She asks Oliver about a possible second season and he says, “People keep dying so I suppose there’s always a chance.” Amy brings up her interest in buying the rights to make a streaming series, inviting him over to figure things out.

In Charle’s apartment, we see him start to clear off the crime board they used to solve Tim Kono’s death. When he gets to Bunny’s photo, he makes the decision to leave it on. He takes a call from his agent and is shocked to learn that there’s going to be a “Brazzos” reboot. Later, we see him in an office meeting with the producer (Ava Eisenson) and director (Ade Oiukoya) of the reboot, who reveal that the part of Brazzos will be played by an actress named Naomi Jackson. Not only is Charles not reprising the role he originated, instead playing “Uncle Brazzos,” but they thought he was dead until he made headlines as a person of interest in a murder investigation. The role is his, they confirm, so long as he stays out of jail…

That night, Mabel goes to the art gallery with a new hairdo and finds that everyone is staring at her, slyly taking pictures on their phones. Alice finds her and shoos people away, escorting Mabel to a three-dimensional portrait of Frida Kahlo. Mabel reminisces about receiving a puzzle of Frida Kahlo for her fourth birthday that was too complicated for her age, but she didn’t give up and finished it on her 5th birthday. Alice invites Mabel to join her art collective, likening her artistic talent and the way she holds the public’s attention to the famous Mexican artist’s impact. Mabel asks for confirmation that it’s not a cult, seemingly joking, but never getting an answer.

The next morning, Charles wakes to an alert on his phone – a new podcast from Cinda Canning just launched titled “Only Murderers in the Building. As we hear the podcaster’s narration, Charles rolls over and fantasizes that she’s in the room talking to him (played by Tina Fey). The same happens to both Oliver and Mabel. Soon, Charles and Oliver are at Mabel’s door to talk about it and how Cinda stole their live investigation format. This has convinced Mabel that they would be better off telling their own story than letting Cinda continue to implicate them in Bunny’s death. Season 2 of the podcast is officially a go. Mabel also drops a bomb in the form of a memory of Bunny mumbling “Fourteen” as she stumbled to her death. Their conversation is interrupted when they hear Bunny’s voice coming from the air vent in Mabel’s bathroom that leads to her apartment. They decide to crawl through the vent, sneaking into Bunny’s apartment to find that the voice is coming from her pet bird, Mrs. Gambolini. Oliver remembers that he wrote Bunny a nasty note before she died, one that would look bad in light of her murder, and asks for help finding it. But as the trio searches the apartment, they hear a key in the door and rush into the bedroom closet to hide.

Uma Heller (Jackie Hoffman) and Howard Morris (Michael Cyril Creighton) enter Bunny’s apartment, having come to remove a painting from Bunny’s “erotic art collection” that’s worth a lot of money and needs to be appraised. Heading into the bedroom, Uma screams because it’s gone! The wall is empty where the painting was, but Uma was in the room the day Bunny died and knows the painting was on the wall then. They leave in shock and as Mabel, Charles and Oliver prepare to exit the closet, Mabel notices a cold draft and investigates. There’s an elevator in Bunny’s closet! “Bunny had a secret elevator?”, Oliver asks. “Where’s it go, hell?” They each grab a fur coat and get in to find out where the elevator leads, exiting out of a door on the backside of the building by the garbage bins. The door locks from the outside when it closes, seemingly with no way to get back inside.

Later, we find Oliver in his apartment going through a stack of mail he took from Bunny’s apartment. He finds the note he wrote to her (it reads “Dearest Bunny, You’re dead to me! Much love, Oliver”), but underneath that he finds a card that says “Bunny Folger, I want that painting.” Meanwhile, Mabel stares at what’s left of the bloodstain, having another memory of Bunny’s final moments. On the floor dying, she gasped the word “Savage.” Charles arrives back at his apartment with two bags of groceries and sees something so shocking that he drops them both. He texts Mabel and Charles to come over. Hanging on his living room wall is Bunny’s erotic painting depicting a naked woman seated in a chair, a naked man sitting at her feet. Mabel is the first to point out that the man looks like Charles, asking if it is him. “No,” he responds, “it’s my father.” As the episode ends, “Papa Loves Mambo” by Perry Como begins to play.

Framed

The narration for this episode comes from Leonora Folger, who reveals that Bunny Folger’s story is intrinsically linked to that of The Arconia. The building was built in 1908 by architect and playboy Archibald Carter, identical to three other buildings he designed in three other cities. Each of his buildings had secrets that only he knew and we see that in The Arconia, it was a secret elevator that allowed him to peep into the closets of the residents. One particular woman caught his eye, whom he married and started a family with, raising them in the building. Leonora was his daughter, who married Mr. Folger and had a daughter named Bunny. In the 1950s, New York’s Upper West Side was a thriving community of artists and aspiring actors. Entering the scene is a young Charles-Haden Savage (Matthew Lamb) with his father (Ben Livingston), whom he’s accompanying to an audition for a play in an apartment building across from The Arconia. Pointing at the building, Charles’ father promises him that when he makes it big one day, they will move into The Arconia.

