Only Murders in the Building: CoBro
September 13, 2023 10:54 AM - Season 3, Episode 7 - Subscribe
Charles finds an unexpected source for a major clue; a Broadway icon comes knocking at Oliver's door; Mabel forms an alternate trio to pursue a lead that sheds light on Ben's bro and CoBro history.
I want to call this show "Mabel and her boys" because that's clearly the heart of the show, even if she tried replacing the old guys with new younger versions. Obviously that won't work but I'm so happy Theo is still in the picture. Mabel needs friends! That are near her age! And that aren't trying to manipulate her for their own nefarious reasons!
Also: where is she living now? She can't really leave the Arconia and have a solo podcast! They'd have to change the name of the show (fictional and actual), a fact which I appreciated they lampshaded.
Also, this episode seemed to really be calling attention to Nathan Lane not being in it. James Caverly has never looked more like Lane than he did in this episode, and all the talk around Broderick's time in The Producers on Broadway... it just seemed wild that Teddy never showed his face in this one.
I wonder if they've written themselves into a corner with the fun cameo (SO FUN) and acknowledging The Producers existed with Matthew Broderick, but Nathan Lane... is Teddy? Or maybe Teddy just looks like Nathan Lane? I'm trying to remember if they've put in a throw-away line in previous series but yeah definitely couldn't help but think about Papa Dimas with Broderick and Theo in the same episode.
posted by paisley sheep at 11:47 AM on September 13, 2023 [5 favorites]
Also: where is she living now? She can't really leave the Arconia and have a solo podcast! They'd have to change the name of the show (fictional and actual), a fact which I appreciated they lampshaded.
Also, this episode seemed to really be calling attention to Nathan Lane not being in it. James Caverly has never looked more like Lane than he did in this episode, and all the talk around Broderick's time in The Producers on Broadway... it just seemed wild that Teddy never showed his face in this one.
I wonder if they've written themselves into a corner with the fun cameo (SO FUN) and acknowledging The Producers existed with Matthew Broderick, but Nathan Lane... is Teddy? Or maybe Teddy just looks like Nathan Lane? I'm trying to remember if they've put in a throw-away line in previous series but yeah definitely couldn't help but think about Papa Dimas with Broderick and Theo in the same episode.
posted by paisley sheep at 11:47 AM on September 13, 2023 [5 favorites]
Nathan Lane said in an interview with E in January that they had invited him to stop by if he had time. Since he was doing a Broadway show (Pictures From Home) and The Gilded Age, I suspect he wasn't available this season.
posted by rednikki at 1:02 PM on September 13, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by rednikki at 1:02 PM on September 13, 2023 [2 favorites]
Yeah, this was the funniest episode of the season for me.
Watching Matthew Broderick getting deep into the process to develop the Constable character was so fun, and the cherry on top was that I felt like Oliver deserved every moment of it, including the part where Mel Brooks tells him he fucked up.
I loved Donna in this so much. "Cliff, darling, please! You know how upsetting it is for me when you stress dance!" and also this exchange with Oliver:
Oliver: I am not calling Charles, Donna! He quit. And I have far too much integrity to beg him to come back.
Donna: Counterpoint, you have no integrity, and this is the perfect time to make use of that.
posted by creepygirl at 3:38 PM on September 13, 2023 [9 favorites]
Watching Matthew Broderick getting deep into the process to develop the Constable character was so fun, and the cherry on top was that I felt like Oliver deserved every moment of it, including the part where Mel Brooks tells him he fucked up.
I loved Donna in this so much. "Cliff, darling, please! You know how upsetting it is for me when you stress dance!" and also this exchange with Oliver:
Oliver: I am not calling Charles, Donna! He quit. And I have far too much integrity to beg him to come back.
Donna: Counterpoint, you have no integrity, and this is the perfect time to make use of that.
posted by creepygirl at 3:38 PM on September 13, 2023 [9 favorites]
Excited that Mabel's rudimentary ASL has so much overlap with my rudimentary ASL but I can feel Theo's frustration every time she faces away from him! I can't tell if it's bad blocking or a character beat where we're supposed to see that she's being a bit thoughtless on the details, even when she's put in a lot of work on the big picture. (I think it's the latter, since at one point he seemed to give an irritated sigh.)
When Dickie said he was adopted all I could think was "oh wow, mochapickle is going to be vindicated in every particular."
posted by babelfish at 7:25 PM on September 13, 2023 [11 favorites]
When Dickie said he was adopted all I could think was "oh wow, mochapickle is going to be vindicated in every particular."
posted by babelfish at 7:25 PM on September 13, 2023 [11 favorites]
Oliver: I am not calling Charles, Donna! He quit. And I have far too much integrity to beg him to come back.
