History Series / OnlyMurdersInTheBuilding

* CentralTheme: Season 2's can be seen as confrontations with the past and how they can be for the better. Each protagonist either confronts or is confronted with the past. [[spoiler:Mabel has to confront the prospect of whether she is a killer by confronting the black outs she had a major moments in her life. Charles confronts his past by talking to Lucy again after years of avoiding her because of his relationship with his ex. He is also confronted with his relationship with Jan and with what his father was really like. Oliver is confronted with the prospect of not being his son's birth father. Thankfully, for all of them, they all get a good resolution from confronting the past. Mabel realizes that she isn't a killer and that she was there for her father during his dying moments. Charles reconciles with Lucy, moves on from Jan and learns that his father did love him. Will figures out that he isn't Oliver's birth son, but doesn't care.]]

** When Charles and Oliver are commiserating about Mabel's possible sketchiness, Vaughn in "Twist" compares Mabel to mistletoe, saying that "the very few thing that encourages people to kiss" is also deadly. [[spoiler:That doesn't apply to Mabel, but it applies to the real Season 1 killer, Jan, who killed Tim and tried to kill Charles because she was convinced that both were leaving her.]]

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: The trio goes to Cinda Canning for advice, [[BitchInSheepsClothing she acts helpful]], but then goes on ''Series/TheTonightShowStarringJimmyFallon'' to make fun of them. This ends up [[ColbertBump giving them so much free publicity]] that their podcast becomes a big enough hit to rival her own, and eventually they expose her as a fraud.

** The FormerFriendsPhoto of the Hardy Boys taken at the fateful night of Zoe's death reveals a clue. [[spoiler:Zoe was wearing a ring that disappeared by the time her body was found]].

** Evelyn the cat died after lapping up some of Tim Kono's blood. Later episodes reveal that [[spoiler: Tim Kono was poisoned, and that Evelyn was killed by ingesting the same poison]].

* CentralTheme: Season 2's can be seen as confrontations with the past and how they can be for the better. Each protagonist either confronts or is confronted with the past. [[spoiler:Mabel has to confront the prospect of whether she is a killer by confronting the black outs she had a major moments in her life. Charles confronts his past by talking to Lucy again after years of avoiding her because of his relationship with his ex. He is also confronted with his relationship with Jan and with what his father was really like. Oliver is confronted with the prospect of not being his son's birth father. Thankfully, for all of them, they all get a good resolution from confronting the past. Mabel realizes that she isn't a killer and that she was there for her father during his dying moments. Charles reconciles with Lucy, moves on from Jan and learns that his father did love him. Oliver's son figures out that he isn't Oliver's birth son, but doesn't care.]]

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: The trio goes to Cinda Canning for advice, [[BitchInSheepsClothing she acts helpful]], but then goes on ''Series/TheTonightShowStarringJimmyFallon'' to make fun of them. This ends up giving them so much free publicity that their podcast becomes a big enough hit to rival her own, and eventually they expose her as a fraud.

* NarmCharm: [[InUniverse]] {{Discussed}} in Season 3. Theater critic Maxine Spear notes that, while Oliver has produced some truly awful shows in the past, even the worst of them had a certain charm because his passion and creativity was ''oozing'' out of them, and all the {{camp}}. Even if they weren't ''good'', they were entertaining and enjoyable. Part of why she panned the (initial) production of ''Death Rattle'' was because, unlike Oliver's previous productions, "It just didn't sing," meaning it was just ''bad'', with no redeeming qualities. Oliver takes this criticism to heart in a very literal way, and retools ''Death Rattle'' into ''Death Rattle Dazzle'', a musical with singing crab people, sparkly costumes, and the same, truly bonkers plot still being played totally straight. It helps that the music ''absolutely slaps'', almost too much for the story it's in. [[spoiler:The retool works. Maxine loves the new production for it's silliness, over-the-top aesthetic, and high energy, and from what we can tell, so does the audience.]]

