Spoiler alert: This interview contains spoilers for the Season 5 finale of “Only Murders in the Building.”
The news about the mayor came out just as early voting was underway in New York City. he is a murderer
He’s the mayor from “Only Murders in the Building.” Season 5 of “Only Murders in the Building” ends with Mayor Beau Tillman (Keegan-Michael Key) being revealed as the murderer of Arconia doorman Lester (Teddy Kolka).
The episode begins with Mabel (Selena Gomez), Charles (Steve Martin), Oliver (Martin Short), and Teddy Dimas (Nathan Lane) confronting Sofia Casimerio’s (Tea Leoni) mother about why she stole a mysterious finger from Charles’ freezer. The finger was first discovered in the shrimp tower Oliver had ordered for his wedding. And even though the wedding had recently ended, they learned that Lester had given Randall (Jermaine Fowler) an urgent order to deliver the shrimp just before his death, so they believed Lester had sent the finger as a clue. Sophia’s mother hints that the finger belonged to someone Sophia slept with, so the trio lure billionaire Jay Plug (Logan Lerman), Bash Steed (Christoph Waltz), and Camilla White (Renee Zellweger) to a secret poker room in Arconia’s basement to get answers.
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Jay removes the bandage on his hand, Bash removes his ring, and Charles checks Sophia’s glove, proving that no one is hiding the missing finger. But soon Mayor Tillman enters the room. At the same time, Howard (Michael Cyril Clayton) sends Mabel a text that says, “Someone’s coming down. It’s beautiful.” Then he added, “Sorry, autocorrect. This is Bo Tillman.” Mabel remembers Teddy texting his wife, “You’re beautiful,” just before he died, and realizes what he meant.
Tillman confesses and says that the billionaires invite him to Arconia’s game room whenever they need a favor, in this case permission to replace Arconia with a casino. A flashback depicts the night of the final match. That’s when Nicky Casimerio (Bobby Canavale), who was in charge of the secret gambling night, realized that Tillman was sleeping with his wife, Sophia. In a drunken coke-induced rage, he cuts off Tillman’s finger with a kitchen knife, but Lester intervenes and hits Nicky with an elevator crank, stopping him by threatening to go to the police. Nicky staggers, slurs his speech, puts the knife in Lester’s hands, and then it falls on top of Lester, falling onto the knife and killing Nicky. While Tillman and the billionaires discuss what to do, Lester grabs Tillman’s finger and the elevator crank and runs off.
Tillman chases after Lester, who has already hidden his finger. Lester, who has felt guilty for decades for having worked for Nicky, is desperate for the truth to come out and refuses to turn a finger, despite Tillman’s pleas to talk about his humble beginnings and how hard he worked to become mayor. Realizing that Tillman is trying to kill him, Lester realizes that the only surveillance camera in Arconia not owned by Bash is his bird camera in the courtyard. He grabbed the bird whistle and ran outside, saying, “My friend will catch it for me.” “You don’t have friends. You have tenants. Nobody cares about the doorman,” Tillman replies. During the struggle, Lester drops the whistle into the fountain and goes underwater to catch it, but Tillman pushes Lester into a sharp stone corner in the center and escapes. As Lester begins to bleed, he blows a bird whistle to activate the camera, which records the video shown at the beginning of the scene where Randall finds the elevator crank in the courtyard.
Courtesy of Disney/Patrick Herbron
The Dirty Cop, discovered by Charles at the beginning of the season, chained Mabel, Charles, and Oliver to a secret passage Mabel had previously discovered from the game room. Arconia is about to be demolished to make way for a casino, so if you don’t escape, you’ll die. However, Charles climbed the chained pole, grabbed a hanger from Nikki Casimerio’s dry cleaners above, and used it to unlock the handcuffs. At the same time, in the Arconia lobby, Tae (Beanie Feldstein) ruins Camila’s press conference about the casino, announcing that she will hold an impromptu concert in the game room, and pushes aside the crooked cops to get everyone downstairs. Mabel, Charles, and Oliver emerge from the aisle and expose Tillman as the murderer in front of the entire press. Later, Jay confesses to the police that he, Camila, and Bash were involved in the cover-up that ruined the casino plans and saved Arconia. He tells Mabel that he is probably not a good person, but thinks he is different from others.
As the episode ends, Mabel, Charles, and Oliver gather to listen to a new podcast set in London by true criminologist Cinda Canning (Tina Fey), who inspired their first murder mystery. In it, Canning describes a “young woman with blood-red curls” who is the prime suspect in the murder of a royal descendant, but Cinda believes she is innocent. “I feel a strong need to protect her and send her to America, which may be the only place she can be safe,” she says. As Cinda’s voice plays, a woman with curly red hair appears from behind. She coughs, nearly collapses, and runs through the streets of New York City, her hands covered in blood. She collapsed in front of Arconia, then crawled closer to the building and stopped right in front of the gate.
As Charles, Oliver, and Mabel approach the gate, Howard tells them what he saw and tells them that since she technically didn’t make it to the gate, she doesn’t deserve to be investigated on the podcast. With a final gasp, the woman put her hand in the gate, flipped over and took her last breath. This is Cinda.
