To Protect and Serve

"To Protect and Serve"
"To Protect and Serve" title-card
Season	1
Episode	6
Director	Don Scardino
Writer	Madeleine George Kim Rosenstock
Editor	Matthew Barbato
Production code	1DWB06
Original air date	September 21, 2021
Running time	32 minutes
Episode chronology
← Previous	"Twist"
Next →	"The Boy from 6B"

"To Protect and Serve" is the sixth episode of the first season of Only Murders in the Building. It originally aired on September 21, 2021, on Hulu and Disney+.

Short Summary

Mabel brings her new friends (and an old one) to her childhood home to meet her mother. Meanwhile, Donna Williams starts to have her own doubts about the case as she prepares for motherhood.

Full Summary

A young Detective Williams watches Herman's Head, a show she finds intriguing because Herman's never alone. That's how she grew up always playing it, just her and the people in her head.

A grown Williams laments that she screwed that up by listening the romantic monster in head a little too much.

Kiara is scraping the wall when Williams comes in. Williams thought they were doing the nursery together, but Kiara got tired of waiting. Williams hears that Kiara is listening to "Only Murders in the Building" and asks her not to subject their unborn child the true crime. Kiara says it's cute and asks for a kiss. As Williams leans in, Kiara pulls back, upset to smell a cigarette on her wife. Williams defends that she had to deal with a dead kid, a little girl killed by her stepfather. Kiara says it has to stop when Kareem comes. Williams isn't a fan of the name. Kiara was hoping Williams would be home in time to help with the nursery. She doesn't want her wife to end up like Detective Jurgenson. Williams hears the podcast talk about Tim Kono and says she closed that case. Kiara is surprised that it's her wife they're talking about. Kiara tries to avoid telling her what they're saying as she defends that it was an open and shut suicide. Kiara wants to know about the paw prints. Williams asks why she's listening to it and she says her Yard Dogs Homies recommended it on Twitter. They're dopey, but they're good storytellers. Williams says she doesn't tell stories and she doesn't make mistakes on her cases. She grabs her coat and leaves to go back to work.

Charles, Oliver, Mabel, Oscar, and Tavo look down at the pile of jewelry. Mabel says she found them in Tim's apartment when she went back alone after they left. Tavo recognizes some of the pieces and says they're all from Angel. Tim was obsessed with buying pieces from Angel. It sucks that he died before he got the one he really wanted. Tavo pulls out his phone to find a picture of it. He also says he hooked Tim up with Cutter and they were supposed to meet today. Just then, Silvia Mora comes in. She's upset that Mabel came to Bayport and she had to hear it from someone else. Mabel says hi to her mom.

Oliver tells a story about Stephen Sondheim to Silvia, Charles, Mabel, and Oscar. Mabel receives the picture from Tavo of the piece Tim wanted. Silvia asks why Mabel is still in contact with Tim after what he did to Oscar. Mabel says she isn't, that Tim died. Silvia says that place is no good for Mabel. She's not happy to learn Mabel is investigating his death and is upset with Charles and Oliver for dragging her into it. Mabel insists she's fine, but Silvia doesn't believe it.

Williams finds that the toxicology report on Tim wasn't submitted. She also has Tim's phone, which she meant to send to IT. At a nearby desk, Jurgenson lights a cigarette and asks how she is. She says she's getting worse by the day.

Silvia tells Oliver and Charles it's her fault. She was always working, so when her rich sister offered to take Mabel for the school breaks, she thought it was perfect. But then Mabel turned into a ghost from grief. Charles says they didn't know about that, but Mabel is extraordinary. Silvia thinks her worst mistake was letting Mabel hang out at that apartment. She wants Oliver and Charles to let her move forward, not backward. Mabel comes in and Charles and Oliver quickly excuse themselves.

Mabel says her mom is probably right. The whole thing was stupid anyway. Charles doesn't think it was stupid. She says they can still do the podcast. Charles says this has been the most alive he's felt in a decade. Oliver agrees. Charles says goodbye as they leave.

Charles and Oliver drink gut milk and agree that they're both shaken by being yelled at by a mom. Nothing good ever happens on Long Island. They both enjoy their gut milk. They agree it's been fun, but they can't go on without Mabel. It's Mabel's life. Oliver is upset that Charles forgot all about his dog existing and they argue over how well they know each other. Oliver gets a text from Teddy, who tells Oliver to come to him because they need to speak. Oliver asks Charles to come with him.

