Only Murders in the Building Season 3 Ending Explained: Who Killed Ben Glenroy?
Only Murders in the Building Season 3 is a mystery comedy created by Steve Martin and John Hoffman, Charles (Steve Martin), Oliver (Martin Short) and Mabel (Selena Gomez) investigate a new murder. This time the crime occurs backstage at a Broadway show. The victim is Ben Glenroy (Paul Rudd), a Hollywood star whose Broadway debut is cut short by his untimely death. Although the actor reappears and reveals that he did not die on stage, he cannot escape his fate and is killed in the elevator of the protagonist’s building. Mabel proposes resuming the podcast, so together with her colleagues she reconstructs the events and the first evidence points to the team behind Oliver Putnam’s work as suspects, which undoubtedly also includes Loretta Durkin (Meryl Streep), who did not have a good relationship with the victim.
We have therefore reached the end of this third season of Only Murders in the Building. Last week’s episode had directed us towards the solution of the case, only partially understood by the trio, given that in this appointment we discover that Donna only poisoned Ben, while it was her son who pushed him into the elevator shaft and therefore killed him, Cliff, just to protect his mother. This revelation arrives quite soon, right from the start: from the ease with which the woman confesses, and from Mabel’s suspicions, we sense that something is wrong with Donna’s reconstruction and in the end, the girl understands everything, nailing Cliff and solving the mystery once and for all. Only Murders in the Building However, Episode 10 is also the episode which, as if to represent the closing of a circle, brings to the stage the premiere of Oliver’s highly anticipated musical. From the first to the first, we could thus summarize this third season of the Hulu series, and even in this new debut on stage everything risked falling apart, with Cliff’s threat to throw himself onto the stage, but this time everything was resolved for the best and the show was a huge success, a worthy conclusion to a very complex journey.
Only Murders in the Building Season 3: The Story Plot
The second season ended with a cliffhanger that left fans of the series curious until the release of this third wave of episodes, namely the murder of Ben Glenroy during his Broadway debut. A murder that is different from previous ones due to the location: why, despite the title, was the victim killed outside Arconia? The solution is as simple as it is ingenious and is the perfect summa of this third season which adds a further element: theatricality. We leave Arconia to move to a Broadway theater, Only Murders in the Building manages to renew itself without, in fact, changing. There is everything: a director who wants to demonstrate to the public and critics that he is great, the legend of a ghost that haunts the theatre, a strict producer except with her beloved son, a protagonist hated by everyone with a questionable career behind him, arguments and competitiveness, hidden trapdoors and propitiatory rituals.
But, above all, Only Murders in the Building manages to break out of its mold and propose a new theme. Alongside friendship, dreams, the need for fulfillment, and following one’s path, this last season talks about family and the relationship between mother and son. The second season of the TV series Only Murders in the Building focused on the murder of Bunny Folger, the cynical administrator of Arconia who in the end turned out to be a nostalgic sentimentalist. The more human side of her, initially known only by a few close friends, was not enough to prevent her from coming to a bad end but was useful to Mabel, Oliver, and Charles to unmask her killer and bring her justice. Becky Butler aka Poppy White, the workaholic assistant of the well-known podcaster Cinda Canning, is finally revealed to be behind Bunny’s murder.
After changing her identity to hide her past, Becky begins working in Cinda’s agency to become a professional like her. However, Cinda exploits Becky as a jack of all trades without giving weight to her commitment and skill. The girl ends up killing Bunny just to impress Cinda, thus unknowingly offering her a new case for the podcast to take credit for, as she is the architect behind this crime. But things ultimately don’t go as hoped for Becky and she is unmasked and arrested. After the closing of yet another bad chapter, the trio of aspiring detectives made up of Mabel, Oliver, and Charles seem to have found their tranquility. But the peace does not last long because it is soon interrupted by a new mystery. When Oliver finally debuts his new Broadway show, the star Ben Glenroy suddenly collapses to the floor and dies instantly while performing on the stage. The second season of Only Murders in the Building ends with another unexpected death to the general shock of everyone present including Mabel, Oliver, and Charles themselves.
Only Murders in the Building Season 3 Ending Explained: Who Killed Ben Glenroy?
The penultimate episode had brought us to a turning point: thanks to Howard’s patient work with the paper shredded by the shredder, Mabel Charles and Oliver had understood a series of things. In practice, Donna had locked herself in KT’s office to read Maxine’s review, which had been particularly ruthless towards Ben, Donna had imposed on her son Cliff to put a catchy name on the bill of the first show produced by her son. And so, in order not to ruin her beloved Cliff’s debut, Donna destroyed the review, then crossed paths with Ben advising him to take care of himself. Why? Because she knew about Ben’s eating disorder. So, she makes him find a biscuit in the dressing room on which she had put rat poison, which he cannot resist (the biscuit, not the poison). And here we are at the last episode.
