Opening Night

"Opening Night"
"Opening Night" title-card
Season	3
Episode	10
Director	Jamie Babbit
Writer	John Hoffman Ben Smith
Editor	Payton Koch Shelly Westerman
Original air date	October 3, 2023
Episode chronology
← Previous	"Thirty"
Next →	"Once Upon a Time in the West"

"Opening Night" is the tenth and final episode of the third season of Only Murders in the Building, starring Steve Martin, Selena Gomez and Martin Short. It originally aired on October 3, 2023.

Short Summary

Curtain call on Season 3! Charles, Mabel & Oliver race to entrap the killer on Opening Night. As the musical thrills its Broadway audience, the trio brave further twists & turns from behind, above and all around the stage.

Full Summary

Donna sits alone in the audience of the empty theater.

Donna talks to Carl on an old-style cell phone while she's in labor. The doctor says they need her to push.

Donna holds newborn Cliff. She tells him she's his mommy, and she'll protect him for the rest of her life. She calls Carl back.

Cliff sits with Donna.

Loretta is excited to be invited into the inner sanctum with Oliver, Charles, and Mabel. She's grateful to them for stopping her from pleading guilty to Ben's murder. They knew she was just trying to protect Dickie. Oliver and Loretta flirt, grossing Mabel and Charles out. Loretta's pleasantly surprised to learn Mabel is dating Tobert. She also asks if they're sure Donna did it. Charles explains how they think opening night played out, leading to Donna poisoning Ben. But the poison didn't kill Ben, so she pushed him down the elevator shaft at Oliver's afterparty. It's pretty drastic. Loretta says she's sick, recalling Donna vomiting in the bathroom. If she only has a little time left to ensure her son's future, a mother will do almost anything for her child. They don't have anything tying Donna to the push. They need a confession on tape. They go over the plan for how to make that happen, which Mabel has written out on note cards. While Charles and Oliver bicker over who can deliver certain lines better, Mabel asks Loretta when she plans to tell Dickie she's his birth mother. She says she wants to get through opening night and tell him after the show. Loretta has something Dickie showed her after her arrest and shows them a hankie, asking if it could tie Donna to the push. Charles, Oliver, and Mabel stare at her in awe.

Howard frantically sweeps the hallway of the theater. When Kimber asks what he's doing, he says he's not taking any chances.

Jonathan takes several pills.

Ty and Bobo pose for red carpet pictures.

Mabel delivers a bouquet to Donna, saying someone wanted Mabel to give it to her. Donna immediately takes the card, which says there's a new review in K.T.'s office. Donna tells Cliff she has to go, but she leaves him with two kisses, one on his lips and one on a hankie she puts in his pocket.

Donna comes to K.T.'s office, but finds Mabel, Charles, and Oliver. They tell her what they know about opening night, how she saw Maxine's review. Oliver offers her a cookie, but she sees through their ruse and decides to jump ahead and admit that she poisoned him. She wants to focus on getting ready for opening night and asks where their microphone is. Tobert comes out from behind the door and Donna takes his microphone and admits to poisoning Ben to save the show. She didn't want to kill him, just wanted to get him out of the way, but it's hard to know how much poison to give someone without killing them. Because of her, they now have a hit musical. Mabel says Donna did more than that. She pushed Ben to his death. She denies it, so they show her the hankie with her lip print on it. Donna then says they got her. She pushed Ben. She couldn't risk him performing the next night and ruining the show. She killed him. They're shocked to get such a straight-forward confession. As K.T. announces five minutes to curtain, Donna asks them not to call the police yet. She'll turn herself in after the show. It's her son's first Broadway show and she has stage four lung cancer. She won't leave and there's no one else there for her to kill. She gave Oliver a shot when no one else would and asks him to give her this one thing. Oliver asks her to repeat her confession, which she does. Howard suddenly comes in and says they have a big problem. Jonathan can't go on. He took a bunch of pills, and he's out of it. Oliver says Jonathan has to go on. Who can replace him? Howard says it should be someone who studied his every line and gesture and is willing to accept the weight.

Uma gets her program and sits down in her seat, next to Matthew Broderick and Jerry Blau. She says she hates theater, but she's being supportive. She wonders if someone will die again. Matthew Broderick thinks Oliver's career might die. The show starts with "Creature of the Night." Oliver has stepped into Ben's role. Uma complains that Oliver can't sing, act, dance, or direct. Mabel peeks out to watch Donna in the audience.

