Only Murders in the Building spends much of Season 4 weaving yet another macabre mystery as Oliver, Charles, and Mabel desperately search for the killer who ended their friend Sazz Pataki’s life. Caught between their investigation and producing a film adaptation of their podcast, the try-hard trio finally finds out the truth in the penultimate episode of the season: Sazz’s killer was none other than Only Murders in the Building screenwriter Marshall Pope (a.k.a. former stuntman Rex Bailey).
Marshall’s reveal as this season’s killer might come as a shock to many viewers, but it doesn’t come out of nowhere. As with its previous killers, Only Murders in the Building dropped just enough hints throughout the season to point toward its ultimate murderer without giving away his identity too soon. Looking back on the previous episodes of the season, there were plenty of hints along the way to alert viewers to Marshall’s malevolent machinations.
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7 Marshall’s Script Was Too Detailed For an Outsider
Sazz Pataki Was the Real Screenwriter For the OMITB Movie
Much of the storyline in Season 4 revolves around the production of an Only Murders in the Building movie adapting the first season of the podcast of the same name. Marshall Pope is hailed as the up-and-coming screenwriter of the film, which captures the dynamic and characterization of the main trio of Only Murders in the Building perfectly. However, his intimate knowledge of Charles, Oliver, and Mabel’s personalities was the first hint that Marshall was not all he seemed.
- The Only Murders in the Building movie is produced by Paramount in the series, which is ironic considering the show itself is a product of Hulu and 20th Century Television, which are owned by Disney.
Marshall claimed to have gotten all of his information for writing his script from obsessively listening to the Only Murders in the Building podcast, but later episodes reveal the real reason that his screenplay was so accurate. Sazz Pataki was the real screenwriter behind the script, using her intimate knowledge of Charles, Oliver, and Mabel to inform her depictions of their characters therein. Sazz had the closeness to the trio that Marshall did not, explaining why she was able to portray them so well.
6 Marshall Reveals He Has 20/10 Vision
Sazz’s Killer Would Need Good Vision
At the end of Season 3 of Only Murders in the Building, Sazz Pataki was tragically killed in Charles’s apartment with a sniper rifle from the other side of the Arconia. While Charles, Oliver, and Mabel dedicated plenty of time to figuring out who might have had access to the West side of the building, they didn’t stop to consider who would have the skill to shoot someone with such accuracy. Had they paid more attention to this piece of the puzzle, they might have caught Marshall much sooner.
- Ironically, Jin Ha made a brief appearance as “Sniper” in A24’s Civil War.
In one of his earlier interactions with the trio, Marshall reveals that the glasses he wears are just for show since they make him look more like a writer. He reveals that he actually has 20/10 vision, which effectively gives him clear vision from twice as far as the average individual with 20/20 vision. This would make him the ideal sniper, allowing him to easily shoot Sazz from across the courtyard.
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5 Marshall’s Script Rewrites Weren’t Good
Marshall Didn’t Have the Same Writing Talent as Sazz, the Real Screenwriter
Hollywood producer Bev Melon foreshadowed Only Murders in the Building‘s latest plot twist in recent episodes, though these clues were expertly hidden behind Molly Shannon’s overly energetic and eccentric characterization. In the back half of the season, Bev grows increasingly concerned with the Only Murders movie’s development, complaining that things aren’t coming along as nicely as she would have liked. One of her major complaints is Marshall’s rewrites, which she claims are garbage.
- Molly Shannon starred as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1995 to 2001.
Diligent viewers should have picked up on Bev’s complaints about Marshall’s script, especially since she had been so quick to sing his praises earlier in the season. Episode 409 would eventually reveal that Sazz and not Marshall wrote the original Only Murders in the Building script. Passing off Sazz’s script as his own, Marshall wasn’t able to live up to the quality of his victim’s writing and therefore struggled to please Bev with his rewrites.
4 Marshall Is a Compulsive Liar
Marshall Lies About His Appearance To Look Like a Writer
Marshall immediately established himself as one of Season 4’s key suspects when he revealed that his signature “writer” look wasn’t strictly accurate. Dressing in sweaters with large glasses and a beard, Marshall reveals to the main trio that most of this look is fabricated to make him look more like a writer. His beard is fake and his glasses are just for show.
