CoBro

"CoBro"
"CoBro" title-card
Season	3
Episode	7
Director	Cherien Dabis
Writer	Ben Philippe & Jake Schnesel
Editor	Peggy Tachdjian Payton Koch
Original air date	September 12, 2023
Episode chronology
← Previous	"Ghost Light"
Next →	"Sitzprobe"

"CoBro" is the seventh episode of the third season of Only Murders in the Building, starring Steve Martin, Selena Gomez and Martin Short. It originally aired on September 12, 2023.

Short Summary

Charles finds an unexpected source for a major clue. A Broadway icon comes knocking at Oliver's door. And Mabel forms an alternative trio to pursue a lead that sheds light on Ben's bro and CoBro history.

Full Summary

As Uma's voiceover claims she loves some people, Uma leads Bunny to The Pickle Diner. Bunny shows Uma the fidget spinner she's acquired.

Inside the diner, Uma and Bunny split a sandwich.

Uma eats alone after Bunny's death.

Lester welcomes Uma home. As she passes him, she takes a pencil out of his pocket. Uma picks up a cat toy and moves to knock on the door, but then takes the toy instead.

Uma adds the cat toy to her large collection in a closet of items she's taken from other people.

Uma plays with Bunny's fidget spinner. She watches as Charles, Oliver, and Mabel rush out of the elevator as Ben's body drops into it.

Charles enters The Pickle Diner and sits in the booth next to Uma's. She tells him to sit by the aisle, so the table will seem smaller. The server drops off Uma's sandwich, and she tells Charles that she and Bunny used to split it as she takes half and puts it on a plate across from her. They came to the diner every week until the trip killed her. Charles says they didn't kill her. Uma asks where his friends are. She gestures for him to join her in her booth.

Uma asks Charles what happened with him, Oliver, and Mabel. He tells her he quit the musical, but she thinks he got fired. He says it was ruining his life and Oliver doesn't care. He only cares about his show. But Charles is sure his friends will be back. Uma says there are three kinds of people: alive, dead, and dead to her. Bunny was dead to her a lot. She never apologized when they fought and neither did Uma. But time would pass, and they'd forget what they were fighting about. Luckily, she wasn't dead to Uma when she actually died. Charles says Mabel and Oliver aren't going to die. His phone rings and he answers it, thinking it's one of them. It turns out to be a solicitation instead. Uma packs up to leave and Charles sees Ben's handkerchief in her bag. She leaves Charles with the bill, saying she got lunch and dinner.

Mabel carries in some boxes, and thanks Theo for helping her pack. He says he's going to miss her place, and she's crazy for waiting so long to pack. She says she's been too obsessed with murder. He asks if she's heard from Charles or Oliver and she says no. She needs to talk to someone who can help her figure out what happened and Theo suggests Ben's brother, Dickie. Dickie's having a silent auction to sell some of Ben's movie memorabilia. He's a fan of CoBro himself.

Oliver, Donna, and Cliff hold auditions to recast Charles's role, having each of them sing "Which of the Pickwick Triplets Did It?" The first sings it far too slowly. Oliver and Cliff are both frustrated by not being able to find a decent replacement. Cliff dances from the stress, then has a sudden idea. He leaves to make a call. Donna says they had someone decent playing the constable. She knows he and Oliver had a fight. Oliver insists that he's not calling Charles. He quit and Oliver has too much integrity to beg him to come back. Donna says he has no integrity, and he can make use of that. Oliver concedes that point. Donna says they're close to opening, and they need to pull out all the stops. They've been trying to hype the show, but people ask who's in it and Charles as their only name, though saying that is generous. Oliver says Charles was wrong for the part. They had fun, but it's not about fun. He wasn't committed to the show. Oliver will take passion over talent.

The next audition also goes poorly and Oliver lies face down on the floor as the guy finishes. Donna says that's what Oliver does when he loves it and excuses the actor. Cliff gets a notification and says his guy came through. His guy is on his way. Oliver snorts when he sees who Cliff got.

Oliver gets on an elevator and is followed by several other older men. One of them wishes Charles luck and says Oliver's a monster. Charles realizes Oliver's recasting his role and gets off the elevator. He follows the sound of the music to Oliver's apartment door.