* NarmCharm: {{Discussed}} in Season 3. Theater critic Maxine Spear notes that, while Oliver has produced some truly awful shows in the past, even the worst of them had a certain charm because his passion and creativity was ''oozing'' out of them, and all the {{camp}}. Even if they weren't ''good'', they were entertaining and enjoyable. Part of why she panned the (initial) production of ''Death Rattle'' was because, unlike Oliver's previous productions, "It just didn't sing," meaning it was just ''bad'', with no redeeming qualities. Oliver takes this criticism to heart in a very literal way, and retools ''Death Rattle'' into ''Death Rattle Dazzle'', a musical with singing crab people, sparkly costumes, and the same, truly bonkers plot still being played totally straight. It helps that the music ''absolutely slaps'', almost too much for the story it's in. [[spoiler:The retool works. Maxine loves the new production for it's silliness, over-the-top aesthetic, and high energy, and from what we can tell, so does the audience.]]

** The ''Season 3 finale'': [[spoiler: Sazz Pataki is killed by a sniper bullet that was meant for Charles]].

** Charles [[spoiler: got Ben Gilroy fired from the set of Brazos when the latter was eight years old]].

** ''Season 1 Episode 10'' ends the season with [[spoiler: the trio successfully solving the case and proving that Jan was Tim's killer. However, after that, while celebrating getting their apartments back and completing the first season of their podcast, Charles and Oliver receive a mysterious text to get out of the building. They hurry to check on Mabel, who went to get more champagne, and find her in her apartment, lying in front of Bunny's dead body. The three are swarmed and immediately arrested by the police]].

** Episode 7, big time. [[spoiler: Teddy is revealed to be running a grave robbing business out of the funeral home he owns, stealing jewelry off of corpses before they're cremated. The ring Zoe had the night she died was stolen from Teddy's apartment. Teddy's son Theo is his accomplice tasked with getting it back, and was accidentally responsible for Zoe's death. Tim Kono saw what happened and was threatened into silence by Teddy who told him Mabel might meet a similar fate if he didn't stay quiet. Charles, Oliver and Mabel discover Teddy's operation, with Oliver and Mabel captured by Theo after they went to investigate the funeral home. However, Oliver manages to get a message off to Charles before that happens telling him to use THEO as the password on Tim's phone, which unlocks all of Tim's data.]]
** Episode 8 reveals that [[spoiler:Tim was poisoned ''before'' he was shot and that the Dimases weren't even in the building when Tim was killed.]]
** Episode 10 ends the season with [[spoiler: the trio successfully solving the case and proving that Jan was Tim's killer. However, after that, while celebrating getting their apartments back and completing the first season of their podcast, Charles and Oliver receive a mysterious text to get out of the building. They hurry to check on Mabel, who went to get more champagne, and find her in her apartment, lying in front of Bunny's dead body. The three are swarmed and immediately arrested by the police]].
** Episode 9 of Season 2. [[spoiler:The woman who claimed to be Leonora Folger turns out to be Rose Cooper, an artist who went missing years before. Oliver gets confirmation that Teddy Dimas is his son Will's biological father and confronts Teddy about it. Cinda Canning's assistant Poppy White reveals to Mabel that she is Becky Butler, the supposedly dead girl whose murder Cinda became famous for solving.]]
** The Season 2 finale. [[spoiler:With the help of Cinda Canning and Alice Banks, the trio successfully tricks Poppy White aka Becky Butler into confessing to the murder of Bunny Folger. It seems like their podcasting days are behind them. But a year later another murder happens, this time involving a Broadway star whose co-stars is Charles, and is directed by Oliver.]]

** The end of the first episode reveals that Mabel and Tim knew each other, and he was part of the Hardy Boys group that she had earlier talked about with Charles. She keeps their history a secret from Charles and Oliver, until [[InternalReveal Oliver's son remembers her and gives the info to them]].
** Theo, not Oscar, killed Zoe, and Teddy covered it up for him. That's also why Teddy was bankrolling the podcast.
** The Arconia is filled with secret passageways and an elevator system the original designer used to spy on tenants.

** The trio has actually been texting with Bunny's killer instead of Det. Williams.

* PoisonIsEvil: [[Spoiler: Jan may have shot Tim to make it look like a suicide, but poison is her preferred weapon.]]

** A double subversion. “The Building” is a slang term used for a theatre, so some fans thought that the death in the theater would be a loophole, still technically allowing the title to make sense. But of course the events of the season 3 premiere brought it back to the original meaning.