Courtesy of Disney/Patrick Herbron
Only Murders in the Building co-creator and showrunner John Hoffman spoke to Variety about portraying a murderous mayor, an ambitious billionaire, and a dead true crime legend.
Now that you’ve said it all, explain how you came up with the idea to have Lester kill Nicky and then Tillman to kill Lester.
It was a grand dance. We always have to start with what actually happened and understand that Lester is the victim, and what themes we wanted to tackle, and then twist our way there. The dance of power and the unexpected nature of the doorman being placed in a position where those inside the building feel protected. As things spiral out of control, the building of a relationship with Nicky Casimerio and all that comes into direct conflict with every character in that arcade in one night. We really needed to build a history of what brought them all to that point, and that often happens when crimes occur. If it’s not a (premeditated) murder, then the most three-dimensional, emotional and high-pitched moments happen all at once. It’s built on the passion of the moment.
Courtesy of Disney/Patrick Herbron
Why did you choose Tillman to be the killer this season? What were you thinking when you put the mayor of New York at the center of a murder mystery?
The way he’s been playing games with the power in New York, and the workarounds he’s had to take to get paid (from the rich) — these kinds of things are pretty prevalent in big cities, unfortunately. We didn’t plan for a (real) mayoral election to happen. I didn’t expect that to happen by the end of the finale, but it’s interesting that it did.
There is a great complication in who this consists of his life and relationships, and his relationship with Sofia Casimerio. Obviously, that night he was very arrogant and knew full well what these three billionaires wanted from him. He was a man in charge until he lost a finger due to a mistake in his personal life. When that happens, everything expands. “I need that finger. I can’t reveal what happened.” So those billionaires helped him cover it up and literally repaired the finger. And he attends Lester’s wake. It’s strange that he’s showing up there, and yet he’s doing it for the purpose of hiding himself.
I thought it was really moving to see him negotiate with Lester in that lobby, talk to him about his father, and figure out the relationship between the two of them in different realms, but one vicious finger could ruin everything. That’s totally upsetting to him. “I’m not going to let this guy who’s just a doorman end my career. I’m not going to let that happen.” Anyway, the night goes off the rails, so he goes off a little too.
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It’s impressive how determined Lester is to do the right thing, even though he could have saved his life by turning a blind eye, as he has for decades.
There was a scene we shot that we wanted to keep in this episode, but we had very limited time. This is a picture of Lester at Oliver’s wedding earlier in the season, he’s having a good time, and Nicky comes out. He says, “I want you to deal with it tonight.” And Lester said, “It’s over. I’ll never go near you again.” And Nicky actually says, “Come trade tonight and we’re done. We’ll let you go.” That’s why Lester went there.
This billionaire was already on a bad run after his plan to replace Arconia with a casino, but then we learn that they helped Mayor Tillman cover up Nicky and Lester’s deaths. Why did you decide to differentiate Jay from the other two by his confession to the police and his words to Mabel?
Well, isn’t that a good thing? I see this as the direction of the world, with fewer and fewer people having superior powers, and it’s very frustrating. When there is so much wealth and power, I desperately want one of them to stand up, take a stand, make the right choice, and turn things around. Mabel keeps asking, “Are you a good person? I don’t know if you’re a good person or not,” which makes him reflect like never before. On a personal level, that’s what’s happening. But on a more global level, it would be great to have a few more people with great wealth and power making a call for the greater good. So, it absolutely is. Mabel says: “If you want to make the world a better place, stop making it worse.”
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What themes will Season 6 explore around the murder of Cinda Canning?
Season 5 really reminded us of that. The meaning of that building and their home and New York itself was explored so deeply in this season that the idea of bringing it back to its origin story with Cinda was what brought them all together. Their fandom for her and her podcast started it all. And then to the origin of mystery writing (London). Combining fiction and true stories, crime storytelling and podcasting have become very interesting in merging these two worlds. This is the land where Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle connected with our podcasters, and where they have found success. I felt it was really interesting to blend those things into where the cozy murder mystery started.
The moment of killing Cinda comes full circle, especially with the conversation at the end of the finale about whether her killing counts as “in the building.” Should we consider this to indicate that the show will end after season 6?
The only way I think this series will end is when the turn that takes us into deeper territory is truly over. I think if[Disney]says, “Enough is enough! Get out of here,” and/or once the cast is done, we’ll all make this a game to see how well we’re accepted. I think we all want to be aware of when it’s going to end and whether it’s going to end in London or New York as separate issues. Let’s take a look.
You’re writing a new season now, so you’re not running out of ideas. Do you still want to make season 7 at this point?
Move forward at full speed. I would be a fool to leave this matter. Owning a bird was a most unusual experience. I no longer raise birds. Because I already had a bird last season and that’s enough. But it’s rare that we have an opportunity like this with people we work with and love it as much as we do. who knows? Maybe this is the season. That might be next. It might be somewhere down the road.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
