Charles-Haden Savage is a main character in Only Murders in the Building. He is a semi-retired actor living in the Arconia, as well as a part of the newfound podcast trio.
He is portrayed by Steve Martin.
History
Childhood
As a child, Charles often went along with his father on what his father told him were auditions. Charles would sit and wait outside while his father went inside. One of these times, Charles waited outside the building across from the Arconia for several hours while the sun set. Then he watched as his father was led out of the building in handcuffs and driven away.[2]
Brazzos
Known as America's favorite '90s TV Detective Brazzos, Charles has lived in the Arconia for almost 30 years. And yet, his tendency to keep to himself means he knows nearly no one in the building. As acting opportunities have dried up, Charles has turned his meticulous nature into an obsession with true crime, carefully documenting clues alongside his favorite podcast. Longing for friendship and a sense of purpose, Charles is re-energized when an unusual death at the Arconia scratches his suspicions.
While he was working on Brazzos, young Ben Glenroy was cast as a series regular. However, after the first table read, Charles told the director that Ben was a phony and had him fired.[3]
Meeting Oliver and Mabel and Tim's Death
Charles came home one day and went to go upstairs in an elevator. Oliver and Mabel also rode with him. On the sixth floor, Tim Kono got on, arguing with someone on the phone about some packages, then got off three floors later. Oliver tried to talk to Mabel, but she ignored him, and he got off at his floor at Charles's prompting.
Once home, Charles put the bell pepper he'd purchased in his fridge, then laid out a map of Chickasha, Oklahoma and started to listen to "All Is Not OK in Oklahoma". Just when the podcast reached a pivotal moment, the fire alarm went off, forcing him to evacuate. On his way down the stairs, he saw someone in a tie-dyed sweatshirt going up the stairs instead of down. Once he got outside, he asked Lester if it was real and Lester said they were waiting to find out.
Charles went to a nearby restaurant Librizzi's, and laid out his map so he could finish the podcast. He struggled to hear the podcast over the noise around him. While he listened, Oliver approached him and asked to sit with him. Charles wasn't initially going to allow him, but relented when Oliver realized they were fans of the same podcast. Oliver sat down and they bonded over being fans. When Oliver spotted Mabel coming in, he invited her to join them. She wasn't interested until she saw they were listening to the podcast and revealed she was a fan as well. The three of them ate together and talked about the podcast. Oliver tried to ask Mabel questions about her life, but Mabel refused to answer. Once they finished eating, Oliver left Charles to pay the bill, and they went back to the Arconia, where they saw police cars outside. They asked Lester, and he said a body was found on the ninth floor, a suspected suicide. Charles said he could get them to the freight elevator and Mabel said they should take it to the eighth floor because cops would be posted on the ninth.
When they arrived on the ninth floor, they avoided the cops and got a look at the body. They realized it was Tim Kono, whom they remembered from the elevator. They were shocked to have seen him so soon before his death. Mabel didn't believe he killed himself because he didn't seem like he would when they saw him. Detective Donna Williams spotted them and asked if they were associated with the deceased. They told her they lived in the building and asked if she was sure it was suicide. She realized they were true crime junkies and told them it was a textbook suicide. Then she told them to leave and enjoy their lives.
Later that night, Charles and Mabel individually remembered that Tim had gotten onto the elevator with a trash bag, which was odd because there's a trash chute on each floor. They met up with Oliver and went through the building's trash. While they searched, Oliver suggested making a podcast about the crime, reveling in the fact that they had an opportunity to be there from the start. He started recording on his phone. Mabel found in the trash what looked like drafts of Tim's suicide note. Dismayed, they agreed that was it.
Charles went back to his place and made an omelet, which he threw in the trash. He also talked to someone on the phone about auditioning for a part with no lines. When he left to go on the audition, he ran into Mabel in the elevator. She told him that she remembered Tim's phone conversation and realized that Bunny had the package he wanted. She also had a way to get into Bunny's place. She took him back to her apartment, which he was surprised to see was torn up in preparation for a renovation. She led him into the bathroom and pointed to a grate which connected to Bunny's apartment.
Instead of going through the grate, they went to Bunny's front door, which Charles picked using a wrap gift from Brazzos. While he worked, Mabel said she'd seen a few episodes and asked if he ever did anything else. He said he'd done a few pilots, but they never went anywhere because he doesn't test well. She asked how long he'd lived in the Arconia and he said 28 years. He also told her being alone wasn't so bad because it was better than his parents. His father treated his mother horribly and people always commented on how much Charles was like his father, a fact Charles admitted was true. Mabel then shared that it was her aunt's apartment, and she was living there while redoing it at her aunt's request. It was her first time ever being alone. She had a tendency to make packs wherever she went. The most prominent were what she called her "Hardy Boys", with whom she used to solve mysteries in their complex.
Once inside, Charles wanted to divide the space and search, but Mabel pointed out that the package was right in front of them. They opened it and found a diamond ring. They contacted Oliver and when he returned home, Charles began recording for the podcast. They decided they would meet up the next day and make a timeline. Charles had maps and blueprints to assist them. Oliver mentioned another death that had happened nearby and suggested multitasking, but Charles said they needed to focus on only murders in the building. Oliver liked the way that sounded and said it would be the title of the podcast.
Charles went home where he passed Arnav Kapoor. Arnav said he could smell the omelet Charles sometimes cooked and said it reminded him of Lucy. He asked if Charles ever heard from her and Charles said here and there. Arnav asked him to say hi for him.[4]
Memorial for Tim
Charles started recording a second episode of the podcast, this one focused on telling the world who Tim was. Unfortunately, they had very little information about him, forcing them to resort to pedestrian facts. Hoping to find someone who knew Tim, the three of them attended a memorial for Tim in the lobby of the Arconia. At the memorial, they learned that Tim was almost universally hated in the building. They also learned that Howard Morris's cat, Evelyn had died the same evening as Tim and people were much more upset about her death than Tim's. As the memorial ended, they decided to go talk to Ursula, the building manager, to see who had complaints about Tim. Mabel said she had a migraine and told Oliver and Charles to go without her.
When they went to see Ursula, Oliver warned Charles that Ursula always had a side hustle, so they needed to make sure they didn't sign up for anything. Despite this, when Ursula refused to give them the information until they bought some Gut Milk, they ended up buying multiple cases.
Oliver and Charles came back from talking to Ursula and told Mabel they were cleaning out Tim's apartment the next day. She decided to join them to look for clues. In the apartment, Mabel looked at Tim's large collection of Hardy Boys books. Oliver found a pile of past due bills, backing up the cops' statement that he was having money problems. Oliver also found a box of sex toys. They bagged up some things and took them back to Charles's place. Oliver said he thought they had enough to paint a clear picture of Tim, including that he was unlikable. Mabel said that didn't mean he deserved to die. They all agreed to be more respectful. After a bit of an argument, they also agreed no more lying to each other and to trust each other. Once Mabel left, Oliver said he didn't trust Mabel at all.[5]
Narrowing the Suspects
Oliver supervised as Charles recorded another episode of the podcast, asking their audience how well they know their neighbors. Charles texted Mabel after they finished inviting her to go over suspects with them. They looked over the evidence board, where Charles had put up photos of all the suspects and matched them with complaints against Tim. Charles wanted to eliminate the suspects one at a time, but Oliver said instead, he wanted to do the opposite. Charles added tie-dye guy to the board as well as Tim's fiancé, leaving Mabel to wonder if they might be the same person.
Oliver used a mental line-up to narrow the suspects down to Howard, leaving Mabel and Charles to visit him and try to get a confession. Oliver warned them that legally, they had to let Howard know he was being recorded. On their way to Howard's, Mabel and Charles ran into Jan Bellows in the elevator. After watching Charles exchange some friendly conversation with Jan, Mabel suggested he try to get a date with her, but Charles refused.
Mabel and Charles got to Howard's place and were surprised by the mess. He said he didn't want to touch anything of Evelyn's because it made it easier to pretend she was still around. While Charles grew increasingly awkward in his attempts to let Howard know he was being recorded, Mabel proceeded with questioning him about Tim. Howard said he'd heard Tim was fired for losing a client a lot of money. He was also upset that Tim left his window open and then got mad that Evelyn visited his apartment. When Charles made another attempt to let Howard know he was being recorded, he got so nervous, his nose started bleeding and Howard fainted. Mabel told Charles to get ice. He went to the freezer, where her found Evelyn's body. He accidentally knocked it to the floor, breaking off her leg. He put the leg in his pocket and grabbed some ice. Howard explained that he fainted at the sight of blood and said the cat was in his freezer because he was getting a toxicology report done. He believed Tim poisoned Evelyn and then killed himself.
As they left Howard's, Mabel asked Charles about the nosebleeds, and he told her it was anxiety, that it sometimes happens when he talks to people. Mabel said that Howard had an alibi, given that he couldn't be around someone who was bleeding without fainting, but Charles didn't buy it.
Charles talked to Oliver, who said he was strapped for cash and planning to sell his Splash! poster to get some money. Charles tried to talk him out of it, saying the world needed more people like Oliver, people who brought people like Charles out of their shells. He offered to put up some money for the sound equipment. This inspired Oliver, who went back to get the funding he needed.
Later, Oliver surprised Mabel and Charles by telling them that he'd posted the first episode. He'd also gotten them a sponsorship from Teddy Dimas, which compelled him to change the name to "Dimas Chicken Wraps Presents Only Murders in the Building". Mabel checked and found they had four listens and a review. Despite Oliver's assurances that he had it, Mabel and Charles were still worried.[6]
Confronting Sting
Charles got a text from Oliver that the killer came for his family, so he and Mabel went to Oliver's place, where he told them that the killer had poisoned his dog, Winnie. He also told them he was sure it was Sting, based on a hostile interaction between Sting and Winnie in the elevator. Mabel found out that Sting had lost millions when his money was mismanaged by an investment firm, the same firm Tim worked for. They also remembered Tim got fired for losing a client a lot of money. Sting was also among the list of people who stayed in the building the night of Tim's death, during the fire alarm. They decided they needed help from an expert, namely Cinda Canning. Charles said he might have a way to get a meeting with her and used his connection with Arnav to set it up. While he was talking to Arnav, he learned that Arnav's daughter had FaceTimed with Lucy, who asked about Charles. Charles asked if Lucy seemed happy and Arnav said she did.
On their way to the meeting, they met Jan in an elevator. After a conversation between Jan and Charles went from flirty to awkward, Mabel and Oliver tried to get Charles to ask her out. Charles said it wasn't the right time.
At the meeting, Charles, Oliver, and Mabel were surprised to find that both of Cinda's employees, Cindy and Poppy White, strongly resembled Cinda herself. Their conversation was also interrupted when Cinda got a call, which she said was due to them being on the verge of being purchased for $30 million. They asked Poppy if that meant Cinda would stop making podcasts, but she told them Cinda was the thing being purchased. When she finished her call, Cinda tried to refer them to a class, but they explained what they suspected about Sting and asked how they could get him to confess. Cinda said she got a confession out of the mayor for "All Is Not OK in Oklahoma" by bringing a fully cooked turkey to his house, meaning he couldn't turn her away. She also told them to embrace the mess.
