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1:50

Hut Media. Do you remember the scene

1:52

of her like in the alleyway behind

1:54

the Arconia, putting garbage in the dumpster

1:57

and going, who's that? We

2:01

were really like, we'd lost the thread.

2:08

Hello and welcome to the Only Murders in

2:10

the Building podcast. I'm Ryan Tillotson. And I'm

2:12

Maggie Bowles. And we're looking behind the scenes

2:14

and mining for clues as we meet the

2:16

cast and creators of the Hulu original series,

2:19

Only Murders in the Building. Today on the

2:21

show, we're continuing our conversation about season

2:23

four, episode 10, the finale,

2:26

My Best Friend's Wedding. We'll hear more

2:29

from Jin, Jane, John, and JJ. That's

2:32

Jin Ha, who plays Marshall P. Pope slash

2:34

Rex Bailey, Jane Lynch, who plays Saz Pataki,

2:37

showrunner, co-creator, and co-writer of the episode John

2:39

Hoffman, and J.J. Philbin, who co-wrote the episode

2:41

with John. We'll also hear from production designer

2:43

Patrick Howe. We'll talk about the moment Jin

2:46

found out his role was a

2:48

little more complex than he had initially thought.

2:51

The piece of Only Murders history that

2:53

Jane Lynch took home, and of

2:55

course, our new murder in the

2:57

building. Well, in

2:59

the courtyard of the building. Yeah,

3:01

close enough. Long

3:10

before he had auditioned for the role

3:13

of Marshall P. Pope, Jin Ha and

3:15

his partner were both Only Murders fans.

3:17

Correct, correct. Big fans, big, big fans.

3:21

So that's why I knew from

3:25

the beginning when I found out about

3:28

Marshall and Rex,

3:32

we both decided early on, and I

3:35

had to just pretend from the very beginning

3:37

being like, hey, if I find out anything,

3:40

you know, as I'm reading scripts from up

3:42

at what I do you want to know did she

3:44

was like, don't tell me anything. I

3:46

just I was like, good to know. And then I

3:49

was like, good luck to me. The

3:51

next, you know, I was trying to pretend was all

3:53

like, I mean, I guess we're diving in now, but I was like, it

3:56

was already like, having to come up

3:58

with reasons why I'm still working towards

4:00

the end of the season. And

4:03

in my mind, I was like, right, going back

4:05

to season two, when they had the murder mystery

4:07

party, and everyone was gathered for the reveal, I

4:09

was like, maybe I can pretend like it's something

4:11

like that, where it's like, oh, you know, it's

4:14

just a bunch of us are all there and

4:16

like, it's a lot of coverage of like, looks

4:18

and expressions. And so like, you know, we're just

4:20

standing around all day, even though it's, you know,

4:22

one of the later episodes, like all these tiny

4:24

little intricate ways that I'm like, how do I

4:26

preserve the magic? So

4:28

how early on in the process did

4:30

you find out that you were the

4:32

killer? It

4:35

was not until I flew out to LA to

4:38

shoot. So I had

4:40

I had prepped questions about Marshall. I was like,

4:42

Oh, he's a playwright. Great. I

4:44

have playwright friends. I have screenwriter friends. I'm going

4:46

to talk to them. I'm going to like, get

4:48

out. I'm going to buy these writing books. I'm

4:50

going to really get into character for what a

4:53

Hollywood screenwriter's life would be like, who's just trying

4:55

to get a project picked up. And

4:59

I had a meeting scheduled with John Hoffman.

5:02

I think a day or two before our first

5:04

day of shooting in LA, it was like the

5:06

big mansion scene of the Hollywood Hills. And

5:10

I had a meeting, you know, thinking like, Oh, this

5:12

will be a good way for me to ask about

5:14

Marshall's overall arc. Like, you know,

5:16

what kind of tone or style or energy

5:19

do we want him to inhabit within this

5:22

extraordinary, extraordinarily colorful cast?

5:28

We maybe had a little bit of small talk. I don't

5:30

even remember all of it, but I remember sitting down in

5:32

one of his offices out there and

5:35

he sat down and then Ben Smith

5:37

and Kristen Newman happened

5:40

to be walking by or something. And John's like, Oh,

5:42

come on in. And either

5:44

Ben or Kristen looked at John and was like,

5:46

have you told him yet? I was like, what?