Inside Oliver's apartment, Matthew Broderick is auditioning for Oliver, Donna, and Cliff. He's breezing through the song. Oliver's impressed with him. Cliff says he and Matthew met years ago while sheltering during Sandy. It was a difficult time, spending two weeks at the Ritz-Carlton with almost no room service. They survived and now they're friends for life. When Cliff called, her dropped everything. Donna says he's what they needed all along. Matthew spots Charles watching them and Charles races back to the door and rings the doorbell. He claims he was checking the doorbell on Lester's behalf. Oliver tells him he can move along unless he wants to meet his replacement. But they already know each other because Charles was also up for the role of Ferris Bueller. Matthew wants to get back to work on the song. He runs through the lines and realizes he has it after all. He asks Oliver to come split a Gut Milk with him.

Mabel and Theo enter the auction. Theo is a fan of CoBro, but Mabel doesn't really understand the appeal. She picks up a picture that Theo says is the original drawing of CoBro. Ben came up with the idea when he was a child and made it into a movie when he grew up. Dickie sees Mabel and recognizes her as Oliver's friend. She pretends to be a CoBro fan and Theo signs to her details about the movies to fake it, but she misunderstands. Mabel asks Dickie about the call Ben took right before he died. Dickie stops her and tells her he won't give her anything for her podcast. He's upset that people are still trying to make money off his brother after his death.

Matthew tells Oliver showbiz stories. Matthew warns Oliver that when he commits to a show, he commits fully. Oliver appreciates that commitment. He needs Oliver's help to become The Constable. It's part of his process. Oliver says he can do that. He's prepared to start tomorrow, but Matthew wants to start right away. Oliver is pleased by that.

Charles is reading "How to Talk to Women" when he hears Matthew singing through the window. He gets up and closes it. He pulls the bag of hankies out of a drawer and dumps them on the table.

Matthew finishes singing his song. Oliver says the 38th time is the charm. Matthew feels good about it. He asks Oliver where the Constable is from. Oliver says he's from where Matthew is, so they don't need to change anything, but Matthew thinks it'll change everything. He asks Tom to go back to the piano so he can make the changes.

Mabel finds Dickie and apologizes. She's lost people, too. He says it's okay. He shouldn't have taken his frustration out on her. His brother's always been his business. His parents adopted him when they thought they couldn't have children, and then they had Ben. Dickie spent his life protecting Ben, who spent his whole life messing up. Mabel hasn't heard of him doing anything inappropriate because Dickie was always there to clean it up. And Ben gets all the credit for everything. That's how it's always been. It was difficult, but he still remembers the thousand little things about Ben, like how he liked boba and dog videos and how he set his clocks 20 minutes early so he'd always be fashionably late. Mabel says he's sorry Ben's gone, but they owe it to him to find his real killer. Dickie says they did, but Mabel never bought Gregg as the killer, and she has a theory about the hankie. Dickie says Gregg followed Ben around for years. He should have sensed Gregg would do something, but when Dickie took his eyes away from one second, that's when Gregg killed Ben. Gregg was at the Arconia the night of the murder. Ben died at 12:06 and Gregg was seen leaving right after. There's no story there.

Charles knocks on Uma's door. She comes up behind him and tells him he can't have the hankie. Charles says he knows she wants it, but it's a clue, which makes it the perfect peace offering for Oliver and Mabel. He doesn't think he can afford to wait for them to apologize. He needs to make up with them. Uma tells him to use his words. She doesn't have the hankie any more anyway. She sold it for $7000. Charles asks who she sold it to, and she says it went to one of the CoBro fans from the auction. She slams the door in his face as she goes inside.

Oliver FaceTimes Mel Brooks as Matthew obsessively rehearses in the background. Oliver asks Mel if he had trouble working with Matthew on The Producers. Mel says Oliver's problem was that he told Matthew he was open to his ideas. He's out of luck now.

Mabel and Theo continue packing. Mabel takes down the murder board. She looks at the picture of Ben she took and realizes Gregg wasn't in the building when Ben died because Ben, according to Dickie, always set his watch 20 minutes early, so the time on his stopped watch wasn't his actual time of death, but 20 minutes later, when Gregg was already gone.