Charles went home and added Cinda's advice to the evidence board. He heard a bassoon playing across the courtyard and went to his window to hear it better. He saw Jan in her own window playing and joined with his accordion. They changed songs a few times, but then Jan left her chair, so he stopped playing. However, he then saw a note get slipped under his door. It was from Jan, asking him to dinner.
While Charles was getting dressed for his date, Mabel and Oliver came over to talk about what their turkey should be. Mabel asked Charles if he'd asked Jan out, and he said that he found dating exhausting. Mabel encouraged him to relax and have fun on his date. She and Oliver then left so he could go on his date.
On the date, Jan told Charles about her two wildly different childhoods. When he didn't reciprocate her sharing, she called him out on it. He tried to explain, but stumbled over his words and offended her, leading to her leaving.
Later that night, Oliver came to Charles' door with a half-cooked turkey. He'd started making it at home, but his oven went out, so he brought it to Charles's place to finish. While he was there, Oliver also told Charles that Sting had moved up his tour so he was leaving in two days, and he was renovating his entire apartment while he was gone, two things they found suspicious. They decided they needed to bring him the turkey early in the morning.
The next morning, they went to Sting's door with the turkey, which greatly confused him. They told him they thought it would be a great community builder to bring a turkey to a different neighbor each week.
As they sat down to chat, Sting remembered that they were the ones doing the podcast. He apologized to Oliver for how he was with Winnie, saying he was having a rough day. Then he talked about Tim working for him until he fired Tim. When they asked him about Tim losing his money, indicating that may have made him snap, Sting admitted that Tim's death was his fault. The day Tim died, Sting screamed at him and told him to kill himself. Then Tim did that. Anita, Sting's assistant, then came in and told the Sting wasn't a murderer or a dog poisoner. Sting then said he felt responsible for Tim's death, which was why he moved up his tour and why he was renovating his whole apartment. Charles, Oliver, and Mabel then left.
Charles then went to Jan's place and told her his last relationship lasted six years. They met at a hot spring in Iceland on a trip his sister dragged him on. He hates nature and traveling, but he didn't tell Emma, his ex, that. She thought she was getting an adventurous actor guy. So she moved in and brought her seven-year-old daughter, Lucy, with her. He tried to give Lucy some stability. He cooked her favorite omelet every morning and they both loved it. But Emma didn't. He booked a Caribbean cruise for their anniversary. Emma thought it would be romantic, but Charles booked a family fun cruise. On day three, there was an island tour. He and Lucy wanted to skip it, but Emma insisted that Lucy go, and they never came back. They flew home from St. Croix. So he stayed on the cruise alone for the next five days, except for Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig. He'd paid extra to have them at their anniversary dinner. Emma thought a hard break would be best for Lucy, so he hadn't spoken to her since and it haunted him. He didn't share this a lot because it embarrassed him, but he was telling Jan because he liked her and wanted a second date. She told him that was a lot, but she agreed to a second date.
Charles then went to Oliver's place to tell him he'd shared with Jan and gotten himself a second date. While Charles lay collapsed on Oliver's couch, Will came in with Winnie, who was healthy again. He told them he'd listened to the podcast, and he didn't know that he was doing the podcast with Mabel. They were surprised to learn that Mabel stayed at the Arconia as a child during school breaks and during those breaks, she used to hang out with a group of kids, one of whom was Tim Kono. Then one of those friends died from getting pushed off the roof. He warned them that Mabel was bad news.[7]
Following Mabel
Oliver became immediately convinced that Mabel was the killer, though Charles didn't agree. They decided to follow Mabel after Lester told them where Mabel had gone. When they saw her getting into a car with a man, Oliver told Charles to keep following them while he got his own car. Charles was surprised that Oliver had a car, but followed them as instructed. When they got stuck in traffic, Charles stopped to get a pretzel. Soon after that, Oliver pulled up in his car, but made Charles drive because his license was expired, and he needed to record anyway. As they drove, Charles said he thought Mabel was in trouble because he was sure the guy from the car was the same person he saw climbing the stairs the night Tim died. Oliver reminded Charles that Mabel had lied to them about knowing Tim. Charles tried to call Mabel, but she didn't answer. Oliver then found an article about Zoe's death from years earlier. Oliver vaguely remembered it happening, but Charles didn't remember at all because he was on prednisone that year, and it messed with his memory. Charles called Mabel again, and she lied and said she was at the park. Charles was still sure that she was innocent, but Oliver believed he was just refusing to accept the truth because he'd gotten close to Mabel and didn't get close to many people.
Oliver's car started smoking as they pulled into a gas station. Oliver went to pump some gas, but Lucien noticed smoke coming from under the hood and suggested looking at that. He told them wherever they were going, they wouldn't be going in Oliver's car. As he looked at the car, Charles and Oliver saw Mabel and the man laughing as they got back in the car. Oliver took that as proof she wasn't kidnapped. Lucien suggested getting the car towed and offered to give them a ride. They asked if he could help them follow Mabel. He said yes, but they had to wait for his cousin, Vaughn, who was inside getting oatmeal cookies. Once he was in the car, they drove off. Oliver and Charles explained about their podcast and learned that Lucien and Vaughn had one as well, a much more successful podcast about horticulture, called Yard Dogs, which was under Cinda's network. When Mabel and the man finally arrived at their destination, Lucien told them it was Bayport, a shady place. Vaughn suggested that Mabel might not be a bad person, but she might not trust them yet.
Oliver and Charles entered a tattoo shop, where Mabel quickly realized they'd followed her and got upset. She apologized for lying and admitted that she knew Tim, which was why she was so obsessed with solving his murder. When the man came into the shop, Mabel introduced him as Oscar Torres, who was also a friend and not the killer. Charles recognized him as Tie-Dye Guy and asked why he was heading to Tim's apartment. Mabel said he wasn't, but Oscar said he'd actually lied to Mabel, and he was on his way to Tim's, but he heard a gunshot and left, but he wasn't going to kill Tim. Tavo, Mabel's cousin came out then and was shocked to learn that Tim had been murdered. He said Tim had been worried that he would be because he was working on taking down a black market jewelry dealer named Angel. Mabel showed them all the jewelry she'd found at Tim's apartment.[8] Tavo recognized some of the pieces and said they were all from Angel, but there was one piece Tim wanted and wasn't able to get. Tavo promised to find a picture of it and send it to Mabel. When Silvia Mora, Mabel's mother, came in upset that her daughter was in town and hadn't told her, the group moved to her house.
Silvia was upset with Charles and Oliver for dragging Mabel into investigating Tim's death, despite Mabel's insistence that she was fine. Silvia blamed herself, saying she was always working, so it sounded perfect when her rich sister offered to have Mabel stay with her during school breaks. But she regretted it when Mabel turned into a ghost from grief after Zoe's death. She asked Charles and Oliver to let Mabel move forward instead of backward. Mabel then talked to them and told them they could keep doing the podcast without her. They both told her it was the most alive they'd felt in a decade before they left.
Back in Manhattan, Oliver got a text from Teddy summoning him. He asked Charles to go with him. In Teddy's apartment, they watched a clip of Cinda Canning on Jimmy Fallon. In the clip, she mentions the podcast, which thrills Teddy. He tells them he's going to write them a check for $50,000 for the next three episodes. Charles tried to decline, but Teddy told them the story of his grandmother coming to America from Greece with only two coins, one of which she used to start a business and one she passed down to her son. He created a separate business to honor his grandmother's sacrifices and invest in those who have been loyal to him. He handed them the check.
Charles and Oliver went back to Charles' place, where they watched the download count go up quickly. Charles insisted they couldn't accept the money because it would mean profiting off Mabel's trauma. As Oliver went to tear up the check, Charles noticed the name on the check and grabbed it. The check was written from a business called "Angel Inc.", making them realize that Teddy was Angel. Mabel came in then with dip and tamales and apologized for lying to them. She said she felt like she had to finish the story with them. She also showed them that she had Tim's phone, which had been left at the desk for her. Charles then put Teddy's picture on the board and told Mabel he was Angel and therefore their prime suspect.[9]
Investigating Teddy and Theo
While Oliver distracted Teddy, Mabel and Charles broke into Charles's place, where they found a hidden room full of urns labelled "Shine On Funeral Home". When they heard Theo coming in, they hid and slipped out around him just before Oliver and Teddy returned to the apartment.
Mabel and Oliver went to the funeral home and Charles went back to his place for his second date with Jan. When she arrived, he put on an Ella Fitzgerald record and they danced together. Then they sat down to place a game of Scrabble. The game got increasingly flirtatious until they ended the game and slept together. Charles woke up the next morning to 11 missed calls and 78 texts from Mabel and Oliver. He scrolled through them to find they wanted him to try THEO as the password for Tim's phone. He tried it, and it worked.[10]
Recording the Finale
Charles and Jan spent some time going through Tim's phone and found that he was trying to take down Teddy and Theo because he'd watched Theo push Zoe off the roof. When Mabel and Oliver arrived, having been kidnapped, then bumping into some superfans outside the Arconia, Charles told them about this and learned that Teddy had put a deadline on them finishing the podcast by saying they were wrong and Tim's death was a suicide. Jan said she still wasn't convinced that Teddy killed Tim, so Mabel and Oliver pulled Charles to the side and reminded him that they only had until 7 AM to take Teddy down, meaning they needed real help, from Detective Williams.
They met Williams in a secluded area. She refused to confirm that she had sent them Tim's phone, but asked them to publish a new episode with all the evidence they had. She also said she was running a tox screen and fingerprints on the laptop the killer used to type his suicide note. She told them the rest was on them. They needed to make a tight case.
Mabel, Charles, and Oliver went back to Charles's place, where they started a board with everything they knew. They were interrupted by Jan, bringing pizza rolls. Then Oscar came in and told them he'd talked to Tim's jewelry connection and learned that Tim got the ring the day before he died. Mabel concluded that Teddy and Theo must be the killers because no one else would care to take the ring. Jan said it was all circumstantial without the ring.
When Oliver found that the superfans were still downstairs, he brought them up to Charles's apartment and introduced them around as, Sam, Grant, Marv and Paulette. He said they were there to help work out the how of the murder. They know more, as superfans, than the trio themselves. Oliver directed the fans as they each played a roll and reenacted Tim's death with Theo as the killer. It was 5:30, giving them only an hour and a half before the deadline, so Mabel wanted to start recording immediately. Jan still wanted them to look at Howard again, but Charles told her they'd started the podcast as a team, the three of them. Jan left, upset that she wasn't part of the team.
