"Tongue Tied" is the fifth episode of the fifth season of Only Murders in the Building, starring Steve Martin, Selena Gomez and Martin Short. It originally aired on September 23, 2025.
Short Summary[]
Thwarted in their investigative podcast plans, Mabel and Oliver look for help from the Arconia support staff — as Charles dines with another suspect and gets caught up in "catching" more than he bargained for.
Full Summary[]
Detective Williams talks about the things that real money can buy, beyond yachts, jets, and exotic pets. That kind of money can buy silence. No one rats out the rich because they have enough to bury you.
Charles, Mabel, and Oliver try to show Detective Williams the things they saw in The Velvet Room, but find they've been repaired. The drawer opens, but is empty. Williams is shocked that the room exists. She uses a black light, but finds no traces of blood. Someone who most likely lives in the building is cleaning up after them. A police hack when talking the super rich is to talk to the help. Rich people constantly do dumb things in front of them. Charles believes they paid off the police because two cops showed up at the dry cleaners' to "find" Nicky's body. He shows Williams a picture and asks if she knows them. She jokes like she does, but the asks if they know how many people are in the NYPD. Even if she could identify them, she wouldn't, because the last person who tried to expose dirty cops had to move to Florida. Oliver asks about her taking the finger to a lab, because it's clearly not Jay's. Williams says she'll have to get back to them on that one. She has to get to the preschool because she's on snack duty. A Black gay parent can't also be carrying a finger around. Mabel asks about Sofia, because she's the one who gave them the cards to get in. She must know something. Charles offers to question her because they have a connection. Oliver found one thing the clean-up crew missed: shrimp tails. He's upset that they ate his wedding shrimp.
Oliver said he paid for six tubs of shrimp and only five made it back to his apartment. So whoever it is saw his shrimp and helped themselves. Mabel points out that their shrimp might not be related to his shrimp. Charles is distracted by his phone and doesn't get involved. Mabel realizes he's swiping and asks if he's on the apps. He says yes, he joined a dating service for seniors called Last Gasp. Mabel promise she'll be a good friend later, but first she needs a laugh and asks to see his profile. His picture is a signed headshot. And he's checked the bi-curious box. He also put clicker in the looking for box. Charles says he can't find it anywhere and thinks it's kind of cool that a TV star can't find his clicker. Mabel is really glad he's getting out there. Charles promises it won't take his focus off the case. He's going to see Sofia, he says, but then a magazine on his coffee table grabs his attention. Mabel excuses herself to go question the building staff while Charles talks to Sofia. Once she's gone, Oliver asks Charles what's going on with him. Charles denies anything, but once Mabel is really gone, he admits to taking testosterone. His doctor asked if he wanted to join a trial group of men his age. It's supposed to build bone strength and give you more energy. He thinks it's working, though his mouth tastes like pennies. He's also being followed by cats and gestures to the window, where two are sitting on the sill. Charles suddenly lunges at Oliver and picks him up.
Oliver compares the downstairs of the Arconia to Downton Abbey. Mabel opens a door and they run into Randall. They want to ask him questions about the Velvet Room. Randall asks if this is a test and starts to check the ledger. Just then, Howard and LESTR approach and Howard tells Randall that LESTR already took care of one of his jobs. Randall says that's wonderful and hurries away. Howard asks if they're investigating because he doesn't usually see them downstairs. He promises he's not still trying to join their trio. Knowledge is power and LESTR is a hotbed for gossip. LESTR tells them that Grover has Crohn's. Oliver asks for another, but then Mabel spots Ursula. They follow her and try to be casual, but she knows they have something urgent to discuss. Then she pitches them Gut Milk pellets. It can be a lozenge or a suppository. She asks how many they want. Mabel says it depends and asks her about the gaming parlor. Oliver buys a carton of the pellets to get her to admit she knows about the casino. She's interested if there's a dealer or exotic dancer position open there. She's looking for a side hustle. She can't depend on tips anymore with all the residents moving out. And they're hiring robots to replace the staff. It won't be long before she's on the street. Mabel says they think a murder happened in the casino, but it was cleaned up. Ursula says Lester was tight-lipped about what happened in the Casino, but all service work had to go through one person. Lester let a name slip once: Tommy the Tongue. Mabel wonders if the finger belongs to this Tommy. Oliver asks Ursula if Tommy was missing a finger. Ursula says they have a lot of nerve to come around asking questions. Oliver says they're doing it for Lester. Ursula would take a bullet for him, but Oliver, Charles, and Mabel were the beginning of the end for the Arconia. She closes her window.