5:50

In my mind, just thinking the first thing I

5:52

was like, Oh, it's been a good

5:54

run. Like they've still found somebody else. And you know

5:56

what? I'm happy to have been here. And

5:58

this projection, you're just actors are just

6:00

ready for rejection. There

6:03

are the crazy stories out there that exist

6:05

stranger than fiction. So I was like, it's

6:07

possible. Yeah. Or obviously, like whatever else it

6:10

might be. I was like, there's no inkling

6:12

in my mind that I was like, this

6:14

is where this is going. Because

6:17

obviously, in the audition, there was nothing mentioned at

6:19

all. It was just like, oh, this nervous guy

6:21

who really loves nine to five. Like, that's his

6:23

favorite movie. And it wasn't

6:26

like a breakdown somewhere. And yeah, he and

6:28

then he sat down and then he, I

6:30

don't even remember the word he I might

6:32

think he might have said something like, just

6:35

point blank, like, so you're the

6:37

killer and it you

6:40

know, like white void in my

6:42

mind. My heart is racing. And

6:47

I think I said something like, oh,

6:49

well, all of the questions I prepared don't

6:52

matter anymore. And

6:56

that it was just, you know, obviously, like

6:58

the next 30 minutes to 45 minutes just

7:00

being like receiving information that I think in

7:02

my my notebook that I had brought, some

7:05

random things I had scribbled was like, Marshall

7:07

is not my name. And

7:11

like without fully because they were still writing the

7:13

scripts, I think 78910, as we were shooting

7:16

and I just got

7:18

like large brushstrokes of the

7:21

idea but I think even they were still

7:23

hashing out like the details of how

7:25

the murder happened and exactly, you know, like what

7:27

are all the elements. And it was

7:31

shocking to say the least. And

7:34

then obviously from then on, like, holy

7:36

shit, what an unbelievable journey. You know, on top

7:38

of that, did you know, I

7:41

didn't know this, that some

7:43

folks on set, including Selena,

7:45

don't want to know. Really?

7:47

We didn't know about Selena.

7:49

Yeah, Selena Selena, apparently, as

7:52

even though she's an EP,

7:55

as much as she can as long for as long

7:57

as she can, she likes to not know and until

7:59

she leaves. reads a script that comes out,

8:01

and then it reveals it. But I

8:04

remember hearing from maybe it

8:06

was from our assistant Allie mentioning that like, she

8:08

had read whichever script was sort of comes up

8:10

and she's like, I still like right before maybe

8:12

episode eight or something. She's like, I still not

8:14

sure like who it is. And everybody

8:17

around her is like, yeah, yeah, totally. So

8:20

in that way, I was I was

8:22

really it was kind of beautiful. It

8:24

was a beautiful, then by not symbiosis,

8:26

but like it worked out well, that

8:29

even on set, I had to be

8:32

careful in speaking to people.

8:34

Yeah, I didn't want to reveal too much. Actually,

8:36

you know, it was Michael to Michael

8:38

so Creighton also was trying not to know

8:40

for as long as possible. Because the first

8:43

thing I said when I met him, I

8:45

you know, we had met once long ago

8:47

in like a little New York Theory Workshop

8:50

presentation. But the

8:53

first time we saw each other on set, he was like,

8:55

Don't tell me anything. Just so you know, I

8:57

don't want to know anything. And I was like, okay,

8:59

nice to see you. And so it was

9:02

it kind of worked out beautifully that I

9:04

had to maintain that

9:06

secret on set. While

9:09

I'm also maintaining that secret at home.

9:12

Because my character had to

9:14

do that anyway. 24

9:17

seven. So it was it. It

9:20

was it was nice. It was

9:22

a nice coincidence. It helped. It helped the performance

9:24

maybe. One would

9:26

hope. Yeah, one would hope. It

9:28

helped my mental, you know. Yeah, yeah,

9:30

yeah, yeah, of course. He does. He's

9:32

got like layers and layers of secrets.

9:35

Also, my you my YouTube algorithm is

9:37

fucked. Oh, well,

9:40

first you look up all this writing

9:42

stuff, I'm sure. And then you start looking into the stunt

9:45

world. I don't know. Yes, start world

9:47

a lot of stunt stuff, like interviews of

9:49

stunt people, I was actually listening to this

9:53

incredible stunt podcast. Is

9:55

it the Daniel Radcliffe one?

9:57

Yes. It's first the

10:00

documentary The Boy Who Lived. Cunning? And yes,

10:03

Cunning Stunts. Cunning Stunts. That's it. Cunning

10:05

Stunts. This is that podcast that writer

10:07

Madeline George told us about back in

10:09

episode four, Cunning Stunts, hosted

10:11

by David Holmes. David Holmes

10:13

was Daniel Radcliffe's stunt double in the

10:16

Harry Potter movies until he was seriously

10:18

injured while filming. Yes. It's a brilliant

10:20

podcast. And he gets incredible stunt people

10:23

on there. And yeah,

10:25

that was a huge shoo-in

10:28

for me, or like

10:31

shoehorn for me to get in there. And then on

10:33

top of that, like, gun stuff

10:35

on YouTube. Right.

10:37

Well, you looked good holding a

10:39

gun. Yeah. Well, let's talk about

10:41

that scene in the finale, which

10:44

is like so good. There's like

10:46

parkour, you know, there's like gun

10:48

stuff. There's Eva

10:50

Longoria's 19 and 1 multi-tool. You

10:53

do quite a few accents as well, which are

10:55

very impressive. They kept that in. Okay, I wasn't

10:58

sure if they would keep that in. I

11:01

mean, it was it was a it

11:04

was a joy. And I

11:06

mean, everything that you just mentioned is like

11:10

five different things that I've

11:12

always wanted to do, specifically

11:14

on screen. And I never

11:17

thought that this

11:20

one role would allow me to

11:22

do all of those things. And

11:25

in such a fabulously exciting

11:28

way. It was really fun.

11:30

All of those elements that you just described almost

11:32

had like nothing to do with each other. It

11:34

just happened to be in the

11:37

the needs and the

11:40

goals that we were trying to achieve with

11:42

that final that final big scene for Marshall

11:45

for Rex. But all of it

11:47

was like as TV world is like kind of

11:49

last minute, you know what I mean? Like I

11:51

had one session with our the

11:53

gun expert who brought in the specific

11:56

rifles that can unscrew and screw. And

11:59

there was like, you know, like 10, 15 minutes beforehand to

12:01

be like, hey, this is how it works, like let's just

12:03

try it out a couple of times. But

12:06

that's the beautiful thrill of, you know, TV

12:08

work especially is, it's

12:10

kind of demands an instant expert mindset.

