Only Murders In The Building Season 5 Episode 7 Offers a Bizarre Investigation And Even Weirder Clue

Critic’s Rating: 4.3 / 5.0

4.3

Things just got seriously weird.

Don’t get me wrong — it’s well beyond time to start wrapping Lester’s murder up, especially with only two episodes to go.

But Only Murders In The Building Season 5 Episode 7 offered a bizarre clue that makes it seem like everything I knew about this case was wrong. How fun!

Camilla May Be A Shark, But She’s Not The Killer

I doubted she was guilty of murder after how hard Only Murders In The Building Season 5 Episode 7 worked to convince us that she was.

It’s murder-mystery 101: whenever all the clues point toward one suspect, the real killer is lurking in the shadows.

That exchange between Camilla and Loretta was bizarre. Loretta embodied every stereotype of Eastern European women who claim to be psychics, and somehow Camila fell for it.

Of course, she stopped short of telling Loretta exactly what happened the night Lester died, but she spilled so much tea that Loretta was able to give a full report to Detective Williams and the trio — and find the murder weapon.

Additionally, there were two blink-and-you-miss-it moments in that exchange that proved Camilla wasn’t the killer.

For one thing, Camilla had a flashback to seeing the cleaver slam down and shuddering, which suggested Nicky’s killer scared her.

For another, she was in love with Nicky, so whatever crimes she committed, she did for him, not to him.

We Might Have Two Separate Killers On Our Hands

Throughout Only Murders In The Building Season 5, the trio has assumed that the same person killed Nicky and Lester, but Camila’s comments made me think otherwise.

While I still think it’s unlikely Camila will ultimately be guilty of murder, there is one plot twist that would make sense: she killed Lester, and someone else killed Nicky.

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If Camila made the same mistake the detectives did and assumed that the doorman Sofia was having an affair with was Lester, she might have killed him in order to get vengeance for Nicky.

Of course, it would have made more sense for her to kill Sofia, but Camila has proven over and over that she plays the long game, so she might have had some convoluted plan involving proving her love by killing the man who hurt Nicky and letting Nicky take care of his cheating wife.

The Final Clue Leads Us In Another Direction, But Is It A Red Herring?

Of course, the final clue — which was found in a typically weird manner —suggests that Randall decided to confront Lester or vice versa.

The implication is that Lester’s death was related to Randall and Sofia’s relationship.

Lester knew his life was in danger, or he wouldn’t have used the bird song to turn on the camera, but I can’t help feeling that things aren’t quite how they seem.

It can’t be as straightforward as Randall wanting to shut Lester up about his affair with Sofia.

That seems like a weak sauce motive for murder that isn’t worthy of Only Murders In The Building.

My instinct is that Randall wanted Lester’s job and Lester wasn’t quite as ready to retire as he claimed, but that doesn’t fit either.

The Solution Hinges On What Lester Knew

Lester was involved with Nicky’s operation, albeit only tangentially.

We know that the previous doorman introduced Lester to Nicky, but we don’t know if Lester ever involved Randall in opening doors for casino-goers or anything else illicit.

Lester might also have stood in the way of Nicky and Camila’s plan to convert the Arconia into a casino, but that points to Camila again, which would be a disappointing solution.

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I don’t think we can rule out any of the other billionaires, though. Anyone could have wanted to undermine Camila’s bid and recruited Lester to interfere.

It wasn’t lost on me that Althea was the one who got Mabel that invite to Camila’s casino party, either.

I’ve been suspicious of her since the beginning, and now it’s been confirmed she has access to the prime suspects — so what else does she know?

Althea has turned back into a friend rather than an enemy, but that just makes it more devastating for Mabel if she turns out to be guilty of murder.

Mabel Is Already Down On Herself

Her talk with Lester’s wife was all about how she blames herself for everything that’s gone wrong, so if Althea is involved in the crime, that’ll hit even harder.

I’m hoping that all of the losses can be reversed by the end of this mystery, but these scenes were my favorite of the hour.

I never had much use for Mabel in previous seasons, but she’s growing on me. I relate to her frustration and her fear that she’s too far behind to catch up because she constantly lets people like Althea get in her head.

If The Billionaires Are Discredited, The Problems Will Be Reversed

For now, though, it’s a race against time to find a killer before the Arconia is gone for good.

We won’t talk about that silly couples therapy session, which was a waste of time, but the rest of this episode moved solidly toward the conclusion.

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Only Murders In The Building streams on Hulu. New episodes drop on Tuesdays at 12/11c.

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