Charles enters a hibachi restaurant and gets a text from Mabel asking him to ask Sofia about Tommy the Tongue and reminding him to be professional. Sofia spots Charles and asks him to come find a quiet booth.
Mabel says it's clear that Ursula doesn't want to talk to them, but whoever cleaned must have thrown out the trash. Someone still has access to evidence. At least until tomorrow, which is trash day. They need to talk to Gary, the trash guy. Oliver claims they go way back. They go to find Gary, but Miller Portnoy pops out and tells them Gary's dead. But then he says just to him. Really, Gary retired. He pulls a mandolin out of a trash bag and introduces himself. He's worked there for three years. He knows them even though they don't know him. He asks where Charles is and how he's reacting to the testosterone. Mabel wishes she didn't know that. Miller says you get to know people when you do their trash. He can't believe Oliver threw away an offer on his apartment. Oliver tries to downplay it, but Miller says it was generous, more than the going rate for the building. Oliver changes the subject by asking if any unusual trash has come through lately, perhaps from the casino. Miller says it's time for them to leave because he doesn't believe in sharing his garbage with upstairs folk. More trash comes in and Mabel and Oliver hurry out.
Sofia says she was starting to think Charles would never call. Charles tries to reply, but Braden interrupts from the table where he and his brothers are all seated. They all start to ask Sofia questions about the food. Sofia says she had to bring them because it's Mikey's 36th birthday. But they're going to sit at their own table like real adults. She orders another round of drinks for them. Just then, Mayor Tillman comes in and greets Charles. Charles introduces him to Sofia. Tillman saw the news about her husband and offers his condolences. Tillman asks how the podcast is doing and offers again to be a guest. Charles says it's not that type of podcast. Tillman ignores that and tells Charles to get in touch with Romy to set something up.
Mabel and Oliver snoop around the staff locker room. Oliver feels wrong doing it. Mabel says if the staff won't talk, they have to find the key and search the trash room themselves. Oliver notices little things that help them run the building, like lint rollers for the doorman uniforms. Mabel takes the opportunity to ask Oliver not to move. He's an adult who can make his own decisions, but she committed to the building. Oliver promises he's not moving. The Arconia is his place. He notices that the table has, "Putnam sucks" scratched into it. Then he finds another scratching that says, "Die Lester die." Randall and the rest of the staff interrupt, telling them they aren't supposed to be in there. Oliver says they were just leaving their holiday tips five months late or seven months early, whichever sounds more believable. Oliver is surprised to see José, whom he thought had left. José says he just denied Oliver's request for a bidet. Ursula tells Randall that Mabel and Oliver saw the table. Randall admits to carving it, but says he was talking about LESTR, the robot. He resents the robot. The rest of the staff also agrees their days are numbered. For years, they've taken care of the tenants and now they're getting pushed out and the tenants aren't standing up for them. Olive promises to stand up for them. He asks who's ready to fight. He gets them rallied, but they deflate when he mentions having a building meeting.
Charles asks Sofia about the Velvet Room and Nicky's poker game. She gave him a key to it. Sofia is confused until Charles explains about the cards. Sofia had no idea, but she's more interested in what Sofia is up to. The server calls out and Charles turns his head to catch something in his mouth. Sofia is impressed. Sofia catches the next piece and Charles comments on her changing the subject. A piece of broccoli falls on Sofia's lap and Charles bends his head down to pick it up between his teeth. Sofia asks the server for a mushroom, which she catches in her mouth. She says Nicky wasn't the thug they made him out to be. Everyone in her family was in "construction" and she was determined to meet a husband who wasn't. Then she met Nicky, who worked at his family's dry cleaners and wrote poetry on the side. She'd pick up her pants and find notes tucked into the pockets. They were terrible. He compared everything to a summer's day. When they first got married, they talked about leaving it all behind, but it never happened. She blames her mother. She doesn't respect men who aren't brutes, so she ground Nicky down until he became the kind of man Sofia grew up with. Charles says their moms had a lot in common. She wants to know more about that. Sofia pulls Charles in for a kiss. She says grief is funny and can hit anytime. Charles says there can't be anything between them because he's a professional. She says she's wearing red lingerie and pulls her shirt down a little to show him and he says he's a semi-professional. Sofia climbs over Charles to get out of the booth and asks him to walk her to her mini-van. She asks about her kids and she says they can take the bus if they stick together. She makes sure they understand they have to stick together. Tony says they want to play Fortnite, but Sofia says they talked about this and they're taking a break from screens. Sofia propositions Charles one more time and he follows her out.