12:12

It's something I got in grad school

12:14

from a brilliant professor Jim Calder of

12:17

mine, about like, no matter

12:19

what, the assumption is just know exactly what you're, just

12:21

pretend you know exactly what you're doing and

12:23

then go on from there. Skip

12:26

over all the steps where it's like, oh, I've never done

12:28

this before, I never had to screw a rifle together and

12:30

then like, you know what I'm saying? I'm like, sure, but

12:33

I've watched a bunch of YouTube videos. I

12:37

have been to the range a couple of times. Have

12:40

you? Okay. I mean, this is how Rex and

12:42

Marshall did it too. So I mean- Yeah, make

12:44

it till you make it, right? Truly, I mean,

12:46

that's right, that's right. I was just so into

12:48

character that I was just living and breathing his

12:50

philosophies. Well, actually, coincidentally, the reason

12:53

I had been to the range last time was

12:56

because of my small role in

12:58

Civil War, the film, where

13:00

I played a sniper in that, you know, one

13:03

tiny scene. And my friend Carl

13:05

Glusman and I, in preparation for that,

13:07

we were like, oh, let's find a range in LA and just, and

13:11

then we also had a consultation with

13:13

a military expert, Raymond, who was out there.

13:15

And all of that somehow, you

13:17

know, it was like Slumdog Millionaire, where it's

13:19

like all of these tiny things are like

13:21

coming in to be like, yes, this is

13:23

the moment where I get to use this

13:25

expertise or like, you know, my research that

13:27

I've done. The parkour, I mean,

13:29

who the hell? I

13:31

just love, I love parkour personally. And

13:34

have I been jumping around cities all

13:36

over, you know, since my teenage should

13:38

be yelling parkour? Yeah, absolutely. Like

13:41

100% I've been doing that. And

13:44

then to suddenly be able to

13:46

seriously do parkour, I'm like, are

13:49

you kidding me? Yeah. It

13:51

was such a throw. Obviously, I was like, I understand

13:53

that I'm 34 now. And I'm like,

13:55

I don't want to get hurt. And my knees and ankles are

13:57

not what they used to be in my mid 20s. I

16:00

believe they kept that in there. Genuinely, I was

16:02

like, there's no way. But I was like, no,

16:04

I'll try it. It was hilarious. It was very

16:06

friendly. And they were great accents. Yeah, very good

16:09

accents. Very impressed. Thank goodness. Thank goodness. This might

16:11

have classically changed. Yeah, right.

16:13

Hello, it's friendly neighbors Rudy and Vince.

16:15

We want to borrow some sugar, you

16:18

know, like friendly neighbors do. Mabel's

16:21

not here right now. Maybe

16:23

I'll want to come back later. We're making

16:25

sugar chicken. And it's,

16:27

we've never done it before. We're trying to figure

16:30

out anything that might work. Do you have

16:32

any corn on the cob or

16:34

off the cob? How about one

16:36

of those little pickles? One of

16:38

the gherkins or cornishons? Cornishons. Cornishons,

16:40

cornishons. Lads, we were kind of

16:42

busy right now. Well, it's

16:44

whatever you have. It's really what we're

16:47

looking for. Oh my god, you're here.

16:58

After the break, Jane Lynch's favorite

17:00

details in Saz's apartment and the

17:02

artistry that went into Marshall's fake

17:05

beard. Oh,

17:12

real quick. We've got a special

17:14

giveaway for listeners of this podcast,

17:16

Tickets to the Only Murders themed

17:19

escape room. There are locations in

17:21

both Los Angeles and New York. So if you're

17:23

located around one of those two cities and you'd

17:25

like to test your mystery solving chops with three

17:27

of your best buds, here's how you enter. Leave

17:30

this podcast, a rating and review on

17:32

Apple or Spotify or wherever you listen

17:34

from. Take a screenshot and email it

17:36

to only murders at strawhutmedia.com. Include which

17:38

city you want to visit the escape

17:40

room in either New York or Los

17:42

Angeles. We'll pick two winners in LA

17:44

and two in New York and each

17:46

winner will get four tickets. We'll

17:48

choose the lucky detectives right before the season

17:51

finale. That email again is

17:53

only murders at strawhutmedia.com. Good

17:55

luck. Good luck.

17:57

Step into the world of power. Loyalty.

22:00

When? Yeah. It's

22:04

in the hands of Jane Lynch. I guess

22:06

it can stop looking for that now in

22:08

our inventory. Both

22:11

she and Steve Martin really liked that. Yeah,

22:13

so that would be that one. It's

22:16

really great. That's so cool. Character

22:18

of them. So we tried to fill

22:21

it up with a lot

22:24

of stunt person related things

22:26

and motifs that maybe anyone

22:28

living in Los Angeles decor-wise

22:31

might gravitate towards certain styles

22:33

and that stuff. Is

22:36

there anything else from that apartment

22:38

that you remember seeing and

22:40

thinking, this is some great detail? Or

22:42

I love this information. I

22:45

love the x-ray lights.