Donna: Counterpoint, you have no integrity, and this is the perfect time to make use of that.
Oliver: Well, that's a fair counterpoint.
posted by Etrigan at 4:47 AM on September 14, 2023 [5 favorites]
Donna: Counterpoint, you have no integrity, and this is the perfect time to make use of that.
Oliver: Well, that's a fair counterpoint.
posted by Etrigan at 4:47 AM on September 14, 2023 [5 favorites]
"If it's not one thing it's a goddamn mother" going completely unremarked by any of the characters was so, so great.
posted by tomboko at 5:53 AM on September 14, 2023 [13 favorites]
posted by tomboko at 5:53 AM on September 14, 2023 [13 favorites]
Thinking same every time Mabel's talking but Teddy can't see her full mouth. That said, I'm happy to have him back, despite his past history, and had the same thoughts as a romantic interest (i.e. preferred to the rest of them but did like Oscar).
Broderick was clearly having fun.
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:39 AM on September 14, 2023 [3 favorites]
Broderick was clearly having fun.
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:39 AM on September 14, 2023 [3 favorites]
I think Mabel's blocking was very intentional, given Teddy's hilarious reactions to her talking to him in ASL while absentmindedly turning her back to him. And, like, Caverly is there on set for those scenes, obviously, and probably has a lot of input into how ASL is presented in the show. So to us that was just a funny as hell running bit - Mabel is doing the work to learn the language, but is still wrapped up in her own shit enough to not notice when she's signing into the void.
posted by Navelgazer at 8:55 AM on September 14, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by Navelgazer at 8:55 AM on September 14, 2023 [6 favorites]
Just to make sure we’re all on the same page:
Teddy is the father (as portrayed by Nathan Lane).
Theo is the son (as portrayed by James Caverly).
posted by paisley sheep at 9:38 AM on September 14, 2023 [4 favorites]
Teddy is the father (as portrayed by Nathan Lane).
Theo is the son (as portrayed by James Caverly).
posted by paisley sheep at 9:38 AM on September 14, 2023 [4 favorites]
Argh, I apologize and should have known better. I have had zero sleep once again.
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:41 AM on September 14, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:41 AM on September 14, 2023 [1 favorite]
Blergh, yes, of course. I constantly mix up those names. Thanks for the correction!
posted by Navelgazer at 10:24 AM on September 14, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Navelgazer at 10:24 AM on September 14, 2023 [1 favorite]
tomoboko: "If it's not one thing it's a goddamn mother" going completely unremarked by any of the characters was so, so great.
Yes! I had to go back and watch that again because I heard "mother" but the closed captioning says "other." The closed captioning, it DECEIVES. I also had to watch Cliff stress dancing because Cliff stress dancing is hilarious.
What a great episode!
The Arconia had been so deeply woven into the first two seasons that in a way this season it's felt a lot like we'd lost a main character -- the building itself. So it was so welcome this episode to settle into that sense of place again through Uma's narration. I gasped when we saw Bunny, if only for a moment. I love Bunny. And there's Lester. Aw. And now we know Uma's a secret kleptomaniac! And Theo is back! YAY Theo! Navelgazer, you are so right about James Caverly looking so much more like Nathan Lane now -- I think the glasses are both an exclamation point and an underscore. Remarkable.
Speaking of, was there something happening when Tobert met Theo? Tobert starts to say, "Oh, wow, you're the guy from..." And then he pauses, fully recalibrates, and mentions knowing about him from the podcast. Was that intended to suggest Tobert knew Theo from somewhere else, or that he'd picked up on Theo's warm connection to Mabel and recognized him as a potential barrier to getting closer to her? I wasn't sure how to read that.
I loved how at the diner Charles is reading a book called How To Talk To Women, and he very clearly does not want to talk to Uma. And I loved how Uma clearly blames Charles & company for Bunny's death but is also friendly enough to invite him to her table. And then you realize that she partly wanted company, but mostly she wanted him to pick up the ticket. If Charles can't offer justice for Bunny's death, the least he can do is pay for her meal.
Did anyone catch the subtitle on Charles's book? My screen went dark when I paused so I could only catch a blur.
They HAVE to be messing with us with references to shows these people were in. We've got The Producers, now, and previously it's been Grey's Anatomy and Little Shop of Horrors. Did we miss any others?