When they finished recording, Mabel said they needed to show someone a sneak preview, and they sent it to Williams. The episode went out at 7 AM and reached a wide audience. Teddy and Theo were both arrested for Tim's murder. Mabel, Charles, and Oliver toasted to their success. Things took a turn when Williams called and said that the medical examiner's report had come back and Tim was poisoned before he was shot. She also had timestamped photos from the night Tim died of Teddy and Theo outside before the fire alarm even went off, meaning they couldn't have done it. Charles was upset that the other two hadn't listened to him or Jan and went to see her. When he got to her apartment, he found her on the floor bleeding.[11] He called for help and stayed with her while they waited for help to arrive. When she was discharged from the hospital, he brought her back to his place to recover.
Eviction Meeting
Charles was upset with himself for not standing up for Jan more, believing he could have prevented her from being shot. He said he wanted to take her someplace sunny, but before he could say more, Lester called and told him he had a visitor: Sazz Pataki. When Sazz came up to his place, Jan was shocked by their strong resemblance. Charles said that Sazz was his stunt double from Brazzos. When Sazz stepped out of the room to take a call, Jan said she liked Sazz. Charles said that everyone did and an ex-girlfriend called Cookie, had even left him for Sazz. When Mabel, Oscar, and Oliver joined them, Sazz told them she had a theory that Tim's murder was a crime of passion, perpetrated by a jilted lover. She told them they needed to find the person who was in love with Tim. Oliver then reminded them that since Bunny had locked him out of his place, he was currently homeless, and they needed to go to the meeting to paint themselves as the heroes to avoid getting kicked out. Sazz offered to stay with Jan while they went.
At the meeting, several people aired their grievances against the trio, saying that their kids couldn't sleep and people didn't want to come to the building because they were scared of getting murdered. Howard tried to defend them, saying their actions may have led to him getting answers about Evelyn's death, but Bunny reminded him there were also complaints about him and advised him to vote in favor of evicting them. When the vote revealed a majority in favor, Bunny said she'd start the process immediately.
As they left, Mabel decided that if they found the murderer, it would change people's minds and the board would have to reconsider. Charles was frustrated, saying the two of them never stopped. His girlfriend was stabbed, and now he's losing his home. He told them he was done. He went home, only to find Sazz helping Jan remove her shirt. He immediately assumed Jan was cheating, though she quickly clarified that Sazz was just helping change her bandages. Charles was so used to people always looking for something better than him that he was worried Jan was doing that. Jan assured him that wasn't the case. Despite this, Jan packed up her things and left, saying she had a big performance the next day and wanted to be well-rested. He asked if he could some see her play, but she said she didn't want him to come see her being less than her best.
The next morning, Sazz came back to see Charles and told him that Jan was good for him. She also encouraged him to go to Jan's concert, which he did.
Charles went to the concert hall and found his seat. He saw Jan on the stage warming up. Then he heard the conductor announce the first chair bassoonist, a prodigy and not Jan. As Jan spotted Charles in the audience, his nose started bleeding.[12]
Solving the Murder
Mabel and Oliver raced to tell Charles they thought Jan was the killer. Charles told them they sounded crazy, but they laid out all the evidence that pointed to her. Charles forced them all to leave, wanting to preserve the first romantic relationship he'd had in years. Mabel and Oliver told him to look at what was in front of him and be careful.
Soon after, Jan came to his door, telling him she'd left at intermission and sadly, they wouldn't miss her. She apologized for lying to him. Charles invited her inside, where she got him a handkerchief for his nosebleed and a drink for each of them. Jan noticed a bassoon cleaner on his coffee table, and he told it was at Tim's place. She realized that he believed she killed Tim. He said he didn't, but Mabel and Oliver did. He told her he was falling in love with her, and she said she was falling in love with him, too.
Jan noticed that Charles wasn't drinking much, and he told her he actually wasn't drinking at all, but faking it because he knew the drink was poisoned. That's how she'd killed Tim. Jan admitted that she was seeing Tim, and she killed him two days after he dumped her, believing he'd dumped her for another woman. Charles realized the bassoon he'd heard that night sounded different because it was actually a recording, designed to serve as an alibi for her. Charles then started to slur his words and realized the poison was in the handkerchief instead. She was proud of herself for changing things up. Charles then collapsed on the floor. Jan put his head on a pillow and said she needed to think bigger because more people knew about this because of the podcast. She talked about the fireplaces connecting all the apartments and then left.
Charles used all of his strength to get up and pulled his phone out from under a pillow, where he was using it to record the conversation. He stopped the recording and tried to get Siri to call for help. When that didn't work, he rolled himself into the hallway and then onto the elevator, where others mistook him for being drunk. When Lester found him there, he sent Charles back up to his floor, where Mabel and Oliver finally found him. He was able to show them that he'd recorded his conversation with Jan, in which she admitted to killing Tim. They used his face to unlock it and play the message. Then Arnav came out and asked if they were dizzy. This made them realize Jan was trying to poison everyone with gas. They loaded Charles into Oliver's dog stroller and went down to the boiler room, where they fixed what Jan had done, then managed to attack and disarm Jan. Jan was arrested and Charles was taken to the hospital to get his stomach pumped. Bunny then told them in light of recent events, they were no longer in danger of being evicted, though she promised to keep trying to get Oliver out.
With the murder solved, Charles texted Lucy to see how she was doing. He smiled when he got a reply.
Charles then recorded the final episode of the podcast.[13]
Bunny's Death
On Bunny's last day as board president, the trio was celebrating their victory in solving Tim's murder. They joyfully told the tale to a crowd outside the Arconia and that evening, they all celebrated in Mabel's apartment. While they were celebrating, Bunny came to the door with a bottle of real champagne for them. In exchange, they gave her a podcast hoodie. After they closed the door, they wondered if they should have invited Bunny to join them. Mabel looked out to see she was still there, and then they heard her start crying, but by the time Mabel opened the door, Bunny was gone. They decided to move their celebration to the roof. They toasted their success and when they ran out, Mabel went back to her apartment to get more champagne, but she found Bunny in her apartment, having just been stabbed.[13][14]
Arrest
Oliver, Mabel, and Charles were all arrested after police found them hovering over Bunny's body. They were taken to the station, where they were separated and questioned by Detectives Kreps and Williams. Charles insisted that Mabel couldn't have stabbed Bunny and became fixated on the one-way mirror in the room. After being questioned, the three of them were released, but warned that they were persons of interest in the case, meaning they could be charged as more evidence emerged. Detective Williams also told them not to investigate or do a podcast about it. As they left the station, they were overwhelmed by reporters, which overwhelmed Charles and Mabel, but delighted Oliver, who basked in the attention.
Back at the Arconia, Oliver suggested they make a new podcast. Mabel refused, saying she wanted to move away from death for a while.
Charles started taking pictures off the clue board in his apartment, but stopped when he got to one with Bunny and put it back up. While he was working, Charles got a call that they were rebooting Brazzos and wanted to meet with him. Charles met with the producer and director and was surprised to learn that they didn't want him to play Brazzos, but Uncle Brazzos. They told him the job was his as long as he stayed out of jail.
When Cinda Canning announced a new podcast about the murder and the trio called "Only Murderers in the Building," they met to talk about it, but Mabel maintained that she didn't want to get involved. Charles agreed that he couldn't risk the TV deal he'd been offered for the Brazzos reboot. However, while they were talking, they heard a voice saying, "Fuck off," which they traced to Bunny's apartment, which shared a vent with Mabel's. They crawled through to find Mrs. Gambolini, Bunny's bird. While they were in her apartment, Oliver asked them to search for some incriminating notes he'd sent Bunny. As they searched, they heard someone coming in, so they hid in a closet, where they overheard Uma Heller and Howard Morris searching for a painting of Bunny's that Uma was supposed to take to get appraised. The painting was missing, though it had been there the day before Bunny died. Mabel found a secret door in the back of the closet, which led to an elevator that they took down and outside the building. Once outside, they talked about the painting. Charles believed finding the painting would lead them to the killer. Mabel reluctantly agreed to join their investigation.
Charles came home after shopping and was shocked to find Bunny's painting hanging on his wall. He immediately texted Oliver and Mabel, who came to his place. Mabel recognized the man in the painting and asked if it was Charles, and he told her it was his father.[15]
Bunny's Memorial and The Painting
The three of them discussed how to get the painting out of Charles's place without being noticed. When they took it down, Mabel noticed that the painting was called "Savage" and told the others that Bunny had said, "Savage" before dying. They wanted to get rid of the painting, but were interrupted by a knock on the door. Mabel and Oliver hid the painting in the bedroom while Charles answered the door to find Howard, who invited them to a memorial for Bunny. Charles didn't want to go, as it would make them look guilty, but Howard said that they needed to go and find the person who looked guiltier than the three of them. They decided to attend the party and use the secret elevator they'd discovered to sneak the painting back into Bunny's apartment.
At the party, the new board president, Nina Lin, said she would make sure Bunny's death didn't adversely affect any of them. Howard told the three that Bunny had nothing on Nina in terms of meanness, but refused to elaborate at the party. They were interrupted by Leonora Folger, Bunny's mother, entering the party and demanding her painting. She had the original bill of sale from the artist. While Charles talked to Leonora about the painting, Mabel and Oliver went back to Charles's apartment, retrieved the painting, and took it out to the alley. When Charles went to let them in, he accidentally let the door shut behind him, locking all of them out. Not wanting to be caught with the painting, Oliver tried to put it in the dumpster, but was stopped by the other two. When they heard voices approaching, they hid it between two dumpsters and promised to come back for it later.
Charles worked on the suspect board, which had a list of people who hated them, including Uma, Teddy, Theo, and Jan. Then he put himself under suspects. He went back to the dumpster to retrieve the painting, but found it missing. He went back upstairs, where he found Leonora knocking on his door. She wanted to know why he was so curious about the painting. He let her inside the apartment, and she told him that she'd purchased the painting from Rose Cooper, who was so desperate to get away from a man but had no money. Leonora bought the painting and soon after, Rose went missing and was declared dead. She confirmed that Rose lived in the building across the street. While they were talking, Mabel came to the door with news about about the painting. Before she could share it, Oliver walked up and said that Amy Schumer had the painting, which was overheard by Leonora, who had been speaking to Charles. They all went up to Amy's apartment, but Leonora quickly discovered that the painting was a forgery.
As Lenora prepared to leave, Charles stopped her and said he believed his father was the subject of the painting. She confirmed that it was him and both she and Rose had had affairs with him. Leonora asked what came of him and Charles told her drinking, jail, and he died when Charles was young. Charles then went back inside and told Mabel and Oliver what he'd learned. He wondered if Bunny was his sister. Their attention was then captured by Mrs. Gambolini, who told them she knew who did it.[2]
Tracking Bunny's Last Day
The trio tried to get Mrs. Gambolini to tell them who did it, even impersonating Bunny. When Mabel found some receipts from the day Bunny died, they decided to track her last day and record a podcast episode about it. They got the meeting minutes from the board meeting that took place that day and hung them on the suspect board. They decided that Nina was their main suspect because she and Bunny had fought at that meeting.[14]
Lucy's Visit and Secret Passageways
Charles went to the set to start filming the Brazzos reboot. He was surprised to find that his character used a wheelchair and had "a touch of dementia" which he had not prepared for. When he went to his trailer to prepare, he was surprised to find Lucy there waiting for him.
