‘Only Murders in the Building’ Season 4 finale: What about those loose ends from Season 1?

Only Murders in the Building‘s Season 4 finale may have answered a lot of our burning questions — like who killed Sazz Pataki (Jane Lynch) and why — but it left us with several others. Chiefest among them: What was with all the links to the loose ends from Season 1?

At the end of Season 4, episode 7, “Valley of the Dolls,” actors Eugene Levy, Zach Galifianakis, and Eva Longoria presented Charles (Steve Martin), Oliver (Martin Short), and Mabel (Selena Gomez) with information that, to borrow Detective Brazzos’ catchphrase, could have sent the case in a whole new direction. According to them, the mystery of Sazz’s death has been brewing since Season 1 of Only Murders (the fictional podcast, as well as the show).

“It all goes back to Season 1,” Levy says, “which, by the way, has more holes than Zach Galifianakis.”

The actors point out these loose ends and what they could mean, but does Only Murders in the Building actually plug up any of these holes? Not really. Let’s take a look at the evidence, and what the show does (or doesn’t) do with it.

Who poisoned Winnie?

Michael Cyril Creighton (and Winnie the bulldog) in “Only Murders in the Building.”
Credit: Disney / Patrick Harbron

First up on our tour of plot holes is the matter of which sick individual poisoned Oliver’s precious bulldog Winnie, who makes a cameo in the Season 4 finale as Oliver’s ring-bearer. A prime suspect in Season 1 was musician Sting, who had his fair share of beef with Winnie. But once Charles, Oliver, and Mabel discovered bassoonist Jan (Amy Ryan) was behind Tim Kono’s (Julian Cihi) murder, Oliver assumed she was behind the poisoning.

“Wrong!” Longoria says.

She points to the note Oliver found on the door right before he discovered Winnie, which read, “end the podcast or I end you.” A smudge of ink on the paper leads Galifianakis to deduce that someone left-handed wrote the note, and since Jan is right-handed, that means it couldn’t have been her.

Who left the note on Jan’s door?

Amy Ryan in “Only Murders in the Building.”
Credit: Disney / Patrick Harbron

Another loose end Levy, Galifianakis, and Longoria discover is the fact that the Only Murders trio never found out who left the note on Jan’s door that said, “I’m watching you.” The message echoes the threatening text Charles, Oliver, and Mabel received from Sazz’s phone in episode 6, after they discovered hidden cameras in their apartments. That leads Levy, Galifianakis, and Longoria to believe that Jan’s note, the texts, and the cameras came from the same person.

Adding to the evidence are the notes Charles, Oliver, and Mabel found in Sazz’s apartment, which singled out both “sick pup” Winnie and Jan’s “door note.” If Sazz was onto the unknown culprit from Season 1, it would make sense for them to try to kill her, right?

Except Sazz wasn’t on the trail of this mysterious adversary. These scribblings were just pointers for the screenplay she was writing about the Only Murders crew. And her murderer, screenwriter Marshall P. Pope (Pachinko‘s Jin Ha), wasn’t at all connected to Season 1. These loose ends fade away from the main Only Murders plotline just as quickly as they were reintroduced, leaving us back at square one.

However, there is some hope we’ll get some closure on these elements in Season 5. After all, doorman Lester’s (Teddy Coluca) death could have some ties to Season 1. The same goes for the newly introduced Sofia Caccimelio (Téa Leoni) and her missing husband, Nicky. Plus, we never did find out who put those cameras in Charles, Oliver, and Mabel’s apartments… Could the same person be responsible for all these crimes?

Only Murders in the Building Season 4 is now streaming on Hulu.