TV & Streaming

SPOILER ALERT: The following reveals major plot points from Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building‘s Season 5 finale.

Another season of Hulu’s hit comedy Only Murders in the Building has come to a close. Before discussing what’s ahead for the newly announced sixth season, there’s so much to discuss regarding Lester’s (Teddy Coluca) murder.

So who killed the Arconia’s beloved doorman? The murderer was revealed to be Mayor Beau Tillman, played by Season 5 guest star Keegan-Michael Key. He had plenty to gain from Camila White’s (Renée Zellweger) purchase of the building to turn it into a casino. There was a lot of money to be made, and an alliance with the New York City Mayor would certainly make things a lot easier, especially while cutting through red tape. It’s also great for the Mayor to be friendly with people with a lot of money, who can help support his campaign financially. One hand washes the other.

From Season 5, Episode 1, there were always two murders to figure out: Lester’s and Nicky Caccimelio’s (Bobby Cannavale), the wanna be mob boss who, alongside his family, owned a chain of dry cleaners, including one located at the Arconia.

In the Season 4 finale, Nicky’s wife, Sofia Caccimelio (Téa Leoni), sought out Charles (Steve Martin), Oliver (Martin Short), and Mabel (Selena Gomez) for help locating her missing husband. This season, the audience learns that Nicky is dead, and it’s revealed in the finale that Lester killed him while defending the tenants at his beloved Arconia.

A flashback showed what all went down that infamous night at the Arconia’s casino that left two bodies without life. A preoccupied Nicky sat around the poker table, alongside Camila, Bash (Christoph Waltz), Jay (Logan Lerman), the Mayor, and Lester, when a text came in. Someone sent Nicky photos of his wife, Sofia, making out with the problematic Mayor. Although Nicky and Sofia’s relationship had cooled, Nicky was furious to learn his wife had stepped out on him and with whom. After doing a line of coke, Nicky takes a clever and the Mayor’s finger. Yes, the same one that appeared in Oliver’s seafood in a prior episode.

Fed up with Nicky’s dramatics, Lester uses his elevator crank and whacks the former hard in the back of his neck. Lester announces to the room that for years, he’s been taking notes of all the criminal activity and threatens to reveal all to the cops. Nicky grabs a handful of pages from Lester’s ledger and starts to eat them, getting rid of some evidence. Nicky and Lester struggle for the cleaver, which ends up embedded in the former’s chest, causing his death.

Mr. Mayor is arguing with Lester about his missing appendage, and chases him to the fountain, where the latter dies. The Mayor, in his attempt to get his finger from Lester, throws the doorman into the fountain, where he hits his head and dies.

Only Murders in the Building co-creator John Hoffman broke down the events of the finale, killing off Cinda Canning, played by Tina Fey, and moving the show to London.

DEADLINE: Before we get to the big stuff, I want to call you out for tricking us about Paul Rudd being in the finale. [Laughs] I watched the episode twice, looking for him before I realized he was Lester’s voiceover. Can we expect to see—or hear him— in every season moving forward?

JOHN HOFFMAN: [Laughs] I know it’s tricky. God, I would love it, because I will never get sick of Paul Rudd. It’s one of my favorite things, and his too, more famously, but a running joke he likes. We’re all family now, so it’s very sweet to be able to find ways to incorporate family, whether their characters are dead or alive, or anything in between. If you’re in it, you’re in it.

DEADLINE: Speaking of family, we may have lost Lester, but he went out like a hero defending the Arconia and the residents. How did you plan all the elements of this resolution?

HOFFMAN: The complication this year was understanding the position that we wanted Lester to be in within that situation, which was a crime of passion and not something he planned. It’s not some didactic or even short-term planning. So who’s in the room, who’s in that gaming parlor? What do they all want? What all happens that screws up everything? How do they then react afterward, to keep what they want in their sights and maintain, switch around, and cover up, and do whatever they need to do? For those in power, that tends to be what can happen.

DEADLINE: Having grown up watching Steve Martin and Martin Short films, you know how much I love silly comedy. There was a lot of that in the Season 5 finale. I particularly loved the moment when Bash asks Charles to pull his finger. Who wrote this episode? They deserve a promotion.

HOFFMAN: The episode was written by Ben Smith and J. J. Philbin. I’m glad that you liked that one, I did, too. I loved seeing the Caccimelio brothers back there, because that’s a joke they’ve had since they were 2.

DEADLINE: We are closing out on Season 5, and the core trio are old pros by now. There was major confidence from Mabel when she figured out that the Mayor killed Lester, and she chopped off his fake finger.

HOFFMAN: She was done. She was like, “That’s it. I’m sick of these power players. I’m sick of Jay playing it the way he is.” I love that line that she had at the end of Episode 9, where she tells Jay, “You want to make the world a better place, stop making it worse.” She’s at her breaking point. She’s lost everything before, so she’s got nothing to lose, and she’s sick of it. Then she starts putting it together. It’s crazy, Rosy, that our show is airing in the middle of the mayoral race in New York. It’s bonkers. Mabel represents a lot of people who are also sick of it.

DEADLINE: You guys also joined the conversation about casinos in New York, which is also a real thing.

HOFFMAN: Definitely. There were headlines back before we started the writers’ room, all about bids for a casino. There were three plans that we all looked at that were major, major bids for these casinos. It was angling from all of these different sides: who was going to get that bid? Where was it going to be, and what would that do to New York? That was all very much in our heads.

DEADLINE: The show was just renewed, and you’ve already got us excited about next season, which will investigate Cinda Canning’s death. Does this mean we will have a lot of Tina Fey?

HOFFMAN: After that three-month jump in the episode, it’s always that vacuum of like for a trio looking at, you know, what now? What next? Where do we go? And all of that. The character of Cinda started everything, so we’re going back to the beginning. So the nature of what she’s doing, what she is doing over in England, doing this thing now, why? I got to know more about it, and it’s an opportunity to tease something that opens up a whole new mystery in the home of the cozy murder mystery, which felt very exciting.

DEADLINE: That bit when her body is found dead, only she was still alive enough to touch the gates of the Arconia, so her death was technically in the building, really made me laugh.

HOFFMAN: I will tell you, Steve Martin pitched that to us, and it was his idea. I just loved it, and we’ve had it for a little while. It was such a blast to see the moment come to life.

DEADLINE: The idea that the show will be shooting in London must be very exciting.

HOFFMAN: London is New York’s sister city. There will be all sorts of connectors. We will take our storytelling and steep it into this new culture and our trio will be fish in new waters.

DEADLINE: So, will you be shooting in London and New York?

HOFFMAN: No, just in London.

DEADLINE: Don’t take this the wrong way, but I was hoping Howard would die this season.

HOFFMAN: Why Howard?

DEADLINE: Michael is a fantastic actor, and those scenes between Howard and his mother were really touching. I selfishly wanted to learn more about Howard and his journey. I instantly changed my mind about wanting him offed when I saw his new hunk.

HOFFMAN: Yes, exactly. He got Vinny Caccimelio (Evan Mulrooney). [Laughs]