22:49

It's like a light fixture of the room. And

22:52

these fluorescent lights go up showing her

22:54

x-rays of all of

22:57

her injuries and her artificial

22:59

joints that she had put in from

23:01

Bulgaria. Top of the line. So she

23:03

had that up there. Yeah, yeah. Lots

23:07

of horses and cowboy stuff. And

23:09

you guys are from LA. You'll appreciate this. It

23:11

looks very much like one of those apartments

23:14

that are kind of big and

23:16

they're in courtyard buildings. You

23:19

know, we have in LA. Some of them are small, but the

23:21

ones on the first floor the

23:23

first level are always kind of big. And

23:26

they have the steps up to the dining

23:28

room and it's kind of the Spanish architecture. And

23:31

boy did they, and it's probably

23:33

in Hollywood somewhere and totally, you

23:36

know, like around Wilcox or

23:38

Wilcox and Fountain or

23:40

something. Yeah, so iconic. Oh,

23:42

I've seen those apartments. But

23:44

the actual apartment was on the sound stage,

23:47

right? Like the indoor, inside of the, okay,

23:49

cool. Yeah, yeah. But the exterior

23:51

they shot in LA. And it was an

23:53

apartment that those of us in

23:55

LA recognize and go, oh, I know exactly

23:57

where they are. Exactly. She's probably had it

23:59

since. since 1980, you know, she heard from

24:01

it. She's still paying $65 a month or

24:03

something. It's probably

24:05

right controlled. Yeah, yeah. But the

24:08

neighborhood is probably a little sketchy

24:10

now. Yeah. Probably. And so then

24:12

we have to talk about your

24:15

last scene with Charles, which

24:17

is also just like was, as

24:20

John called it, the kicker at the end. And

24:22

it was, it's like, you know, get a little

24:24

teary eyed in that scene when he asked you

24:26

to move to the writer's chair. Sorry

24:29

you're missing all this. Yeah. Would

24:33

have been nice. I

24:36

think this is your chair. Well,

24:40

thank you, my friend. Actually,

24:48

I missed that guy. You

24:52

did good. I

24:54

know this is just me telling myself I did

24:56

good, but I'll take

24:58

the compliment. Like

25:01

at this point, he knows everything she's done for him.

25:04

And he now has done

25:06

a lot

25:09

for her and her legacy. And

25:13

it's kind of beautiful. And also at that

25:15

moment, too, you get the sense that it's the last scene

25:17

between the two of them, you know,

25:19

that she's going to move on to the

25:21

great trampoline park in

25:23

the sky and that he's going to carry

25:26

on without her. In the beginning of

25:28

the season where he were sitting on the edge of

25:30

the bed and he says, you are

25:32

my very best friend. How am I going to get

25:34

along without you? How am I going to live without

25:36

you? So that kind

25:38

of echoed that. But I love

25:41

that when I sat in that chair, Saz

25:43

was not very comfortable in that chair. She

25:46

wanted to sit on her apple box. Yeah.

25:50

That's where she's used to sitting. Yeah. Oh,

25:52

and the little hat doff

25:54

is very sweet, too. And also, there is

25:56

one more scene that

25:59

I think is really. special in this episode, which

26:01

is when Saz gets

26:03

shot, and she's with

26:05

her dying breath. She's like,

26:09

my number one's gonna get you. You know what I mean?

26:11

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. I'm

26:13

sorry I had to end this way. I

26:16

just, I need

26:18

this. Where's

26:21

the script? The one with your name on it? He's

26:25

gonna get you. Who?

26:29

Who will? I... Number...

26:37

One. Tap

26:42

in. Yeah, tap in. I just think that's

26:45

so special. How was it to

26:47

die on camera? How often do you get to die

26:49

on camera? I think

26:51

I died in a movie called Collateral Damage, like

26:53

in 1999. I

26:56

remember Collateral Damage, yeah. I

26:58

had my neck broken in the bathroom.

27:01

Oh, God. By a really little woman,

27:03

too. I don't know how she did it. But

27:06

it was, yeah, it was fun. I

27:12

got to use my imagination. What would it feel

27:14

like to have the blood going down your throat?

27:18

That kind of stuff. Yeah, it was fun. I

27:20

would be nervous about, I feel

27:22

like that's often the scenes that are made fun of. You

27:25

know, you over perform it or something, you

27:27

know, yeah, you overdo it. Yeah,

27:30

that's true. But we're in

27:32

a world of, we're in a kind of a

27:34

world of weird. So

27:38

anything you do can be looked

27:40

at as genius, even if it's weird.

27:42

That's true. Yeah,

27:44

I feel like on Only Murders

27:46

specifically, everything is a little bit

27:49

amplified. Totally. If there's a

27:51

serious moment, it's always gonna come with some

27:53

comedy. Looking back, now that

27:55

we've seen like how the, how

27:57

Saz's story ends, how do you... How

28:00

do you feel about the show looking back

28:02

on it as a whole? Oh,

28:05

well, I feel like I'm really

28:07

blessed and really lucky to be a part of it.

28:09

It's a really unique

28:11

show. For all those reasons you've just

28:13

said, it's touching and then it's funny.

28:16

And all of this has to do with

28:18

John Hoffman and Steve Martin

28:20

and Martin Short and

28:22

Selena, that kind of group

28:25

there. They figured out

28:27

this dynamic. And

28:29

I'll bet it was probably kind of there to begin with.

28:32

But they really leaned into

28:34

it. And John and the writers

28:36

really leaned into it. And so

28:40

each season is so inventive. But they've

28:42

done something that I think

28:44

is so important in television that people trying to

28:46

be outside the box and make things crazy never

28:49

do. But there is a familiar.