Mabel meets Tobert backstage, and he gives her the recording of Donna's confession. He's glad that Mabel worked things out with Charles and Oliver because he likes the podcast.

"Creature of the Night" ends to applause.

Mabel asks Tobert if he's getting soft on her and he denies it. He says he just likes her way more than other people. But he was just offered an indie film in LA, and he wants to ask her to go with him. She's always talking about feeling stuck and lost. This could be different. He asks her to think about it. Oliver, Kimber, and Ty comes off the stage, elated that the first number went so well. Tobert leaves to go watch the show.

Loretta sings "Look for the Light" and Mabel and Dickie watch from backstage. As Loretta leaves the stage, Dickie tells her the song was really moving. Loretta decides to tell him right then about being his birth mother. Before she can finish telling him, he says he knew it. He's felt like he knew it since they first met. He can't explain it, but he knew. She tells him she always thought about him, even before she met and got to know him. There's nothing she wouldn't do for him. Mabel watches this interaction and also sees Donna talking to Cliff in the audience. Cliff listens to his mother and then gets up and walks out.

Mabel finds an intoxicated Jonathan and asks if he's seen Cliff. Jonathan vaguely gestures in a direction.

Mabel climbs the spiral staircase.

Charles performs "Which of the Pickwick Triplets Did It?"

Mabel finds Cliff in Jerry's hideaway. He says he used to watch his mom's shows from there as a child. Mabel tells him his mom confessed to killing Ben. He knows that, but Mabel also knows Donna didn't do it. She pulls the hankie out of Cliff's pocket, part of the ritual he has with his mother. She did the exact same thing with him the night of Oliver's party. Cliff had her hankie, and he was the one at the elevator with Ben.

Ben gets a call from his doctor saying he was poisoned with rat poison. Cliff comes out of the party and is surprised to see Ben, who left the party half an hour earlier. Ben says it was his doctor and his doctor likes to talk. Cliff says it's been quite a night and asks if Ben's okay. Ben says he is, but then admits he isn't. He ingested rat poison and somehow, the other drugs in his system saved his life. But he can't figure out how he ingested rat poison. He was fasting. He remembers the cookie and remembers that Cliff was the one offering them around. Cliff says the cookies were from Donna. He got everyone pens from Tiffany. Ben remembers that he talked to Donna right before curtain, and she told him to go be nice to Ben. Then there was a cookie waiting for him, asking to be eaten.

Cliff remembers seeing his mom leaving Ben's dressing room and asking her if she saw the review yet. She says no, but she's sure it's a rave and then walks away.

Ben realizes Donna poisoned him. Cliff says his mom would never hurt someone, but maybe she was protecting Cliff because that's what she always does. Ben doesn't understand why, unless she thought he sucked. He realizes that's it. She thought he was ruining her son's show. He pulls out his phone to call the cops. She'll be going away for a long time. Cliff tells Ben he's more than just Donna's son. He has his own thoughts and ideas. He told Donna that Ben was wrong for the part, and she should have listened to him. He said Ben had no business on Broadway, that he was a phony. Ben tells Cliff to take it back and shoves him. Cliff just says it again and shoves Ben. Ben calls Cliff "boy" again to upset him.

Mabel knows she's right about Cliff. Suddenly, Cliff tells her to back away and opens the porthole to the stage, a large drop. If she steps toward him, he promises to throw himself down onto the stage.

Loretta sings "For the Sake of a Child."

Cliff says it was an accident. Mabel says he can justify it. Cliff repeats that he didn't mean to. Ben should be on the stage right now and this should be his moment. He looks down and hallucinates Ben in place of Oliver on the stage, confusing him as the show continues below. Cliff says he can't let his mom take the fall. He killed Ben. Mabel tries to calm him down, but he reminds her that he'll jump. Mabel begs him to stop as he starts to lower himself. Charles notices and races off-stage to help. Matthew Broderick and Jerry also notice and Uma questions Charles getting up when his character is supposed to have died. On stage, Loretta realizes that Oliver's the killer, and he says he's also the father. He tries to force his way past her to get to the children.

Charles is out of breath when he gets to the top of the steps. Cliff warns him to stay back as well.

Ben calls Cliff "Boy" again and Cliff grabs him. They struggle for a moment and then Ben falls back into the open elevator, grabbing the hankie from Cliff's pocket as he falls.

On the stage, there's a struggle between Loretta and "Ben."

Cliff is horrified by his actions. He rushes to get on the other elevator and leaves.

Oliver falls to his "death." He sees Cliff dangling above him as the show ends and gets up to go help.