In the present, Charles stares at the painting of his naked father posing with another woman with Oliver and Mabel behind him. The painting was done by an artist named Rose Cooper and Charles shares that he is questioning if his father simply posed for the painting or if he was sleeping with the artist. It causes him to question his father’s secrets and as he ponders, he hones in on what could be a shadow, but could also be “balls.” Oliver decides that they need to get the painting out of Charles’ apartment immediately and Mabel helps him take it down. She notices that the back of the painting has the word “Savage” on it, telling Charles and Oliver about the other word she remembers Bunny saying in her final moments. A knock at the door sends Mabel and Oliver into hiding with the painting so Charles can answer. It’s Howard Morris, coming to say that he enjoyed the podcast and speculating that whoever has the missing painting must be Bunny’s killer. Charles says that’s no longer their theory, with Oliver and Mabel rushing to the door to support that theory. They notice that Howard has a black eye, which he says he got after running into a hutch while playing with his new kitty (Sevelyn, replacing the deceased cat Evelyn). Howard tells the trio about a memorial that’s being held at Bunny’s apartment and invites them to stop by. Charles says they won’t because that’s what a guilty person would do, but Howard makes the point that if they go, they may find Bunny’s killer there. After kicking Howard out, Mabel suggests that they use the gathering to sneak the painting back into Bunny’s apartment through the secret elevator.

The reception towards Charles, Oliver, and Mabel at Bunny’s reception is cold, particularly from Uma, who keeps complaining about Mrs. Gambolini, who keeps spitting out strings of Bunny’s meanest catchphrases. Security guard Ursula (Vanessa Aspillaga) is at the gathering, who informs Oliver that Cinda Canning came by asking for information on them and that she agreed to purchase ten cases of Gut Milk. A woman stands up and introduces herself as Nina Lin (Christine Ko), the new Board President of The Arconia in the wake of Bunny’s death. Howard spills to Mabel and Charles that the seemingly pleasant pregnant woman is anything but, describing her as worse than Bunny. The missing painting is brought up and the party is interrupted by the arrival of another guest, who says “Are you talking about my painting?” It’s Leonora Folger (Shirley MacLaine), Bunny’s mother, who takes a seat and asks Mabel for help finding the bill of sale for the painting in her purse since her vision is bad (but her peripheral is great). When Uma mentions that Mabel, Charles, and Oliver are the prime suspects in Bunny’s murder, Leonora gets up and moves close to them, smelling them. “None of them did it,” she tells Uma knowingly but adds that they know something. Sitting back down, she asks for a cocotini and Howard goes to the kitchen, returning with a martini glass full of chocolate syrup and booze, the cranky mother of the deceased correcting him that the coco in the name is for coconut, not chocolate. While Charles talks with Leonora, Oliver and Mabel sneak away to move the painting.

Oliver and Mabel use a squeaky luggage cart to move the large painting out of Charle’s apartment, wrapping it in a blanket, but their plans to move about unseen are spoiled when Lester exits the elevator with the nicer luggage cart and offers to help them. Oliver is extraordinarily rude in order to get rid of him. One the elevator ride down, Mabel gets a text from Mabel and Oliver notices she’s smiling. He asks if it’s Oscar and Mabel tells him that she’s actually expecting a text from her old friend turned love interest any day now declaring them as just friends.

The memorial is mostly empty as Charles asks Leonora about the painting. She is distracted, however, because she recognizes his voice. He tells her about his work on “Brazzos” and she tells him that the show is always on at her assisted living community, sharing her negative opinions of the series. Finally, Charles gets the text from Oliver and Mabel, his indication to sneak into Bunny’s closet and take the elevator down so they can open the door and bring the painting back up.

Outside, Oliver and Mabel see Ursula at the dumpster and move around the corner so as not to be seen. When Charles opens the door to the elevator, he doesn’t see Mabel or Oliver, so he steps away from the door to look for them. It automatically closes behind him, locking from the outside again. Mabel suggests that Charles simply return to the memorial, but he tells them everyone has now left and it’s too late. Oliver drags the painting to the dumpster, wanting to throw it away. Charles and Mabel argue about the value of it, but when two moving men approach, they shove it between two dumpsters and walk away with a plan to retrieve it later.

Charles goes back to his apartment and adds to the new suspect board. Under people with a motive to kill Bunny, he lists Uma Heller, Teddy Dimas, Theo Dimas, and Jan. The suspect list is blank and he adds himself. As he does so, he looks at the watch he’s wearing, a gift from his father, and the only thing he’s wearing in the nude portrait. Later, we see Charles return to the garbage cans to grab the painting, but it’s gone. When he gets back to his door, Leonora is knocking on it. She wants to know why he’s so curious about her painting (and also suspects he’s the type of man who has coconut liquor).

