It’s hard to believe that we’ve already reached the penultimate episode of Season 4 of Only Murders in the Building. When we last saw our podcasting trio, it seemed like they got a major lead in the case. Did stuntman Glenn Stubbins kill Sazz Patacki? We find out by the end of this week’s episode.
(Disney/Patrick Harbron)
Episode 9: “Escape From Planet Klongo” – Written by Ben Smith & Alex Bigelow
This episode has less of a narration as it does a flashback, one that appears in bits and pieces throughout the episode. But for the sake of clarity, I present most of it at once, with the missing piece revealed at the end of the recap.
(Disney/Patrick Harbron)
Flashback: 2 Years Ago
Sazz Pataki (Jane Lynch) wrapped a job on one project and walked to her car when she got a call with a new offer. She was asked to put together a stunt team for a film known as Project Ronkonkoma. She entered her convertible and backed up, accidentally hitting a pedestrian, who jumped and did a perfect stunt roll into her backseat with their papers flying out. Sazz instantly recognized their hidden talent, and that mystery person became her protégé. We saw them on set, the protégé’s face covered by a protective mask. Sazz taught them how to protect their body from flames for a fire stunt. She reviewed the procedure for after the director calls cut, which included dropping to the ground, letting the team hose them down, and then waiting 30 seconds in case they sparked up again. The shoot went smoothly, with Sazz excited at the camera monitors. She didn’t see that her protégé didn’t wait 30 seconds. They approached the film’s director. We heard them yell, “Gee whiz!” off camera. Sazz rushed over to help.
Charles-Haden Savage (Steve Martin), Oliver Putnam (Martin Short), and Mabel Mora (Selena Gomez) visit the hospital where stuntman Glenn Stubbins is on life support. His Irish Nurse (Erika Vetter) denies them entry, so they go to the waiting room to strategize. Oliver had brought a case of beer with them, hoping that could draw Glenn out of his coma, and he gives the case to Mabel, revealing that Sazz gave it to him the night she died. Thankfully, a familiar face enters to answer some questions – the bartender from Concussions (Michael McFadden). They ask him about Project Ronkonkoma, and he heard that Glen Stubbins was brought onto the film to replace Sazz’s protégé when she had to fire them. They realize Glenn was a victim after all. The bartender doesn’t know anything else, and thinks the only people who knew the full story were Sazz, Glenn, and the film’s director – Ron Howard. “Finally, a celebrity this season!” Oliver exclaims.
(Disney/Patrick Harbron)
In Charles’ apartment, Mabel pins “Sazz’s protégé” onto the suspect board. Oliver claims to be close friends with Ron Howard, being on a nickname basis with him (“Ron Ron”) and bragging that their headshots are near each other at his favorite Chinese restaurant. He doesn’t have his number, but Oliver says if they hang at the restaurant long enough, he’s sure to show up. Mabel and Charles aren’t convinced. Charles tells Oliver that he wants to take him out to celebrate his upcoming wedding. Oliver interprets this as an offer to plan a bachelor party for him. He says his party must have three things – Whisky, A-list Celebrities, and a naughty secret, giving Charles the acronym WANS to remember it all.
Mabel goes up to the penthouse apartment to see movie producer Bev Melon (Molly Shannon). Bev is frustrated with all aspects of production on the film, but particularly the screenwriter’s rewrites. She barely recognizes the script she initially greenlit. Mabel asks if Bev can get her in contact with Ron Howard. It just so happens that Ron is in New York filming a movie, and Bev offers the address in exchange for Mabel agreeing to help punch up her dialogue in the latest version of the screenplay.
Mabel is accompanied by Oliver and Charles as they go to the set of Ron Howard’s new film. A Security Guard (Skyler James Bailey) stops them from entering, but when an Extras Coordinator (Adam Enright) mistakes them for three background actors, they jump at the chance to get onto the set. Charles and Oliver are put into spandex motion capture suits, while Mabel goes into hair and makeup. But she has to abandon the job when she gets a call from the nurse.
Glenn Stubbins (Paul Rudd) has finally awoken, and when the nurse tells him that the podcast trio came by, he says he needs to speak to them right away. But while he waits, he gets a surprise visitor. “Oh, it’s you!” he says. We see arms reach out with black sleeves and black gloves. They take a pillow and cover Glen’s face with it.
