Only Murders in the Building: Performance Review
July 26, 2022 9:03 AM - Season 2, Episode 6 - Subscribe
Charles, Oliver and Mabel collide with their podcasting mentor-turned-competitor, Cinda Canning. Subsequently, a key clue requires the trio to orchestrate a stakeout -- Brazzos-style.
The trio wants to ask Detective Williams' help with an evidence they have found recently, but she is on maternity leave. When they receive a message in her name to leave the evidence in a public place, they fear that this is the killer trying to get their hands on the evidence. They decide to set a trap to finally catch the killer, but their personal problems distract them during the waiting until they eventually miss the opportunity. Meanwhile, Cinda finds a man from Mabel's past, who claims that Mabel cut off one his fingers, and she wants to use this in her podcast. Cinda's assistant, Poppy, however, has second thoughts about it, and decides to reveal some hidden truth about Cinda to Mabel. Mabel later goes to Alice's art studio where she finds Alice recreating the crime scene of Bunny's murder. Heartbroken, Mabel runs off, but gets followed by a masked person. Later, Charles and Oliver see a video on the internet where it appears Mabel presumably stabbed that person in the subway.
The trio wants to ask Detective Williams' help with an evidence they have found recently, but she is on maternity leave. When they receive a message in her name to leave the evidence in a public place, they fear that this is the killer trying to get their hands on the evidence. They decide to set a trap to finally catch the killer, but their personal problems distract them during the waiting until they eventually miss the opportunity. Meanwhile, Cinda finds a man from Mabel's past, who claims that Mabel cut off one his fingers, and she wants to use this in her podcast. Cinda's assistant, Poppy, however, has second thoughts about it, and decides to reveal some hidden truth about Cinda to Mabel. Mabel later goes to Alice's art studio where she finds Alice recreating the crime scene of Bunny's murder. Heartbroken, Mabel runs off, but gets followed by a masked person. Later, Charles and Oliver see a video on the internet where it appears Mabel presumably stabbed that person in the subway.
Pink ladle soup? The fuck is that.
Szasz breaking up with Jan was weird and also perfect. Poor Mabel can never get a break, I really feel for her situation.
posted by fiercekitten at 5:22 PM on July 26, 2022 [13 favorites]
Szasz breaking up with Jan was weird and also perfect. Poor Mabel can never get a break, I really feel for her situation.
posted by fiercekitten at 5:22 PM on July 26, 2022 [13 favorites]
Dammit Alice.
I hope Poppy gets to do a Cinda Canning exposed podcast.
posted by the primroses were over at 6:46 PM on July 26, 2022 [10 favorites]
I hope Poppy gets to do a Cinda Canning exposed podcast.
posted by the primroses were over at 6:46 PM on July 26, 2022 [10 favorites]
POOR MABEL.
posted by kitten kaboodle at 7:34 PM on July 26, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by kitten kaboodle at 7:34 PM on July 26, 2022 [5 favorites]
I wish Mabel would get kidnapped for a few episodes. She’s annoying.
posted by Ideefixe at 9:24 PM on July 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Ideefixe at 9:24 PM on July 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
I wish Mabel would get kidnapped for a few episodes. She’s annoying.
If anyone is getting taken off screen for an episode or two, please make it Oliver. Monologuing to strangers in a medical waiting room is an unforgivable social crime.
posted by wakannai at 12:55 AM on July 27, 2022 [12 favorites]
If anyone is getting taken off screen for an episode or two, please make it Oliver. Monologuing to strangers in a medical waiting room is an unforgivable social crime.
posted by wakannai at 12:55 AM on July 27, 2022 [12 favorites]
"Should we be doing this? We are broken up, after all."
"What? We never broke up."
"Well, I guess I just assumed."
"Why? Because I tried to kill you? How many times are you going to make me apologize for that?"
"She's not my type."
"Emotionally stable?"
"Age appropriate?"
"Not incarcerated?'
The stapler in the face...GOOD GOD.
"Cinda does respect me." (dog whistle) "Hey, girl."
"This happens every third or fourth episode. But you still have to break up with Jan!"
CHARLES SENT SAZZ TO BREAK UP WITH JAN LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL.
You know, this is about the kind of thing I expected Alice to do, somehow.
"What if I lose my son AND my dips in the same day?!?"
