"Flatbush" is the sixth episode of the fifth season of Only Murders in the Building, starring Steve Martin, Selena Gomez and Martin Short. It originally aired on September 30, 2025.
Short Summary[]
The investigation takes Oliver and Loretta back to the streets of his childhood, where buried memories surface and secrets about Lester and Nicky's widows emerge. Mabel and Charles follow leads after a break-in.
Full Summary[]
Lorraine listens to opera as she walks around her home.
Sofia tries to do tai chi while Nonna throws nuts at her.
A fire spreads around Loretta's apartment.
Loretta comes to Oliver's door and tells him it's all gone. He holds her and tells her he's sorry.
Loretta says she was on set when the call came and she went straight to the airport. She had a short in her electric tea kettle. Oliver pauses for a second as he was about to offer her tea. Oliver tells her that not everything is gone. She knows she has him and that's what matters. But she thinks about all the physical things she has lost. Oliver shows her the pile of presents and says she has new stuff, their wedding haul. Loretta is still sad. She lived in her apartment for 47 years. She feels like part of her is gone. Mabel and Charles come in, interrupting their conversation. They have a subtitle for season five: Widows' Pique, because the widows have piqued their interest. When Mabel sees Loretta, she hugs her and says she's sorry. Loretta doesn't want to bring the mood down and asks about the investigation.
Mabel records herself talking about Lorraine and Sofia. When she struggles to make accounting sound sexy, Loretta takes over and gives it a try. They have two new suspects that they can actually podcast about, even though Charles made out with Sofia and she made off with his phone. Charles says that Sofia returned it and pulls it out of his pocket. But she didn't call, so she doesn't want to see him again. He pretends to be thankful for that, since she's a mob wife. Now he's back to the apps. Loretta says she was on the apps before meeting Oliver. Oliver says he also dabbled in them. They joke about it and then start kissing. Mabel asks if they can focus on Lorraine. Mabel wonders where she was the night of the murders and what Sofia gave Lorraine in the plaid bag. Mabel says Oliver can go see her because he's from Brooklyn. He's opposed, saying Lorraine hates him, but Loretta points out that Lorraine doesn't know her. Or Emily Lawler, the detective she played on SVU. She had a whole backstory and Loretta thought it would be her breakout, but then they cut it and pulled the whole episode. Loretta plays up the bad day she's had and asks Oliver to take her to Brooklyn and show her his hometown. Then she asks if Oliver still has the trench coat from Death Rattle Dazzle. Mabel goes to answer a knock at the door. It's Detective Williams, who is there to pick up the finger. Charles hands her the cup and says it's about time, because he hates having a body part in his freezer. Williams looks through it and then dumps it out to show them it's just ice. The finger is missing.
They look around Charles's apartment. There are no signs of forced entry, but then Charles notices a black mark in front of his refrigerator. Though he admits it might have been him, because he has new boots with rubber soles. He takes a picture of it to send to his housekeeper. Mabel asks Charles when the last time he saw the finger was. He says it was when they put it in, which means it could have been stolen any time in the past week. Charles gets a Last Gasp notification and says he's talking to someone very nice. Williams asks what her crime is this time. Charles understands that, but says he's trying to find someone good this time. When Mabel asks if he's done that, he plays coy. She asks to see the picture, but it's just a chin. He says they're playing a game where they exchange body part pictures slowly. When he gets another notification, Mabel is shocked to notice he's wearing an earring. They argue over it and Charles takes it off. Williams asks how she can access the security cameras in the building. Mabel says through LESTR, who is with Howard in the lobby.
Loretta reviews Oliver's history. He lived in Flatbush from the ages of nine to twelve with his second set of foster parents, Sue and Al. Sue had six cats and Al had a drinking problem. Oliver corrects that she had eight cats and Al called it a drinking opportunity. Oliver gets lost in a memory.
Young Oliver watches other kids as he adjusts his scarf.