(Disney/Patrick Harbron)
Mabel arrives at the hospital to find the nurse removing Glenn’s name from his door. Mabel asks what happened, and the nurse says after calling his emergency contact and Mabel, she went to do her rounds, and when she came back, Glen was dead. Mabel asks who Glenn’s emergency contact was. “Sazz Pataki,” the nurse explains. Mabel realizes the nurse called the killer directly. (In the background, there’s a news report about a missing person, the dry-cleaning king of Brooklyn).
(Disney/Patrick Harbron)
Charles and Oliver are filming a scene as Klongo’s on an alien planet. It’s dark, and they can’t see Ron Howard behind the monitors. Since it’s motion capture, all he sees on his screen are aliens. Charles and Oliver get kicked off set when they start to fight about the bachelor party. The coordinator is instructed to take pictures of them for Ron Howard’s banned list of people from his sets. In their dressing room, Charles tells Oliver that he’s his emergency contact. He understands that Loretta will be Oliver’s from now on, and he’s happy for him, but he once thought they’d be there for each other until the end. Oliver says they will be, offering to keep Charles as his contact for Life Alert. “I never wanted really to throw you a bachelor party. I just wanted to celebrate our friendship,” Charles confesses. “I’m hungry if you want to grab a bite to eat,” Oliver suggests.
(Disney/Patrick Harbron)
Mabel returns to her apartment in the West Tower to find Marshall (Jin Ha) waiting outside her door with his laptop. Mabel is frustrated in the wake of Glenn’s death, blaming herself for not solving this case fast enough. Marshall sits on Mabel’s bed with his laptop, running lines by her and asking for her advice on how to make them sound more like her. Mabel offers Marshall a beer, goes to her fridge, and opens the case that Oliver gave her… a case that previously belonged to Sazz… There’s something wedged between the two layers of cans…
(Disney/Patrick Harbron)
At Oliver’s favorite Chinese restaurant, the Red Dragon Palace, Charles tries to give Oliver the WANS he wanted, ordering whisky and getting up to rearrange the restaurant’s celebrity photos, placing Oliver’s next to Ron Howard’s and calling it their naughty secret. Oliver jokes that all that’s missing is the A-list celebrity when the door opens behind them and in walks… Ron Howard (himself)! He recognizes Oliver, calls him “Ollie,” and joins their table for lunch. They ask him about Project Ronkonkoma. “We never even finished it,” Ron tells them. He says the stunt performer, a man named Rex Bailey, didn’t wait the 30 seconds after being extinguished. They rushed to him with a script they wanted him to read, and they reignited. Ron was so close to the blaze that his eyebrows were singed off. Ron pulls out his phone because he has a photo of Rex since they’re on his ban list. He shows the picture to Charles and Oliver. “That kinda looks like…” Charles says. “But imagine with a beard,” Oliver adds. “And add some glasses,” Charles completeness their thoughts. “And a dark bowl cut,” Oliver finishes. We see Rex’s photo – an Asian man with long hair dyed blonde.
(Disney/Patrick Harbron)
Flashback: 2 Years Ago
We see some missing parts of Sazz’s flashback. The person she hit, Marshall, was walking with a script. Those are the pages that went flying. When Sazz offers him a job on her stunt team, he’s excited to get on set to pursue his real dream: screenwriting. When Ron Howard called cut, and Marshall was extinguished, he didn’t wait the 30 seconds. He grabbed his script and rushed it to the director, asking him to read it. Then he got banned and blacklisted.
We see Glenn’s death from a wider angle. It appears that Marshall held the pillow over Glenn’s face.
(Disney/Patrick Harbron)
Mabel pulls the thing out from between the cans of beer – a script for a movie based on Only Murders in the Building – but it isn’t Marshall’s. This one says ‘Written by Sazz Pataki.” Mabel turns to the screenwriter sitting on her bed. “Why does this script say it was written by Sazz Pataki?” Just then, Mabel’s phone, which is sitting on the bed next to Marshall, buzzes with a text message. He sees the message from Charles: “SAZZ’S PROTÉGÉ IS MARSHALL P. POPE!”
Season 4 of Only Murders in the Building concludes next Tuesday, October 29th, with the tenth episode of Season 4, titled “My Best Friend's Wedding.”
The final answers to our season are revealed – but not before the trio faces mortal danger and an Arconia wedding.