28:51

If it's going to be television, the

28:53

familiarity with places. And when I was

28:56

studying theater, they called it unity of

28:58

place. So you've got

29:00

Charles's apartment is basically kind

29:03

of the constant. And it's

29:05

beautiful to be in. It reflects him

29:07

so well. Anything

29:09

can be done there. The murder board is there.

29:12

They meet there. I

29:14

was killed there. It's kind of the

29:17

place. It's kind of like the bar at Cheers. It's

29:21

Monica and Rachel's apartment and friends.

29:23

It's kind of an important thing

29:25

because it's the place that

29:28

you keep going back to. Like the office

29:30

in the office. And even

29:32

though that's basically where everything happened. But

29:35

they really understand that that

29:37

apartment is a character in

29:41

the show as well as the building and

29:44

where it is in New York. But for

29:46

the most part, it says

29:48

everything for this world, that apartment.

29:51

And we like going back to familiar places where

29:53

everybody knows your name, that kind of thing. Right.

29:56

And we even get like the uncanny

29:58

second Charles's apartment. the season, you know,

30:00

the set. Right, exactly. The

30:02

set. The set,

30:05

yes. The reimagination

30:07

for, you know, a movie

30:09

of something that exists on television. It's so

30:11

great. Yeah, it's so funny. It

30:14

was a joy to be a part of this group and, you

30:17

know, John Hoffman is one of the

30:20

greatest guys. I mean, he's so talented

30:22

and he's so kind and so nice

30:24

and so Steve

30:26

and Marty and so, you know, that's

30:28

the head of this television's

30:30

fish and

30:33

it's, you know, it stinks from the head

30:35

down. It smells from the head down. So,

30:38

yeah, it was a joy to be a part of

30:40

it. And so many people have

30:42

been on it and continue to be on it.

30:44

I mean, this season is just a cavalcade of

30:46

some of the funniest, most

30:48

unique people. Yeah. I'm

30:51

glad to be a part of it. Yeah. Well, you're

30:54

such a huge part of it. Yeah. You

31:01

know, I appreciate this movie in a

31:03

whole different way now. I mean, Saz wrote this.

31:07

Oh, Charles. Do you have any

31:10

favorite moments from the whole season?

31:12

Favorite memories or anything like that?

31:14

Oh, boy. I

31:17

don't think it's so hard

31:19

to pinpoint a favorite. This

31:21

is Jin Ha again. It

31:23

was just an unbelievable gathering

31:26

of heroes

31:28

and stars and brilliant

31:30

minds. And I

31:32

felt overwhelmed to suddenly

31:36

find myself there as

31:38

in like many times I have

31:40

throughout my jobs. And

31:44

really lucky to be there. I feel

31:46

really, really grateful to have

31:48

gotten a chance to play this

31:50

fun, exciting role and

31:52

with such incredible people. Was

31:55

it hard wearing that beard? Oh. Yeah,

31:58

we didn't talk about the beard. great costume thing.

32:00

Why thank you so much. You

32:03

know my beard was real for most of it. Yeah,

32:07

yeah, because I had, funnily enough,

32:09

they had, you know, that character had the

32:11

fake beard, I guess from the

32:13

beginning, from its conception. And then

32:16

coincidentally, it's true,

32:18

a lot of East Asian men can't

32:20

grow full beards for whatever reason.

32:25

But I can. So it kind of worked

32:27

out, I showed up with a

32:29

beard and I was like, okay, like this works. I remember

32:31

like, maybe I mentioned this somewhere

32:33

else, but like Marty came up to me and was first day

32:35

and he was like, is this a fake beard? And I was

32:37

like, no, no, this is real. This is my beard. And it

32:40

was just for that episode where we had to

32:42

see it falling apart that it was maneuvering.

32:44

And then actually, no kudos

32:46

to Ariel, the makeup

32:49

designer, towards the later half

32:51

where we needed to jump back and forth between

32:53

Rex and Marshall. Yeah. She, I've

32:55

never seen this technique before. I know

32:57

it exists elsewhere, but she gets hairs,

33:00

you know, mixed with human hair or

33:02

whatever other types of hair. That's

33:05

good for beards. And then applies

33:07

like glue on my

33:09

face and then would like she's

33:12

a god, building

33:14

a beard on someone's face. She's

33:16

like slowly with like the follicles

33:18

face, you know, the heads of

33:20

the follicles, touching my face to

33:22

like literally touch on and

33:24

build a beard on my face. And then she

33:26

like shades it into the shape. So we had

33:28

to do that a couple of times towards the

33:30

latter episodes. And is that a long process? Yeah,

33:32

like maybe an hour and a half, two hours.

33:36

It usually probably would take longer, but she's

33:38

so good at it. But that was incredible

33:40

because the beard functions and felt

33:42

like a beard. So I was able to talk. And

33:45

I totally forgot, I forgot because it was so real that I

33:47

was like, Oh, yeah, it was just my beard. It was not.

33:51

But it moves because like the fake beards are

33:53

like, you know, it's a it's a straight like

33:55

an attachment you put on that I couldn't really

33:57

smile like it was you couldn't move my face.