He brought her back to his apartment, where he asked Mabel to talk to her because he didn't understand anything she was saying due to her use of slang and recent pop culture references. Mabel tried to talk to her only to find she also couldn't understand what Lucy was saying.
Charles liked seeing Lucy again, but when she discovered the knife used to murder Bunny in his knife block, he tried to get her to leave, as he didn't want her involved in the investigation. She instead went to the bathroom, where she opened a secret passageway she had used to play hide and seek as a child. She led the trio through the passageways, telling them she believed that was how the killer had gotten access to their apartments to plant evidence. They used the passageway to look into Nina's apartment, where they saw a picture of the Arconia with a space-age dome on top of it and heard her talk to Jared McGregory about whether or not they'd done the right thing. This led to them believing Nina had killed Bunny in order to change the Arconia. They decided to go to Nina's apartment and try to goad her into a confession. They put together a gift basket and took it over. Then they started questioning her, but the questioning had to end abruptly, when Nina went into labor and her water broke. They called for paramedics to take her to the hospital and Charles comforted her and helped keep her calm while they waited. Nina expressed sadness that Bunny wasn't there because she was so excited about the baby. She begged them to find Bunny's killer.
Once Nina was off to the hospital, Charles ordered a car to take Lucy back to Connecticut. She told him that she'd skipped her mother's wedding to come see him because it was the day he got arrested, but he had told her it wasn't a good time. She then said out of the five dads she'd had, he was her favorite. After seeing Lucy off, Charles went to the jail, where he visited Jan, who had called him several times.[16]
Jan was happy to see Charles, though she seemed to believe they were still together. She told him he was looking for an artist and the artist would stick around to finish their work. She asked if anyone new was hanging around him because if so, that was the killer.
Party
When Mabel texted him to come over, Charles went to her place, where he learned she had discovered a matchbook from The Pickle Diner with what appeared to be blood on it in the passageway leading into her apartment. When Oliver and Charles arrived, they debated if the stain was blood or ketchup. Charles also wondered if Bunny said "passage" that night instead of "savage" because Mabel couldn't be sure.
They made a trip to The Pickle Diner, where they got a list of Ivan's regulars, hoping the killer would be on that list. While talking about the matchbook, they drew the attention of their superfans, who were sitting nearby. When Mabel got a message from Alice, Oliver and Charles were immediately suspicious of her, especially since Jan had told Charles they were looking for an artist who had recently gotten close to them. Mabel insisted that Alice wasn't the killer. Then they got up and left the diner.
Charles and Oliver invited themselves to the party at Mabel's, where Alice charmed Charles by recognizing him from an obscure film role. Oliver remained suspicious and used a game called "Son of Sam" to interrogate her. When the game got down to Mabel, Oliver, and Alice, Oliver was convinced she was both the Son of Sam and Bunny's killer and began to interrogate her. She finally admitted she'd lied about her backstory, as she didn't think she could make it in the art world as a plumber's daughter. After the party, Charles talked to Jan on the phone, and she reminisced about the bagels they had after the night they first slept together.[17]
DNA Test and Contacting the Killer
Charles visited Jan again and was surprised to learn she believed they were still together, believing her attempting to kill him to be the end of their relationship.
Charles went to the set of the Brazzos reboot to start filming. Oliver, Mabel, and Lucy all visited him. While they were waiting for Charles, Oliver showed Mabel the footage he had from the diner. They were sure the person in the video was the murderer and the matchbook they took was the one from Mabel's apartment. Mabel looked at the matchbook and saw what looked like a fingerprint in the blood. Still convinced the person who texted them to get out of the building was Detective Williams, Mabel took Charles' phone and texted that number, asking to run prints on it. They got a response asking them to meet and not to tell anyone. Then a cop approached them and said that Kreps wanted to meet them in Bunny's apartment to talk about the case.
When they arrived, they found Cinda and Poppy there as well. Kreps told them all to stop podcasting, as it was interfering with the case. At this meeting, they also learned that Cinda had interviewed a former co-worker of Mabel's, Jimmy Russo, who accused Mabel of cutting off his finger and serving it to customers. Mabel said that Jimmy was a liar who got too handsy. When Poppy and Cinda left, Mabel followed them out and Oliver and Charles asked Kreps where Williams was and learned she was in Denver on maternity leave, meaning she couldn't have texted them to meet up.
Back with Mabel, they texted the number again and were told to leave the evidence in the park to be retrieved later, confirming that it wasn't Williams and was instead probably the killer. They talked about it and decided to make a glitter bomb, which would explode on the killer when they came to get the matchbook.
After planting the bomb, they waited nearby so they could see who showed up. While they were waiting, the new episode of "Only Murderers in the Building" was released, and they started listening to it. Mabel defended herself to Oliver and Charles, telling them that really Jimmy was a creep and the first time she fought back, he got his finger stuck in the meat slicer. Charles wanted to play some music on his phone to break the tension, but Oliver noticed several calls with Hopestill on his phone, tipping them off that he was talking to Jan again. This upset Mabel, who reminded him that Jan had killed her friend. Mabel went to leave and saw someone running away with the bag, covered in glitter. By the time they got to the bomb, the person was gone. Mabel said she needed some space and decided to walk instead of going back with Oliver and Charles. Oliver told Charles he needed to break up with Jan, which Charles already knew, but found difficult until he had an idea that meant he wouldn't have to do it himself. Instead, he sent his stunt double, Sazz.
When his DNA test results didn't come in when he expected them, Oliver went to Charles's place, where they ate salsa and talked. Oliver then got a text from Will. It was a video of Mabel stabbing someone on a train.[18]
Search for Mabel and Blackout
Charles called all the hospitals in the area while Oliver searched around for Mabel, but neither of them found anything. A knock at the door interrupted them and Oliver opened the door to find Detective Williams, who had her baby, Keith, with her. She walked in, saying she had some questions for them. She asked them what really happened with Mabel the night Bunny died. She told them she didn't want to arrest Mabel, but their silence might leave her no choice. Charles said that she could search their places, but would find no knife. Oliver abruptly excused himself to go to the bathroom. They heard him shouting at something to open and Charles went back there to find Oliver opening the secret passageway. Oliver admitted that he had forgotten to get rid of the knife, which caused an argument between them. When they finally opened the door, Williams was standing there and confronted them about the knife. They tried to play dumb again, but ultimately decided to get the knife and hand it over to her, explaining why Oliver and Lucy's prints were on it. She took it and promised them to let them know what she found.
Charles and Oliver went to the diner and were soon joined by Mabel, who showed them a picture Glitter Guy had of Charles and Lucy. Charles immediately called Lucy, who said she was at Charles' place. Before he could tell her what to do, the lights went out as a blackout engulfed the city.[19]
Blackout
When they were unable to make contact with Lucy again, Mabel, Charles, and Oliver left the diner and went back to the Arconia. They went right for the stairs, which upset Oliver. As they climbed, Oliver started to slow down quickly, blaming it on his newly replaced knees. Charles suggested that getting up the stairs would be easier if Oliver dropped the bag of dips Ivan had given him. Oliver tucked the dips away and they continued their ascent. When they got up to the eleventh floor, they had to drag Oliver the rest of the way.
They got to Charles's apartment, where they found the passageway open and deduced that Lucy had gone in there to run from Glitter Guy. They entered the passageway, but quickly got lost. Lucy found them there and led them out. When they saw a flashlight approaching, they rushed to get out and down the stairs, with a figure in a jumpsuit following them. When they got to the bottom of the steps, Mabel used the bag of dips to hit the figure, causing him to fall. She removed his mask to reveal Marv. Marv explained that he wasn't the killer, that he was just trying to protect Lucy from the Sixth Avenue Strangler. He just wanted to be part of things. Lucy confirmed that he wasn't the person who had chased her and believed he'd actually scared the killer off. Oliver agreed to let Marv record an episode with them, saying they were low on quality content.
Mabel said that they'd seen the killer four times, but wondered if it was always the same person. Mabel was horrified to see Lucy talking to Detective Kreps. He said Lucy had filled him in on what they'd just done. Charles and Oliver led Lucy out of the building, leaving Mabel alone with Kreps.[20]
Meeting with Rose
Mabel told Charles that Kreps was Glitter Guy and therefore their prime suspect. They speculated on why he might have done it because he didn't seem like the kind of guy who would want the painting. They decided that someone must be pulling the strings behind him, some kind of criminal mastermind. Mabel looked at the bag she'd taken from him, which had a chicken logo she found familiar, but couldn't place. Oliver came in while they were talking, telling them Will was officially his biological child, and he was more Greek than he thought. To celebrate, he brought Mrs. Gambolini to give to Charles. Charles tried to refuse and their fighting over the cage opened a secret compartment at the bottom. Inside the compartment was the painting. They put the original up next to the fake. They wondered why Bunny might have made a fake.
Now in possession of the original painting, Charles tried to reach Leonora, only to find that the real Leonora was in assisted living and hadn't left in years. Charles opened the watch he'd gotten from his father, revealing an address. He used that address to find the woman posing as Leonora, really the artist Rose Cooper. With his help, she took the nails out of the painting and revealed that it was real and there was another painting underneath, of Charles and his father, one she'd painted for Charles' father. She told Charles the man in the painting was the man his father wanted to be, a father to his son. She said she wanted Charles to have the painting, as it was better going to him than the woman who was sniffing around a few months ago. Rose didn't get the woman's name, but her description made Charles think it was Cinda.
Later that day, Mabel came back to Charles's place, where she put Cinda's picture under the label, "Criminal Mastermind".[21]
Killer Reveal Party
Charles and Oliver were stunned to find out that Poppy was Becky Butler. Mabel pointed out that that meant Cinda sent someone to prison for murdering someone she knows is still alive and then went on to try to send them to prison for a murder she committed herself. They reviewed everything they knew and Mabel reminded them that Williams had the knife and was running forensics. Mabel texted her to check on that. They decided they needed something they could use to get Cinda to unravel and confess. Mabel reminded them that Poppy drives Cinda crazy.
Charles, Oliver, and Mabel met with Poppy at The Pickle Diner and asked her what would make Cinda crumble. She told them Cinda doesn't like human error, interruption, people working for her who don't look like her, the inside of tomatoes, and slow motion. Poppy was then called away by Cinda, who was recording the finale of "Only Murderers in the Building". She ordered a liverwurst and marmalade sandwich to go, which disgusted Charles, Oliver, and Mabel. Ivan said it was the owner's sister's favorite sandwich, which was why they served it. Mabel then stepped away to take a call from Williams. Oliver and Charles were certain Cinda would name Mabel as the murderer in her podcast, meaning they only had that day to solve the crime. Mabel then returned and told them she thought she knew how what 14 Savage meant. She pointed to the menu, which showed that the #14 sandwich was liverwurst and marmalade, the same sandwich Poppy had ordered.