- Marshall is introduced in Episode 401 of Only Murders in the Building.
While changing one’s appearance isn’t by itself the key to identifying a killer, Marshall’s lies showed that he wasn’t as trustworthy as he might have initially seemed. Anyone who was so quick to lie about who they were and what they looked like could also be capable of much more heinous crimes. Furthermore, Marshall’s penchant for disguises would make it easier for him to sneak in and out of crime scenes without being identified.
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3 Marshall Was Stronger Than He Appeared
Marshall Could Have Moved Sazz’s Body Out of Charles’s Apartment
One of the most important clues that Charles, Oliver, and Mabel discover while investigating Sazz’s death is that the killer must have been physically fit. Sazz was a tall woman and it would have taken a strong individual to move her corpse from the upper floors of the Arconia down to the incinerator room without being noticed. As it turns out, Marshall was much stronger than his nervous and uppity persona would have suggested.
- Marshall is played by Jin Ha, known for his roles in Devs and Love Life.
When Oliver, Charles, and Mabel interrogate Marshall in his apartment, eagle-eyed viewers might have spied on workout equipment in the background of several shots. This subtle but meaningful clue showed that Marshall was indeed fast enough to reach Sazz’s body from the other side of the hotel and strong enough to carry it away from the crime scene. Viewers would eventually learn that Sazz had also trained Marshall as a stuntman, most likely giving him the strength and speed necessary to cover up his crime.
2 Glen Stubbins Recognized Marshall
Stubbins and Marshall Worked Together As Stuntmen
Paul Rudd returns in Only Murders in the Building Season 4 after being killed off twice in the previous season. This time, Rudd plays Glen Stubbins, a stuntman for the late Ben Glenroy who knew Sazz before her death. The down-on-his-luck Irish stuntman tries to help Charles, Oliver, and Mabel solve Sazz’s murder, but it proves difficult for him to work through his spotty memory. He does, however, recognize Marshall, commenting that he’s grown a beard since they last met.
- With Glen’s death in Episode 409, Paul Rudd has been killed three times in Only Murders in the Building.
Glen’s comment to Marshall should have immediately alerted Only Murders in the Building fans, noting that the two characters had a history together that the main trio didn’t fully know about. As it turned out, Marshall had previously worked as a stuntman, with Sazz acting as his mentor. However, he was replaced by Glen Stubbins after a mishap on set, explaining why the two knew each other. Unfortunately, Glen didn’t get a chance to fill in Charles, Oliver, and Mabel with this information before Marshall murdered him.
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1 Marshall Tried to Influence the Investigation
The Killer Always Tries to Get Involved in the Investigation
One of the biggest giveaways that Marshall was involved in Sazz’s death was his apparent fascination with the murder investigation. Although the writer passed his interest off as research for his rewrites, the truth was that he wanted to sway the investigation and ensure that he was not a suspect. Marshall slyly hinted that the killer would have been someone at the peak of physical fitness, pointing the sleuths away from his unassuming frame that hid an incredibly agile stuntman.
- Only Murders in the Building Season 4 ends with a major cliffhanger, revealing that the doorman, Lester, has been murdered in the Arconia’s courtyard fountain.
One of the oldest tropes in the murder mystery genre is the killer getting involved in the investigation. All of Only Murders in the Building‘s killers have gotten involved in the mystery so far, and Marshall is no different. However, while each meddling murderer manages to deflect detection for a little while, they can never stop the main trio from getting to the bottom of each mystery.
Three strangers, obsessed with true crime, find themselves entangled in a murder case within their exclusive Upper West Side apartment building. As amateur sleuths, they collaborate to uncover the truth, navigating hidden secrets and clues while documenting their investigation through podcasts.
- Release Date
- August 31, 2021
- Creator(s)
- Steve Martin , John Hoffman
- Cast
- Michael Cyril Creighton , Aaron Dominguez , Ryan Broussard , Selena Gomez , Martin Short , Vanessa Aspillaga , Steve Martin , Amy Ryan , Jeena Yi
- Seasons
- 4
- Creator
- Story By
- steve martin
- Writers
- Steve Martin , John Hoffman
- Streaming Service(s)
- Hulu , Disney+
- Directors
- Cherien Dabis
- Showrunner
- Steve Martin , John Hoffman
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