Actual commentary: Selena Gomez is suffering from what I call Anna Torv Syndrome. When Anna Torv first started on Fringe, playing a very stoic character, people thought she couldn't act for shit. As the show went on, turns out she's a great damn actress--it's just that that character is stoic. Same with Mabel.
I am seriously worried for Poppy's life now.
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:40 AM on July 27, 2022 [25 favorites]
"What? We never broke up."
"Well, I guess I just assumed."
"Why? Because I tried to kill you? How many times are you going to make me apologize for that?"
"She's not my type."
"Emotionally stable?"
"Age appropriate?"
"Not incarcerated?'
The stapler in the face...GOOD GOD.
"Cinda does respect me." (dog whistle) "Hey, girl."
"This happens every third or fourth episode. But you still have to break up with Jan!"
CHARLES SENT SAZZ TO BREAK UP WITH JAN LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL.
You know, this is about the kind of thing I expected Alice to do, somehow.
"What if I lose my son AND my dips in the same day?!?"
Actual commentary: Selena Gomez is suffering from what I call Anna Torv Syndrome. When Anna Torv first started on Fringe, playing a very stoic character, people thought she couldn't act for shit. As the show went on, turns out she's a great damn actress--it's just that that character is stoic. Same with Mabel.
I am seriously worried for Poppy's life now.
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:40 AM on July 27, 2022 [25 favorites]
The moment when our three leads are dialoguing inside the car about relationships and life while the bad guy gets the glitter bomb in the face and they don't even notice even though that's the entire reason they're sitting there in the first place? Just encapsulates everything I love so much about this show.
Also, Oliver's glitter bomb is called The Mariah and it's made from glitter, rubber cement and just a nudge of C4.
posted by BlahLaLa at 8:16 AM on July 27, 2022 [31 favorites]
Also, Oliver's glitter bomb is called The Mariah and it's made from glitter, rubber cement and just a nudge of C4.
posted by BlahLaLa at 8:16 AM on July 27, 2022 [31 favorites]
My roommate and I just started this episode (skimmed past everything here) and the very first scene of the "Previously on" is Cinda Canning, sitting on a couch, knitting, talking to Mabel, saying something about stains? And a shot of the blood on Mabel's floor under a rug? Where is this scene from? Neither of us remember seeing this scene ever.
posted by tzikeh at 9:32 AM on July 27, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by tzikeh at 9:32 AM on July 27, 2022 [1 favorite]
Alice noticed the stain at Mabel's. Mabel did the classic 'move this puddle of blood around with a mop' style of cleaning which didn't work well, so she covered it with a not very big rug.
posted by Acari at 9:42 AM on July 27, 2022
posted by Acari at 9:42 AM on July 27, 2022
Alice noticed the stain at Mabel's. Mabel did the classic 'move this puddle of blood around with a mop' style of cleaning which didn't work well, so she covered it with a not very big rug.
Yes but when was Cinda Canning in her apartment on her couch knitting?
posted by tzikeh at 9:51 AM on July 27, 2022
Yes but when was Cinda Canning in her apartment on her couch knitting?
posted by tzikeh at 9:51 AM on July 27, 2022
tzikeh, it's in one of the first episodes of the season, maybe second? It's from when Cinda dropped the first episode of her podcast, and she "appears" in Charles's bed, Mabel's living room while she's trying to hide the stain, and with Oliver though I can't recall where she is in his section. They're each listening to the podcast, so basically seeing her in their respective spaces. Just look for the first Cinda podcast dropping.
posted by kitten kaboodle at 9:54 AM on July 27, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by kitten kaboodle at 9:54 AM on July 27, 2022 [3 favorites]
Yes but when was Cinda Canning in her apartment on her couch knitting?
She wasn't actually there. It was a device used when each of the trio were listening to her new podcast, back in the first or second episode.
posted by synecdoche at 10:01 AM on July 27, 2022 [2 favorites]
She wasn't actually there. It was a device used when each of the trio were listening to her new podcast, back in the first or second episode.
posted by synecdoche at 10:01 AM on July 27, 2022 [2 favorites]
That confused me and I've been meaning to ask about it: I knew it was a sort of fantasy sequence, but there were three women sitting on the settee, which I can only remember as two Cindas and a Poppy (and that's what it looked like in the previously on) - I realised it signified something that I'd work out later, but never did. I'm obviously missing something or have forgotten a third character who very much resembles Tina Fey, but am drawing a blank.