Knowing Poppy was the murderer, they invited many residents of the Arconia, plus Alice, Cinda, and Poppy, to a "Killer Reveal Party" at Bunny's apartment. Oliver, Mabel, and Charles entered the party, where all the Arconia residents were waiting, and explained that they'd solved Bunny's murder and would reveal the killer to them, but only as part of a show they were putting on and wanted them all to participate in. Once they'd all agreed, they began setting up. An hour later, Cinda and Poppy arrived, prepared to record their own podcast because Cinda believed they'd been invited to Mabel's confession. Charles explained that they'd be revealing Bunny's real killer and pointed the finger at Cinda. He declared that she'd killed Bunny and hid her tracks with the help of a crooked cop. She asked how he knew about Kreps. Charles then laid out how instead of solving crimes for her podcast, she made them up. Cinda asked why she'd want to kill a woman she never met. Lester interjected that he had the logs that showed several visits to the Arconia, meaning she did meet Bunny. Cinda said she was just keeping tabs on the Kono investigation. The trio tried more things to unsettle Cinda, but she still couldn't confess. Mabel said that was because she didn't do it and pointed the finger at Alice, saying she wanted the painting and when Bunny asked for too much money for it, Alice killed her to get it. Alice flew into a rage and grabbed a nearby knife, intending to stab Mabel, but hitting Charles instead when he pushed Mabel out of the way. Charles collapsed to the floor while Uma called the police and the others restrained Alice. Oliver and Mabel cried and held Charles' hand as he bled to death.
As Howard comforted Mrs. Gambolini, Uma told them police and the ambulance were three minutes away. Cinda said that she was sorry for Charles' death, but said Mabel was incredible and offered her a job, saying she could even have her own podcast. This upset Poppy, who said there was nothing tying Alice to the murder and her confessing was just pure luck. Meanwhile, Poppy does everything for Cinda. As she talked, Poppy started sneezing. She said she was the one to tell Cinda about the art in the first place. Mabel questioned why and Poppy said it was for a podcast, but Cinda wasn't interested. Poppy continued to sneeze as she talked, prompting Oliver to ask if she had some kind of allergy, perhaps to Mrs. Gambolini. Mabel said the killer sneezed while leaving the crime scene. Poppy challenged that it wasn't uncommon to be allergic to birds and asked if they were going to believe some young girl hiding in the walls. Oliver said that only the killer could know about Lucy. Cinda then revealed that she knew that Poppy was really Becky Butler, the woman whose "murder" was the subject of Cinda's podcast, "All Is Not OK in Oklahoma". When Poppy asked who told her that, Charles popped out from under the sheet and said it was them. The whole night was staged, including the two false accusations. Poppy said she just wanted to make a good podcast. She wanted Cinda to notice her, but things went wrong. While she talked about why she did it, Williams came in to arrest her while Kreps waited outside, already in handcuffs of his own.
After the arrests, Charles, Mabel, and Oliver recorded the ending of the podcast. Then they said they could get back to talking to each other like people, not just about murders.
Charles went back to work on Brazzos to find that because they'd solve the murder, he was being given a much more significant part in the show, which meant his character was no longer using a wheelchair and his dementia was in remission. When Joy came to touch up his make-up and congratulate him, he tried to ask her out, but couldn't get the words out. Despite this, she knew what he wanted, and they made plans for that night.[22]
Death Rattle
Over the next several months, Oliver and Charles prepared for the premiere of "Death Rattle". Ben Glenroy was cast as the lead. At the first read-through, Ben arrived late and Oliver took the time to show everyone the set and costumes. When Ben arrived, he snubbed Charles when Charles tried to introduce himself.
Four months later, on opening night, Charles and Ben fought. They hadn't gotten along from their first meeting. The play started, but soon after, Ben collapsed on stage and was pronounced dead. They all went back to Oliver's play to attend the party Oliver had planned, where Mabel admitted that her first thought when Ben collapsed was how popular a podcast about his death would be. And them doing a podcast together would mean she could spend more time with Charles and Oliver again, as they were together for play rehearsals while she was left out. After the party, Mabel went home and texted Oliver and Charles to meet her there so they could go to The Pickle Diner together. When they showed up, she admitted that she felt out of the loop with them and didn't want to be. They were surprised to learn that her aunt had sold the apartment and Mabel had four weeks to move out.
As they went to leave, they saw that the elevator that had been broken was fixed. They hesitated, but decided to take it. As they were riding down, Charles noted that they couldn't have done the podcast anyway as Ben didn't die in the building. Then Mabel noticed blood dripping onto Charles's hat. They stepped out of the elevator just before Ben's body dropped through the ceiling.[23] They all fled to get help.[3]
Ben's Funeral
Mabel asked Charles and Oliver to take her to Ben's funeral with them and quietly admitted to Charles that she was sleuthing. When they arrived, Oliver was upset to be relegated to overflow three, as he wanted to use the funeral to talk to Donna and Cliff. Mabel took the opportunity to look around at the other people attending the funeral. She met Gregg Rivera, who told Mabel he worked security for Ben and was quietly investigating Ben's death. He offered to show Mabel what he had, so Mabel and Charles went back to Gregg's place. Just as they realized that Gregg was actually just a stalker, he knocked them out. They woke up chained to a pole and Charles admitted to Mabel that the tension between himself and Ben was his fault as he'd gotten Ben fired as a child. Gregg threatened them with a torch, and they realized he thought Charles had killed Ben. Mabel said that it wasn't Charles, and they actually thought it was Gregg. Gregg said he loved Ben and didn't kill him. Mabel realized that the hankie that he put in her mouth to muzzle her was one of Ben's opening night gifts. Gregg said he'd taken it from Ben's place while looking for clues and collectibles. As Gregg continued to threaten Charles, two cops came in and arrested him. Detective Biswas told them that they'd been following Gregg for two days since someone saw him leaving the Arconia two minutes after Ben's death. He also said that Donna Williams had told him about them, though he noticed one of them was missing.
Now free, Mabel told Charles she didn't think Gregg had killed Ben. She showed him that she'd also taken the hankie and said that Ben had a hankie on him when he died, meaning he may have pulled it off someone else as he fell. They went to Oliver, who happily told them he was reimagining "Death Rattle" as a musical. They then told him they were back in the podcast business, and they believed Ben had been murdered by someone involved with the show.[3]
Death Rattle Dazzle
Charles and Mabel set up the evidence board with pictures of all the cast and crew. However, before they could record anything, Oliver texted Charles to come to his place for a rehearsal. Mabel was banned from coming, so she told Charles to find out who in the case didn't have their handkerchief and went to investigate on her own.
Charles awkwardly suggested they get the hankies out and show them to each other, but he was able to change the narrative and suggest they use the hankies to make a quilt. They were then all surprised to learn that Oliver was making the show into a musical. They started practicing, but without much enthusiasm. Since no one in the cast seemed happy with the show, Charles saw that as his way in with them.
Charles and the rest of the cast vented to each other about Oliver making the show a musical. Then they decided Charles should be the one to tell Oliver that none of them wanted to do it. Charles went to Oliver and told him, but he also said that the cast was just scared because they didn't understand the show the way Oliver did. Oliver changed his mind and asked Loretta to sing the nanny's lullaby instead of having the whole cast perform the opening number. This worked and secured them continued funding as well as getting the cast's support for the show.
After the performance, Charles went to Kimber about her hankie and she said she must have thrown it away or donated it. Charles texted Mabel to tell her that Kimber didn't have her hankie.[24]
While Joy moved into his place, Charles worried over the patter song he was expected to perform in the show. Joy assured him he could do it.
At rehearsal, Mabel told Charles and Oliver that they needed to get to the theater to see if Ben was poisoned as it gave them a viable suspect in Kimber. Their conversation was interrupted when the others arrived for rehearsal. Oliver decided to start with Charles's song, over Charles' objections. Charles struggled to start the song and then once he got started, he flubbed a line, causing him to black out. When he came to, he was unaware of what he'd done, but learned that many other stage actors experienced the same thing. In order to avoid it, Jonathan told him to find his happy place. Mabel and Oliver refused to tell Charles what he'd done as they decided it was too soon to talk about it.
Charles went home and ranted to Joy about what happened. He told her he didn't think he even had a happy place, so she suggested he make himself an omelet to cheer up. He was pleasantly surprised to find himself able to sing the song flawlessly while making the omelet, but when he shared this with Joy, she told him that was just a crutch and her help was what would really get him through. It helped him with Ben, as Ben knew he'd have to face Joy if he went at Charles.
From there, Charles went to the theater to meet up with Mabel and Oliver, who were looking for clues. While Mabel talked to Kimber, who was running her business out of her dressing room, Oliver and Charles went to Ben's dressing room, where they found a bunch of dead flowers and a picture of a pig on the mirror with the words "FUCKING PIG" underneath, written in lipstick. As they speculated on whose lipstick it might be, Charles excused himself to go home, as Joy had sent him several pictures of a piranha, and he was worried she would buy one for her tank.
At the next rehearsal, Charles tried to mime making an omelet to get through the song, but Oliver stopped him and told him to keep his hands behind his back as he sang. As a result, Charles went to the White Room again and said something so offensive that Tom had to go find a priest. Oliver ordered Charles into his office, where he suggested that Charles' problem wasn't because of the song but instead because Joy had moved in with him. He'd always been alone, as long as Oliver had known him. Charles admitted that he didn't know how to ask Joy to move back out. Oliver advised him to keep it simple.
Charles went home and tried to talk to Joy, but blacked out again. When he came to, he was kneeling down proposing to Joy. She accepted and put on the ring he was holding, just as Oliver and Mabel came in. Joy saw the lipstick Mabel was holding and took it, putting it back in her kit, completing her set.[25]
Fight with Joy
Despite promising Mabel he would talk to Joy about the lipstick himself, he still hadn't done so two days later. Finally, he worked up the nerve and asked her how her lipstick got into Ben's dressing room. She was upset that he thought she was involved in his death and left to go to their cake tasting alone. While she was gone, Sazz, who had come over to bring an engagement present, admitted that he was worried that Joy was a killer like Jan had been. He needed to prove she wasn't so he could break up with her without fearing for his life like he had with Jan. Sazz had them play a game called Commit or Be Committed in which she, as Joy, said some things and he decided if they were fine or creepy. Through this, she realized Charles was afraid to be happy.
When Joy came back with cake samples for him to taste, he apologized to her, and she explained that she was in Ben's dressing room that night to cover up a red mark on his face. Charles said he'd given Ben the red mark by punching him after he attacked Loretta. Joy was angry that he attacked Ben that night and still thought she was the one involved in Ben's death. He explained what he realized with Sazz, but she said that after all those years in her make-up chair, he still hadn't changed like she hoped he would. He said he wanted to change for her, but she said it was too late. She smashed some samples into his chest and told him the engagement was off.[26]
When Joy gone, Charles was left just with President McKinley, the one fish she'd left behind. When Howard confessed to Mabel that he killed Ben, she called Oliver and Charles to her place. Howard explained that he swept the stage every night to keep the ghost of Gideon Goosebury from sabotaging the show, but he hadn't done it opening night because he couldn't do it opening night because K.T.'s office was locked and there were sounds coming from the inside. He'd remembered this when he was sweeping again in preparation for their return to the theater and a figure he believed was Gideon's ghost appeared in the back of the theater, scaring him enough that he immediately went to confess.