Oliver is out of breath as he reaches the top of the steps. Cliff is dangling by his fingertips and promises he won't go to prison. He asks Oliver if the mermen in "Splash" were as high as he is when they fell. Oliver says Cliff's a bit higher. He asks if it was painless and Oliver says no. He asks them to tell his mother he's sorry and that he loves her. As one of his hands drops, Donna reaches down and covers his other hand with hers. He tells her it was an accident. She tells him it's okay.

K.T. calls for them to close the curtain. Uma says it's the strangest play she's ever seen. Jerry says he was the original director and his version was stranger. Matthew Broderick is glad he's not in the show.

Donna, Charles, and Oliver pull Cliff to safety. Cliff hugs his mother and cries.

Howard calls everyone for curtain call.

Oliver, Mabel, and Charles shepherd Cliff and Donna out of the room.

Mabel, Donna, and Cliff join the cast as they take their bows.

The cops arrest Donna and Cliff and take them away.

Oliver has Maxine's review at the afterparty. He starts to read it, but says he has to subscribe to read the rest. He thought he had some free articles left. Mabel pulls it up on her phone and Oliver reads that the offstage antics added to Putnam-inspired insanity. With that, the show's been brought back to life. It's a rave and everyone celebrates. Oliver kisses Loretta and sits next to her by the piano. They thank each other. Dickie comes to Loretta and says the show she passed on to do Death Rattle Dazzle is willing to wait for her, but there's also interest in her playing the lead in Hedda Gabler. Loretta is stunned as Dickie steps away to take a call. Oliver is pleased that Loretta's getting attention, but Loretta's not sure she wants to take either of the jobs because it would mean leaving New York. Oliver says it would also mean following her dream and a fresh start with Dickie, and he likes LA anyway, in small doses.

Tobert asks Mabel if she's thought any more about coming with him. Mabel says she needs to get unstuck, but the stuff she needs to unstick is in New York. Tobert isn't surprised and says it's okay. Mabel says she can come visit him. She likes LA in small doses.

Charles talks to Oliver and Mabel, who have shared the news about their respective partners. He says maybe they can dig up a cold case together. Suddenly, Sazz comes in with a box of wine. She and Charles take some pictures together, and she says she has something a bit sensitive to talk to him about when he has a moment. Charles leaves to get a bottle of vintage wine he's been saving to celebrate. Before he can go, he gets what he calls a "romantic feeler text" from Joy. Sazz disagrees on the tone.

A hat-wearing, white-haired figure enters Charles's apartment. Suddenly, a shot comes through the window and the person drops.

Howard asks Mabel and Oliver if they've seen Charles. Mabel says he went to get more wine.

On Charles's floor, Sazz is bleeding from her chest.

Charles wonders what's taking so long and hopes Sazz isn't drinking without them.

Sazz takes some blood from her chest and starts to write on the floor.

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 Stars

• Meryl Streep as Loretta Durkin
• Paul Rudd as Ben Glenroy

Guest starring

• Matthew Broderick as Himself
• Peter Bartlett as Jerry Blau
• Gerald Caesar as Ty Wessex
• Linda Emond as Donna DeMeo
• Allison Guinn as K.T. Knoblauer
• Jackie Hoffman as Uma Heller
• Jane Lynch as Sazz Pataki
• Ashley Park as Kimber Min
• Don Darryl Rivera as Bobo Malone
• Jeremy Shamos as Dickie Glenroy
• Wesley Taylor as Cliff DeMeo
• Jason Veasey as Jonathan Bridgecroft
• Jesse Williams as Tobert

Co-starring

• Mike Smith Rivera as Doctor
• Desi Oakley as Ensemble #1
• Emilie Kouatchou as Ensemble #2
• Adam Hyndman as Ensemble #3
• Kelvin Moon Loh as Ensemble #4

Notes and Trivia

Soundtrack

• "Song", performed by Artist
  Written by Composer

Media

Episode Stills

Photography by Craig Blankenhorn for Hulu.

Videos

The "Final" Suspect - Only Murders In The Building- S3 Episode 10 Opening Scene - Hulu

The "Final" Suspect

Only Murders in the Building - "Creatures of the Night" Music Video - Hulu

"Creatures of the Night" Music Video

Only Murders in the Building - "For the Sake of a Child" Music Video - Hulu

"For the Sake of a Child" Music Video

Loretta Tells Dickie The Truth - Only Murders in the Building - Hulu

Loretta Tells Dickie The Truth

See Also

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