Oliver snaps out of it and jumps back into conversation with Loretta. They spot a for sale sign in front of Lorraine's home and agree that the timing is suspicious.
Mabel, Charles, and Williams are waiting for the elevator when they hear Althea's song. The doors open to reveal she's the one listening to her own song. She struggles to turn it off as Williams starts to sing along. Althea tells a story of doing 'shrooms with some famous folks and seeing a light moving around near Charles's apartment. They confirmed that there was light coming from under a door. As they exit the elevator, Althea is stopped by a tween who wants to take a picture with her. Williams notices Mabel's reaction and tells her she needs to talk to Althea and get more information. She knows Mabel is jealous and has even worked out their whole history together. She tells Mabel she needs to grow up and move on.
Loretta enters the open house and the realtor tells her to feel free to take a look around. Oliver enters soon after and gets the same message. He says it has the exact same layout as the house he grew up in.
Loretta goes upstairs and hears opera music. She opens a door that has a sign marking it off limits. She starts to poke around and is startled by the door slamming. She turns to find Lorraine standing there, holding a knife and saying the room is off limits.
Loretta apologizes for screaming and starts to share Emily's backstory. She impressed Lorraine by knowing Tosca, which she claims as the reason she came into the room. The dagger Lorraine is holding is the one Maria Callas used in her final performance of Tosca at The Met. Her husband found it at a police repo auction on their tenth anniversary. He died this month. Loretta gives her condolences and says she lost her husband and everything else in a fire. She sees a picture and asks if that's her husband. Lorraine says they were married for 30 years and every night, he'd come home and kiss her on the head. Then one night, there was no kiss and he was gone. He fell into the fountain of the courtyard where they were married.
Oliver and the realtor talk about the features of the house. The realtor asks about Oliver's credit score, but then gets distracted by a coughing fit. Oliver looks around and finds a cabinet full of bags. As he looks for the one Sofia gave Lorraine, he is struck by another memory.
Oliver begs Sue and Al to go see his play, but they refuse. As they walk away, he collapses into a chair.
Loretta asks Lorraine why she's selling her house. Loretta would give anything to have her home and stuff back. Lorraine thought she'd feel the same, but she looks around and doesn't want any of it. She just wants her husband back. Plus she can't afford to stay there. She's even selling the dagger because her son thinks she can get $500 for it on eBay. She asks if Loretta would want to buy it.
Oliver clarifies with Loretta that she didn't get the bag, but she did give a suspect $500 to keep a weapon. Loretta says he didn't find the bag either. Oliver also asks how much cash she carries and she reminds him she doesn't like banks. Loretta says she doesn't care about her stuff. She's just glad Oliver in her life. She's certain Lorraine didn't kill Lester because she's barely hanging on. Oliver points to where Lorraine and Sofia are meeting up. Lorraine is carrying the bag. Loretta thinks Lorraine played her. She starts to follow them, telling Oliver they're in pursuit.
Mabel, Charles, Althea, and Williams enter the lobby and tell Howard they need LESTR's help. Howard says LESTR can do anything except clean up spills because he's still shy around water. LESTR says he got killed by water yesterday. Howard consoles LESTR. Mabel asks about the footage from outside Charles's door. Williams is disturbed by Howard's interactions with LESTR as he pulls up the footage. The footage shows nothing, but Althea insists she was there. Mabel begins to doubt that. Williams notices something and has Howard back the footage up. Althea walks away as Howard does so. They see the video glitch, indicating someone cut something out. Charles thinks that's when they took the finger, which means Althea was telling the truth. Williams says she and Charles are going to the precinct because he wants to see any footage they have of Lester falling into the fountain. Mabel needs to go apologize to Althea.
Loretta and Oliver follow Lorraine and Sofia, careful not to get too close. Oliver asks Loretta for a snack just as a signature collector approaches them and asks if they care about dogs dying. They say of course and he says he's collecting signatures to prevent New York City from opening its first casino. Oliver asks what that has to do with dogs. He says it doesn't, but he finds it helpful to stop people. Loretta realizes Lorraine and Sofia are gone and she and Oliver rush away. They look around, but can't find them. Oliver then notices something and is surprised it's still there. He asks to show Loretta something and leads her inside the Mycyn Theatre.
