Twist

"Twist"
"Twist" title-card
Season	1
Episode	5
Director	Don Scardino
Writer	Thembi L. Banks
Editor	JoAnne Yarrow
Production code	1DWB05
Original air date	September 14, 2021
Running time	26 minutes
Episode chronology
← Previous	"The Sting"
Next →	"To Protect and Serve"

"Twist" is the fifth episode of the first season of Only Murders in the Building. It originally aired on September 14, 2021, on Hulu and Disney+.

Short Summary

Mabel slips away on a solo mission tracking the victim's final days. Suspicious, Charles and Oliver follow her.

Full Summary

Mabel looks at the sticky note as she walks down the street. The person in the tie-dyed hoodie follows her. When she turns and goes into an alley, the figure follows her. She turns around and tackles them, holding up a knitting needle threateningly.

Oliver uses his phone to record himself declaring the discovery of Mabel's past a twist. He thinks she killed Tim Kono. Charles is less certain.

Mabel recognizes the man she's tackled as Oscar. She apologizes and hugs him. She's happy to see him. She asks if he just got out because she'd gone to his dad's and was told to leave. He says he got out last week. She's upset that he didn't call her right away. He says he had a plan and wants to chill with her. She tells him she's going to Jersey, so he says he's going, too. He offers to drive her, over her objection that he doesn't have to because he's been waiting a long time for this.

Oliver and Charles follow Lester's directions to follow Mabel. Charles tries to calm Oliver down. As Oliver tries to explain why he finds Mabel suspicious, Lester brings Charles back his missing hat. Oliver spots Mabel getting into a car with Oscar. They decide to follow them. Charles is assigned to watch them while Oliver gets his car. Charles is surprised to learn that Oliver has one.

Charles is struggling to keep up with Mabel and Oscar while Oliver gets his car. He hides behind a woman when they stop at an intersection.

Oscar asks where they're going and Mabel says it's in Teaneck.

Charles continues to follow and is glad to see them get stuck in traffic. He pauses to get a pretzel. Oliver hears him and wants one too. He asks if it's Dante and if so, he wants his usual, so Charles gets him that. As traffic starts moving again, Oliver pulls around the corner in his car and picks Charles up. He gets out and says Charles has to drive because he has to record, and his license expired 25 years ago.

As they drive, Oliver explains that the car's name is Aphrodite, and he got her in LA when he was filming Singin' in the Rain 2 for VH1. He finds and takes a fen-phen from the cupholder and then puts the pretzel aside.

Mabel asks Oscar what he's been doing for the week he's been out. He's been enjoying things he couldn't do in prison. She asks if he heard about Tim, and he says that he did. He was there the night Tim died. She realizes he's Tie-Dye Guy.

Charles thinks Mabel's in trouble because she's with the guy he saw going up the stairs the night Tim died. He wants Oliver to stop thinking the worst about her, but Oliver wants the opposite. He reminds Charles that Mabel lied to them. He thinks she helped them investigate to throw them off her scent. It's the classic true-crime podcast move, right from Daddy's Little Helper, a podcast Charles says sucked. Oliver wants Charles to stop thinking about what he's feeling and work only with what he knows.

Charles puts Tie-Dye Guy on the board. Mabel tells him they can't just suspect someone because they're wearing a hoodie. Mabel takes him off the board.

Oscar tells Mabel she was the first person he wanted to see after his dad. That's why he was going up the stairs that day.

Oscar gets up to Tim's apartment as the fire alarm blares.

Oscar says he was heading to Mabel's aunt's place to see her. She finds it weird that they didn't pass each other on the stairs. He says maybe they did. He once saw her with two guys who looked like retired cops. He asks her if one of them is the Brazzos guy, and she says he is.

Charles decides to call Mabel, but she doesn't answer her phone. He thinks it's because Tie-Dye Guy has kidnapped her, but Oliver thinks she's just too busy planning her next murder with him. He finds an article about Zoe's death from years earlier. Oliver vaguely remembers that happening, but Charles doesn't remember it at all. When he finds out it happened in 2010, he says that was his prednisone year. He got really bloated, and it messed with his memory. Oliver searches and finds a picture of Charles from that year, a lot heavier than his normal weight.

Charles tries calling Mabel again.

Mabel sees that Charles is calling her and answers.

Charles puts Mabel on speaker and Oliver records as he talks to her. He says he's worried about her and asks if she wants to meet up for tea. She says she's fine and lies that she's at the park. Then she hangs up.

Oscar thinks Mabel was lying to her boyfriend because she thought the way she was thinking about him was cheating. Mabel says she doesn't have a boyfriend.

Charles is still sure of Mabel's innocence, which Oliver takes as him refusing to accept the truth about her because he's gotten closer to her, and he doesn't get close to many people. He interrupts his passionate speech to say he needs to do it again because it didn't sound right, which irritates Charles.