Charles, Mabel, and Oliver went to the theater to investigate. While they were on stage, a sandbag fell next to Charles, followed by a second. They rushed off-stage to find K.T., who enlisted Howard's help to conduct safety checks. While they were gone, Mabel noticed a clipboard where the cast signed in, which gave them handwriting samples to compare to the mirror. Oliver tried to dissuade her, confusing her, and then he disappeared while Mabel was talking to Charles about Tobert. She told Charles he and Oliver could do whatever they wanted, and she would investigate by herself as usual.
Charles started to regret bringing President McKinley to the theater with him and began to look for a place to put him because he worried the bag was leaking. He ended up in a prop closet, where he was trapped after putting President McKinley in the toilet tank. He was horrified with himself when he forgot President McKinley was in there and flushed, but relieved when President McKinley ended up in the bowl instead. He started to panic as he remained trapped until he remembered he had jimmy keys, which he used to free himself. As he left the room, he ran into Mabel and Tobert. Charles was upset that Mabel was with Tobert, though she told him Tobert ended up at the theater on his own. From there, Mabel and Charles followed Oliver and found him trying to clean the lipstick off Ben's mirror. This led to a fight between the three of them, with Oliver mad that Charles hadn't told him about punching Ben on opening night and Mabel upset with Oliver for destroying evidence and Oliver mad at Mabel for pointing fingers at his cast, jeopardizing his moment to shine. Mabel decided she would continue to investigate without them and find out who killed Ben.[27]
Making Up with Oliver
Without Oliver and Mabel, Charles went to The Pickle Diner with a book, so he could sit and read alone. There, he saw Uma, who was there eating a sandwich she used to share with Bunny prior to her death. Uma talked to Charles about people being dead to her for whatever they did that wronged her. As she went to leave, Charles noticed she had Ben's hankie in her purse, but she left before he could get anything else out of her.
Back at the Arconia, Charles went to Uma to ask her for the hankie, as he wanted to use it to make peace with Oliver and Mabel. She told him she couldn't give it to him because she'd sold it to a CoBro fan for $7000. In the middle of the night that night, Charles pressed himself against Oliver's door, trying to overhear Matthew Broderick's rehearsals. He was surprised when Oliver opened the door and pushed Matthew out. Charles apologized and Oliver immediately re-hired him for the show.
Oliver showed Charles the album he'd found at Loretta's place indicating she was obsessed with Ben, and they decided to use it to make peace with Mabel. However, when they went to her apartment, they found that she no longer lived there and were surprised when they got a notification for the trailer for season three of "Only Murders in the Building", which Mabel was making on her own.[28]
When Charles came to the theater for the sitzprobe, he was surprised to see Mabel come in. He and Oliver talked to her about the podcast she'd put out on her own and she told them she thought Dickie was the killer. Oliver was pleased with this as he wasn't in the show and Charles tried to harness that to get them all to make up. While they were rehearsing the first song, they all got notifications that Gregg Rivera had been released and Ben's real killer was still at large. Soon after, Detective Williams came in and told them the killer was someone in the show. She wanted to take everyone down to the station to interview them, but Oliver persuaded her to do the interviews at the theater instead, as he'd invited Maxine to the sitzprobe and wanted to sell her on the new, improved show. Charles offered up his dressing room, but irritated Williams when he tried to stay in the room with them.
While Charles was rehearsing his patter song, Oliver sneaked into Charles' dressing room and planted a camera while Williams was distracted watching Charles. When Charles and Oliver told Mabel about the plan they'd executed to get all the interviews on tape, she asked if they wanted to make a podcast with her, officially making up.
As Loretta rehearsed the final song, Mabel and Charles pulled items out of her bag, including a letter she'd written to Dickie and the book of pictures Oliver had taken. Mabel realized the pictures in the book weren't of Ben, but of Dickie. When Dickie was arrested. Loretta saw this happening and stopped the song to confess to Ben's murder. After she was taken away, Oliver clutched his left arm and his heart monitored started beeping as he collapsed. Mabel and Charles came to his aid and told someone to call for help.[29]
Oliver spent the next five days in the hospital after getting a stent. Charles and Mabel stayed by his bedside the whole time, suspending the investigation. When Oliver was released from the hospital, they decided to get back into things. They talked to Dickie and asked him where he was when Ben was pushed into the elevator shaft. He admitted to getting drunk, putting on Ben's CoBro costume, and going to Snitches Get Stitches, where he believed Ben had been soliciting the services of sex workers. Charles, Oliver, and Mabel went to Snitches Get Stitches and were surprised to find that it was a legitimate fabric shop and the sex workers were actually Ben's sewing group. They said they'd loved Ben and spent the night before his opening night helping him make the hankies he'd given everyone and running lines with him. Then after he left for the show, he left them a desperate voicemail, pleading with them to come to the show as he was surrounded by people he couldn't trust. They'd been unable to make it to the show due to traffic caused by an event at the UN.
From there, the trio decided to review the tape of the interrogations, using them to piece together that night and get context for the voicemail. They learned Ben was fasting that night and had learned that Dickie didn't want to be his manager anymore. Finally, they realized that Ben hadn't been yelling at a person in the video from Tobert's camera. Instead, he was talking to a cookie that someone had left on his vanity. Unbeknownst to him, it was laced with rat poison. He finally gave into temptation and ate the cookie, leading to his collapse and first pronouncement of death that night. When Howard came in with a piece of paper he'd managed to put back together, Oliver read it and realized it was Maxine's review of the play, which was a pan. In particular, it singled out Ben as a weak link. This led them to the conclusion that Donna had killed Ben to get him out of the way and keep him from ruining her son's producing debut. They put Mabel in Joy's abandoned wedding dress and used that to get to the courthouse in time for Loretta's arraignment, where they told her they didn't think she did it or Dickie, and they knew who the real killer was. Loretta said she believed them, but asked who did it. Just then, Donna stood up in the audience.[30]
They were able to persuade Loretta to plead not guilty and Charles paid her bail to get her out of jail. They went back to the murder board and went over their plan to get Donna to confess. They were all shocked when Loretta showed them she had the blood-stained hankie from Ben's body, which had a lip print on it. She hoped it could tie Donna to the push. They took that and lured Donna to K.T.'s office, where they confronted her. She admitted to poisoning Ben, but denied pushing him until she was confronted with the hankie with her lip print on it. She made a full confession directly into Tobert's microphone, then asked them to wait until after the show to call the police as it was her son's producing debut. She assured them she wasn't a flight risk as she had stage four lung cancer. They agreed, and the show went forward, with Oliver stepping into the lead role when Jonathan took too many pills and was unable to perform.
While Charles was performing in the show, he noticed Cliff hanging above the stage. He rushed off-stage and into the room above the stage, where Cliff was dangling, saying he couldn't go to prison. Charles realized, as Mabel had before him, that Cliff was the real killer. Soon after, Oliver came in, having also seen Cliff from the stage. Suddenly, Donna came in and Cliff allowed himself to be pulled to safety. He and Donna were both arrested.
At the after-party, Oliver shared a rave review of "Death Rattle Dazzle". Sazz Pataki came in and told Charles she had something a little sensitive to talk to him about when he had a moment. Charles decided the party was a perfect opportunity to break open a bottle of vintage wine he'd been saving for a good occasion.[31]
Trip to LA
Once the party was over, they recorded the finale of that season of the podcast. The power briefly went out while Charles said the final line, cutting him off. Once it came back, he recorded the last bit again and then invited Mabel and Oliver to his place for a night cap, as Sazz never came back with the Malbec she was supposed to retrieve from his place.
The next morning, Mabel and Oliver came back to Charles's place to tell him Donna and Cliff pulled their funding, so the musical was closing. Oliver was dramatically devastated by the news, but when he learned a producer in LA wanted to make a movie based on their podcast, he perked back up and was eager to leave for LA, while Charles was worried about Sazz. However, when he got a text from Sazz saying she'd gone to LA to double for Scott Bakula, he was reassured.
They flew to LA, where they met Bev Melon, who explained that she'd seeing people swirling around the concept and decided to produce the movie herself. She also introduced them to Marshall P. Pope, who wrote the script and Trina and Tawny Brothers, who were directing. Upset by how Bev described her, Mabel excused herself from the table.
Charles and Oliver found Mabel outside and she explained that she didn't like how Bev had described her, but had to admit she wasn't wrong. Oliver pressured Mabel to agree to sign anyway, saying he needed it. In the meantime, Charles had his old driver, Sidney, come to drive them around town. They decided to go to Sazz's place to Charles could check on her. There were packages piled at Sazz's door and no sign she was there. Not wanting to be considered un-fun, Charles decided they'd go to the party Bev was throwing for them.
At the party, they met Zach Galifianakis, Eugene Levy, and Eva Longoria, who had been cast to play them in the movie. Charles was put out by Eugene implying that Charles wasn't fun and was constantly worried.
When Charles spotted someone he thought was Sazz, he followed them only to find it was Scott Bakula. Scott informed Charles that Sazz was supposed to double for him for a pilot and hadn't shown, which wasn't like her. Worried, the trio went back to Sazz's place, where Charles picked the lock. They found some odd notes, some referring to Charles, and then Lester called to say that he'd gotten a note about replacing Charles's kitchen window. At the same time, Mabel learned that Howard's new dog had been a cadaver dog.
They went back to New York, where Howard brought Gravey to Charles's place. She sniffed around and then led them to the incinerator, where they found some metal joints from Bulgaria, the kind Sazz had.[32]
Continuing Investigation
With Charles's hands covered in Sazz's ashes, they returned to Charles's place, where Charles decided to collect the ashes in a jar and then let the water evaporate to avoid washing Sazz down the sink. Mabel and Oliver then told Charles they wanted to go talk to some people before reporting the murder so they could talk to them before the police came. They also said they wanted Charles to stay at his place, as they believed he was the real target of the killer. So they asked him to Postmates some luminol so they could figure out exactly where Sazz died, so they could figure out which apartment the killer was in when they made the shot. They looked across the courtyard at the West Tower, where Charles told them what he knew about the people who lived across from him, including Stink-Eye Joe, Christmas Guy, and the Sauce family. Oliver and Mabel then left to talk to those people while Charles locked himself in his apartment.
With the other two gone, Charles started talking to Sazz, whom he was imagining in the apartment with him. He was sad that despite being on film hundreds of times, the only way people could remember Sazz's face was in a documentary she did. Sazz told him not to feel bad even if he was the target because it was her job to take hits for him. Charles started pinning the notes they collected from Sazz's apartment to the clue board. While he was working, he heard a noise in the closet. He investigated and found Jan.