42:00

So it got glommed onto by a lot of

42:02

people who love the show and our fans and

42:04

everything and are looking for things like this. Certainly

42:07

the idea of

42:09

Saz doing research for a film,

42:11

going over to that West Tower,

42:14

through her ham radio, connecting to

42:16

Helga, understanding

42:18

about the Dudenhof conspiracy that

42:20

Helga was wrapped up in

42:23

and shared with Saz, understanding

42:26

what the whole Dudenhof mystery over there

42:29

was, found

42:31

its way into Saz's script as

42:33

Marshall refers to as he's setting

42:35

up to shoot Saz. He

42:37

said she had put this whole plot line

42:39

in her script and

42:41

it was, he dumped it. He

42:44

dumped it out of there but that's how he

42:46

knew about the Dudenhof apartment, that's how he knew

42:48

about the code and everything else because she had

42:50

laid it all out as

42:52

a part of that script because there were plot holes. There

42:55

were things that didn't make sense. So she was

42:57

saying in her first version of

42:59

the script, this is what happened.

43:02

Someone put a sign up on Jan's

43:05

door, someone poisoned Winnie, someone did so,

43:07

and Helga and everyone else might have

43:10

intimated that someone could have done that,

43:13

may have done that, but no one, yes,

43:15

you're right, has admitted to that yet. So

43:17

that does remain a loose end at the end

43:20

of season four. I'm

43:22

wondering if there's anything throughout the season

43:24

that we didn't pick up on, like

43:26

I know that we never asked about

43:28

John McEnroe in episode

43:30

five and that's like a funny little cameo.

43:33

Somebody pointed out a bunch of Billy Joel

43:36

in episode seven that we never asked about.

43:38

Are there little Easter eggs and things like

43:40

around the season that you're like, that were

43:42

your favorites or that stuck out or that

43:44

people have asked you the most about? This

43:47

was the most Easter egg

43:49

and extra season,

43:52

I feel like. Everyone

43:54

just jumping in to sort of

43:56

dimensionalize everything, as I say, from

43:58

our prop department. to

44:01

our writers, to

44:03

the opportunity to

44:05

reflect in

44:07

the way that our characters are doing about themselves,

44:11

through the doppelgangers, through the movie someone's writing

44:13

about them, through all of that stuff, but

44:15

also as writers to sort of look at

44:18

this world that was created and sort

44:21

of like to play off of all of that. You

44:25

know, I went to school on Long Island. I

44:27

have a lot of relatives out there. So

44:30

playing off of things like that

44:32

were set up in season one,

44:34

that Charles has a sister that

44:36

has daughters with D names. You

44:39

know, being able to like, it's all that stuff

44:41

that feels like, oh, well, we, what have we

44:43

set up that we could go with and explode

44:46

and then, you know, we

44:49

everything, the dolls and Meryl's

44:51

doll. I mean, these

44:53

are all of the things I loved throughout the

44:55

season. But yes, Billy Joel in that doorbell. When

44:58

we say these things and you must know, it's

45:00

like that you, you put that

45:02

in a script and then it becomes a

45:05

whole thing of legality.

45:07

And can we cover that? Can we

45:09

do that? Will Billy Joel be upset?

45:11

You know, all these things. And

45:13

it's months before you find out whether that doorbell

45:15

is going to sound like that or not.

45:18

Is Billy Joel okay with it? Yeah,

45:21

I don't know what Billy Joel thinks of

45:23

that. I know. He hasn't weighed in

45:25

yet. Where's

45:27

Billy Joel on this? But

45:30

it is true. It's this lore that

45:32

accumulates over the course of the seasons

45:35

that you find yourself. We've

45:37

been doing that a lot, just in writing

45:39

this next season, going back to scenes

45:42

from seasons past and

45:44

learning little things that

45:46

suddenly become really useful.

45:48

And maybe they

45:50

didn't have that much import at the time.

45:53

But it's amazing how they carry

45:56

all this potential with them. Like there is

45:58

a clue in there there could It'd be something we could extrapolate

46:01

off of that. I mean, I remember

46:04

that happening. Saz

46:07

had that line in season three

46:09

about people chatting over the ham

46:11

radio. Maybe it was Charles and

46:14

what, how that spun into

46:17

a whole thing in season four that

46:20

we used over about the ham radio.

46:22

And it's great. It's like

46:24

there's this little like box

46:26

of clues that's just sitting there

46:28

waiting for you that lives in

46:30

the show. In a way, it's

46:32

what like this really sounds so,

46:34

this sounds like a made

46:37

up line, but I really mean it. You're in

46:39

a safe space. No, writing a murder, like what

46:41

I've learned writing a murder mystery because we really,

46:43

I've never really had done this. And I'm not

46:46

sure many in the room, in our

46:48

writer's room had because this is a great comedy

46:51

room as well. But like writing

46:53

real murder mystery, now that we're heading towards

46:55

a fifth season of it, you

46:58

in season four, particularly, it felt like in

47:00

order to do that, you have

47:02

to be a

47:05

much better investigator than, so

47:07

it was really sort of like that process

47:09

is the same thing that was going on

47:12

while creating all this stuff you're pulling from

47:15

the clues you've given yourself

47:17

in previous seasons. I

47:19

get it, makes sense. I

47:22

want to hire you to find my husband, it's

47:24

urgent. We're not

47:26

a detective firm. My husband

47:28

is Nikki Caccamillo, or was,

47:31

if you believe the news, I

47:34

pay very well. We only investigate

47:36

murders in the building. It's

47:39

right there in our name. What happened

47:41

to Nikki has everything to do with

47:43

this building. To close out

47:45

this conversation, you tee us up for

47:48

the new murder, which is our beloved

47:50

Lester the Door Guy. Oh,

47:53

and perhaps the

47:55

trio becoming sort of private investigators

47:58

for hire. What

48:00

can you tell listeners for next season about, I

48:03

don't know, what can you say? I saw you.

