‘Only Murders in the Building’ Recap: Man vs. Machine

Photo: Patrick Harbor/Disney

We’ve grown accustomed to the controversial presence of LESTR (the robot doorman) in the Arconia, but how — and when — did he get there? Apparently his arrival preceded OG Lester’s death, and we flashback to see human Lester opening up the contraption and opting to keep it locked away downstairs. But just because the robot wasn’t on the clock doesn’t mean it wasn’t keeping tabs on what was going on. Stored away in the breakroom, it saw even the most salacious comings and goings, like Lester saying, “I’ve been looking the other way too long,” and Randall stashing away the bloodied elevator crank. This robot could be the key to cracking the case, like those parrots who witness crimes.

But when the trio go to confront Randall after catching him with the murder weapon via the courtyard’s bird watching camera, he bolts. That isn’t necessarily a good sign innocence-wise. All in all, things aren’t looking good. The countdown is on until they all lose their homes in the Arconia, and now their main suspect has (at least according to his social media) fled to Cuba — meaning their entire case has essentially hit a complete dead end.

All that’s left to do is get drunk and mourn the loss of the Arconia with their fellow residents, including a familiar face. Teddy, played by Nathan Lane, is out of prison just in time for this mopey bon voyage, but he’s not necessarily free from having a warden. LESTR has been running a tight ship, so much so that even Howard has been replaced as its administrator by one of Camila’s goons. “After everything I’ve done for you, I’m not gonna be ignoredLESTR,” a scorned Howard says, doing his best Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction. But on the bright side, to commemorate their last night, Oliver plans to host a Last Supper themed party — à la Carrie Bradshaw in And Just Like Thator Jesus in the Bible.

Mabel and Detective Williams do some moping of their own in the gaming parlor, and it seems like Mabel might be ready to hang up her investigator hat once and for all and jet off to the Maldives with Jay. But then she spots a footprint — or rather a flip flop print, the direction of which helps reveal YET ANOTHER secret passageway. Beyond that hidden door they find blood splatter, the same white paint that was on Nicky’s clothes, a path to the dry cleaner’s, and a big painting that Mabel recognizes as the background in Randall’s Cuba post. That means he isn’t abroad after all… he’s still in the building.

But where? Luckily for them, as they’re arguing with Charles about his lack of sentimentality, a food order arrives for a vacant apartment. Odd, right? But then LESTR reveals that it’s not empty after all, and that Randall has been squatting there, so off they go. He bolts again, but ultimately gets cornered in the lobby in front of the whole building. He maintains his innocence (despite all this running), and says that Lester told him not to say anything. Convenient that a dead man is the only one who can back him up given that nobody else was there…or were they?

“I was there,” the LESTR robot says, before offering to show footage of everything he/it witnessed. The video shows a bleeding, panicked Lester urgently instructing Randall to bring Oliver his shrimp. “It’s not my blood,” he explains, “I didn’t mean to hurt anybody, I couldn’t let that mobster take down my building, I’ve been looking the other way for too long.” He goes on to tell Randall to keep quiet for his own safety and says he saved the Arconia with a piece of the old Arconia: the elevator crank. It’s poetic, and it seems that it was Lester who killed Nicky to protect the building he loved so much.

But the mystery of who in turn killed Lester still remains, and the whole building is now emboldened to finish the work he started to find the killer and save the building. So naturally they all convene at Oliver’s Last Supper. “Thank the Lord and Miller for returning our murder board to us,” he says, never afraid to slip in a niche reference in even the most dire of situations.

Amidst all this hubbub and resurgence of building camaraderie, Jay arrives to whisk Mabel off to the Maldives (where he’ll wear flip flops, perhaps?) — but she’s had a change of heart. Since she’s back to investigating a crime for which he’s still a suspect, rekindling this connection doesn’t seem like the best idea. Plus, seeing the negative impact of a billionaire buying up whatever they want has now put a bad taste in Mabel’s mouth billionaire-wise.

As they all convene around the murder board, Howard recognizes the scuff mark that they found in front of Charles’s fridge after the finger was stolen. Randall chimes in to say it looks like the same scuff marks LESTR has been leaving around the lobby, but Howard rejects that accusation — and not just because he’s in love with the robot. Instead, he says that after years of caring for his mother (which we caught a glimpse of in the flashback episode earlier this season), he knows for certain that that scuff mark came from a motorized scooter. Just like that it clicks into place, as the trio realize who, over the course of this investigation, uses a jazzy scooter: Nicky’s mother.

We flashback to her collecting the finger with the help of her rambunctious (and previously inept-seeming) grandsons, before the trio goes down to the dry cleaner’s to confront them. “Dammit,” she says in Italian upon being caught. But of course, with one episode still left, there are plenty of questions that remain. No matter how nefarious she may be, I’m not so sure this old lady would have been able to kill Lester, even if he did kill her son. Then again, her grandsons seem ready and willing to do her bidding. And while we at least now know where the finger ended up, we still need answers on where it came from. Maybe Camila’s penchant for wearing gloves is about something more than just paying tribute to her great grandmother?