NOTE: this post contains spoilers for Only Murders in the Building season 3 episode 2, "The Beat Goes On."
Ben (Paul Rudd) is dead. And this time, he isn't coming back. Only Murders in the Building season 3 episode 1 revealed the aftermath of Ben's collapse on stage, including his unexpected resurrection. However, by the night's end the actor has been killed, seemingly falling to his death down the elevator shaft.
Episode 2 toggles between events leading up to Death Rattle's opening night and the aftermath of Ben's demise — including Mabel's (Selena Gomez) quest to bring the podcast back.
Conversations with Ben
"The Beat Goes On" opens with Ben falling down the elevator shaft narrating his death, but the lines he speaks are actually from the play. It cuts to three months earlier with Oliver rehearsing with his leading man, as Ben struggles with the meaning behind the play's dialogue.
In the present day, Oliver is trying to keep his play alive, but Donna (Linda Emond) and Cliff (Wesley Taylor) are ignoring his calls.
Meanwhile, at the Arconia, Mabel streams old Girl Cop episodes with Ben as one of the leads. Suddenly, Ben, dressed in his Girl Cop costume, is on Mabel's sofa, and he mistakes her for college-age. Mabel explains she is 29 but still doesn't know what she wants to do or be.
The imagined version of Ben explains he was playing a high school senior on Girl Cop at her age and also felt lost. "The people who figure their s*** out right away are boring," Ben observes. The only thing he advises her to do is not waste her time, which is solid wisdom.
The funeral
In Charles' (Steve Martin) apartment, he has opened the handkerchief gift from Ben (the card reads "f*** you"). The trio has come together to attend Ben's funeral. While Mabel's real-life interactions with the star were minimal, it will be an excellent spot for sleuthing.
When they arrive at the lavish event, they are directed to a room playing the service on closed-circuit TV. Oliver is horrified by this oversight as he needs to find Donna and Cliff to plead his case to save Death Rattle. Kimber (Ashley Park), Ty (Gerald Caesar) and Bobo (Don Darryl Rivera) are all there, but nothing about their demeanor suggests anything suspicious.
Oliver uses Charles to create a diversion to sneak up to the A-list section. On his way up, he runs into theater critic Maxine (Noma Dumezweni), who confirms Donna and Cliff are in attendance. Oliver thinks if Maxine shares her review from the press preview, it could save his show and prevent history from repeating itself after catastrophic Splash! sent to Broadway "jail" for 15 years.
Maxine is kind enough to tell him she wrote a scathing pan and gives some constructive notes. It is too bland and Ben's performance was terrible. She says even when she didn't like Oliver's work, at least they sang and didn't hold back. A flashback to the previous conversation with Ben underscores this theme of feeling scared and taking a chance on yourself. As Ben finally nails the lines, a now-alone Oliver in the present experiences a sharp chest pain and collapses.
Kidnapped
Elsewhere, Mabel and Charles are following leads from the funeral overflow room. Greg (Adrian Martinez) introduces himself as Ben's security, so Mabel feels safe going to his apartment with Charles. A shrine to Ben with various photoshopped images reveals Greg is Ben's stalker. Unfortunately, Greg manages to knock them both out and they wake up chained to a pipe in a basement.
The pair use this time to catch up on a couple of things. Mabel explains why she is so fond of Ben. After her dad died, her mom barely left her room. It was a lonely time, but episodes of Girl Cop took Mabel's mind off the sad situation for 30 minutes each week. One day, she heard her mother laugh and realized they were both watching Girl Cop. For this brief window, Girl Cop connected them (the power of TV). "In a weird way, he meant a lot to me," says Mabel.
Charles admits he was the cause of this rift with Ben that goes back to when Ben was a child actor. Ben's first job was on Brazzos, but the 8-year-old was overwhelmed at the table read, and Charles had him fired for being too phony. Since that day, Ben has worried about every job. Charles says he could've made things right but didn't.
They are interrupted by Greg, who thinks they killed Ben, and he wants his revenge. Thankfully, the police have been keeping tabs as Greg was seen leaving the Arconia minutes after Ben's death. It's also revealed he also has Ben's opening night gift. From Mabel's photos, she knows Ben was holding one of those handkerchiefs.
A solution
At the Arconia, Oliver must take it easy after suffering a minor heart attack. He quips that Bob Fosse had "like five," though his son Will (Ryan Broussard) reminds him the last one killed Fosse. The doctor gives him a monitor to track irregular heartbeats, but it seems unlikely Oliver will slow down. Between Maxine's advice to make his work sing and the Fosse mention, Oliver imagines Mabel, Charles and Will decked out in Cabaret-style garb and has an epiphany. He needs to make his play a musical.
This announcement to Charles and Mabel is overshadowed when Mabel pulls out the recorder and deduces the killer must be from the show due to the hankie evidence. Oliver doesn't puncture the celebratory podcast news with his medical emergency from earlier, and a conflict is already brewing.
New episodes of Only Murders in the Building season 3 release Tuesdays on Hulu in the US and Disney Plus in the UK.
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