A poster calling a building meeting hangs in the elevator.
Mabel asks if Oliver has heard from Charles. He hasn't, but doesn't think they should panic because Charles is a grown man, though he's on a downward spiral and strung out on testosterone. Oliver then admits it's possible he's dead in a dumpster. Mabel says she checked online for Tommy the Tongue and only found porn. She begged Williams to run his name at the station. Oliver thinks the meeting is their ticket to getting the staff to fall in love with them and tell them everything. Howard approaches with LESTR and says the meeting won't help their ranking. LESTR has a ranking system for all the building's residents. It uses a combination of Lester's notes, gossip Howard has shared, and something even Howard doesn't know. He warns Oliver not to ask what his ranking is because he'll have to die not knowing. Then he tells Mabel she's 4. She says that's not bad, then asks if Thē is above her. Oliver says he doesn't need to know his ranking because he's confident in his place in the building. Howard then slips in that he's 237.
Oliver welcomes everyone to the building meeting. He says it's the first ever staff-tenant minglefest. They need to talk about their feelings about the changes to the building. Uma rushes him, saying Temptation Island starts in ten. Oliver has lived in the building for a long time and it's changed over the years, but some changes they can't stand for. He thinks he speaks for all the tenants when he says they won't let their beloved staff get replaced by machines. The staff cheers, but then Vince stands up and says he loves the staff, but as someone with highly-contagious pink eye, he likes having his packages delivered by machine. Uma likes not having to make small talk with the robot. Grover likes not having to tip it. Randall says a building is about the people. That's why he's gotten to know all of them and things about them. Howard says LESTR knows all those things and LESTR starts to recite a list of people who forget umbrellas. Ursula yells for LESTR to shut up. Ursula says either the robot goes or they, the staff, do. The staff applauds. Oliver proposes a sing-along to break the tension, but José doesn't want to sing for him because he turned the Arconia into the murder building. Miller adds that Lester would still be their doorman if not for them. Oliver tries to start a sing-along again, but then Charles comes in and starts singing. Mabel asks what's going on with him and where his other shoe is. He says he doesn't need it when he can dance around like he is. She pushes him out of the room. Oliver tries to get the meeting back on track, but he gets ignored. Howard thinks the robot is the best thing ever to happen to the building. He wants to show off what LESTR can do. But then he notices LESTR is missing and realizes he's been taken.
Charles tells Mabel he knows he doesn't normally share things with her, but last night, kissing happened in the back of Sofia's mini-van. It was kind of a magical night. Mabel thinks the testosterone has affected Charles's brain. She knows about it and tells him the new trash guy outed him. He asks what happened to Gary. He remembered Gary's name because the testosterone is making him sharper. Mabel reminds him that Sofia is a suspect and could be using him. He doesn't think that's the case because he's the one who came away with information. Mabel asks what he learned. Charles says Sofia can mouth-catch very well and puts that on the board. Mabel asks if he got anything on Tommy the Tongue. Mabel is frustrated to learn he didn't. Charles knows it's his fault. He's been down lately and he thought it would help him to find someone. But he got carried away. He's sorry he didn't find anything out about Tommy. He wishes they could ask Lester. Mabel realizes they might be able to because Lester's paperwork was uploaded into LESTR. Just as she says they need to get their hands on the robot, LESTR falls past the window and crashes to the ground. They look down and see the broken pieces near the fountain. Then they hear Howard cry out.