Jan explained that the last time she talked to Sazz, she'd seemed sad and then Jan didn't hear from her again, so she broke out of prison to check on her. When Jan heard that Charles was on hold with 911, she said she'd kill him if he didn't tell her why he was calling them. Charles told her that Sazz had been murdered. Jan told Charles that she really loved Sazz and that was the only reason she hadn't killed Charles. Jan also told him how much he meant to Sazz, who was able to get into stunt work because of him. Then she said she needed to borrow a shirt because hers had prison guard brain on it. While changing, Jan said that Sazz thought someone was trying to kill Charles and warned him that once you failed to kill someone, you came up with more creative ways to try again. Then she went back into the closet and disappeared as they heard a knock on the door.
Charles let Mabel and Oliver back into his place and they told him what they'd learned and were pleased that he'd set up their clue board. He tried to tell them Jan had been there, but they didn't believe him because the closet was empty when Charles opened it again. Mabel found a note from the club board with some numbers on it and she and Oliver left Charles again to try the code on the Dudenoff place they'd learned about from the Westies.
Charles huddled up against the wall, afraid to leave his apartment, even when he learned his package had arrived and was waiting for him downstairs. Just as he finally talked himself into going down in disguise, the police came into his apartment and Detective Williams told him Jan had escaped and they were looking for her. Mabel and Oliver also arrived at this time. Charles told them that he had tried to tell them Jan was there and they didn't believe him. Williams overheard this and was upset at Charles for not reporting Jan being in his apartment, despite knowing that was a crime. Just then, a 911 operator finally picked up and Williams was displeased when Charles told them he needed to report a murder. Mabel then told Williams and her team that they should check the incinerator. Once the police were gone, they took the luminol and sprayed it on the floor. Not only did this allow them to see where Sazz had died, but it revealed a message she wrote in her own blood, "Tap in." Charles recognized this as the phrase Sazz used to say when it was her turn to step in and do the stunt and time for Charles to take a break. Oliver then realized the note with the code to the Dudenoff place was not just numbers, but when flipped upside down, read, "Oh, Hell." Charles finally accepted that he was the real target and said they weren't investigating Sazz's murder, but his own.[33]
Working with Eugene
When the FBI came in to take over the murder investigation, Williams came to Charles's place to talk to the trio. She told them that it wasn't public yet, but the FBI had stepped in to take over the investigation. They believed Jan paid someone to kill Sazz while she was in prison. They also believed she'd done to Florida. The bullet that killed Sazz was from a 300 Win Mag based on the one casing found in the Dudenoff place. The apartment belongs to M. Dudenoff, a retired professor whose neighbors say they're in Portugal, which Williams didn't believe. All the neighbors were playing cards when they heard the shot except Rudy Thurber, a guy with Christmas decorations up year-round. When Charles said that he was certain Jan didn't kill Sazz, Williams agreed, but didn't believe Sazz was the killer's intended target. Williams knew after three seasons that the trio wouldn't stand by while the police and FBI investigated. She became distracted when Eva, Zach, and Eugene entered the apartment. They were there to study Mabel, Oliver, and Charles to perfect their roles for the movie. Williams threatened Oliver and the others not to let anything happen to Zach Galifianakis, saying she'd kill them herself if anything happened to him.
Eugene was eager to follow Charles around and learn more about him. He flattered Charles by speaking highly of him. They realized that Vince and Rudy both had possible motives to murder Charles and so they split up, with Eva and Mabel investigating Rudy while Eugene and Charles talked to Vince. Before leaving, they tried to figure out a way to get Vince to remove his eye patch so they could see if he had a bruise from the gun recoiling. Eugene proposed asking him for a drink of water and then Eugene telling a joke and Charles doing a spit take to get water all over Vince, forcing him to remove the eye patch. Charles said that was a bad idea and came up with another one.
Eugene and Charles both put on eye patches and went to Vince's place, where they claimed they had the same antibiotic-resistant pink eye he did and offered him some special drops to cure it. When he stepped out of the room to apply the drops, they decided to change course. When he came back, they tried using a joke and a spit take to get him to remove his eye patch. It worked, but Vince also punched Eugene in the face, causing a nosebleed. This led to a conversation in which Charles and Vince revealed that they were both awkward, so they didn't hate each other as they each suspected. They hugged and then Vince hugged Eugene. Eugene didn't let go for a long time, allowing Charles to look at a photo Vince had on a table of himself with all the neighbors from his floor including one with their face scratched off.
Charles went back home. When he saw Vince looking out the window, they waved and smiled at each other. Mabel then texted Charles to come over for a housewarming party. He looked up and saw her in the Dudenoff place gesturing for him to come over. He and Oliver brought cleaning supplies and basic bedding because Mabel had decided to start squatting there in the hopes of forcing Dudenoff to return to kick her out. She started singing the Perfect Strangers theme song and Oliver remembered that Howard noted that he'd heard it on the radio. He also logged someone saying, "Meet me at 445." Mabel realized that was a frequency. She went to it and called out. Someone replied telling her they shouldn't be on that line. She warned them that the last person who poked around ended up dead and they were next if they continued. She also heard the pig squeaking and told Hammy Faye Bakker she loved her.[34]
After having a dream in which he chased Sazz, who said she was on her way to Paradise, Charles called Mabel and Oliver over to his place to show them the second murder board he'd made, to consider Sazz as the target. He wanted to fill in the gaps in Sazz's life to figure out if anyone might have wanted to kill her. Meanwhile, Mabel was making no progress with the Westies, who stopped speaking to her when she started squatting in the apartment. Additionally, the voice on the radio hadn't responded since that first message. As they started talking about the Westies, Oliver explained that he was tired because he'd been up obsessing over a picture on Loretta's Instagram with a man's arm around her. Through Mabel looking at Loretta's Instagram, she learned that Sazz was on Instagram and had posted from a bar called Concussion on the day she died.
They went to Concussion, where they quickly stood out amongst the stunt workers. They accused Charles of just being a face. Charles defended himself, saying Sazz was his friend and he was just trying to solve her murder. The stunt workers were angry because they thought the trio were just doing it for their podcast and blamed the trio for them not being able to have a funeral for Sazz. Among the stunt workers was Glen Stubbins, Ben Glenroy's Irish stunt double who strongly resembled Ben. He blamed the trio for Ben's death and threatened them, forcing them out of the bar. Once they were outside, Glen apologized and begged them to help him get a job. They agreed to do it only if he told them what was happening in the back room of the bar, where they saw the same light that was in the background of Sazz's last Instagram photo, meaning she'd been there. Glen told them she was seeing Dr. Maggie, a chiropractor. He agreed to take them to see Dr. Maggie. Charles asked if he could go alone, believing he owed it to Sazz, and Oliver and Mabel agreed.
Charles went to see Dr. Maggie, who refused to speak to him unless he got on her table and let her work on his back, saying it physically hurt her to see a body so tense. While she adjusted Charles, she told him that Sazz had spoken to her about retirement and how excited she was for her career change, though Dr. Maggie didn't know what her new career path was. She then did a particularly painful adjustment, which led to Charles dreaming again of following Sazz to Paradise.
Later, Mabel told Charles and Oliver she'd learned that the Westies were illegally subletting rent-controlled apartments from Professor Dudenoff and the voice on the radio was just Rudy's ex-girlfriend, Helga. She admitted she believed them because it was too weird not to be true. They also commemorated about the people they'd failed in their lives. And Oliver decided to give up the Ronnie persona. This conversation gave Charles the idea that he could stand in for Sazz as the stunt workers held a funeral for her.
Charles went to Concussion and lay on a table so the others could pay tribute to Sazz through him. They also each broke a stunt bottle on his head at the end of their tributes. When Glen's turned out to be a real bottle, it caused Charles to dream of talking to Sazz on the set of Brazzos about her wanting to open a trampoline park to train the next generation of stunt workers.
Charles took Mabel and Oliver with him to Paradise, New Jersey, where they found a sign proclaiming a lot the future home of The Sazz Pataki Impact Academy, Sazz's lifelong dream. While walking around, they heard a sound. They followed it into a building. They were relieved to find Bev Melon until she pulled a gun on them and threatened to shoot them if they moved.[35]
When Oliver begged her not to shoot him in the prime of his life, Bev turned on a light and sighed in relief at realizing who they were. She said she was on edge and apologized for holding a gun on them. Mabel asked her to put the gun down. She said it wasn't loaded, but then fired it several times. When she put it down, Mabel decided to take it. They asked her if she killed Sazz. She said she hadn't and provide an alibi for that night, but then said Sazz had left her a message that night insisting that Bev needed to call her back, leading Bev to believe someone on the movie had killed Sazz.
They turned the gun over to Williams, who said she'd get more information about it. Charles showed her the new murder board he'd made. She said they needed to narrow things down as they had too many suspects. She also warned Oliver that Jack Jonk, whose arm was in the picture with Loretta, was an Olympic swimmer, meaning he was very physically fit.
The trio went to the production office, where Charles surreptitiously took pictures of people for their suspect board. Since there were so many people there, Mabel suggested they look for anyone who seemed nervous to have them around. They immediately saw Marshall P. Pope, who was stumbling on the tacky mat. Marshall was glad they weren't giving him more notes on the script and was even happier to be a suspect. He had spent a lot of time imagining them questioning suspects and wanted to see what it actually looked like. While Charles and Oliver took Marshall back to Charles's place, Mabel held back with Bev, who insisted on Mabel pitching some other podcasts Bev could turn into movies. Mabel struggled to some up with anything, but Bev said her ideas had promise and said she'd set Mabel up with a contact at her company to help her.
Charles and Oliver took Marshall to Charles's place, where Marshall shared his alibi for that evening. He'd been doing standup and offered to show them. They declined, but Mabel questioned why he was wearing fake facial hair. He said he couldn't grow any real facial hair, but wanted to look like a real writer on the set. Mabel related to his imposter syndrome. He didn't understand how she had any because they'd had three wins in a row. The only thing he noticed was that the timeline on their current murder board only gave the killer twelve minutes to make the shot and then get all the way to the other side of the Arconia to clean up. Oliver insisted that he was fit enough to do it and ran through it. He took over half an hour to get it done while Charles, Marshall, and Mabel looked at the pictures Charles had taken. Among them, Mabel found one of a footprint on a tacky mat that matched the one left the crime scene the night of the murder. Charles and Oliver didn't want to go to the photo shoot, but because of that, Mabel insisted they had to. She arranged for Eva and Howard to stage a scenario for the tacky mats to be laid out so they could figure out whose shoe made the print.
