TV Recap: “Only Murders in the Building” Season 2, Episode 9 – “Sparring Partners”

It’s the penultimate episode of Season 2 of Only Murders in the Building, titled “Sparring Partners.” Do we find out who killed Bunny Folger? Maybe, maybe not. But by the end of this detailed episode recap, I’m sure you’ll have some strong suspicions about who did it and why. Grab a bottle of Gut Milk and dive into this juicy episode.

This episode’s narration comes to us courtesy of Detective Kreps (Michael Rapaport), who we see boxing as he talks about how little money he makes as a New York City detective. He talks about how that forces him to have to take other jobs, such as working security at Coney Island or even helping small-town police departments with their criminal investigations. We see him in an evidence closet, and then sitting at a bar, looking past the camera as he mentions how meeting someone can cause your life to get really crazy.

Cut to a photo of Detective Kreps, which Charles-Haden Savage (Steve Martin) has just pinned to the suspect board in his apartment. Mabel Mora (Selena Gomez) is thinking out loud, suggesting that Kreps isn’t smart enough to do this alone and adding that he wouldn’t be interested in the Rose Cooper painting. Charles suggests that there’s a “Criminal Mastermind,” adding that note to the board and leaving a note for himself that it’s a good name for a TV show. Mabel holds up the backpack she took from the person at Coney Island and says she feels like she’s seen the chicken logo on it before, but she can’t place where. Oliver Putnam (Martin Short) burst into the apartment in his pajamas looking underslept, announcing that he got the DNA results back and he is Will’s biological father. Charles asks if this means he’s not Irish and he refers to himself as “Greek-ish,” saying that all the European countries are essentially the same genetically. He then steps into the hall to wheel in Mrs. Gambolini’s giant birdcage, telling Charles that she squawks so much that he can’t sleep, so he’s giving the bird to Charles. Neither of them wants the bird, and they start to push the cage back and forth. That’s when a compartment on the cage’s wheeled base pops open. Charles bends over and pulls something long and flat out. Removing the tarp over it, he uncovers the real Rose Cooper painting. They realize that Bunny is the one who made a forgery of it, concealing the original.

Mabel returns to her apartment and is surprised to see Alice (Cara Delevingne) waiting outside her door. She has a bag, which she says is a gift, and she also asks if she can use the restroom. Mabel opens the gift and finds large puzzle pieces. “I should thank you for making me realize that I don’t want my life to be all about the worst parts of it,” Mabel tells Alice, before saying she can’t trust her anymore and they can’t be together. Alice tells Mabel she can contact her anytime if she needs anything. She leaves.

Charles sits at his computer and calls Empire Assisted Living to share the news about the painting with Bunny’s mother, Leonora Folger (Shirley MacLaine). However, he is informed by the receptionist that Leonora is non-verbal and has been for some time. Charles is confused, but he then finds a photo on the company’s website from Leonora’s 92nd birthday. It’s a different woman than the one who was at Bunny’s memorial. “Oh, Charles, you’ve been had,” he realizes out loud.

Will Putnam (Ryan Broussard) visits Oliver and shares his stress over directing The Wizard of Oz, telling his dad that rehearsals have fallen apart again. Oliver tells his son that theater runs in his blood, sharing that he is Greek, too. Will is relieved to hear that and confesses that he didn’t realize how big of a toll it was on him until this moment. “You’re a Putnam,” Oliver proudly tells his son, who now feels he has what he needs to direct the school play.

Alone in her apartment, Mabel looks through Kreps’ Coney Island employee file, finding his address (295 Foxhurst Ave. Bronx, NY) and looking it up online. It matches a business called “Excessive Force Boxing Gym.” Mabel says to herself, “Looks like we’re in for a fight.” She feels inspired and pulls out her phone, saying it again and recording it the way Oliver does with the podcast and the way Charles did earlier with an allegedly good title for a TV show. “Jesus, I need a life,” she exclaims.

