When he meets Marta, he and the cops visibly doubt her claim that lying makes her vomit, and puts it to the test by baiting her to lie. She does, and... she does. He immediately apologizes, and obviously genuinely feels bad about it.
Blanc: Dear girl, I'm sorry! I assumed you were speaking figuratively.
After the will reading when the Thrombeys turn on Marta, Blanc moves in between them and her. Blanc tries to calm the family down and encourages Marta to leave until things settle down. This becomes even more important once you realize that Blanc knew Marta had something to do with Harlan's murder, showing that he really was on her side for a considerable length of time and wasn't willing to let her get abused by Harlan's family.
When he sits down by Nana and offers sincere condolences to her, recognizing that nobody else in the family had.
While Blanc openly tells Nana that he's there to question her for information, he also makes a point of telling her that she shouldn't feel pressured into telling him straight away, because he's perfectly willing to sit a while and enjoy her company. One suspects that it's been a while since Nana has heard that particular sentiment.
Telling Marta she didn't kill Harlan because she knew what she was doing "Because you're a good nurse." For a character who is as much of a Woobie as Marta, even that simple recognition means a lot.
After being comically aloof for the whole film, upon figuring out the full depths of Ransom's scheme he's absolutely furious as he delivers The Summation, laying into Ransom for what he and the rest of the family had put Marta through for years.
Harlan expressly tells Marta during his plan to give her an alibi that the dogs like her, so they won't bark. Indeed, they come to her for cuddles and she takes the time to pet them. In a Freeze-Frame Bonus, you can see one of the dogs looking worried when Marta nearly falls off the trellis. (This explains how the dog ended up with the piece of wood it later gave to Marta and later Benoit.)
Despite being just as horrible and vicious to Marta as the rest of her family, Harlan's eldest daughter Linda is mentioned to have been particularly close to her father and actually mourns his death, seemingly the only one of his descendants who does miss him and isn't just preoccupied with who gets what in the will.
When Linda is shown weeping in her bedroom, Walt walks in and gently asks if she is alright. It's a lovely, understated moment of affection between the siblings, and at the end of the scene, the two share a hug.
At the end of the film, Linda finds a secret message from Harlan in which he reveals her husband's infidelity, encourages her to divorce him, and affirms his love for her. While she doesn't get a share of the inheritance, she's at least able to find some closure.
Even though Walt ends up being released from the publishing house, Harlan tries to break the news to him as gently as possible, assuring him that it's not because he's done anything wrong and mentioning that "they'll talk details tomorrow." He even affectionatly pats Walt on the cheek, calling him a good boy. Compared to Harlan's harsh words when cutting Joni off financially and removing Ransom from the will, it's a lot tamer and hints that the negotiation that would have taken place would not have been that drastic.
While talking to Marta, Harlan explains his motives for cutting his family out of the will, wanting Walt to be able to spread his wings and become his own person, and also wanting to actually be a parent to his daughter-in-law Joni, which means putting his foot down rather than let her continue leeching off his money. Harlan says he did this "like you said I should." This is heartwarming both because Harlan trusts Marta enough to confide in her about deeply personal family problems and ask her advice, and because he actually took said advice. It also reveals Marta really did have the family's best interests at heart, encouraging Harlan to fix his mess and make them better people.
In addition to the above, Linda is also shown to adore her father's dogs, greeting them with a joyful "My puppies!" when they come running to her, and petting one during Marta's attempted confession.
Similarly, despite Blanc's cynical nature, he states that one thing he's found to be true is that dogs are an excellent judge of character. This is said while smiling fondly at Harlan's dogs, who he pets and plays fetch with multiple times throughout the film.
In the final scene, after everything she's gone through, Marta looks at Harlan's portrait. Despite wearing a grim expression throughout the film, he now looks at her with a kind, proud smile.
Though we don't see much of the Cabrera family they are, hands down, far more stable than the Thrombeys.
As early as the movie's second scene Marta's mother is trying to be aware of her daughter's sensitivities in the wake of Harlan's death by asking Marta's sister to turn off the murder mystery she was watching. While Marta's sister gets a bit snappy with her mother over the subject, she is sincerely apologetic to Marta herself about it.
Then there's nothing but warm interactions between Marta and her mother when she comes home that night.
Marta's relationship with Harlan - from the brief moments we see the warmth and playfulness between them makes it clear how close the two of them were. It's even more clearly established to be genuine affection when Marta even calls him "abuelo" during their last Go session, and "abuelo" is Spanish for "grandfather." Even if the other Thrombeys never really accepted her, it's clear from that alone that Marta was and always had been part of Harlan's family, whether the rest of the Thrombeys chose to accept it or not.
And while his death may have turned out to be a Senseless Sacrifice, he cared enough about Marta that he chose to literally commit Heroic Suicide for her, to salvage her situation and keep her undocumented-immigrant mother off the legal radar. It's telling that when she first informs him that she has just committed an Accidental Murder on him, he never gets fearful or angry (either or both would be quite justified); instead, he Faces Death with Dignity and spends his last minutes looking out for her. It's hard to ask for more of an Act of True Love than that.