Mabel tells Charles and Oliver that the garbage trucks came, so any evidence from the trash is gone. Plus Charles got no new information. Howard is lying on the couch grieving LESTR, whom he says was his best friend. When Charles asks about Sevelyn and Gravey, Howard says they've become friends with each other and snub him. After years of being rejected, the robot gave him a place and made him feel important. Now he's gone and nothing will bring him back. Howard gets a notification that a new robot is on its way. He goes to get his charging dock ready. As he leaves, Miller comes in and thanks them for the meeting. He thought it was nice. It's not often that upstairs people stood up for them. Oliver wishes it had amounted to more because it seems things are changing whether they want it to or not. Miller brought them a gift to thank them. It's a portrait of Lester made out of trash. And his features are made of the garbage they wanted, from the night Lester died. He tells them to enjoy it and not to throw it out because he'll know. Mabel starts examining it for clues as Oliver follows Miller and asks if he still has the offer. He hands it to Oliver, who says a fresh start might be good. Charles then says he has to tell them something, but they have to promise they won't be mad. He can't find his phone. He might have left it in the mini-van. Mabel asks if he has pictures from Nicky's autopsy on his phone. He says he has one as his screensaver. Plus some pictures of their murder board. Mabel says at least Sofia doesn't have his passcode. He admits that he told her that, too. Mabel pulls out her phone to do Find My Phone. She set up her app to find Charles and Oliver's phones. She says his phone is at Sofia's house on Staten Island. Charles says he can just call Sofia and tell her he'll come pick up the phone. Then she sees that the phone is moving. She tells Oliver to get his car so they can intercept her. She has Charles grab the portrait of Lester.
Charles thinks looking through the garbage is a dead end because he doesn't know what he's looking for. Mabel tells him to keep looking. Mabel says Sofia's only a few more blocks away. Oliver wonders what she's doing in Flatbush. Mabel doesn't know, but thinks Oliver could shop for apartments while they're there. She saw him take the offer back and tells Charles that Oliver is moving. Charles is surprised he didn't tell them. Oliver says he's just entertaining the idea. Mabel thought they'd stay in the building and keep making the posttest. Charles finds something that might be in Lester's handwriting. Mabel looks at it and says it looks like invoices, for bar supplies from the night of the murders. Charles sees that all the invoices are made out to Tommy. It also comes with an address, which is where Charles phone is. Oliver misses their turn, but says it's a shortcut. He grew up in Flatbush. Mabel takes a call from Williams and says it's on them if she's found dead tomorrow. Mabel asks if she found Tommy the Tongue. She says yes, but it's a company. It's worth a lot of money, but the money was withdrawn this morning. There's no name on that, just an address. Charles reads off the address they're going to, which matches the withdrawal. Oliver pulls up as Williams warns them not to go in there. They see Sofia's mini-van outside and duck when she gets out and walks up to the door. Williams says they have to ask who would want the money badly enough to kill Lester and Nicky. Lorraine opens the door and lets Sofia in. Mabel thinks the answer is their wives.
Cast[]
Starring[]
- Steve Martin as Charles-Haden Savage
- Martin Short as Oliver Putnam
- Selena Gomez as Mabel Mora
- Michael Cyril Creighton as Howard Morris
Guest starring[]
- Vanessa Aspillaga as Ursula
- Dane DiLiegro as Johnny Caccimelio
- Jermaine Fowler as Randall Winston
- Jackie Hoffman as Uma Heller
- Russell G. Jones as Grover Stanley
- David Patrick Kelly as Miller Portnoy
- Keegan-Michael Key as Mayor Beau Tillman
- Richard Kind as Vince Fish
- Téa Leoni as Sofia Caccimelio
- Da'Vine Joy Randolph as Detective Donna Williams
- Dianne Wiest as Lorraine Coluca
Co-starring[]
- Shea Buckner as Tony Caccimelio
- Aaron Dean Eisenberg as Braden Caccimelio
- Caitlin Houlahan as Romy
- Cory Jeacoma as Mikey Caccimelio
- Evan Mulrooney as Vinny Caccimelio
- Anthony Ruiz as José the Super
Notes and Trivia[]
General[]
- The title sequence to this episode shows a shadow of shrimp and mushrooms being tossed, over the window of Charles' and also Howard walking LESTR in front of the gated entrance to the building courtyard.
Cultural references[]
- Fortnite
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[]