48:05

That's all me? Yeah, I don't feel so

48:07

scared to say something spoilery.

48:12

John's a pro. JJ did it. No.

48:15

What can we say? Okay,

48:19

so I am excited,

48:21

very, very excited for season five because

48:24

it's always that dance of, you

48:27

know, we like

48:29

to go into new territory, but

48:31

we like to stay true to the show. We

48:34

want to sort of use the building and

48:36

its people and its

48:38

lore in new ways

48:41

that feel connected to New

48:43

York and history and

48:46

our trio stories. How

48:49

do we progress them? And

48:52

this season feels very tied into both

48:54

of those things already in a way

48:56

that feels very

48:59

the show. And why I

49:02

say that is because the show has

49:04

always been classic meets

49:06

modern, right? Two classic comedians meets the

49:08

most modern of young women in

49:11

New York City, which is always going

49:13

back and forth between the classic and the

49:15

modern. And here we have at the center

49:17

of our murder mystery, a beloved

49:20

doorman and a particular

49:23

symbol of New York

49:26

history and propriety and

49:28

respect. And he's

49:30

been potentially very disrespected that buttressed up

49:33

against, and I've kind of stopped using

49:35

the word buttress. She loves to say

49:37

buttress. I've said it so many times.

49:39

People are going to throw a stapler

49:41

at me. If I ever say it

49:43

one more time. That

49:47

buttressed up against this

49:49

very what is New

49:51

York today and in some

49:54

way for next season. What

49:56

I'm really excited about is like we've

49:59

never done before. we're looking at New

50:01

York of right now in

50:04

the headlines literally as we

50:06

speak and diving

50:08

in that direction in a way that

50:11

feels very exciting. Well,

50:13

we're very excited. Did I do that right? Did

50:15

I cheer you up? It feels great. That

50:18

was beautifully. They're competent and you

50:20

made them excited. Now we really have to deliver.

50:22

Their hearts are so buttressed

50:25

up against their chest. There's

50:30

maximum buttressing happening right now. Thank

50:35

you both so much for talking to us. Thank

50:37

you guys this time. We're so excited and we

50:39

really, really appreciate both of you and

50:41

all of your hard work. Yeah. Thank you

50:43

so much. We appreciate it. You guys

50:45

are the best. We love doing

50:47

these and every time, just so you know, like

50:50

when we're in to do these things, they're good,

50:52

right? Like everybody really gets excited to talk. Yeah,

50:54

it's super fun. We handle this so well and

50:56

we love the way they've come out on the

50:58

other end too. I'm always amazed. I'm like Molly

51:00

Shannon and that one just recently was just like

51:03

fantastic to hear. Yeah. All of it. We

51:06

abruptly stopped the recording here

51:08

because we're uncomfortable with compliments.

51:11

But as Richard Kine would say, He likes

51:13

me. That's how I knew he liked me.

51:15

He does like me. That's what it resonated.

51:26

All right. It's time to wrap up this

51:29

season of Only Murders, I guess. I know.

51:31

Wow. We are going to announce the winners

51:34

of the Escape Room giveaway for both LA

51:36

and New York. But first, here's

51:38

Hannah from Reddit with what the

51:41

Reddit sphere is saying. Who

51:43

killed Lester? Hello Maggie.

51:45

Hey Ryan. And hey everyone listening. Season

51:48

four gave us a wedding and a

51:50

bunch of murders and I can't believe

51:52

it's already over. I'm

51:54

going to miss our little cozy murder show

51:56

while we wait for season five. And

51:59

speaking of murders, which you know the members

52:01

of the Only Murders subreddit already have

52:03

a lot of thoughts about

52:05

what could happen or what they hope will

52:07

happen next season. First

52:11

we have schleppyj4 who hopes to

52:13

see Charles keep giving tribute to

52:15

his friend Saz. I

52:17

really hope that Charles gets Saz's

52:19

trampoline park going. He knows

52:21

how important it was for her and now we

52:23

know her ashes will be placed there. It

52:26

would be really touching if he completed her life

52:28

goal. I know she's finally getting

52:30

the writing credit she deserved all along but

52:32

I do hope they addressed the trampoline park.

52:35

Then we have Mrs. Swoe with a theory

52:37

about how Loretta could be involved with season

52:40

Anyone else think that the car Loretta got

52:43

into wasn't actually the car taking her to

52:45

her flight to New Zealand? Why do I

52:47

feel like the mob is going to kidnap

52:50

her and that's going to force the trio

52:52

to investigate the disappearance of Nicky Catchamelier? Now

52:55

we're obviously all super

52:57

sad about Lester being the new

53:00

murder victim but it

53:02

also means we'll get to learn a lot

53:04

more about him in season 5 so people

53:06

are definitely looking forward to that because we

53:09

love Lester. User

53:11

grouchyrepublic7580 thinks

53:13

Lester was definitely involved with the

53:16

mafia somehow. Here are their

53:18

thoughts. In the finale Lester

53:20

was once again letting Oliver know

53:22

about his dry cleaning. He's also

53:24

seen delivering dry cleaning a few

53:26

times over the seasons. Lester's

53:29

also made it clear that he had

53:31

also been married at the Orconia so

53:33

he has been there a long time.