And Dickie WAS adopted! If you heard the faraway sound from somewhere near the Rockies of someone yelling I KNEW IT!, that was me! And I loved how during that scene with Dickie and Mabel, there's a huge cardboard cutout of Ben looking over Dickie's shoulder, just like Dickie used to always stand just behind Ben, watching over his shoulder.
I'm absolutely convinced we're going to get a confession scene from Meryl Street because that'd be too delicious to pass up. We all want to see that. Well, I want to see that. But now I'm not sure of the reason. Yes, maybe Loretta fought with Ben and Ben fell into the elevator shaft. But maybe... maybe Dickie is responsible for Ben's death? And Loretta, as his distant and protective mother, and out of love for Dickie, decides to take the fall for her son. So we get this beautiful, captivating, fully believable confession out of her. She's an actress, after all, and a good one. And this confession is the role of a lifetime: It has to work, or else Dickie goes to prison and she's lost him forever. And it ties back to the lyrics of that lighthouse song -- she'll set the child free into the world, but if the child gets too deeply in trouble, she'll be there to save them.
After MB's migraine-inducing rehearsal (SO! GREAT!) an exhausted Oliver says some pointed line to MB about making the constable character vanish altogether: "Gone! Like a rat in a microwave!" And it stood out -- who even says rat in a microwave? Don't we usually think of spiders, in terms of completely vaporizing? A rat would leave an absolute mess.
So for yet another episode, I feel like they're doing something weirdly deliberate with snakes and rats. Ben's whole penthouse has snakes everywhere. I am deeply interested in that huge golden snake in the elevator bay -- they light that thing up like a star. Rats are mentioned but less, they're on the periphery. If you call someone a snake, you're saying they're backstabbing and deceitful. If you call someone a rat, you're saying they're someone who betrayed you. Are Ben and Dickie a snake and a rat?
And did Dickie buy back the hanky out of grief, out of an intention of hiding evidence, or both?
posted by mochapickle at 10:42 AM on September 14, 2023 [9 favorites]
Yes! I had to go back and watch that again because I heard "mother" but the closed captioning says "other." The closed captioning, it DECEIVES. I also had to watch Cliff stress dancing because Cliff stress dancing is hilarious.
What a great episode!
The Arconia had been so deeply woven into the first two seasons that in a way this season it's felt a lot like we'd lost a main character -- the building itself. So it was so welcome this episode to settle into that sense of place again through Uma's narration. I gasped when we saw Bunny, if only for a moment. I love Bunny. And there's Lester. Aw. And now we know Uma's a secret kleptomaniac! And Theo is back! YAY Theo! Navelgazer, you are so right about James Caverly looking so much more like Nathan Lane now -- I think the glasses are both an exclamation point and an underscore. Remarkable.
Speaking of, was there something happening when Tobert met Theo? Tobert starts to say, "Oh, wow, you're the guy from..." And then he pauses, fully recalibrates, and mentions knowing about him from the podcast. Was that intended to suggest Tobert knew Theo from somewhere else, or that he'd picked up on Theo's warm connection to Mabel and recognized him as a potential barrier to getting closer to her? I wasn't sure how to read that.
I loved how at the diner Charles is reading a book called How To Talk To Women, and he very clearly does not want to talk to Uma. And I loved how Uma clearly blames Charles & company for Bunny's death but is also friendly enough to invite him to her table. And then you realize that she partly wanted company, but mostly she wanted him to pick up the ticket. If Charles can't offer justice for Bunny's death, the least he can do is pay for her meal.
Did anyone catch the subtitle on Charles's book? My screen went dark when I paused so I could only catch a blur.
They HAVE to be messing with us with references to shows these people were in. We've got The Producers, now, and previously it's been Grey's Anatomy and Little Shop of Horrors. Did we miss any others?
And Dickie WAS adopted! If you heard the faraway sound from somewhere near the Rockies of someone yelling I KNEW IT!, that was me! And I loved how during that scene with Dickie and Mabel, there's a huge cardboard cutout of Ben looking over Dickie's shoulder, just like Dickie used to always stand just behind Ben, watching over his shoulder.
I'm absolutely convinced we're going to get a confession scene from Meryl Street because that'd be too delicious to pass up. We all want to see that. Well, I want to see that. But now I'm not sure of the reason. Yes, maybe Loretta fought with Ben and Ben fell into the elevator shaft. But maybe... maybe Dickie is responsible for Ben's death? And Loretta, as his distant and protective mother, and out of love for Dickie, decides to take the fall for her son. So we get this beautiful, captivating, fully believable confession out of her. She's an actress, after all, and a good one. And this confession is the role of a lifetime: It has to work, or else Dickie goes to prison and she's lost him forever. And it ties back to the lyrics of that lighthouse song -- she'll set the child free into the world, but if the child gets too deeply in trouble, she'll be there to save them.