Charles stands in his apartment staring at the painting of his father and Rose Cooper, realizing that he’s wearing the same watch his father has on in the portrait. Getting inspired, Charles grabs a tool and pops open the back of the watch, finding an address etched in it (25 Willow Dr. Lake Placid, NY). He goes to his computer and looks it up, finding a phone number attached to it. He calls and the woman who answers sounds just like the Leonora Folger from Bunny’s memorial.

Mabel enters Excessive Force Boxing Gym and soon sees Kreps in the ring with a customer. “Well, if it isn’t Bloody Mabel,” he chides. “Where’s the dusty grandpappys?” Mabel responds with some smooth boxing movie puns that make a few of the customers laugh. “How’s your arm,” she asks, “the one I stabbed after you attacked me.” Kreps steps out of the ring and tells Mabel that if she wants to talk, she needs to put some gloves on.

The woman who claimed to be Leonora Folger arrives at Charles’ apartment. “You found it,” she says to him. “I found you, Rose Cooper,” he replies. “Well, tell me something I don’t know.” Shortly after, Charles sets a Cocoatini down on the coffee table and the real Rose Cooper confesses that pretending to be somebody is exhausting, praising him for being a professional actor. Charles questions why Rose chose to go into hiding, making the art world believe she died. He asks if his father had anything to do with it, asking if he was abusive toward her. She doesn’t answer but asks Charles to bring the real painting over. He turns it around to show her the patched up tear in the canvas to prove that it’s the original. She pulls a tool out of her purse and asks Charles to take the nails out of the frame. “There’s something I need you to see,” she tells him.

 “I saw glitter on your neck,” Mabel tells Kreps as she holds a boxing bag still for him to work out on. She asks how he knew about the evidence drop and why he took the matchbook with his fingerprint on it. All he tells her is that it wasn’t his fingerprint. Mabel gets frustrated and tells him to get in the ring. As they start to box, Mabel confirms that Kreps’ arm is sore where she stabbed him. She flat-out asks him why he killed Bunny Folger. “I didn’t,” he calmly says. Mabel responds by telling him that’s true because he’s not sophisticated enough to have pulled it off. He responds that he’s smarter than that, saying she won’t be able to intimidate any revelations out of him.

Oliver is in the elevator to take his dog Winnie for a walk when it stops on another floor and he is suddenly staring Teddy Dimas (Nathan Lane) in the face. Teddy gets in and before the doors can close, Oliver lunges at him, yelling “I’ll kill you!” The elevator stops on another floor and Howard Morris (Michael Cyril Creighton) sees the fight. He asks if he should wait for the next elevator, but Oliver releases Teddy and tells him he can come in. But as soon as the doors close, Oliver goes back to trying to strangle Teddy. Howard presses buttons and gets off on the next floor. Teddy fights back and asks Oliver why he’s doing this. “You don’t know, do you? You’re my son’s father!” Teddy is shocked.

As Mabel and Kreps fight, he begins to rant about her generation was told they could be anything, so now all they do is make podcasts and TikToks. He starts to defend himself against Mabel’s insults about his intelligence. “If I’m so stupid, how come I was able to land the smartest woman on the planet? If I’m so stupid, how come I’m able to do a better podcast than you idiots in 2 seconds flat?” This takes Mabel back and she says he told them he hated podcasts when they were under interrogation. He says he hates “Stupid, amateur” podcasts like hers. He listens to the good podcasts, citing “All Is Not OK in Oklahoma” as a good one and saying it takes talent to make one like that. “Trust me, I should know,” he adds. Mabel says she’s not afraid of him, but he says she should be since he’s the lead detective on a case where she’s the prime suspect. “People go away for things they didn’t do all the time,” he threatens. Kreps smugly tells Mabel to get out of his gym. She pulls her gloves out and goes to the corner of the ring to grab a towel. But before she can dab her forehead, she stops because it features a chicken logo on it, the same one from Kreps’ backpack.

Charles gets the nails out of the frame. “This painting on top, that was for me,” Rose tells him as she slides it away. “The one underneath, this was for him.” Charles stares at a painting Rose made that depicts the backs of him and his father looking up at The Arconia from when Charles was a child. “The man he most wanted to be; A father to his boy.” Charles sits down and gets emotional as Rose takes his hand. “He was my love. He tried to keep me safe from a rage-filled husband. I had to leave to keep us both safe. I had to disappear myself. We never saw each other again.” Charles has a realization: “He died heartbroken.”

