Only Murders in the Building Season 4 Ending Explained: Who Killed Sazz? What Happens to Sazz’s Killer?
Only Murders in the Building Season 4 Ending Explained: On Tuesday, October 29, the 10th and final episode of Only Murders in the Building Season 4, the fourth season of the comedy-crime TV series starring Steve Martin, Selena Gomez, and Martin Short as three tenants of a New York building where murders occur that the three solve through their podcast, was released on Hulu and Disney+. The series starring Selena Gomez, Martin Short, and Steve Martin has never ceased to amaze fans, maintaining its signature level of suspense and humor. This season took a different path, revealing the killer in the main case well before the finale, but then showed the truth about what really happened to Sazz (played by Jane Lynch) on that fateful opening night. Let’s see what happened together.
But if you are here, you know very well what we are talking about, and indeed you have seen the season finale and you have some doubts, or you come from the future and before watching season 5 you want to review how the previous one ended. In any case, here is the explanation of the ending of Only Murders in the Building Season 4: who killed Sazz, why, what happens to him, and, of course, who is the person who dies in the finale and whose murder Mabel, Charles, and Oliver will investigate in the next (already confirmed) season.
Only Murders in the Building Season 4 Ending Explained: Who Really Was Marshall P. Pope?
Sazz, one of the most beloved characters, was killed off in the first episode of season four, but not all the details of her death were made clear. Marshall P. Pope – aka Rex Bailey (played by Jin Ha) – was revealed as Sazz’s protégé, a former stuntman with dreams of becoming a screenwriter. After an accident on the set of Project Ronkonkoma ended his stunt career, Marshall attempted to launch his career as a screenwriter, basing his script on his own childhood trauma. Marshall tried to prove himself to his father as a talent, but his efforts were not enough. When Sazz revealed that she had her script based on the podcast “Only Murders in the Building,” Marshall saw his hopes dashed. Through deception and growing frustration, he decided to steal Sazz’s script and pass it off as his own. Things escalated when Sazz discovered the betrayal and showed herself willing to reveal everything to Charles (Steve Martin).
Marshall’s Plan: One Killer, No Accomplices
The narrative has led the public to believe that Sazz’s murder was the work of a group of people, but the truth is simpler and starker: Marshall acted alone. After learning that Sazz would be at Charles’s apartment the next day, Marshall rented an empty apartment in the Dudenoff building, remembered from the stolen draft of the script. From there he took aim and shot Sazz, but not before he hesitated for a moment, uttering the line, “You’re not a killer, you’re a writer.” But ultimately, for Marshall, the reality was that he wasn’t a writer yet, not without material to write about. After the murder, Marshall quickly ran down the front of the building and into Charles’s apartment, leaving behind evidence that had initially baffled our investigation team. Sazz was then thrown into the old incinerator, a feat Marshall managed to accomplish alone, despite his initial suspicions about the difficulty of such a feat.
Charles and Oliver, improvised heroes
Amid the action, Mabel (Selena Gomez) finds herself confronted by Marshall, who threatens to kill her. This alarm draws the attention of Charles and Oliver (Martin Short), who are in Charles’s apartment on the other side of the building. In a tragicomic scene, Charles and Oliver climb over the ledge to try to save Mabel. When they enter Marshall’s apartment, the two friends are prepared to use every resource at their disposal – including a multi-tool from Eva Longoria – to disarm him. Marshall confesses, revealing the whole truth about the murder. But just when it seems Marshall might take over and end all of their lives, Charles’ psychotic ex-girlfriend Jan Bellows (played by Amy Ryan) appears. Hiding in the apartment for three weeks, Jan acts to avenge Sazz, shooting Marshall just when it seems all is lost.
A Wedding and a New Mystery at Arconia
With the case solved, life at Arconia finally seems ready to return to normal. Charles, Oliver, and Mabel take a trip to the set of the movie based on their podcast, where Charles is thrilled to learn that the script is a love letter to him from Sazz. Meanwhile, Oliver and Loretta (Meryl Streep) prepare for their wedding in the Arconia courtyard. But as we learned from Only Murders in the Building, every time one case closes, another opens. During the ceremony, a woman named Sofia Caccimelio (played by Téa Leoni) shows up to ask the trio to find her husband, Nicky “The Neck” Caccimelio, the infamous “Dry Cleaning King of Brooklyn,” who has mysteriously disappeared.
Charles and Mabel initially decline, as the case doesn’t seem to involve Arconia, but Sofia insists that Nicky’s disappearance is tied to the building. The wedding continues, and Charles, Mabel, and Oliver relax at the thought of having avoided another body… until they find the lifeless body of doorman Lester (played by Teddy Coluca) in the courtyard fountain. Once again, the mystery beckons, and the podcast “Only Murders in the Building” is ready for a new season.
An Ending that Promises New Developments!