After MB's migraine-inducing rehearsal (SO! GREAT!) an exhausted Oliver says some pointed line to MB about making the constable character vanish altogether: "Gone! Like a rat in a microwave!" And it stood out -- who even says rat in a microwave? Don't we usually think of spiders, in terms of completely vaporizing? A rat would leave an absolute mess.
So for yet another episode, I feel like they're doing something weirdly deliberate with snakes and rats. Ben's whole penthouse has snakes everywhere. I am deeply interested in that huge golden snake in the elevator bay -- they light that thing up like a star. Rats are mentioned but less, they're on the periphery. If you call someone a snake, you're saying they're backstabbing and deceitful. If you call someone a rat, you're saying they're someone who betrayed you. Are Ben and Dickie a snake and a rat?
And did Dickie buy back the hanky out of grief, out of an intention of hiding evidence, or both?
posted by mochapickle at 10:42 AM on September 14, 2023 [9 favorites]
Meryl Street! Streep! Gah!
posted by mochapickle at 10:48 AM on September 14, 2023
posted by mochapickle at 10:48 AM on September 14, 2023
I don’t know why but I have a sudden desire to wear an unhinged striped and button accented vest.
posted by Crystalinne at 10:54 AM on September 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Crystalinne at 10:54 AM on September 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
I was really hoping (in another sideways reference to the Producers), that larry david was going to walk in as the steve martin replacement. But Broderick was very funny!
Speaking of him, I've become convinced tha Steve Martin is the killer in this season. The "white room" fugue states? He did it! Mark my words.
posted by dis_integration at 2:46 PM on September 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
Speaking of him, I've become convinced tha Steve Martin is the killer in this season. The "white room" fugue states? He did it! Mark my words.
posted by dis_integration at 2:46 PM on September 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
I feel like they're doing something weirdly deliberate with snakes and rats
What about pigs?
posted by babelfish at 7:40 AM on September 15, 2023
What about pigs?
posted by babelfish at 7:40 AM on September 15, 2023
They're clearly red herrings.
Red pigs? Pig herrings?
posted by mochapickle at 11:34 AM on September 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
Red pigs? Pig herrings?
posted by mochapickle at 11:34 AM on September 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
This was a hilarious episode, and it made me tear up with grief - when Uma is suddenly alone at the diner, or Dickie mentioning that when someone dies you remember a thousand little details about them.
posted by brainwane at 1:05 PM on September 15, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by brainwane at 1:05 PM on September 15, 2023 [5 favorites]
Speaking of, was there something happening when Tobert met Theo? Tobert starts to say, "Oh, wow, you're the guy from..." And then he pauses, fully recalibrates, and mentions knowing about him from the podcast.
I interpreted that as Tobert stopping himself at the last second from saying "oh you're the deaf guy."
posted by Ragged Richard at 2:42 PM on September 15, 2023 [4 favorites]
I interpreted that as Tobert stopping himself at the last second from saying "oh you're the deaf guy."
posted by Ragged Richard at 2:42 PM on September 15, 2023 [4 favorites]
Theo and Mabel have great energy together, so I was glad to see him back. The "you didn't tell me about his eyes" signing was funny -- is it, in fact, the official position of Only Murders in the Building that every person under 30 is bi? If so, I don't hate it.
I called every beat of the "Steve Martin locked inside the prop closet" saga, but the execution was great. And I loved seeing Uma again, too! This show is so good at remembering that if the building is the star of the show, they can just grab the residents for one-off appearances whenever they need.
posted by grandiloquiet at 3:19 PM on September 15, 2023 [3 favorites]
I called every beat of the "Steve Martin locked inside the prop closet" saga, but the execution was great. And I loved seeing Uma again, too! This show is so good at remembering that if the building is the star of the show, they can just grab the residents for one-off appearances whenever they need.
posted by grandiloquiet at 3:19 PM on September 15, 2023 [3 favorites]
I interpreted that as Tobert stopping himself at the last second from saying "oh you're the deaf guy."
Or "oh you're the guy who was involved in a racket to steal the valuables of dead people."
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 12:11 PM on September 17, 2023 [8 favorites]
Or "oh you're the guy who was involved in a racket to steal the valuables of dead people."