The three protagonists try to frame her by making her admit what she did while secretly recording her, and she actually admits to having poisoned the biscuit, dosing it somewhat at random (“How many mice does a Ben Glenroy make?”), but not having it afterwards pushed down the Arconia elevator shaft, when Ben “really” died. But then she understands what must have happened with that lipstick-stained handkerchief and then, as Loretta had done with Dickie when she thought he was guilty, she takes the blame for the murder but asks Oliver and the others not to report her until the end of the first, about to start at the theater. The show begins, but Mabel – who unlike Charles and Oliver is not engaged on stage – is not entirely persuaded by Donna’s confession. She, therefore, remembers Donna and Cliff’s “ritual” before the show, which consists of two kisses: one on the lips “and one on the heart”, done by printing a kiss on her son’s pocket square. And she understands that the real culprit is not the mother, but her son.
So, while Loretta sings her song about a mother willing to do anything for her children, she goes backstage and reaches Cliff who has taken refuge above the stage. And here the moment of Ben’s death is reconstructed. Do you remember the mysterious phone call you received from Ben who had left the party at Arconia? Here, it was his doctor who was telling him that a test had found that, among various substances, there was also rat poison in his system. Cliff randomly crosses paths with him after this phone call, and the two soon come to understand that the only explanation is that Donna put rat poison on the cookie Ben ate to protect “her real star”, Cliff. The two have a heated confrontation, with Cliff losing his temper when Ben continues to call him “boy” and fatally pushing him when Ben tells him he intends to report to his mother.
Cornered by Mabel, with the prospect of ending up in prison while his mother has stage four cancer, Cliff threatens to throw himself down (i.e. onto the stage). The show draws to a close, with Charles and Oliver catching up with their podcast partner and somehow avoiding Cliff’s insane act. The police arrive, take mother and son away, and this case too has been solved by our heroes. All finished? Of course not, because we already know how Only Murders in the Building works. And so, while our friends are celebrating at Arconia, Sazz, Charles’ stunt double, arrives, saying he wants to talk to Charles. Who in the meantime wants to celebrate the moment by going to get some special bottles of Argentine wine from his apartment? We then see the figure of Charles enter the house and be hit by a bullet fired from outside. Could Charles be dead? No, because we discover immediately after that the person hit is Sazz, who on the verge of death tries to write something in blood on the floor but dies before he succeeds. No problem, actually, because this case will be solved in the next season of this always amazing TV series.
While Mabel finds a new ally in her research, Oliver focuses on breathing new life into his work to convince Donna (Linda Emond) and Cliff DeMeo (Wesley Taylor) not to cancel his project. Something he achieves after turning it into a musical and writing the perfect song for Loretta. As the investigation progresses into the third season of Only Murders in the Building, the protagonists find several clues that clear the picture and bring them closer to the culprit. However, failing to get concrete answers about Ben’s murder, the trio devise a peculiar method to recreate the final moments of his life.
Although Loretta confesses to being Ben Glenroy’s murderer to protect her son, Dickie (Jeremy Shamas), Mabel, Charles, and Oliver continue investigating until they reach the truth and finally conclude that Donna is responsible, since she gave him a poisoned cookie after finding out about the bad review the play would receive because of his performance. However, when she claims that she also pushed him down the elevator, Mabel realizes that something is wrong with her story and quickly deduces that Donna lied to protect Cliff, who argued with Ben and accidentally pushed him. They are both arrested, but the drama is not over yet.
Who Dies at the End of Only Murders in the Building Season 3?
After unmasking the culprits, the protagonists of Only Murders in the Building attend the party that Oliver organizes to celebrate the premiere of his work “Death Rattle” and its promising reviews. During the celebration, Dickie tells his mother Loretta that he has been offered more acting roles in Los Angeles. When Tobert (Jesse Williams) asks Mabel to accompany him to Los Angeles, she refuses but assures him that she will visit him. Meanwhile, Sazz Pataki (Jane Lynch), Charles’ old friend and double arrives at the party and tells Steve Martin’s character that she needs to talk to him about a “sensitive” matter.
Before that conversation takes place, Charles goes home to get a bottle of his prized 1966 Argentine Malbec. While in his apartment, a bullet goes through his window and wounds someone. What is it about? Charles reveals that Sazz went for the liquor, so she’s the one on the ground. Who killed her and why? Was the shot aimed at Charles?
