Sazz Pataki is dead, and this murder feels especially personal for Charles-Haden Savage. In the second episode of Season 4, we learn more about just how close the actor/stuntperson duo was as we find Charles grappling with the reality of having lost Sazz. Meanwhile, Mabel and Oliver get to work trying to find out what Sazz was up to when she died, and why so many of the clues lead them to The Arconia’s West Tower. It’s time to meet “The Westies.”
(Disney/Patrick Harbron)
Episode 2: “Gates of Heaven” – Written by Kristin Newman
Sazz Pataki (Jane Lynch) narrates the opening and closing of this episode via an archival interview from a Brazzos documentary. Sazz explains that the job of a stunt person is to tap in for an actor. She shares how she learned how to be a stunt performer from her father, Slim Pataki, who showed her how to bounce back from falls and not become dust…
…In the present, Sazz has been incinerated, and her best friend Charles-Haden Savage (Steve Martin) sits in his living room looking at his hands, which are covered in her. Mabel Mora (Selena Gomez) and Oliver Putnam (Martin Short) try to be sensitive and supportive as Charles processes what to do. He doesn’t want to wash his friend down to the drain or onto a wipe, so they bring him a bowl and a large mason jar. Oliver goes to his bathroom to rines his hands into a bowl, transferring the cloudy water into a jar so the water can eventually evaporate, leaving just Sazz’s ashes.
Mabel and Oliver inspect the bullet hole in Charles’ kitchen window, looking across the plaza at the West Tower to try and determine which apartment it came from. Mabel wishes they knew exactly how the body was found so they could better understand the direction of the bullet. Charles orders some luminol from Postmates, which should reveal the position of Sazz’s body.
Oliver mentions that it seems the killer was trying to murder Charles, but Charles points out Sazz’s notes they found in her apartment. They spread them out: “West Tower Arconia,” “Long Game,” “Sick Pup,” “Dudenoff,” “Looking at Charles,” “773440.” None of it makes any sense. And worse, Charles keeps hallucinating that Sazz is there with them, alarming Oliver and Mabel when he talks back to one of the figment’s suggestions. Charles decides to try calling 9-1-1, placed on hold with 68 calls ahead of them.
Looking across the way, Oliver and Mabel ask Charles what he knows about the residents of the West Tower. “The Westies,” he calls them before pointing a few windows out: A surly-looking man whom Charles has dubbed “Stink-Eye Joe” (Richard Kind), “The Sauce Family” (Desmin Borges, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Lilian Rebelo) who are constantly at their kitchen window stirring pots, and “Christmas All the Time Guy” (Kumail Nanjiani), who lives every day like it’s December 25th. There’s one window across the way whose blinds are always closed. Infrequently, Charles sees a light on inside, but he knows nothing about who lived there.
Oliver and Mabel decide to go to the West Tower to see what they can find out. The two towers were sealed off years ago, so they have to exit the East Tower to get there outside. Since it appears that someone was trying to murder Charles, they make him stay behind. On their way, Oliver and Mabel notice a flier for an Arconia residents meeting to prevent Hollywood from overrunning their building for the film.
Charles watches an old interview Sazz gave for a Brazzos documentary, telling the imaginary version of his friend how, despite all of her film and TV work, this is the only time her face was made visible to the masses. She tells him not to feel bad if it turns out he’s the reason she was killed. “That’s the gig, I take hits for my guy,” she says. Charles starts to create a murder board when he hears a noise from the closet. He opens it to find his ex-girlfriend Jan Bellows (Amy Ryan) wearing a prison guard uniform covered in blood.
(Disney/Patrick Harbron)
The first Westie that Mabel and Oliver meet is “Stink-Eye Joe,” whose real name is Vince Fish. They tell him they’re scouting locations to film their apartments from for the movie, and he invites them in. He listens to Only Murders in the Building, and seems somewhat starstruck by them. He wears an eye patch, saying it’s an antibiotic-resistant strand of pink eye that bounces between his eyes. As Mabel and Oliver look out of Vince’s windows, he points out that the panes have been painted shut. He says it’s that way for the entire West Tower. Vince tells them he’s about to play a card game with the neighbors, inviting them to join. On the way, they pass the shuttered apartment’s door and notice a keypad for the lock.