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 12:11 PM on September 17, 2023 [8 favorites]
And this confession is the role of a lifetime: It has to work, or else Dickie goes to prison and she's lost him forever. And it ties back to the lyrics of that lighthouse song -- she'll set the child free into the world, but if the child gets too deeply in trouble, she'll be there to save them.
Over the weekend a different song-based theory popped into my head: Dickie and Ben have a secret third brother (maybe Tobert?!) and that’s why we’ve been hearing so much wondering about which of the Pickwick triplets did it.
(My brain loves shitposting way more than I actually do. And yet…)
posted by thecaddy at 5:08 AM on September 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
Over the weekend a different song-based theory popped into my head: Dickie and Ben have a secret third brother (maybe Tobert?!) and that’s why we’ve been hearing so much wondering about which of the Pickwick triplets did it.
(My brain loves shitposting way more than I actually do. And yet…)
posted by thecaddy at 5:08 AM on September 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
Or "oh you're the guy who was involved in a racket to steal the valuables of dead people."
Oh, I think you're right!
Over the weekend a different song-based theory popped into my head: Dickie and Ben have a secret third brother (maybe Tobert?!) and that’s why we’ve been hearing so much wondering about which of the Pickwick triplets did it.
That song! It's so catchy! I was cleaning shower grout this weekend and it got stuck in my head:
*SCRUB* of the *SCRUB*-wick *SCRUB*-lets did it?
Who of the *SCRUB* would commit this crime?
Might a little brat make a mommy go splat?
It’s a *SCRUB* pretty *SCRUB* for a *SCRUB* *SCRUB* *SCRUB*
But yeah, I love your idea about focusing on triplets, thecaddy. And the the name Tobert stands out to me -- what if Loretta, his secret mother, had given her sons names starting with R? Richard (his parents called him Dickie) and Robert (which his parents changed to Tobert)?
Or, or, or, what if Loretta had THREE secret children -- Dickie, Tobert, and... Cliff? (That line about Cliff breastfeeding until age 8 would be even more deeply weird and upsetting...) And at least two of the boys were set on murdering Ben for different and separate reasons. But only one of them was ultimately successful...
posted by mochapickle at 8:32 AM on September 18, 2023
Oh, I think you're right!
Over the weekend a different song-based theory popped into my head: Dickie and Ben have a secret third brother (maybe Tobert?!) and that’s why we’ve been hearing so much wondering about which of the Pickwick triplets did it.
That song! It's so catchy! I was cleaning shower grout this weekend and it got stuck in my head:
*SCRUB* of the *SCRUB*-wick *SCRUB*-lets did it?
Who of the *SCRUB* would commit this crime?
Might a little brat make a mommy go splat?
It’s a *SCRUB* pretty *SCRUB* for a *SCRUB* *SCRUB* *SCRUB*
But yeah, I love your idea about focusing on triplets, thecaddy. And the the name Tobert stands out to me -- what if Loretta, his secret mother, had given her sons names starting with R? Richard (his parents called him Dickie) and Robert (which his parents changed to Tobert)?
Or, or, or, what if Loretta had THREE secret children -- Dickie, Tobert, and... Cliff? (That line about Cliff breastfeeding until age 8 would be even more deeply weird and upsetting...) And at least two of the boys were set on murdering Ben for different and separate reasons. But only one of them was ultimately successful...
posted by mochapickle at 8:32 AM on September 18, 2023
Catching up on this now and oh my god I couldn't breathe with this:
"A kid from Manhattan in the 1890s? The city roils with ethnic tension! Irishmen, Prussians, the era of the bicycle craze, the horse-drawn trolley?"
posted by MetaFilter World Peace at 6:09 AM on October 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
"A kid from Manhattan in the 1890s? The city roils with ethnic tension! Irishmen, Prussians, the era of the bicycle craze, the horse-drawn trolley?"
posted by MetaFilter World Peace at 6:09 AM on October 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
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I'll say that it looks like mochapickle absolutely nailed it about Loretta - I'm basically certain now that she's Dickie's birth mother and that's why she has the scrapbook but hated Ben so much.
Charles giving Broderick the Ferris Bueller kiss-off was both funny and the kind of Gen-X reference that this show doesn't usually go for. Uma's involvement was a long time coming and very welcome. Also, this episode seemed to really be calling attention to Nathan Lane not being in it. James Caverly has never looked more like Lane than he did in this episode, and all the talk around Broderick's time in The Producers on Broadway... it just seemed wild that Teddy never showed his face in this one.
posted by Navelgazer at 11:03 AM on September 13, 2023 [10 favorites]