This post contains spoilers from Only Murders in the Building season 5 episode 3 from this point forward.
Jumping off from the previous episode, which was a history lesson on Lester's Arconia journey, the three-episode Only Murders in the Building season 5 premiere continues with the juiciest and most revealing episode yet. Episode 3 opens with Charles providing some details about the horse stables underneath the Arconia becoming obsolete with the rise of cars. Mobsters then turned the underground stables into the Velvet Room gaming center for high rollers.
Through the vent in the ceiling of the Velvet Room, Charles and Mabel hear Oliver groaning in the dry cleaners. They're able to communicate, and Oliver reveals he found Nicky Caccimelio dead. He has all his fingers, but Oliver sneezing on the body leads him to putting Nicky in a laundry cart and rushing it to Charles' apartment. They have a time limit since they expect Nicky's killer wanted him to be found when the dry cleaner opened in the morning.
The group decides to clean Oliver's DNA off the body, but when they spot green under his nails like on the severed finger, they call for an impromptu "autopsy" to see how his death could be linked to Lester's. Charles identifies the green as felt, the same felt on the poker tables in the Velvet Room. Just like last season with Sazz, Charles hallucinates Nicky speaking to him. They place the body on Charles' kitchen island and get to work.
Nicky's "autopsy" results and a new resident
After checking if Nicky's body has rigor mortis, they discover blood pooled by his ankles, which gives them some clues about his time of death. He has a white substance on his sleeve, no maggots in his face, rope marks on his wrists, and burn marks behind his ear. Oliver heats up leftover Chinese food, giving them some inspiration to realize Nicky's body could have been frozen after being killed days ago. While checking his lips, Mabel finds a paper in his mouth.
It's Arconia stationery, but the writing is smeared. Their time with the body has expired, and they have 15 minutes to get him back to the dry cleaner. While racing the laundry cart through the lobby, Mabel and Oliver become distracted by Randall holding the ledger, which has the same paper as the one in Nicky's mouth. Oliver stays behind to steal the ledger while Mabel and Charles rush to the dry cleaner. But Mabel runs into an old friend.
Mabel's old friend Althea (Beanie Feldstein), who we briefly met in episode 2, has become a super-famous pop star who goes by Thē and bought the penthouse in the Arconia. Thē undercuts Mabel and her podcast's success, creating a very humorous but curious dynamic. It's interesting to wonder how Thē will play into the season. Meanwhile, Charles struggles to dump Nicky's body back at the dry cleaner while still having hallucinations of him talking.
Three billionaire CEOs, one missing finger
Charles spots a "Dead Alone" tattoo on Nicky's chest after dropping him back on the floor of the dry cleaner. He hallucinates Nicky reciting the poem as the police enter the dry cleaner after getting a call that a body was hanging up. The police don't care that the body isn't hanging. They just want to write it up, with the suspects being the Caputo crime family, and get out. But one of the cops hears Charles rustling around. Thankfully, he isn't caught but suspects a cover-up.
Oliver previously snatched the ledger right out of Randall's arms, allow him to poke through the book with Charles and Mabel. They find the pages that have been ripped out, but Mabel smears black chalk on the page to see what was written. They see bird names circled with dollar amounts. Charles recognizes poker terms. The bird names are suspected to be Lester's codenames for certain people and what they were betting. The pages contain poker game results.
The trio plans to crash the latest Saturday night poker game in the Velvet Room, which begins at midnight. Oliver apologizes to Randall and offers to help mentor him. Before midnight, the group arrives at the Velvet Room early and quickly panic to find a place to hide when three billionaire CEOs walk in: tech boss Sebastian "Bash" Steed (Christoph Waltz), pharmaceutical heir Jay Pflug (Logan Lerman), and designer and hotel mogul Camila White (Renée Zellweger).
They realize that Nicky was dealing with the "new mob" of New York City, a chain of elite billionaires taking some sort of underground gambling ring that clearly has something shady and illegal going on. As Charles, Oliver, and Mabel hide behind the bar, Jay approaches and pours himself a drink. They take notice that his right hand has been bandaged and he's clearly missing a finger. Who cut off Jay's finger and how did it end up in Oliver's shrimp tray for his wedding?