Only Murders in the Building season 4 episode 9 recap and ending explained

Only Murders in the Building season 4 is quickly coming to a close and the penultimate episode of the season did not disappoint in delivering an episode that left us on the edge of our seats with plenty of twists and turns along the way. 

Before we get into said twists and turns, let me warn you that spoilers from Only Murders in the Building season 4, episode 9 are coming – and this episode had quite a few big reveals so if you don’t want those reveals spoiled before you watch, this is where we go our separate ways. 

After last week’s tease that Glen was Sazz’s protege, Charles, Oliver, and Mabel race over to the hospital in hopes of questioning him. Unfortunately, he still hasn’t come to and the nurse refuses to let the group back to see him. She does, however, offer to give them a call when he finally wakes up. 

As they’re leaving, they bump into the bartender at Concussions who reveals to the group that Glen wasn’t Sazz’s protege after all. It turns out that Glen was brought in for Project Ronkonkoma after her protege messed up so badly, they had to be blackballed. They ask him if he knows who Sazz’s protege is and he says the only ones who know the protege’s identity are Sazz, Glen, and the film’s director, Ron Howard – yes, that Ron Howard. 

The killer strikes again

With Sazz dead and Glen in a coma, the Only Murders team regroups and tries to come up with a way to get in touch with Ron Howard. Oliver tells Mabel and Charles that he and Ron have a shared history, but the pair aren’t buying it so Mabel heads out to meet with Bev in hopes that she’ll know how they can get in touch with Ron. Fortunately, it turns out that Ron is in New York filming a new movie and Bev happily hands over the details so long as Mabel helps meet with Marshall to review the latest rewrites on the script. 

The Only Murders group heads down to the shoot in hopes of speaking with Ron, but security turns them away. Luckily, they’re able to sneak into the set by auditioning as background actors. As they prepare behind the scenes, Mabel gets a call from the hospital that Glen has come to and she races off to see him. 

Unfortunately, before Mabel can get to the hospital, someone sneaks into Glen’s room and smothers him with a pillow. Mabel is shocked by the news, but it becomes less shocking when the nurse reveals that, in addition to calling Mabel, she also called Glen’s emergency contact: Sazz. Only it wasn’t Sazz who answered the call, but a man. 

As Mabel is learning about Glen’s murder, Charles and Oliver get kicked off the set before they’re able to meet with Ron. The pair head out to Oliver’s favorite Chinese restaurant where they make up after their blowup on the movie set in which Charles called Oliver insufferable, cracking under the pressure of planning Oliver’s bachelor party and meeting his high standards. Oliver tells Charles he doesn’t need a bachelor party, but he does want him to be his best man.

Only Murders in the Building season 4 episode 9 ending explained: Who is Sazz’s protege? 

While Oliver and Charles are enjoying their food, Ron Howard walks in and immediately recognizes Oliver, and he joins them at the table which gives them the chance to ask about Sazz’s protege. This is when Ron is able to fill in the holes in the flashback sequences that unfolded in glimpses across the episode of Sazz training her protege. It turns out Sazz met her protege when she crashed into him while backing out of her car. She taps him to work on Project Ronkonkoma and helps coach him through a fire stunt, which Ron recalls going smoothly. It was after he yelled cut that things went wrong. 

Ron recalls that after he yelled cut, the protege didn’t wait to make sure the flames were completely extinguished and when he came over to show him his script, the flames reignited and sparks burned off Ron’s eyebrows. After the incident, the protege was fired and he stole Ron’s boots which we discover share the pattern of the footprint left in Dudenoff’s apartment. So just who is this mystery protege? His name is Rex Bailey and he just so happens to be Marshal, the writer of the Only Murders movie. 

As Ron is filling Oliver and Charles in on what happened on the set of Project Ronkonkoma, Mabel heads back to her apartment where Marshall is waiting for her so they can chat about the script. Mabel, understandably, is not having it at first and is reeling from Glen’s death but ultimately gives in and helps him read through the script. 

When she goes to get a beer from the case of beer Sazz had brought to Oliver’s the night of her death, Mabel makes a shocking discovery of her own as she finds a script for the Only Murder movie within the beer case which had Sazz’s name on it. Just as Mabel asks Marshall why the script says it was written by Sazz Tataki, a text from Charles comes through on Mabel’s phone telling her that Marshall is Sazz’s protege.

And with that, the episode comes to a close leaving fans with a lot of questions as we head into the finale! Is Marshall the true murderer who has also been after the Only Murders team? Why exactly did he kill Sazz? And what twists await us as the season ends? We’ll have to tune in on Oct. 29 to find out! 

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