53:35

The mafia wife at the end of

53:38

season 4 says her husband's disappearance has

53:40

everything to do with the building and

53:42

just after that the building's longest tenured

53:44

person is killed. I agree

53:47

with that theory and I think Lester was

53:49

definitely involved somehow and my

53:51

personal theory is that Catchamelier maybe is

53:53

the one who killed Lester so there

53:55

would be a murder in the building

53:58

forcing the trio to look into her

54:00

husband. disappearance because as she said

54:02

it has everything to do with

54:04

the Arconia and who

54:06

has more to do with the

54:08

Arconia than its long-term doorman. Finally

54:11

we know the show always casts

54:13

amazing actors from crazy

54:15

celebrity cameos to fantastic new

54:17

emerging talent. Our

54:19

members have started to share some of

54:21

the names they'd like to see next

54:24

season. JJ cross 32 would like to

54:26

see Javier Bardem as Nikki. Kay Banji

54:28

wants Paul Rudd to come back as

54:31

another Roy that gets killed. Mr.

54:33

Bartolotti would love to see Maria

54:35

Canals Barrera play Mabel's

54:37

aunt as a nod to Selena's

54:40

Disney days. Other names that keep

54:42

coming back are Catherine O'Hara, Danielle

54:45

Radcliffe and Robert De Niro and

54:47

to be honest I can picture

54:49

them all in the Arconia. Personally

54:51

I'd love to see Andy Sandberg

54:53

show up and that's it

54:55

for me. I'm looking forward to season

54:57

5. I'm sure it'll be there before

54:59

we know it and I'll hopefully speak

55:02

to you then and if you're missing

55:04

the show during the break join us

55:06

on the omitb subreddit r slash onlymardersooloo.

55:12

Thanks so much to Hannah from

55:14

Reddit for always sharing the talk

55:16

of the forums. It's so good,

55:18

it's so cool to hear what

55:21

Reddit's talking about. All the chaos that's happening

55:24

within Reddit about the Only Marders universe, we

55:26

get the download. We love it. Thank

55:28

you so much Hannah. By the way, the

55:31

Easter egg in the finale was that case

55:33

of beer and double Easter

55:35

egg, the wedding decorations

55:37

on the front of the Arconia. Okay,

55:39

thank you, thank you, thank you for

55:41

all the emails this season. We've gotten

55:43

a lot. So many. We love reading

55:46

them. Absolutely. And now.

55:49

And now we're doing it. And now it's time to

55:51

announce the winners of the escape room giveaway. Right?

55:54

That's right. Let's do it. You go. Okay,

55:56

I'll do New York. Okay. Okay. Our

55:59

winners for New York. New York City are

56:01

Sherry H and Jennifer Y. That

56:04

is correct. And for Los Angeles,

56:06

Morgan H and Jackie L. We

56:09

will have reached out to the winners

56:11

to confirm that they can

56:13

still collect their tickets. And if, for

56:15

whatever reason, they cannot use the tickets,

56:17

we will choose again. We will.

56:20

You can hold us back. That's it for this season

56:22

of the Only Murders in the Building podcast. And

56:25

also, the Only Murders in the Building

56:27

television show. Yeah, both are ending now.

56:30

Both are done. It's kind

56:32

of sad, a little bittersweet, but it's been a

56:34

great journey. But we do know season

56:36

five is being written right now. We do.

56:38

And we'll be back. We'll be back. Anyway,

56:41

see you all soon. See you soon. Bye.

56:43

So you know Ryan just waved big

56:46

across the room to nobody.

56:49

Bye. Bye. Please

56:54

send us your thoughts and theories to

56:56

us at onlymurders at strawhutmedia.com, though

56:59

I don't know how many theories there are right now. Yeah, people

57:01

have theories. OK. Thanks so much for

57:03

listening. Take a minute to subscribe, rate the show,

57:05

follow us, leave us a review if you haven't

57:07

done that yet, if you enjoy listening. Yeah.

57:10

Yeah. Only

57:21

Murders in the Building podcast is a production

57:23

of Straw Hut Media, hosted and produced by

57:25

Ryan Tillotts and the Maggie Bowles. Associate producer

57:27

is Steven Markley. Original music by Kyle Merritt.

57:30

And Only Murders in the Building theme music

57:32

by Siddhartha Kosela. Assistant editor is Daniel Ferreira.

57:34

And production assistant is Carolyn Mendoza. Thanks

57:36

to Jin, Jane, John, and JJ for

57:38

talking with us. That's Jin Hao, Jane

57:41

Lynch, John Hoffman, and JJ Philbin. Also

57:43

thanks to Patrick Howe for talking to

57:45

us. And a big, big thanks,

57:47

as always, to John Hoffman and the entire

57:49

Hulu team. We love you

57:52

all. Goodbye. See you next year.

57:54

Yeah. Wow. Lean

58:01

forward, JJ, because the microphone is very exciting.

58:03

Oh, we had someone reach out and ask

58:05

if the series is based

58:07

on stings or the police's

58:10

murder by numbers. So

58:14

just float that in the, uh, in the writers

58:16

room maybe for season five. It's

58:18

always staying called murder by numbers. Yeah,

58:21

no, it's, it's, uh, it's not, it's

58:23

not very good. Uh, it's not

58:25

a very good theory, but then I was remembering, uh,

58:28

every breath you take and I'll be watching

58:30

you and I was like, hold on, is

58:32

sting the mastermind here. So did we ever,

58:34

okay. Do

58:37

you ever acknowledge that? I don't even

58:39

know if I, if anybody acknowledged it,

58:42

but it's too long ago. How

58:44

many years ago was season one? I mean, I

58:46

don't know, but we remind people really quickly. That's

58:48

what previously honest for. Yeah.

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