Only Murders in the Building — Season 5 (2025)

“Secrets, high rollers, and the Arconia’s fight for its soul.”

Let’s start by showing y’all the trailers shall we?

Also here’s the iconic theme song.

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🕵️‍♀️ Non-Spoiler Plot Overview

A funeral, a finger, and a fountain. Season 5 opens with the death of beloved doorman Lester, and our core trio—Charles (Steve Martin), Oliver (Martin Short), and Mabel (Selena Gomez)—suspect it wasn’t an accident. A grisly clue (yes, that finger) pulls them into the Arconia’s hidden underbelly, a swirl of secret rooms, a high-roller crowd, and some very bold real-estate ambitions. The case expands from “whodunit?” to “how far will power go to take the Arconia?”—and the trio fights back with mics, disguises, and very questionable plans.

⚠️ Pacing Note:
The first few episodes of Season 5 take their time setting the stage. Don’t be surprised if the pacing feels slower than previous seasons — it leans more on character moments, emotional tension, and long-term setup rather than quick-fire mystery beats. Stick with it, though — once the pieces start connecting around the halfway mark, the payoff is absolutely worth the wait.



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🎭 Character Rundown

The Trio

Charles-Haden Savage (Steve Martin) – Earnest, fussy, and surprisingly resourceful when it counts.

Oliver Putnam (Martin Short) – Newly married, forever theatrical; turns community chaos into strategy.

Mabel Mora (Selena Gomez) – Calm, incisive, and quietly persuasive; the season’s moral spine.


Arconia & Allies

Howard Morris (Michael Cyril Creighton) – From gossip to glue; employee champion, unexpectedly romantic.

Detective Donna Williams (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) – NYPD ally who actually shares leads and tech help.

Loretta Durkin (Meryl Streep) – Back and game to con; playful, sharp, and helpful.

Lorraine Coluca (Dianne Wiest) – Lester’s widow with a personal stake and steady courage.

Cinda Canning (Tina Fey) – Frenemy podcaster presence, bookending the season.


New Power Players

Camila White (Renée Zellweger) – Flamboyant hotel magnate with designs on the Arconia.

Sebastian “Bash” Steed (Christoph Waltz) – Smooth tech billionaire whose orbit intersects the case.

Jay Pflug (Logan Lerman) – Young heir in over his head, sharper than he looks.

Mayor Beau Tillman (Keegan-Michael Key) – Charismatic NYC mayor whose world overlaps the investigation.

Sofia Caccimelio (Téa Leoni) – A client with complicated ties and messy timing.

Nicky Caccimelio (Bobby Cannavale) – A Staten Island figure with connections to the Arconia’s… extracurriculars.

Randall (Jermaine Fowler) – New doorman protégée; anxious, loyal, and holding pieces of the puzzle.

Althea “Thē” (Beanie Feldstein) – Mabel’s pop-star friend; old wounds, new trust.

Uma Heller (Jackie Hoffman) – The Arconia’s resident side-eye.

L.E.S.T.R. (Paul Rudd, voice) – AI “doorman” turned comic prop and unexpected data vault.


Returning Faces (brief/flashback/cameo)

Teddy Dimas (Nathan Lane), Theo Dimas (James Caverly), Bunny Folger (Jayne Houdyshell), Ursula (Vanessa Aspillaga) — threads to prior seasons that root this mystery back in the building’s bones.

💛 Why I Love This Trio

Part of the reason Only Murders in the Building means so much to me is because of how I first met these three actors long before they were solving murders in the Arconia.

Steve Martin was the first of the trio I ever saw — way back in The Pink Panther films. His slapstick timing, that chaotic French accent, and the way he could be absurd yet charming at the same time completely hooked me. That was my introduction to his brand of comedy: a mix of elegance and complete cluelessness that somehow never gets old.

Martin Short came next, thanks to The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause. He played Jack Frost — loud, glittery, full of mischief — and somehow stole every scene he was in. Even when I was a kid, I could tell this guy was having the time of his life, and that energy just sticks with you.

And Selena Gomez — I grew up watching her on Wizards of Waverly Place. That was my introduction to her quick wit, eye-roll humor, and dry delivery that’s now become her signature here. Seeing her grown up and holding her own next to two comedy legends is honestly kind of amazing.

Together, they’ve got this generational magic: Steve brings the old-school precision, Martin Short brings the chaos, and Selena brings the grounded heart and sarcasm that keeps them from flying off the rails. It’s the perfect blend — and probably why this trio never gets old to watch.

