Spoiler Warning: Spoilers ahead for Only Murders in the Building Season 5 Episodes 1-3
Only Murders in the Building is back, and there’s a fresh, new dead body for our favorite trio to investigate. This time, the victim is Arconia’s perpetually cheery doorman, Lester. The season starts with a bang by revealing Lester’s possible ties to organized crime and the people who might want him out of the way. But the show isn’t content with just one murder this time around. Shortly after, the corpse of notorious mobster Nicky Caccimelio is also discovered.
How are these two connected, and just how involved was Lester with the mob’s illicit activities? It’s up to Charles, Oliver, and Mabel to investigate. The three-episode premiere wasted no time introducing us to the new and suspicious faces around the building. The premiere also sheds light on why the number of Arconia murders has sharply increased. Lester was slipping in his old age and potentially letting more sketchy characters into the building. He had been contemplating retirement before he was cut down in the prime of life. But who wanted him out of the way? Let’s look at Lester’s less-than-accidental death and some of our prime suspects — major spoilers for the first three episodes of the still-fresh fifth season to follow.
Did Lester’s Mob Connections Spell His Doom?
At the end of last season, the trio discovered Lester’s body in the Arconia courtyard fountain. So technically, it’s the first murder not in the building. The cops are quick to dismiss the case as accidental, but the Only Murders podcast team isn’t so sure. They find out that Lester had connections with Nicky Caccimelio, one of New York’s alleged mobsters who had recently gone missing. Lester would grant Nicky access to the secret gambling room beneath the Arconia in exchange for under-the-table payments from the mob boss. However, Lester’s planned retirement could put that arrangement in jeopardy. Nicky pushes Lester to stay, but could he have sought revenge on the doorman for daring to back out of their deal?
The plot feels somewhat predictable: a mobster ordering a hit on someone who disrespects him. Nicky would also have no reason to take out Lester, as no one else could let him into the gambling room. Another issue with that theory is the fact that Nicky’s body was discovered just after Lester’s. The connection between the two deaths cannot be coincidental, so whoever wanted Lester gone likely did the same to the mob head. Nicky and Lester were both last seen at Oliver’s wedding, exchanging money for the gambling deal.
Who else knew about Nicky’s disappearance before his death? His wife, Sofia, comes to mind. She first approaches Charles and Mabel about investigating the disappearance at the end of last season. She doesn’t seem to be aware of Nicky’s secret casino hideout, believing him to be just a failed wannabe mobster who operates their family’s dry cleaning business. Yes, she does give Charles the deck of cards that unlocks the door to the gambling room. But does she even know what the cards were really for? Perhaps she discovered the secret and took revenge on her husband. It’s plausible.
In that scenario, she’d also have to get rid of Lester for his role. But Sofia doesn’t seem to have the killer instinct. She just wants to live a quiet life running that suspicious dry cleaner. Until we know more about her background and her relationship with Nicky’s business dealings, she remains more of an enigma.
Was It Someone More Involved With the Building?
It’s also possible that Lester’s death had nothing to do with his Caccimelio connections. We meet Randall, Lester’s trainee, who takes over the desk after the former’s death, in the premiere. Like Lester all those years ago, Randall believes this doorman gig is just a stepping stone to bigger and better things.
After his mentor dies, the full weight of Randall’s new responsibility hits him. But is it all an act? Did Randall purposefully knock off Lester out of jealousy? Maybe he really wanted that lucrative doorman gig and needed Lester out of the way. He did notice Lester’s envelope of cash from Nicky, so was that a motivation? Perhaps Randall wanted to be Nicky’s new right-hand man. Though if that were the case, he would have no reason to kill Nicky unless one of the mobsters’ rivals offered him a better deal. Hmm… This is a lot of speculation about a character that we just met, but Only Murders has taught us that everyone is a suspect at all times.
The final scene of the third episode introduces us to three very suspicious characters. Billionaire CEOs Bash Steed, Jay Pflug, and Camila White visit the Arconia’s gambling room. It’s implied that they are the true “mob” of the season, rather than conventional organized crime families. Billionaires could be better than anyone at acquiring money through less-than-legal means. Did these three want Nicky out of the way to have full access to the gambling room for themselves? Was Lester also a casualty because he knew too much? It seems like the most logical theory so far. Pflug is even missing a finger, and it just so happens that the trio discovered a severed finger at the scene of the crime.
The killer could be someone here, a group of them, or anyone we haven’t met yet. In past seasons, the most obvious suspects were often not the ones who committed the crime. Maybe there’s another face we’ve overlooked entirely. But we can say one thing for sure: by the end of the season, Charles, Oliver, and Mabel will wrap up this case just in time for another corpse to drop in their building. Let’s hope that Randall is better at keeping murderers out than Lester. New episodes of Only Murders in the Building stream every Tuesday on Hulu.
Only Murders in the Building
4
/5
- Release Date
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August 31, 2021
- Network
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Hulu
- Showrunner
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John Hoffman
- Directors
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Jamie Babbit, John Hoffman, Cherien Dabis, Chris Koch, Robert Pulcini, Shari Springer Berman, Adam Shankman, Don Scardino, Jesse Peretz, Jessica Yu, Jude Weng, Chris Teague
- Writers
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Ben Smith, Matteo Borghese, Rob Turbovsky, Kristin Newman, Madeleine George, J. J. Philbin, Ben Philippe, Kirker Butler, Jake Schnesel, Peter Swanson, Stephen Markley, Rachel Burger, Kenny Schwartz, Rick Wiener, Valentina Garza, Elaine Ko, Tess Morris, Kim Rosenstock, Sas Goldberg, Thembi Banks