Inside, Oliver shows Loretta the theater that made him love theater. Loretta can see that and pictures Oliver owning the spotlight. Oliver says it wasn't exactly like that. He was a quiet kid. Bouncing from place to place, you learn that quiet is good. If you make yourself small, maybe a family will let you stay for a while. So he did and it worked, but he never felt at home until he stumbled into the theater. Some kids were putting on a show, big, loud, and unapologetic. He wanted to be just like them. They asked him to be in their play, a small part, but being on the stage was the feeling he'd searched for his whole life. He rehearsed and hemmed his costume, but when he worked up the courage to invite Sue and Al, they refused so he quit the play. On the night of the show, he couldn't stay away. He sneaked out and wore his costume. Then he watched Pat Rafferty say his line. In his whole life, he's only felt like himself in two places. Being back in Flatbush, he understands why he's so afraid to leave the Arconia. He got an offer on his place, a big one. It would give them a cushion. Loretta says it would be nice. After a moment, she leads him up onto the stage and asks him to say his line. He took the awful life he was given and turned it into something beautiful. She refuses to let him believe there's somewhere where he can't be happy. He agrees if she performs her prepared monologue from SVU first. She tries to refuse, but he insists. Then she does it. When she pauses, he claps, but she's not finished. When she finishes, she says it's his turn. He gives a line about moldy sausages. They hear clapping and look up to see Lorraine and Sofia watching them from the balcony.
Loretta confronts Lorraine about conning her. She says they know about the money. Sofia says she has no idea what's going on and asks if they followed her after her date with Charles. She wonders where Charles is, but Oliver tells her to back off him because he's fragile. Sofia says they were both in a fragile state. Sofia says Nicky ran a few businesses from the Arconia and Lester worked for him. She was bringing Lorraine Lester's cut. Oliver says it's money they killed their husbands for. Lorraine says no one killed her husband. He died by accident. She asks if they think someone killed her husband. Then she angrily asks who killed her Lester, grabbing Oliver's coat. He says she did, but she says that's wrong and asks for names. Oliver says he's scared and can't remember. Loretta reminds him there was a card game in the Arconia the night of their wedding. Lorraine says Lester said he wouldn't work for Nicky that night so he could go to their wedding. Lorraine cries in frustration that she wasn't there. It was because she was at the theater because they had rehearsal. Loretta asks if anyone can corroborate that. Lorraine says yes, the kids, who will be there any minute. She teaches musical theater, opera. The money from Sofia is to help keep the lights on. Oliver asks if they have any ideas who could have killed their husbands, if they had any enemies. Lorraine says no one just as Sofia says everyone. Lester never wanted to tell Lorraine much about what he did because he didn't feel good about it. He was hoping to save enough for their big dream: a place in the Arconia. It's where they met and it's the last thing he ever said. She shows them a text from Lester with a picture captioned, "Its beautiful." Oliver tells Lorraine she's off his suspect list. Then he turns to Sofia and asks why she's there. She pulls a gun out of her bag, but says it's a toy when Oliver screams. It belongs to her sons and she's loaning it to Lorraine for Newsies. The kids come in and Sofia and Loretta start handing out prop papers. Lorraine thanks Oliver for caring about Lester and gives him Lester's bird whistle, which was on him when he died. She's been carrying it around since.