Oscar looks at Mabel's note and asks if Mabel's sure Tim was going to a jewelry store. She explains how she reached that conclusion using the Hardy Boys books. Oscar wonders if it might actually be something else, related to the whale tattoos they all got together. Her cousin Tavo gave them the tattoos. Gustavo Mora. G.M. with a tattoo shop on Shore Road. Mabel's upset that she missed that and directs Oscar to take the next exit so they can go to Bayport.

Charles veers quickly to follow them onto the exit. He sees the line for Long Island and laments that his first time leaving Manhattan in five years is to go to Long Island. Oliver's surprised he never goes to the Hamptons. Charles says he has a sister in Patchogue, who has four daughters with D names. They're always trying to set him up with a hairdresser. Oliver has gotten into some shenanigans on Long Island. They trade stories of their traveling adventures.

Oliver's car starts smoking as they follow Oscar and Mabel into a gas station parking lot. As Mabel and Oscar go inside, Oliver prepares to pump some diesel. Lucien sees the smoke and suggests they pop the hood. He recognizes Charles as Brazzos. Oliver asks if they could sell him some brine to replenish Aphrodite's sodium levels. Lucien tells them wherever they're going, they might not be going in the car.

Mabel and Oscar get some supplies. Mabel embarrasses Oscar in front of the cashier by asking for lube and condoms.

Charles and Oliver see Mabel and Oscar laughing as they exit the gas station and Charles realizes she wasn't kidnapped. Lucien says his cousin Peanut could tow the car and work on it at his shop and Lucien could give the two of them a lift. Oliver asks if he could help them follow Oscar and Mabel. He says yes. They get into his truck, which is full of cacti. Mabel and Oscar pull out of the lot, but Lucien says they have to wait for his cousin Vaughn, who is getting oatmeal cookies. He calls to Vaughn to get in because they're on a mission.

Lucien asks who they're following and Oliver explains about the podcast. Lucien says he and Vaughn have their own podcast called "Yard Dogs" about horticulture. They have 60,000 subscribers and have been featured on iTunes and Spotify as one of the best new podcasts. Oliver says they have an in with Cinda Canning. Lucien and Vaughn say they're part of Cinda's network. She's basically the third horticulture homie.

As they arrive in a shady area, Charles asks where they are. Lucien says it's Bayport. They wonder what Mabel might be doing there. Vaughn says maybe she's not a bad person and instead just doesn't trust them yet. Lucien says she could also be mistletoe, which is actually a toxic parasite and can kill the tree it hangs on.

Mabel says it's time to figure out why Tim was hanging out with her sketchy cousin, but Oscar just wants her to let it go. It's been ten years since he had ice cream. Mabel says she wants to do that, but this is important. What happened ruined Oscar's life and now Tim is dead, and she needs answers. Oscar wants to move on with his life. In prison, he got certified in trap yoga. He wants to open a studio. Mabel understands that it's not the most fun for him, but she has to do it. He says he has not to do it. She gets out, saying she'll catch the train back later. Oscar watches her walk in, then pulls away from the shop.

Mabel is waiting for Tavo when she sees Oliver and Charles walk in. She asks what they're doing there. They wonder the same about her and Charles asks her about her park lie. She realizes they followed her, which she says is messed up. They say that lying is messed up especially since they promised they wouldn't. Mabel apologizes and admits that she knew Tim. She's upset that they think she was involved in his death. Mabel says Tim used to be her friend, which is why she's so obsessed with solving his murder. Just then, Oscar comes in with a bunch of ice cream. Mabel is pleased that he came back and introduces him to Charles and Oliver, saying he's a friend and also not the killer. Charles says he saw Oscar going up the stairs the night Tim was murdered. He thinks Oscar was going to Tim's apartment. Oscar admits that he was. He lied to Mabel about that. He went to Tim's place, not to kill him, but maybe to mess him up a little. But the alarm was going off, and then he heard a gunshot and he fled. But he didn't murder Tim. Tavo comes out just then and is surprised that Tim was murdered. He realizes Tim was right. He'd been trying to take down a black market jewelry dealer named Angel. Mabel shows them the jewelry she found in Tim's apartment.

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
• Jacob Ming-Trent as Lucien
• Roy Wood Jr. as Vaughn

Co-Starring

• Teddy Coluca as Lester
• Isaac Schinazi as Pretzel Vendor
• Eric R. Williams as Gas Station Cashier

Notes and Trivia

General

• The Easter egg in the opening sequence shows a hula girl in Oliver's window, a reference to the dashboard ornament in Oliver's car used when Charles and Oliver follow Mabel.

Media

Episode stills

Photography by Craig Blankenhorn for Hulu.

Videos

The Chase - Only Murders in the Building - Hulu

The Chase

See also

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