Season 4 of Only Murders in the Building has managed to mix comedy and drama brilliantly, taking the viewer through a carousel of emotions. The reveal of the killer well before the finale was a bold choice, which allowed the series to explore the consequences of the characters’ actions in greater depth, rather than focusing only on the final surprise. This gave space to moments of real emotional impact, such as the relationship between Charles and Sazz, and the tragic epilogue of Marshall, who desperately tried to become someone, ending up losing himself forever. Oliver and Loretta’s wedding was a bittersweet moment, especially given their impending geographic separation, but it also demonstrated the resilience of love in a context fraught with danger and mystery. Their decision to navigate a long-distance relationship was mature, showing that affection between characters is not just a romantic whim, but a thoughtful decision based on mutual respect.
Conclusions: What awaits us in the next season?
The season four finale leaves a lot of doors open for season five. Who killed Lester and what is the connection to the disappearance of Nicky “The Neck” Caccimelio? How will Oliver and Loretta’s relationship evolve once she leaves for New Zealand? And what awaits Charles and Mabel, now that they seem to have closed the doors to new cases but once again find themselves with a murder to solve right in their backyard? The structure of Only Murders in the Building has accustomed us to seeing the three protagonists trapped between their passion for true crime and the reality of living in a place constantly shrouded in mystery. The charm of the series lies precisely in this balance between personal drama and the irony of the absurd events that surround them.
Who Killed Sazz?
This was understood, even if it was not yet certain, already in episode 9. The killer of Charles’s stuntwoman friend is Sazz’s former protégé, Rex Bailey, who was supposed to debut in Ron Howard’s famous film Project Ronkonkoma but – as the director himself explained to Oliver and Charles when they met by chance in a Chinese restaurant after several vain attempts to intercept him – he had been fired after accidentally burning his eyebrows with his costume still on fire. After being fired, Rex was replaced by Glen Stubbins, who therefore knew who he had replaced, and for this reason, Rex killed him in the hospital as soon as he found out since Sazz’s cell phone had been chosen as the emergency contact by Glen, who had regained consciousness and could therefore remember at any time where he had already seen him.
When Oliver and Charles see Rex’s photo, they realize that it’s the one they know as Marshall P. Pope, the screenwriter of the movie based on their podcast. They warn Mabel with a message, which is seen by Rex-Marshall himself, who is in the Dudenoff apartment occupied by Mabel, who in turn has just noticed that in the crate of beer bottles that Sazz had brought that night to celebrate there is a screenplay for a movie called Only Murders in the Building written by Sazz Pataki. And so…
Why Did Rex/Marshall Kill Sazz (and Glen)?
So, Rex/Marshall knows he is trapped and takes Mabel hostage, telling Oliver and Charles not to call the police or he will kill the girl. Charles then decides to try to reach the apartment where Mabel and the killer are from the ledge, and with the help of his new friends from the West Tower, and thanks to the merengue lessons that Oliver took for his wedding with Loretta, the two somehow manage to break in and disarm the man, who confesses the reason why he killed the person who had treated him so well. After his stunt career ended, Rex returned to try his hand at writing. He gave a script to Sazz, who was so inspired that she wrote a script of her own, which she gave to Rex for feedback. Rex had thought it was so good that ashamed of being outclassed by someone on his first try, he had told her that he thought it was mediocre and that he had to rewrite it from scratch, and then he had not contacted his friend.
In return, he had sent Pataki’s script around, and shortly afterward he had been contacted by Paramount to produce the film. When Sazz found out about this, she called her former protégé for a confrontation. An argument broke out, with the usually kind Sazz ordering Rex to tell the truth or he would be the one to tell everyone, starting with Charles. So, knowing the story of Dudenoff that Sazz had put in the script, he entered the empty apartment and waited for Sazz to arrive at the Arconia to compliment Charles and the others to kill her with a rifle, taking advantage of his father’s obsession with teaching them to hunt. At first, he stopped out of guilt, but when he saw her enter Charles’ apartment alone he shot and killed her. But without killing her, and so while Sazz wrote “tap in” with her blood to give a clue (thus indicating that he had been a stuntman) Rex reached the house from the ledge and killed poor Sazz and then cremated her in the incinerator.
What Happens to Sazz’s Killer?
After the confession, Rex manages to get his gun back and threatens to kill our three heroes, but at that very moment, he is hit in the back by a bullet fired from Charles’ house. Jan (the murderer from the first season and Charles’ ex-girlfriend), who when the police arrive to take her, confesses to Charles that she has always remained hidden there, in the depths of the building that we discovered in the previous seasons.
Who Dies at the End of Only Murders in the Building Season 4?
Happy ending, therefore, especially for Oliver and Loretta who finally managed to get married, even though he feared that she would be the next victim to investigate. Instead, the wedding is celebrated and now Loretta leaves for New Zealand, where the production of the TV series in which she participates has been transferred, and where in theory her new husband should follow her shortly. But as always in OMitB, the season finale already projects us toward the next one. First, the three are approached by a woman named Sofia Caccimelio who asks them to investigate the death of her husband, ensuring its connection to the palace, but the proposal is rejected. In the last scene, when Charlez Mabel and Oliver think they have finally celebrated a bloodless party in the building, they discover the bloody corpse of Lester, the doorman, in the garden fountain (before, Sofia Caccimelio had said she had entered without meeting the doorman). And so it will be the murder of poor Lester, the case to be solved in Only Murders in the Building Season 5.