I have no idea why I'm so compelled to go on the internet and confess I'm an idiot, but apparently it's so.
posted by Grangousier at 10:14 AM on July 27, 2022 [2 favorites]
I have no idea why I'm so compelled to go on the internet and confess I'm an idiot, but apparently it's so.
posted by Grangousier at 10:14 AM on July 27, 2022 [2 favorites]
> three women sitting on the settee, which I can only remember as two Cindas and a Poppy (and that's what it looked like in the previously on)
Oh, it wasn't two Cindas? Digging around, it looks like Anne Stringfield, who's married to Steve Martin. She was one of Cinda's assistants in season one, very briefly.
posted by Pronoiac at 3:34 PM on July 27, 2022 [8 favorites]
Oh, it wasn't two Cindas? Digging around, it looks like Anne Stringfield, who's married to Steve Martin. She was one of Cinda's assistants in season one, very briefly.
posted by Pronoiac at 3:34 PM on July 27, 2022 [8 favorites]
Cinda being the murderer is too easy, right? Poppy saying she would do “anything” for her shows, her nonchalant attitude towards everything that isn’t her… red herring, no?
posted by hijinx at 4:25 PM on July 27, 2022
posted by hijinx at 4:25 PM on July 27, 2022
Or else Poppy is so devoted to Cinda that she's willing to murder for her benefit. Jan said to look for a storyteller after all.
posted by mochapickle at 5:31 PM on July 27, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by mochapickle at 5:31 PM on July 27, 2022 [5 favorites]
I wish Mabel would get kidnapped for a few episodes. She’s annoying.
I wish for more Mabel.
posted by crossoverman at 6:30 PM on July 27, 2022 [17 favorites]
I wish for more Mabel.
posted by crossoverman at 6:30 PM on July 27, 2022 [17 favorites]
It was Cinda, Poppy, and another lady who looks JUST like Cinda. It was a dream sequence, and there were three of them because they were the three fates, knitting Mabel's life.
posted by nushustu at 6:39 AM on July 28, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by nushustu at 6:39 AM on July 28, 2022 [7 favorites]
Also, at this point Mrs. Nushustu has theorized this is going to turn out to be a Murder on the Orient Express season, where all of the building board are in on the murder. (They all want to transform the building for the money.) Not sure yet how or if the other suspects are connected.
posted by nushustu at 6:42 AM on July 28, 2022 [6 favorites]
posted by nushustu at 6:42 AM on July 28, 2022 [6 favorites]
It was Cinda, Poppy, and another lady who looks JUST like Cinda. It was a dream sequence, and there were three of them because they were the three fates, knitting Mabel's life.
That other lady is none other than Anne Stringfield, Steve Martin's wife.
posted by Omon Ra at 7:13 PM on July 28, 2022 [3 favorites]
That other lady is none other than Anne Stringfield, Steve Martin's wife.
posted by Omon Ra at 7:13 PM on July 28, 2022 [3 favorites]
I love just about everything in this show but Mabel/Selena Gomez is first among equals in it.
posted by Navelgazer at 11:19 PM on August 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Navelgazer at 11:19 PM on August 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
I love Mabel so much!
I loved the scene where Oliver and Mabel tease Charles about the make-up lady. This season feels like it's been very heavy for all 3 of them, and it's so nice when they can kick back together, even if only briefly.
posted by unicorn chaser at 2:47 PM on December 4, 2022 [2 favorites]
I loved the scene where Oliver and Mabel tease Charles about the make-up lady. This season feels like it's been very heavy for all 3 of them, and it's so nice when they can kick back together, even if only briefly.
posted by unicorn chaser at 2:47 PM on December 4, 2022 [2 favorites]
One thing that is fun about this show is that I imagine every actor being super excited to get their part. The three leads, of course, but playing Jan would be an amazing opportunity and so fun. Jane Lynch is hilarious and gets to spend the whole time making fun of Steve Martin. Tina Fey being a weird, mean person.
posted by Emmy Rae at 8:54 PM on February 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Emmy Rae at 8:54 PM on February 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
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I hope we have more with Poppy.
I have no idea where this season is going but I like it. Gomez did some great work in this episode. I know her acting isn't for everyone but I really like her. There's something so quiet and internal about the way she approaches Mabel & there's such a sadness that lingers underneath her deadpan delivery. Her affect is flat because Mabel doesn't want to feel anything. When she feels something, she gets hurt. I think this was a great showcase of that.
posted by edencosmic at 4:50 PM on July 26, 2022 [26 favorites]