Tobert says he always just thought Ben was a jerk because he was late to everything. Mabel admires Tobert's equipment. Mabel picks up a microphone and rehearses what to say for the podcast. She realizes she needs to change the name of the podcast. Tobert shows her a mock-up he made of The Bloody Mabel Podcast poster. Mabel immediately hates it, so he backs down. Theo comes in and Mabel introduces him to Tobert. Tobert realizes after a moment who Theo is. He's a fan of the podcast. Theo signs that he likes Tobert's eyes, but Mabel tells Tobert he said he liked Tobert's poster. Theo shows Mabel the original CoBro art. He points out that the B in B. Glenroy looks odd because it was changed from an R. They realize it's Dickie, whose full name is Richard. Mabel remembers what Dickie said about Ben getting the credit for everything. CoBro was Dickie's creation, but Ben stole it and made millions off it. Mabel says it's motive. She pins the art to the murder board. Tobert thinks the evidence is weak, but Mabel reminds him that they once accused Sting of murder on the premise that he didn't like dogs. They need to record first, and then they'll do some digging. They hope to get Gregg released.

Oliver watches Matthew obsess over every move he'll make on stage. Oliver finally tells Matthew to go home, that he's had enough. Nobody cares that much. There's nothing more to him than what's on the page. Oliver gives Matthew his bag and escorts him to the door. Charles is on the other side and claims he was checking the peepholes for Lester, but then admits he was lying and apologizes to Oliver. Oliver accepts the apology and says Charles is hired. Charles says he doesn't want to do the show. He just wants to hang out. Oliver says they can hang out all the time, doing eight shows a week. He fires Matthew and sends him on his way. Matthew tries to object, but Oliver makes it clear he'd rather work with Charles than him. He's too broken emotionally to apologize directly, but Charles accepts his apology anyway and agrees to do the play. Matthew still refuses to leave until Oliver shuts the door in his face.

Mabel is overwhelmed by Tobert's fancy recording equipment. She has no idea what Oliver used to edit the podcast, but Tobert says that's fine. He asks for a name and Mabel says she's just going to record it on her phone. She takes it and walks away. Theo tells Tobert he can't figure out Mabel either. On the other side of the room, Mabel looks at her lock screen, which is a picture of her with Oliver and Charles.

Charles and Oliver drink Gut Milk together, venting about Uma selling the hankie. They can't believe they missed her grabbing it in the first place. Charles asks if Oliver has talked to Mabel. He hasn't. He drafted a text, deleted most of it, then accidentally sent her a comma. He hasn't heard back. He really messed up with Mabel. Charles asks him why he erased the mirror. Oliver shows Charles the album he took from Loretta's apartment. Charles doesn't think that Loretta did it, but Oliver doesn't have faith in his judgment. Charles admits that it's weird, but it's not evidence of murder. He says Oliver should just talk to Loretta. He wishes he'd just talked to Joy. He says they can give the book to Mabel as a peace offering. It's that or apologize. Oliver says they'll try the book first and grovel if that doesn't work.

Oliver and Charles knock on Mabel's door and prepare what they're going to say. They're surprised when a young mother answers the door. Just then, they get a notification for the teaser for season three of Only Murders in the Building. They listen to Mabel explain what season three will cover.

Lester, Uma, and Detective Biswas listen to Mabel's podcast as well.

Dickie holds Ben's hankie and cries. It's soaked with Ben's blood.

Detective Biswas tells someone on the phone that he heard the podcast and agrees that the trio are pains in the ass. But it's time to re-open the Glenroy case.

Cast

Starring

• Steve Martin as Charles-Haden Savage
• Martin Short as Oliver Putnam
• Selena Gomez as Mabel Mora
• Michael Cyril Creighton as Howard Morris (credit only)

Special Guest Star

• Paul Rudd as Ben Glenroy

Guest starring

• Matthew Broderick as Himself
• Mel Brooks as Himself
• James Caverly as Theo Dimas
• Linda Emond as Donna DeMeo
• Jackie Hoffman as Uma Heller
• Jayne Houdyshell as Bunny Folger
• Jeremy Shamos as Dickie Glenroy
• Wesley Taylor as Cliff DeMeo
• Jesse Williams as Tobert

Co-starring

• Gina Naomi Baez as Young Mother
• Teddy Coluca as Lester
• Gerrard Lobo as Detective Biswas
• Scott Robertson as Another White Haired Actor
• Sprague Theobald as White Hair Actor
• Joel Waggoner as Tom

Notes and Trivia

Soundtrack

• "Main Title", performed by Siddhartha Khosla
  Written by Siddhartha Khosla

Media

Episode Stills

Photography by Patrick Harbron for Hulu.

Videos

Why Uma is a Klepto - Only Murders In The Building- S3 Episode 7 Opening Scene - Hulu

Why Uma is a Klepto

Oliver Fires Matthew Broderick - Only Murders in the Building - Hulu

Oliver Fires Matthew Broderick

See Also

A complete overview of this episode's crew can be found here.