Mabel goes to see Althea. Althea throws shoes at Mabel, telling her her name is Thē. The next shoe hits Mabel and she corrects herself. She asks why Thē is throwing shoes at her. She throws another as Mabel hies behind a chair and says she's trying to apologize. She throws a shoe back, knocking a record off the wall. Thē says Mabel is the one who embarrassed her in front of her new neighbors. Mabel says Thē made her afraid to be herself. Thē is confused and Mabel reminds her of Sunny and Cloudy. She is confused when Mabel says she changed. Thē says that was only after Mabel ghosted her. Mabel says she didn't ghost her. She was depressed because her friend died. Thē says no one told her that, so she was depressed too. They both had to double their lexapro because of it. Thē picks up her fallen record and tells Mabel it's about her. Mabel kind of figured that out because the sun and cloud on the artwork. But she's wrong because Mabel never wished she was Thē. Thē knows that's true because she wished she was Mabel. She says Mabel ditched her for her city friends and made her feel lame every time she visited. In her head, the Arconia was the coolest, fanciest place. That's why she wanted to live there. Mabel made it her dream. Mabel apologizes for making her feel lame. She's objectively not. She has many famous friends. Thē says she could really use an old friend and asks if they can start over. Mabel picks up a pink boot and asks if she can keep them. Thē asks if she's still a size eight and they both smile.
Williams tells Oliver they have the courtyard surveillance footage. Oliver says his laptop is in his office and Williams and Charles go to get it. Oliver stops Mabel from joining them and compliments her boots. She says they're Althea's and they made up. Oliver then tells Mabel that he's leaving. He wanted to tell her first. She hugs him and tells him she's okay. She asks if he's going far and he tells her he's not Oliver Putnam if he's not on the Upper West Side. Loretta calls for Oliver's help and Mabel goes to join Williams and Charles. Charles laughs at something Priscilla, his match, says. Mabel says she's happy for Charles, but tries to warn him about possible scams. Charles says she's just interested in his day. When he told her about the break-in, they should have seen her face. Mabel and Williams look at Charles in horror. They're upset that he told her about the case. He says he just shared a little. She had a bunch of questions about their plan. Williams insists that Charles give her his phone and tells him he's being catfished. Williams plays the footage, which glitches like the footage from Charles' door. Someone has cut something out. Charles notices that the logo from Last Gasp is the same as the logo in the corner of the security video. Williams starts to look for the company's owner. When she finds it, she shows Mabel, who is shocked.
Oliver asks Loretta if they should look for another two-bedroom so they can still use his furniture. She says they could or they could start over. She could do a Pinterest board to find their style as a couple.
Mabel shows Charles that Bash Steed owns the company. He edited the footage and has been messaging Charles and may have killed Lester. Charles gets another message from "Priscilla" saying she needs to come hunt him down.
Cast[]
Starring[]
- Steve Martin as Charles-Haden Savage
- Martin Short as Oliver Putnam
- Selena Gomez as Mabel Mora
- Michael Cyril Creighton as Howard Morris
Special Guest Star[]
Guest starring[]
- Beanie Feldstein as Althea
- Téa Leoni as Sofia Caccimelio
- Da'Vine Joy Randolph as Detective Donna Williams
- Theo Stockman as TBA
- Christoph Waltz as Bash Steed (voice)
- Dianne Wiest as Lorraine Coluca
Co-starring[]
- Andrea Bianchi as Sue
- Avion Burrell as Young Pickpocket #3
- Nico Calero as Young Pickpocket #4
- Elizabeth D'Onofrio as Nonna
- Judah Horenfeldt as Young Pickpocket #1
- Joshua Iverson as Young Artful Dodger
- Camden Everett Kwok as Young Oliver Twist
- John Leone as Realtor
- Oliver Logue as Young Pickpocket #2
- Hayes McCracken as Young Oliver
- Jim O'Hare as Al
- Ivy Schur as Tween Girl
- Rigby Sheehan as Pat Rafferty
- Ian Unterman as Fagin
Notes and Trivia[]
General[]
- The title sequence to this episode shows The Trio dressed in detective attire, when they're in their windows and also Howard is walking LESTR in front of the gated entrance to the building courtyard.
Cultural references[]
Soundtrack[]
Media[]
Episode Stills[]
Behind the Scenes[]
Videos[]
See Also[]
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A complete overview of this episode's crew can be found here. |
References[]