Now that the podcast trio knows Dudenoff (Griffin Dunne) was not a murder victim, all eyes turn back to Sazz (Jane Lynch) and her mystery stunt person protégé in Only Murders in the Building season 4 episode 9.
The investigation points to the set of Project Ronkonkoma, where Glen Stubbins (Paul Rudd) was listed as the stunt person, but he is still in a coma after getting shot a few episodes ago.
With their crucial witness (and potential suspect) lying unconscious in a hospital bed, Mabel (Selena Gomez), Charles (Steve Martin) and Oliver (Martin Short) must find out who else was on that set, which leads them to an Academy Award-winning director's new movie.
Is Glen the protégé?
A flashback to two years ago sees Sazz finishing a day’s work and then accidentally reversing her convertible car into someone. When that unidentifiable figure does a great flip into the back seat, Sazz asks if they have “ever stunted before?”
In the present, a nurse tells the trio they cannot visit Glen as he is still fragile, but she agrees to contact them if he wakes up. Oliver has brought a case of beer to the hospital because he thought the smell might lure Glen from his medical slumber. It's the same case Sazz brought to Oliver’s apartment the night she died. Oliver is not a beer drinker, so Mabel offers to take it.
At the hospital, the trio bumps into the bartender from Concussions (Michael McFadden), who tells them Glen replaced the protégé as a favor to Sazz. Perhaps Glen was an intended victim due to his role in this incident. Only Sazz, Glen, the protégé, and the director know exactly what happened on that set. The director? Ron Howard, or Ron-Ron to Oliver.
Given how often Oliver spins yarns about celebrity encounters, it's unsurprising Mabel and Charles are skeptical about his connection to Ron Howard. Oliver says they met in his favorite Chinese restaurant in 1988 and bonded over the off-menu spicy soup. Unfortunately, Oliver only has the number to his car fax machine.
Finding Ron Howard
In addition to trying to solve this case, Charles wants to celebrate Oliver’s impending marriage. Oliver interprets this as Charles throwing him a bachelor party and has a few stipulations. Oliver wants whisky, A-list celebrities, and a naughty secret they must keep for the rest of their lives (WANS for short).
Meanwhile, Mabel visits Bev Melon (Molly Shannon) because a studio exec will know Ron’s location. First, Bev complains that “the movie is addicted to being a piece of s***.” Every draft Marshall (Jin Ha) turns in is somehow worse than the one before, so Bev wants Mabel to look over the new pages to make it sound more authentic. Bev gives her Ron’s whereabouts to sweeten the deal.
It turns out Ron is shooting his new movie, Escape from Planet Klongo, in New York, and the trio manages to get on set in the guise of background actors.
Arguments and more murder
Oliver and Charles are dressed in spandex motion capture suits as aliens running away from a monster. Before they get called to set, Mabel receives a text from the nurse that Glen is awake, so she leaves the Ron part of the plan to Oliver and Charles.
Unfortunately, Oliver is annoyed that Charles’ idea for a bachelor party doesn’t include anything from WANS. This argument spills over while they are shooting the scene. Ron doesn’t even notice Oliver as the pair gets kicked off set.
When Mabel gets to the hospital, the nurse breaks the bad news that Glen is dead. Mabel asks who else she called about Glen waking up? Turns out that Sazz was Glen’s emergency contact. A man answered the phone, and we saw this person come into the room and smother the stuntman with a pillow.
It's unclear how this is connected, but the focus briefly shifts to a news story on the TV about a missing dry cleaner when Mabel is at the hospital.
While they change back into their street clothes, Charles explains he feels sensitive and doesn’t want to be an awkward third wheel in Oliver and Loretta’s (Meryl Streep) relationship. Charles didn’t want to throw a bachelor party but celebrate their friendship.
Identifying the protégé
The Chinese restaurant where Oliver first met Ron-Ron is the perfect spot for this impromptu celebration. Oliver reassures Charles they'll be friends to the end; he also wants Charles to be his best man. Charles orders whisky for them, moves Oliver’s photo to a more prominent place on the restaurant wall (their naughty secret), and then Ron Howard walks in (the A-list celebrity). Ron-Ron remembers Oliver and joins them.
Flashbacks throughout the episode show Sazz coaching her masked protégé about getting set on fire. The issue? The protégé didn’t wait long enough to ensure the flames did not ignite before approaching Ron. When they sparked, Ron’s eyebrows burned off. The protégé was handing Ron a script when he caught fire.
Not only that, but he stole Ron’s shoes, and the tread matched the one left by the shooter. Ron has a photo of the person, and while his hair is different (and he doesn’t have a beard or wear glasses), it's Marshall, the Only Murders screenwriter.
The same screenwriter happens to be waiting at Mabel’s place to go over the new pages. Little does she know who is now sitting on her bed. Mabel is upset about Glen’s death and offers Marshall a beer. Inside the case, she finds an Only Murders script with Sazz’s name as the writer. Mabel confronts Marshall about this and doesn’t see the text message from Charles warning her that Marshall is the protégé.
It appears they have solved the case, but what about the season 1 plot holes? And what does the missing dry cleaner have to do with this investigation? We see Marshall killing Glen, but is he responsible for everything else? One thing is clear: Mabel is in danger.
New episodes of Only Murders in the Building season 4 premiere Tuesdays on Hulu in the US and Disney Plus in the UK.