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⏱️ Pacing / Episode Flow

Ten episodes glide from the funeral spark to disguise capers to a pressure-cooker endgame. The middle third is the twistiest; the back half clicks briskly once the finger clue gains context. Most importantly, the trio spends time together on-screen—comedy rhythm intact.


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✅ Pros

Camila’s antagonist energy is delicious—glam, brazen, memorable.

A late-season reveal that genuinely surprises without breaking tone.

The finger through-line is a smart, nasty little engine for the mystery.

Bash’s mansion “pool” moment is comic-creepy perfection.

Howard vs. L.E.S.T.R. is peak OMITB chaos with thematic bite.

Mabel’s quiet conscience game with certain suspects actually moves people.

The Arconia feels like a character again—lived-in, secret-stuffed, communal.



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❌ Cons

The wrap-up leans tidy; reality is rarely this neat.

A couple backstory pivots arrive abruptly and may feel convenient.



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💬 Final Thoughts

Back to the building, back to the chemistry, back to the show’s sweet spot. The mystery is playful and propulsive, the jokes land, and the heart’s beating. A few convenience hiccups aside, it’s the coziest chaos the series does best.


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⭐ Rating

9/10.


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🚨 Spoiler Warning

Everything below this point contains full spoilers.


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🧩 Spoilers

Lester does not just die; he engineers the investigation after realizing the Arconia is being carved into a casino by Camila, Bash, and Jay with the help of a very helpful Mayor. The funeral flowers hide a severed finger (chef’s kiss clue), the deck of cards hides a map, and the basement hides a casino that makes you go, “How many secrets can one building hold?” Meanwhile, Charles fumbles into bed with Sofia, realizes the case and the fling are the same mess, and we discover Bash has been catfishing Charles via a dating app because billionaires love surveillance more than they love hobbies.

The billionaires try to launder their reputations and muzzle the trio with a podcast contract—peak modern villainy. The “missing finger belongs to Jay” feint is delicious, until it’s not his. Detective Williams tracks the camera tampering back to Bash, the trio infiltrates, and Mabel’s moral needle keeps poking Jay until he bleeds conscience. A women-only casino night becomes the season’s heist: Loretta goes full séance, Camila accidentally monologues her grand plan, and Lorraine finds the literal bloodied elevator crank—the thing that ends Lester. We also learn Randall, the new doorman, scooped the weapon to protect Lester’s name and planted the finger per Lester’s dying instructions because the man believed in two things: the Arconia and these three weirdos.

Then the dominoes fall: the finger is Mayor Beau Tillman’s. The night of everything: Nicky discovers the affair with Sofia, a fight erupts, the Mayor loses a finger to a cleaver, Lester intervenes and in the chaos accidentally kills Nicky trying to stop the madness. The Mayor, terrified for his career and his casino payday, pushes Lester—a fatal head injury at the fountain—and the cover-up machine hums to life: frozen body, scrubbed footage, corrupted cops, contracts to gag the loudest podcasters in Manhattan. And because this is OMITB, the attempted demolition to bury the trio alive happens during the victory presser, which they crash with Lester’s whistle-camera receipts. It’s petty. It’s grand. It’s perfect.

Camila, Bash, and the Mayor get frog-marched; Jay finally says the quiet part out loud and flips—an actual shock, not because of what he confesses, but because he’s the only one who shows remorse. Throughout the season he’s been the quietest of the billionaires, visibly uncomfortable whenever the others talk about profit and power, but no one expected him to grow a conscience this late. Mabel’s challenge—“If you’re really a good person, prove it”—echoes here like a moral trigger. Where Camila and Bash double down on denial, Jay cracks, choosing guilt over greed. It’s the moment that proves not every rich suspect in this show is a sociopath; someone actually listens, learns, and tries to fix the mess.

The Arconia survives; Lorraine gets a home that isn’t grief’s waiting room; Howard gets romance and a job over a robot. Then the show throws its glove: Cinda Canning—whose new “Girl with the Curls” case teases an across-the-pond mystery—staggers to the Arconia gate, bloody, curls blazing, and collapses. Howard wonders if it “counts” as in-building murder, Cinda reaches her hand through the bars like she’s solving her own technicality, and the trio’s faces say what we’re all thinking: welp… Season 6 just booked a flight.