Mabel and Oliver arrive at the apartment of “The Sauce Family,” aka Inez, Alphonso, and Ana. They learn that Charles-Haden Savage is Inez’s “hall pass,” a concept that drives Alphonso crazy, and their daughter Ana is annoyed that her mother dresses up for him when they cook together. The card game they play is called “Oh Hell,” and as they play, winners get a trip to the bathroom with a long knife. When Oliver and Mabel ask what’s in the bathroom, Vince says, “Sorry, Westie secret.” But before long, Oliver achieves and gets his own trip to the bathroom, learning that a smoked ham imported from Portugal hangs in the shower. Mabel asks the family about the apartment with the lockbox. Ana says it’s the Dudenoff place, which prompts Inez to kick her under the table. Inez, Ana, and Vince all talk over each other with seemingly made-up excuses for why Dudenoff is unreachable.
(Disney/Patrick Harbron)
Jan tells Charles that she escaped prison to check on her girlfriend. Sazz called her last week and vented that she was worried about Charles, speculating that there was another murderer in The Arconia whom she was looking into. Jan thanks Charles for teaching her about the building’s secret passages in the second season of the podcast. Charles breaks the news to Jan that Sazz was murdered. Jan tells him that Sazz was the only reason she hadn’t killed him yet. When Charles and Mabel bang on Charles’ door, Jan takes her leave, back through the crawlspace in Charles’ closet.
Oliver and Mabel fill Charles in about the Dudenoff connection in the West Tower, seeing the murder board he was creating and looking at the note. Seeing the sticky note with a code, Mabel takes a picture, assuming it could be to the lockbox on the mystery apartment. Charles tells them that Jan was there, but they don’t believe him, rushing back to the West Tower with the code.
7-7-3-4-4-0… click! Oliver and Mabel enter the shuttered apartment, the walls grimy. A bed sits in the middle of the living room, the only other furniture being a few kitchen appliances, a piano, and a ham radio. Oliver lifts the blinds and immediately notices that the paint has been chipped. There’s a footprint on top of the radiator. He opens the window with no problem. “This must be the sniper’s nest,” Oliver declares. Oliver finds a strand of silver foil. “Tinsel?” he asks. Mabel pokes her head into the bathroom, finds a baby piglet, and picks it up. Someone begins to bang on the door, and it startles them both. Oliver accidentally falls onto the piano, making a loud noise that sends the person running away. Charles and Mabel open the door and look into the hallway, hearing another door slam but unable to see who was trying to get in. And the piglet runs away, too. Mabel suggests they try to gather a few things before leaving.
(Disney/Patrick Harbron)
Charles gets an alert that the luminol has arrived. He puts on a disguise to go to the lobby to retrieve his package, but before he is able to take a step, the NYPD bursts into his apartment. Detective Williams (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) rushed over because Jan broke out of prison and left some notes suggesting she would target Charles. Oliver and Mabel rush in, and he tells them she really was there. Detective Williams is mad he didn’t call her right away. “What are you not telling me?” she asks, sensing something is going on. Just then, 9-1-1 finally answers Charles’ call. “I’d like to report a murder,” he says into his phone.
While the police search the basement incinerator, Mabel and Oliver want to spray the luminol. Charles tells them he needs a minute, going to his bedroom to talk to imaginary Sazz. He reminisces about how, during the first season of Brazzos, she introduced him to several members of the crew and set up weekly poker games, giving him friends. “You took care of me in every way a person could take care of someone,” Charles tells Sazz. “You’re my oldest, best friend. What do I do without you?”
With the luminol sprayed, Mabel and Oliver can see exactly how Sazz’s body fell to the floor. And as Charles returns to the kitchen, they notice that she tried to write something in blood – “Tap In.” The trio go to the windows and look out at the Westies. Oliver goes to the murder board and the sticky note with the numbers “773440″ fall to the floor. He sees them upside-down for the first time. “Oh Hell,” he says. “They’re not numbers, they’re letters.” Looking back out at the Westies, Charles asks, “Did one of them kill Sazz?” Mabel tells him they’re going to find out.
Only Murders in the Building returns next Tuesday, September 10th, with the third episode of Season 4, titled “Two for the Road.”
Charles, Oliver & Mabel begrudgingly pair off with new investigating… actors Eugene Levy, Zach Galifianakis & Eva Longoria.