Furthermore, when Marta's mother is telling her sister to turn off the violent crime show she's watching, she describes Harlan as "a friend Marta loved very much," rather than a boss, which indicates how fond Marta was of him.
We can see the exact moment that Harlan decides to sacrifice himself for Marta—watching her panic and frantically look for the missing naloxone, knowing she would never have given him the overdose intentionally and is desperately trying to fix a horrible accident, and realizing that she would do anything to save him, even if it meant getting herself and her family in huge trouble. She proved how much she cares about him, and he proved how much he cares about her.
Meg seems to be the only Thrombey other than Harlan to genuinely care about Marta. While several of the other Thrombreys simply claim to view Marta in high regards, Meg actually shows it, from greeting her like a sister, getting angered when police tried to stop Marta from entering the house and referred to her as "the help," comforting Marta alongside Fran when they believe Marta needs it, and later on, tries to convince Joni that Marta should get the inheritance like what Harlan wanted. True, she later ends up telling the others about Marta's family's illegal immigrant status, but she could easily have been gang-pressed into that. (Though it should be noted that Meg's character is ambiguous, and that it can be questioned whether Meg is sincere in her affection towards Marta or whether she is just putting on airs.)
Marta also tells Meg that she'll pay for the rest of her time at Smith College - we never hear that being recanted, so there's a good chance it will happen.
After Harlan's will is read and the family starts freaking out, Linda starts yelling at Marta and corners her. Meg, seeing this, immediately runs to help hold Linda back, and after Linda accuses Marta of "boinking" Harlan, Meg instantly takes offense and in the background of the commotion can be seen defending Marta and arguing with Linda about it.
Trooper Wagner is just so obviously but respectfully giddy that you can't help but feel good for him being involved in what seems exactly like the kind of case that drew him into policework.
Lieutenant Elliott and Benoit have a pretty wholesome working relationship. The former trusts him and affectionately calls him "Benny." The detective may be quirky, but he's also in the field for a reason.
Fundamentally, the movie believes Rousseau Was Right: A good person attempts to continue being a good person, and, despite also being the Main Character in a Murder Mystery, is ultimately rewarded for their actions. This is a good Aesop for any age, but was incredibly timely and meaningful in 2019.
One thing to be said about the Thrombeys: most of them are downright horrified in the ending when the cops explain to them offscreen Ransom's plan to murder Harlan. Meg is crying, Richard tries to bribe the cops to release his son, and Linda looks like she's in shock. As Marta put it, none of them would have killed Harlan, no matter their grudges.
Though given the disdainful attitude most of the Thrombeys have towards "the help", they may be less shocked that Ransom committed murder and more that he will actually be punished for it.
If you hear Fran calling out Ransom for killing Harlan, or so she thought, she says she always knew that Harlan would never kill himself and sounds genuinely heartbroken. She loves Harlan like a friend, and not just as a boss.
When Benoit realizes that Ransom murdered Fran to shut her up, he sounds sad that Fran didn't think of going to the cops to tell them what she saw, which would have landed all suspicion on him. Now that is Nice to the Waiter.
Fran and Marta's relationship. They bonded over being the hired help, and joints.
Marta only needs a moment's hesitation when she thinks Fran is blackmailing her but dying from an overdose. First, she tells Fran not to talk and save her strength, that she's going to be okay. Then she dials 911, places the phone on the floor, and starts performing CPR. Benoit points out that this moment undid Ransom's plan because Fran made it to the hospital, and he underestimated Marta's fundamental goodness.
When calling out "Hugh," Fran was genuinely angry that he had tried to frame Marta. She calls him a "sneaky son of a bitch" for a reason.
In hindsight, a dying Fran is warning Marta where her backup copy is and that "Hugh did this" but her pronunciation is garbled. She's trying to tell her the real killer and to be careful.
Marta finds out on the phone that Fran died, which means they lost their proof that Ransom was the killer, and Marta lost another of her friends in less than a month. She turns around, smiles, and lies that Fran will be okay. This goads Ransom to do Evil Gloating and threaten Marta and only then does Marta throw up. After she coughs and catches her breath, Marta reveals with Tranquil Fury, "Yes, Fran is dead. And you just confessed to her murder." She made sure that Fran's efforts to clear her name weren't in vain. That's friendship.
A subtle one in the ending: Benoit asked the cops to clear out all of the Thrombeys so that he could prove Marta was innocent. Who wasn't ordered to leave the house? Nana. The ending implies that Marta is going to take care of her, so she's not left out in the dust.
When arguing with the family over the will, Harlan's lawyer Alan explicitly mentions Marta's "hard work and good humor." While it's likely mostly a Stealth Insult at the family, it could also indicate one of several options - Alan has met Marta before and thinks highly of her; Harlan basically sang her praises when he came to change his will in her favor; or that Alan got a read on Marta in the time it took to come to the house for the reading and saw she was a good person. Or a combination of the options.
