Only Murders in the Building Season 1, Episode 1 recap: True Crime

We begin with Emergency Service Unit rushing into the building. Two men are running down the stairs. They are going back for someone. They find her over a dead body. Is this one of the Only Murders in the Building?

We go back to two months earlier. A man walks through Manhattan, talking about how safe it is because everyone is right on top of each other.

This man is Charles. People stop him on the street because they recognize him from TV, but he is kind of a wash-up.

Then we see Mabel, and she is obsessed with true crime. Finally, we see Oliver. He is more into the arts and the unexpected.

Only Murders In The Building Episode 1: How do these three become friends?

Oliver is walking into his building. Charles walks right past him. They both end up in the same elevator. Mabel jumps in last minute.

Oliver comments, but none of them are talking. Another man, Tim, walks in on his cell phone talking about an important package. He is also carrying his trash.

They all return to their separate lives, but all seem to be listening to the same true-crime podcast. When the fire alarm starts to go off, they all evacuate. Charles sees a man in a hood heading upstairs while the rest evacuate.

Charles goes to the bar across the street, and Olivers comes up behind him. They realize that they both listen to the same podcast and start working on Charles’ map of the crime.

Mabel comes in, and they wave her over. She realizes they are trying to solve the podcast crime on Charles’ map, and she joins them.

Charles and Oliver start to ask Mabel questions about her life, but she doesn’t want to answer.

When they return to their building, and there are still police outside. They aren’t allowed to return to their apartments because they are told that there is a dead body on the ninth floor. They develop a plan to sneak in to see some of the action.

All three of them get into the building. As the police are leaving, they walk in behind them to the scene of the crime. They realize that it is the guy that they saw on the elevator, Tim.

Mabel points out that he didn’t seem like he was going to commit suicide. They run into the detective and try to tell her that it isn’t suicide, but she brushes them off.

Charles makes himself an omelet in the morning and remembers that Tim got on the elevator with the garbage bag even though there is a trash shoot on every floor.

Charles goes to the elevator and picks up Oliver and Mabel, who both realized something about the case.

Only Murders in the Building Episode 1: The investigation begins.

They go to the trash room and begin rummaging through the trash. Oliver mentions that they should start a true-crime podcast and begins recording their findings.

Mabel finds suicide letter drafts. They now believe that his death was a suicide, and they go back to trying to figure out the Oklahoma case.

Mabel goes to Charles and starts telling him about something she remembered. Someone named Bunny has a package that was supposed to go to Tim. They are going to find it.

Oliver goes to his son’s. He wants to hang out with his grandkids, but they are there. So he is hanging out with his son instead and asks for money.

Charles and Mabel are walking through the halls. Charles has jimmy keys to get into Bunny’s apartment.

Mabel confesses that she actually doesn’t live in the building, but she is redoing the apartment for her aunt.

They get into the apartment and get the package. It is an engagement ring. Why would Tim want an engagement ring if he was going to commit suicide?

As Oliver leaves his son disappointed, he gets a text from Charles and Mabel that they have found something.

They all reconnect and start to develop their new podcast, which they will call “Only Murders in the Building.”

Charles runs into a man on his way back to his apartment. This man asks him about someone named Lucy. He clams up about the name. Who is Lucy?

The last thing we see is Mabel’s screen saver. On it is a picture of herself and Tim with the caption “My Hardy Boys.” So who really is Mabel?

What do you think? Could Mabel know more than she is letting on? Leave a comment below. 

You can catch a new episode of Only Murders in the Building every Tuesday, now streaming on Hulu!