Only Murders in the Building: Gates of Heaven

September 4, 2024 11:38 PM - Season 4, Episode 2

Mabel & Oliver begin investigating Arcadia's West Tower and get trapped inside an ominous game. Meanwhile, Charles is visited by two individuals from his complex past.
posted by Pronoiac (13 comments total)

The Westies:
Stink-Eye Joe / Vince Fish - Richard Kind!
The Sauce Family - including Inez, Alfonso (Edgar from You’re the Worst)
Christmas-All-The-Time Guy - Kumail Nanjiani!
That one apartment that never opens its blinds - Dudenoff?

So much ham.
Piggie Smalls?
Notorious P.I.G.?

Jan!
posted by Pronoiac at 11:40 PM on September 4 [2 favorites]

Reviews and recaps:
* Collider, by Samantha Graves
* Vulture (ungated), by Tom Smyth

Collider reports it's getting another season!
posted by Pronoiac at 12:30 AM on September 5 [1 favorite]

The most pressing question I had is why did they bother hanging a big mirror between the two windows in Richard Kind's apartment, since it limits what angles they can shoot, where crew/lights can be set up, etc. At first glance I thought that was a vfx shot, to replace what was in the mirror, but on rewatching I think the camera may be just off-axis enough to be out of frame, and the kind of weird look to Martin Short's reflection may just legitimately be from the stark lighting difference on his face as he walks toward the window. But it's still extra consideration/constraints when they could have just hung a painting. So Richard Kind must be the killer, is what I'm saying, and the mirror must have something to do with it; plus he's probably the most fun option out of all the actors we've seen so far, so that's settled, mystery solved.)

Also, I like the west coast / west tower parallel. Unexplored territory!
posted by nobody at 4:35 PM on September 5 [6 favorites]

From Collider:
To make things even weirder, throughout the card game, they all get up to take “hits” in the bathroom, which is later revealed to be a piece of ham hanging from the shower rod, which they all take turns stabbing. If that’s not a red flag, I don’t know what is.

Wow, "stabbing"?? Heh. Did they completely miss that it was dry cured Presunto and they were slicing off delicious slices?
posted by vacapinta at 9:23 AM on September 6 [6 favorites]

I thought it was more of a Serrano/Iberico ham, the kind you see sold at Costco around the holidays suspended on an included wooden frame, like a lathe for a pig leg.
posted by dr_dank at 2:09 PM on September 6 [3 favorites]

Yes! They mentioned it was from Portugal. Presunto is Portugals Serrano/Iberico equivalent so to speak.
posted by vacapinta at 2:27 PM on September 6 [2 favorites]

Was that Alison Janney setting up the camera in the trampoline flashback?
posted by FallibleHuman at 9:46 PM on September 6

It was so good to have lots of Sazz in this!

So the dudenoff apartment is just where they raise pigs for their counterfeit presunto, right?
"Did you achieve?" is... not the worst card game phrase, but it's up there.
posted by Acari at 7:48 AM on September 7 [5 favorites]

I was convinced that they made up this card game, but apparently it’s a variation on Contract Whist.

And no, I’m not going to pretend that real, either.
posted by dr_dank at 6:31 PM on September 8 [2 favorites]

I wonder if the Dudenoff apartment is actually Sazz's apartment that she was using to keep an eye on Charles. That doesn't explain the pig, though, so I am inclined to think that they were, in fact, raising that cute little pig to eat it.
posted by synecdoche at 2:20 PM on September 9 [1 favorite]

Ok but Mr. Blah and I JUMPED when Jan appeared. That was legitimately scary; she's an absolute psycho!
posted by BlahLaLa at 7:10 PM on September 21

Awww, I feel so brokenhearted over Sazz in this one, as intended.
posted by jenfullmoon at 3:26 PM on September 22

My wife and I finally got around to watching this today, and will watch the third episode too, hoping to catch up tomorrow.

I found this really touching. The death of Sazz feels tragic in the way that the deaths during the last couple of seasons didn’t, but Tim Kono’s did. I’m emotionally invested in that aspect of the story.

The one thing I thought of while watching, and this might already be addressed in later episodes, is that “tap in” wasn’t what Sazz intended to write, but that it was “taping” or something like that.

Anyway, I’m really jazzed to be back watching the show.
posted by Kattullus at 4:14 AM on September 23