Oliver and Teddy arrive at his apartment with Winnie and Oliver reveals the real reason he didn’t sleep last night, he was on the phone with his ex-wife Roberta. “Did she tell you it only happened once?”, Teddy asks. “She said twice,” Oliver snaps back. “One night, two times,” Teddy clarifies. Oliver pleads with Teddy that Will is all he has, saying that he feels like the worst father in the world. Teddy tells Oliver that at least he didn’t drag his son into a life of organized crime. Oliver reveals that he has encouraged Will to recently get into the theater. “Well, that’s bad,” Teddy agrees. Later, the two drink wine and reminisce about their own fathers. Teddy promises not to tell Will that he’s his biological father.

Mabel returns to her apartment and puts the gym towel with the backpack. She turns her attention to the puzzle Alice gave her and she picks up two pieces that go together. They make up the podcast artwork for “Everything is Not OK in Oklahoma. Mabel decides to revisit the podcast that first united her with Charles and Oliver, listening to it as she puts the pieces together. Cinda Canning (Tina Fey) narrates her travels to Chickasaw, OK and describes the town as being so small that they had to bring in other detectives to find the body of Becky Butler, the missing girl. “Every night, I’d go to the local bar and grill, the Chicken Chug, whose orange and green chicken logo seemed to be everywhere in town,” Cinda says. Mabel looks up from the puzzle at the chicken logo on the backpack and towel. “I didn’t see him, I heard him,” she realizes about the logo. Cinda’s narration continues about how the Chicken Chug was always full of gossiping townsfolk and tipsy cops. “It’s amazing the allies you can make over a Chicken Chugs wings tub.”

Mabel rushes over to Cinda Canning’s studio and finds Poppy White (Adina Verson) getting ready to leave for the day. Poppy is anxious to see Mabel, telling her that Poppy could be back any minute and saying she can’t do anything for her. “Bunny’s murder, that cop Kreps, this all has something to do with ‘All is Not OK in Oklahoma,’” Mabel says. “I just can’t figure out how. It’s like I’m missing a puzzle piece somewhere.” Poppy strongly encourages Mabel to leave and drop this thread.

Rose tells Charles that she wants him to keep the painting, saying it’s better in his possession than with the nosy woman who came sniffing around a few months ago. He asks her for more details. “She had brown hair and glasses,” Rose says. “Cinda Canning?” Rose shrugs, saying “I don’t know her name, but she was so pushy.”

“You don’t know what she’s capable of,” Poppy warns Mabel. “You don’t know what she’d do to get what she wants.” Mabel asks Poppy why she’s so afraid of a podcaster. “Because, I’m Becky Butler,” she reveals.

“Everyone has secrets,” Detective Kreps’ bookended narration resumes. We see him entering an evidence closet. “Things we’ve done that we don’t talk about.” He picks up an envelope. “Things we can’t explain.” We see that it’s a sample of Becky Butler’s hair. He takes it into the woods and buries it before going to dinner at The Chicken Chug. He sits at the bar and turns around, seeing someone past the camera and smiling. “You plan to get in, you plan to get out, get paid. Go through the motions.” We see a commotion of people around a woman. “But every once in a while you meet someone and everything changes.” Cinda Canning smiles back at Kreps.

Mabel races back to The Arconia and goes straight to Charles’ apartment. She pins up a photo of Cinda Canning under the “Criminal Mastermind” card. As Mabel steps back, Charles and Oliver stare at it in disbelief.

Wow! That was a lot of big reveals in rapid succession. I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to find out how this all wraps up in the Season 2 finale titled “I Know Who Did It.” We’ll have to wait until Tuesday, August 23rd when the episode launches on Hulu, but until then, here’s a tease in the form of the official episode description.

One question remains:  Who did it???  Oh, who are we kidding — there's a few more questions raised, too.