A brand new season of Only Murders in the Building is here, and the prop team has once again delivered in a major way.
Just like in Season 3, the end credits of each Season 4 episode come with two visual call-backs to what we've just seen — little prop-sized details that may or may not be clues.
We've broken down each end credits Easter egg below (we'll keep updating this story as each new episode drops).
Episode 1, "Once Upon a Time in the West"
The image on the left, a green box of premium quality "Olde Belgium" lager, is actually a throwback to the end of Season 3. This is the case of beer that Sazz (Jane Lynch) brings to Charles (Steve Martin), shortly before she's killed. "I got a cold case for ya," says Sazz, but Charles suggests fetching the 1966 Argentinian Malbec from his apartment instead. If only they'd stuck to lager.
The second image is a mockup poster of the apparently upcoming Only Murders in the Building movie adaptation, complete with the names of the core cast — Eugene Levy, Eva Longoria, and Zach Galifianakis — and a line promising the film will be "only in theaters this Christmas".
Episode 2, "Gates of Heaven"
On the left we have the small pig that Oliver (Martin Short) and Mabel (Selena Gomez) discover in the bathroom of the abandoned apartment opposite Charles' — in the West tower. This appears to have been the place where the killer sniped Sazz from, so we're guessing the pig will surely be significant down the line? We don't know who exactly it belongs to, but it makes a grunting bid for freedom at the end of the episode when it flees through the apartment's open door.
On the right are some playing cards, presumably representing the game of "Oh Hell" that Oliver and Mabel play with "the sauce family" who live opposite Charles. Could the game itself be some kind of clue? It could also represent the poker game Sazz set up for Charles on set of Brazzos back in the day, described in a moving moment in the episode as the time Sazz "found friends" for the lonely star of the show.
Episode 3, "Two for the Road"
Of course, the object on the left is a ham radio. These radios play a key roll in episode 3, with Mabel, Oliver, and Charles finally going some way to revealing their mystery right before the end credits. "Howard [Morris, Michael Cyril Creighton's character] was clocking the same song on the radio," says Oliver, after he and Mabel break into an impromptu rendition of the theme tune for 1986 sitcom Perfect Strangers. "Yes, a person came on the line and said, 'Meet me at 445.'"
The group quickly works out that this is a frequency, but when they tune into it they receive a cold warning. "You shouldn't be on this frequency," says the strange voice that responds. "The last person who came around asking these questions got killed."
The object on the right is less mysterious. It's a screenshot of a web search for "squatters rights NYC", with the following sentence highlighted: "a squatter can be considered a legal tenant in as little as 30 days." This is a callback to Mabel's plan to stay in the abandoned apartment in the West tower of The Arconia, now that she doesn't have her own place.
Episode 4, "The Stunt Man"
On the left is a sign reading "Future Home of the Sazz Pataki Impact Academy". This is the sign that Charles, Oliver, and Mabel find on the lot that Sazz purchased in an attempt to fulfil her dream of opening up a trampoline park/stunt training centre for kids.
On the right is a painting of a person laid out on a pool table while others mill around — this is the painting that hangs up in the stunt bar, which Charles recreates when he stands in for Sazz' memorial service.
Episode 5, "Adaptation"
On the left is a red carpet photo from the “Power Women Party: Most Power Women Under 100”, with studio head Bev Melon (Molly Shannon) in the middle and other women on either side. This is the photo Bev shows our main trio to back up her alibi for the night Sazz was killed. Sazz, it turns out, left a message on Bev’s phone just before she was murdered to say there’s “a big problem" with Bev's movie.
On the right is a news cutting with the headline "Burn Units Hottest New Star Sets Our Jonk on Fire" above a photo of Jack Jonk, the star Oliver fears his girlfriend Loretta (Meryl Streep) may be having an affair with.
Episode 6, "Blow-Up"
On the left are a pair of the same bones. This links back to the realisation that the incinerator didn’t only contain Sazz’s remains, but also those of a person that we later discover is Professor Dudenoff.
On the right is a black-and-white shot of the Brothers sisters (Siena Werber and Catherine Cohen) from their student film “The Desecration of Alice”, which our trio realise also starred Vince Fish (Richard Kind), due to all of them taking Professor Dudenoff’s film class.
Episode 7, “Valley of the Dolls”
On the left is a United States Treasury cheque made out to Milton Dudenoff. At the end of the episode, Howard reveals that all of the people in the west tower have been involved in cashing Dudenoff’s cheques.
On the right is a a tiny golden bracelet — this is the doll’s bracelet that Loretta uses to propose to Oliver at the end of the episode.
Only Murders in the Building Season 4 is now streaming on Hulu, with a new episode every Tuesday.
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