Williams comes home and says she barely dated her entire 20s. She was alone, then she pulled over a woman who was texting while driving. And that woman lied to her face and say she wasn't. Kiara says she wasn't lying. But she knew then that she wasn't alone anymore. And now they have a kid coming. She needs to know she'll be good at it. Kiara is sure she will be, just like she knew the podcast guys were onto something. Kiara sees Williams' face and realizes she missed something. Williams admits that the tox report wasn't submitted and the victim's phone never made it to IT. Kiara says now she can re-open the case and solve it. Williams says no, this means they want all hands off. She can't make sergeant by opening a case she already closed. It doesn't work like that. But they can go work on the nursery for Keith. Kiara likes that name.

Mabel goes into her room, where Oscar is looking around. He gestures to a large tree, which he doesn't remember being there before. It's from her depressing years. Oscar finds some photo albums and laughs at the pictures. The other album is labeled My Hardy Boys, which makes them both pause. Oscar flips through it and looks at the picture of the four of them from the night Zoe died. Mabel recognizes the ring she's wearing as the one Tim was looking for. Oscar says Zoe wasn't wearing that ring when she died. Oscar gets upset and doesn't want to talk about death anymore. He's thought a lot about this moment and Mabel. Mabel says she's kind of been waiting for him. They lean toward each other and kiss.

Charles, Oliver, and Teddy watch Cinda Canning on Jimmy Fallon. She mentions Only Murders in the Building. Teddy turns off the TV and talks about how pleased he is that his business was mentioned on Fallon. He wants to make sure they have more coming. Oliver is quick to say they do, while Charles says they had a setback. Teddy's going to write them a large check, but he doesn't want a fight. He'll give them $50,000 for the next three episodes. Charles say they can't accept it because they lost one of their partners and it wouldn't be right. Teddy calls them over and has them look at a coin he has framed. It's his family legacy. His grandmother was a young woman when the Turks started slaughtering the Greeks, forcing them to flee. Women would wear necklaces with their families' life savings around their necks. His grandmother traded her necklace for a spot on a boat to America. He let her keep two coins: one for luck and one to invest in a new future. She held tight to the coins until she made it to Ellis Island. She used one to start a small sandwich shop and held onto the other and passed to Teddy's father so he'd never forget the sacrifices she made. Teddy and his father never saw eye to eye, so he vowed he'd take the coin to his grave rather than give it to Teddy. Charles thinks he changed his mind, but Teddy implies he might have dug his father up to take it. His grandmother taught him to invest in people who have been loyal even when there's risk. He has a whole separate business in her name where she does it. He holds out the check for them and asks them to allow him to do this.

Silvia asks if Oscar is a good kisser. She saw the way he was looking at Mabel, the same as he did when they were teenagers. She wishes she could go back and keep Mabel at that time until Silvia dies. She thinks Charles and Oliver are sad characters. Mabel says they're the first friends she's had in a long time, even though they're old. She has to see it through and figure it out. Silvia says when Mabel was a child, she always wanted to skip to the end of stories. She always needed to know what happened.

Williams listens to the podcast as she goes over things again. She looks at a picture of Kiara and sends Tim's phone to Mabel at the Arconia.

Charles is shocked to see their download count go up so quickly. Oliver isn't getting anything, even though he's hitting refresh. Charle says he's in airplane mode again. Oliver turns it off and immediately gets several notifications. Oliver says Charles knowing his phone settings, meaning they're more than just strangers. Charles says Teddy gave them $50,000. Oliver says they can't accept it because they can't profit off Mabel's tragedy. So they have to rip up the check. Oliver whimpers as he tries to do that. Then Charles notices something and takes the check from Oliver. The check was written not from Teddy's account, but from one called "Angel, Inc." Oliver is sure Teddy can't be the Angel Tim was trying to bring down, but Charles thinks he is. Just then, Mabel comes in with some dip and tamales from her mom. Mabel apologizes for lying to them. She just has a hard time liking or trusting people. But she feels like she has to finish the story with them. Mabel also shows them Tim's phone. They need to find the password to get into it. Charles puts Teddy's picture on the board and tells Mabel he's Angel. Their prime sponsor is now their prime subject.

Cast

Starring

• Steve Martin as Charles-Haden Savage
• Martin Short as Oliver Putnam
• Selena Gomez as Mabel Mora
• Aaron Dominguez as Oscar Torres
• Amy Ryan as Jan Bellows (credit only)

Guest Starring

• Esteban Benito as Tavo Mora
• Alysha Deslorieux as Kiara
• Jimmy Fallon as Himself
• Tina Fey as Cinda Canning
• Mandy Gonzalez as Silvia Mora
• Nathan Lane as Teddy Dimas
• Da'Vine Joy Randolph as Detective Donna Williams

Co-Starring

• Teddy Coluca as Lester
• Robert G. McKay as Detective Jurgenson
• Olivia Reis as Zoe Cassidy

Notes and Trivia

General

• The Easter egg in the title sequence is the shadow of an angel statue.

Media

Episode Stills

Photography by Craig Blankenhorn for Hulu.

See also

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