When they arrived at the photo shoot, they were mat with Zach, Eva, and Zach dressed as them as well as stand-ins, led by Glen. During the course of the night, Charles realized it couldn't have been a single murdered, but instead must have been a pair. Just as Mabel determined the shoe print belonged to Tawny Brothers while Trina Brothers was strong enough to lift Oliver easily, Trina disappeared and then they heard gunshots.[36]
When the panic settled, Mabel checked on the three "Olivers," who were all face-down on the ground. Oliver was uninjured, while Glen and Zach both had wounds. Mabel, Charles, and Oliver fled with Howard and got in a taxi. They went back to the Arconia, where they decided Oliver's apartment was the safest place for them. When they got into the elevator, they saw Trina and Tawny approaching with cameras and were relieved when the elevator doors closed before they got there.
Williams came to Oliver's apartment to see them and told them a bullet had hit a plate in Glen's head and injured Zach, but both would be okay. Charles tried to get Williams to arrest Tawny, but she said she needed more than a matching boot to get a warrant. She also told them Dudenoff wasn't in Portugal as he'd been cashing social security checks at a bodega in New York. Then she got called back to the crime scene as someone had spotted Jan nearby. Before she left, she gave Charles Sazz's remains and warned all three of them not to be heroes as she didn't want to have to identify their remains.
Bev called them to the production office for a meeting, so they had Howard keep filming them so they felt safe going. At the meeting, Bev assured them that the movie would be unaffected by the shooting and asked them to sign waivers to release her from any liability. After this, Mabel talked to Marshall about the Brothers sisters and learned they made a creepy student film.
Charles, Mabel, and Oliver went back to Oliver's place, where they watched the beginning of The Desecration of Alice, which was about a creator who made twins who had to do his bidding. They were surprised to see the creator played by Vince Fish. They went to see him and he said he'd done it as a favor to Dudenoff, who was their film professor. Trina and Tawny were his favorites and he mentored them, though the others didn't have such a favorable view of them.
When they met back up at Oliver's place to finish the movie, Oliver had called Loretta and was upset about her unenthusiastic reaction to his confession that he'd almost proposed to her in LA. Mabel shared that the only thing the rest of the movie gave her was a deep fear of sugar. While they were talking, Howard brought in Gravey, who knocked Sazz's ashes to the floor, leading to the revelation that there were two left shoulders in the box. Mabel texted the serial number from the extra joint to Williams as they processed the idea of a second murder.
They went to the production office to confront Trina and Tawny to try to get them to confess to killing for Dudenoff. They didn't deny any of the accusations about feeling they had to do Dudenoff's bidding and admitted they'd kill for him. However, Mabel got a text back from Williams saying the shoulder was Dudenoff's, meaning he was dead. When Charles opened the case he believe held a gun, it actually had camera supplies. They admitted they were making a film within the film using hidden cameras around the production office and the trio's apartments. The trio forced Trina and Tawny to remove their hidden cameras. While they were doing that, Charles found a camera that Trina and Tawny said wasn't theirs. Just then, Charles got a text from Sazz's phone. It contained a live feed of the camera. Oliver and Mabel then got videos of themselves with targets over their faces. Then they all got texts saying someone was watching them. They decided they needed to leave town and piled into Oliver's car to go.[37]
Personality
Charles is closed-off and shy, but once he gets to know people he is quiet and kind. He claims to be so closed-off due to a condition where he gets nosebleeds when anxious, which sparks due to his social anxiety. He can also be awkward and socially clumsy. He believes himself to be more famous and generally liked than he actually is; this is seen when he sends out signed photos to Ursula instead of tipping. However, these actions are a result of blunders rather than a sense of self-importance. In fact, Sazz Pataki comments that she never understood how someone as great as him could have such a low opinion of himself. He is quiet and lonely at the beginning of the series, but blossoms through his friendship with Oliver and Mabel. He can be fairly self-aware, as shown when he reveals that he is alone by choice as he fears he would treat women in the same way as his psychologically abusive father. He lacks confidence in relationships as a result of his sudden breakup with Emma, and can be seen as cold and standoffish.
Relationships
Cookie
Cookie was Charles' girlfriend during season six of Brazzos. She cheated on Charles with his stunt double Sazz Pataki, then left him to be with Sazz.
Emma
Charles' relationship with Emma lasted five years. He first met Emma at a hot spring on vacation in Iceland. They started a relationship and Emma moved into his apartment, along with her then seven-year-old daughter, Lucy. Charles tried hard to look after Lucy and give her stability, but Emma became jealous that he paid more attention to Lucy than her. For his and Emma's anniversary, Charles booked them all onto a cruise, but it was a family fun cruise, which only annoyed Emma more. On the third day of the cruise, she took Lucy and they both flew home from St Croix without Charles.
Jan Bellows
Charles met Jan on an elevator, while he was with Mabel. They discussed Jan's career as a bassoonist and her nightly playing by her window. They met again, a few days later, and Oliver commented that Charles was "a little flirty". That evening, Charles joined in with Jan's playing, and they had a short musical back-and-forth until Jan suddenly stopped playing. She came up to his apartment and slipped a note under the door asking him for dinner. They went out to a restaurant, but Charles messed up when she shared stories about her past with him, and he didn't do the same with her. Frustrated, Charles believed he had ruined everything. He later plucked up the courage to go to her apartment and tell her the real story about his last relationship. Pleased at his openness, Jan agreed to a second date.
Jan and Charles' relationship progressed quickly, and Jan soon joined the trio in their efforts to find Tim Kono's killer. Oliver felt that her input was destructive, and sent her away. She then got stabbed in her apartment, meaning that Charles became much more attentive and protective of her. When Sazz visited Charles, she helped Jan change her bandage, which Charles mistakenly interpreted as a repeat of the situation with Cookie. Jan was upset that Charles thought she would cheat on him, but Charles explained that he believes anyone great would cheat on him. They reconciled, but Jan spent the night at her apartment to prepare for her big concert the next day. She told Charles she was playing first chair, but when he arrived, he discovered that the first chair bassoon was actually a prodigy, Alison Tipton, and Jan was second chair. Shocked and hurt, Charles returned to his apartment, where Oliver and Mabel confronted him with the news that Jan was the killer. When Jan showed up at Charles' apartment to explain herself, he let her in to have drinks and listened to her explanation. He told her that he was falling in love with her, and she reciprocated his feelings. However, when she noticed he wasn't drinking, as he believed she had poisoned the drinks, he revealed that he knew she was the killer. She confessed everything, reveling in the fact that they were finally totally open with each other. However, she had actually poisoned Charles' handkerchief, and as the poison began to kick in she told him her plan to gas the whole building. She confesses that she did actually fall in love with him, but leaves him to die from the poison and gas.
Lucy
TBA
Career
He is an actor and songwriter. He played Aristotle Brazzos in the television show "Brazzos" and reprised the character in a reboot. He also did three made-for-TV movies and a series of political ads for the Dukakis campaign.[23]
Notes and Trivia
- Charles knows how to pick locks. The crew on "Brazzos" gave him a set of jimmy keys at the end of Season 5, and he knows how to use them. This is shown in True Crime, when he and Mabel break into Tim's apartment.
- He taught Mabel how to pick locks, and in exchange she taught him how to use PostMates.[12]
- He has the same shoulder and hip measurements as Tilda Swinton.[12]
- He has a sister and four nieces, who all live in Patchogue. He hasn't visited them in the last five years, but when he does visit, they try to set him up with a hairdresser.[8]
- He shares several traits with his father:
- Both are called Charles
- Both are right-handed, but use scissors with their left hand
- Both have brilliant natural musical ability and can play almost any instrument by ear
- Both are bad at math
- Their hair turned grey at 47 and white at 58
- He can play the accordion, and is good at following a tune by ear.
- Charles is associated with the color blue, and is often dressed in various shades of blue.
- Charles' nose bleeds when he is anxious.
- He likes to eat an omelette with peppers for breakfast. At the beginning of the series, he would make an omelette every morning and throw half away, as he used to share it with Lucy. However, he then branched out and started to eat other things for breakfast, such as a fried egg.
- In the Spanish (Spain) dubbing, he is voiced by Manolo Garcia, a popular Spanish singer.
- In Performance Review Charles stated that he dislikes hugs.
- His ringtone is Angel in Flip-Flops.[32]
- He was People Magazine's eighth most beloved TV cop.[33]
- He can play the concertina.[34]
- He dubbed Brazzos episodes for Macedonia.[37]
Gallery
Promotional Images
Episode Stills
Appearances
| Season One | |||||
| #01 | "True Crime" | #05 | "Twist" | #09 | "Double Time" |
| #02 | "Who Is Tim Kono?" | #06 | "To Protect and Serve" | #10 | "Open and Shut" |
| #03 | "How Well Do You Know Your Neighbors?" | #07 | "The Boy from 6B" | ||
| #04 | "The Sting" | #08 | "Fan Fiction" | ||
| Season Two | |||||
| #01 | "Persons of Interest" | #05 | "The Tell" | #09 | "Sparring Partners" |
| #02 | "Framed" | #06 | "Performance Review" | #10 | "I Know Who Did It" |
| #03 | "The Last Day of Bunny Folger" | #07 | "Flipping the Pieces" | ||
| #04 | "Here's Looking at You" | #08 | "Hello, Darkness" | ||
| Season Three | |||||
| #01 | "The Show Must..." | #05 | "Ah, Love!" | #09 | "Thirty" |
| #02 | "The Beat Goes On" | #06 | "Ghost Light" | #10 | "Opening Night" |
| #03 | "Grab Your Hankies" | #07 | "CoBro" | ||
| #04 | "The White Room" | #08 | "Sitzprobe" | ||
| Season Four | |||||
| #01 | "Once Upon a Time in the West" | #05 | "Adaptation" | #09 | "Escape From Planet Klongo" |
| #02 | "Gates of Heaven" | #06 | "Blow-Up" | #10 | "4.10" |
| #03 | "Two for the Road" | #07 | "Valley of the Dolls" | ||
| #04 | "The Stunt Man" | #08 | "Lifeboat" | ||
| List of Characters | ||
| MAIN | Charles-Haden Savage • Oliver Putnam • Mabel Mora • Howard Morris • Jan Bellows • Oscar Torres | |
| RECURRING | Tim Kono • Donna Williams • Sazz Pataki • Teddy Dimas • Theo Dimas • Zoe Cassidy • Ursula • Cinda Canning • Uma Heller • Arnav Kapoor • Bunny Folger • Lester • Poppy White • Ndidi Idoko • Grover Stanley • Amy Huang • Will Putnam • Sam • Paulette • Marv • Alice Banks • Joy Payne • Lucy • Ben Glenroy • Bobo Malone • Cliff DeMeo • Dickie Glenroy • Donna DeMeo • Jonathan Bridgecroft • Kimber Min • K.T. Knoblauer • Loretta Durkin • Tobert • Eugene Levy • Eva Longoria • Zach Galifianakis • Vince Fish • Bev Melon | |
| GUEST | Sting • Roberta Putnam • José Torres • Jimmy Fallon • Silvia Mora • Amy Schumer • Detective Daniel Kreps • Matthew Broderick • Scott Bakula • Doreen | |
References
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