Mabel returns to Alice’s studio, which looks a lot different without an art gallery inside it. Mabel asks Alice if she knows anything about Rose Cooper and she recalls that she died mysteriously. Alice then tells Mabel that she was feeling creatively blocked before they met, showing her a large carved piece that is her interpretation of Mabel. She hands Mabel an ax and says “I want you to destroy it,” setting up cameras on tripods around her to record the moment and telling Mabel that watching it will be therapeutic for her. After putting safety goggles on Mabel and telling her to think about all of the weight she’s carried and how misunderstood she’s felt, we see Mabel begin to hack away at the sculpture, seeing flashes of the darkness in her past. When she finishes, Mabel tells Alice that she feels better. Mabel is compelled to move closer, leaning in and kissing Alice on the lips. They begin to make out.

Oliver has gone to the penthouse to visit Amy Schumer in Sting’s old apartment, pitching her a series adaptation of the podcast in which she plays Mabel, Timothy Clahamet plays him, and nobody plays Charles because he’s cut him completely out of the story. Amy Schumer, however, had a different take – The story would be told from Jan’s perspective and she would play Jan. She produces a bassoon and reveals that she’s been practicing, playing an off-key pitch as proof. Their conversation is interrupted when Oliver notices a painting on the wall of a naked woman and a white-haired naked man sitting on the floor at her feet. Amy says she found it by the dumpsters and says the man reminded her of Brazzos, saying that the painting has inspired a sex scene in her treatment of the show between Jan and Charles. Oliver tries to take the painting, saying it has “bad energy,” and Amy tells him to “Never touch my dumpster art.” As their meeting ends, Amy tells Oliver that she can’t make a deal until their names are cleared.

Leonora tells Charles that Rose Cooper was an artist who lived in the building across from The Arconia and that she was desperate to get away from a man. Leonora bought the erotic painting that is now missing to help fund the artist’s escape, but she soon went missing and was declared dead. Nobody knows how she died, but the mystery surrounding her disappearance caused her artwork to skyrocket in value. As Charles learns this information about Rose Cooper, he has another memory of his childhood. His father put him on a bench outside the building across the street, nodding at the doorman, Joe, as he enters the building alone. Charles calls his dad back because he forgot the script for his alleged audition. He grabs it and heads inside as we see the doorman shake his head as if knowing that Charles’ father isn’t auditioning for a play.

Mabel knocks on Charles’ door and starts talking about what she learned about Rose Cooper from Alice, which perks up Leonora’s ears. She gets up as Oliver rushes into the doorframe too, announcing that Amy Schumer has the painting. Leonora leads them all up to the penthouse level and the comedian is flirtatious around Charles, telling him that she had a shirtless poster of him over her bed when she was younger. Leonora examines the painting and reveals that it’s a forgery. The real one was painted on a torn canvas that had been glued back together, but this canvas isn’t torn. Oliver hangs back as the others leave, relieved to see that Amy Schumer is no longer interested in the fake portrait. She tells him that her infatuation with Charles was actually just her preparing to play Jan, a character obsessed with him.

Mabel joins Oliver in his apartment to discuss what just happened, speculating whether Bunny had a replica made of the painting or if the killer produced it to frame them. Uma knocks on the door to reveal that Bunny left something for Oliver in her will… Mrs. Gambolini! The bird’s life expectancy is 80 years. After they leave, Mabel says “Even in death, Bunny finds a way to give you the bird.” Oliver regrets not having been recording their conversation for the podcast because that was a perfect line, but Mabel holds up a recorder to show that she was already doing it, fearing that she’s turning into him.

Charles pensively looks at the building across from The Arconia from the sidewalk. In another flashback, we see that it’s nighttime and he’s still waiting for his dad to come out. The scene is illuminated by flashes of red and blue from police cars parked outside. Officers exit the building with Charles’ dad in handcuffs, his white shirt containing red splotches as he is loaded into the back of a police car. The memory is interrupted when Leonora exits The Arconio to get in a car to return to her assisted living community. Charles asks her if it’s his father in the painting and she confirms that it was, adding that both she and Rose Cooper were having an affair with him. She asks Charles what came of his father. “Drinking, jail, and he died while I was young,” he tells her. He asks what she thinks will happen to the real painting. “I have a feeling that it’ll be looking for me,” she says as the car drives away.

“It’s strange returning to a place where you have so much history,” Leonora’s concluding narration says. “What once was a place of joy is now haunted. Or maybe it was always haunted. You just can’t see the ghosts unless you’re close to becoming one yourself.” In Oliver’s apartment, Charles tells Mabel about his father’s affairs, speculating that Bunny may have been his half-sister. Mrs. Gambolini squawks loudly, commanding all of their attention. “I know who did it,” the bird taunts as “Yellow Bird” by The Mills Brothers begins to play.

Who has the real painting? What was Bunny trying to reveal when she said the words “Fourteen” and “Savage”? And who killed her? Only Murders in the Building will return on Tuesday, July 5th with the 3rd episode of Season 2, titled “The Last Day of Bunny Folger.” Here’s a description of the next episode:

A foul-mouthed parrot becomes a critical window into Bunny Folger’s last day on Earth. Some of the individuals with whom Bunny crossed paths will surprise both you and our trio… Along the way, a reveal deepens our trio's need to solve Bunny's case.