* CentralTheme: Season 2’s can be seen as confrontations with the past and how they can be for the better. Each protagonist either confronts or is confronted with the past. [[spoiler:Mabel has to confront the prospect of whether she is a killer by confronting the black outs she had a major moments in her life. Charles confronts his past by talking to Lucy again after years of avoiding her because of his relationship with his ex. He is also confronted with his relationship with Jan and with what his father was really like. Oliver is confronted with the prospect of not being his son’s birth father. Thankfully, for all of them, they all get a good resolution from confronting the past. Mabel realizes that she isn’t a killer and that she was there for her father during his dying moments. Charles reconciles with Lucy, moves on from Jan and learns that his father did love him. Oliver’s son figures out that he isn’t Oliver’s birth son, but doesn’t care.]]

* {{Deconstruction}}: Zoe Cassidy's death shows the realistic consequences when a [[AssholeVictim bad person is murdered]]. Her death isn’t cathartic AT ALL, toxic friend or not seeing the mangled, crushed body of someone who was close to you is still a traumatizing sight, and while, yes, she was a thief and a RichBitch that didn’t mean she deserved to die, not to mention the fallout destroyed the friendship of two of her friends and ruined the lives of another friend and even her [[AccidentalMurder guilt stricken murderer]].

** Ben Glenroy is an arrogant movie star who is disliked by many of his costars in Oliver's play. [[spoiler:We then find out that Charles had Ben fired from his first job when he was 8-years-old and his arrogant attitude since then is him compensating to cover up the insecurities that moment left him with. It's also mentioned that watching Ben on ''Girl Cop'' got Mabel and Silvia through a hard time after her father died. As Ben is a diva, a spoiled brat, and a bully, he's still the clearest example of the trope the show has provided so far, but he's shown to be a deeply troubled and unhappy person.]]

** In Season 3, when [[spoiler: Cliff is hanging from the theatre skylight he]] askes if the Spalsh dancers were this high up when they fell.

* ClickHello: [[spoiler: Jan]] announces herself at the boiler room with a loud cock of a revolver[[note]]despite the revolver being hammerless[[/note]].

* ContinuitySnarl: Charles and Emma's timeline is a little inconsistent. He mentions Lucy was 7 when she and her mother moved in and stayed for 6 years. Lucy then mentions 8 years have passed which would put her at 21 but some dialogue suggests Lucy is in her mid to late teens by alluding she's still in high school. Though Charles may have meant that Lucy was seven when they left when he referred to her as a seven year old which would make the math make much more sense.

* CrowdSong: The whole Arconia sings "The Sound of Silence" during the blackout.

** [[spoiler:Poppy White]] for Mabel. Both are [[spoiler:young dark-haired women (Poppy is at most in her mid 30s, while Mabel is in her late 20s) who grew up in single-parent households. Both are true crime fans living in New York City and big fans of Cinda Canning. Both are revealed in Season 2 to have fought back against sexual harassment they received from their employers. Both are shown to be intelligent, creative, and quick-thinking. Both work on a podcast about a murder close to them. However, while Mabel is valued as an equal (and sometimes a superior) by Oliver and Charles, Cinda mistreats, bullies, and plagiarizes from Poppy. Meanwhile, Poppy framed Mabel and killed Bunny to give her content for the podcast. This is even underlined by Poppy's real name, which is [[AlliterativeName alliterative]] like Mabel's: '''B'''ecky '''B'''utler.]]

** {{Discussed|Trope}} in regards to Mabel. Charles and Oliver acquired their apartments decades prior when the Arconia was affordable, but Mabel is a young new arrival at a time Manhattan real estate prices are through the roof. She eventually reveals that the apartment belongs to her aunt and she's living there temporarily to oversee a renovation. Despite his downturn in fortune, Charles is still decently financially well-off from his long-running series which presumably gives him enough in royalties to afford his apartment and living a fairly modest life otherwise.

* InstantlyProvenWrong: When Poppy assures Mabel that her boss [[MeanBoss Cinda Canning]] is respecting her, we hear Cinda whistling after Poppy to follow her like a dog. Poppy claims it's an inside joke they are having.

** In Episode 8, fans of the podcast say that the Sting episode was a waste of time and had no stakes, since Sting obviously isn't going to the killer. (They probably mean that a famous rock star wouldn't personally commit a revenge murder, but it sounds like they're talking about how the show's writer wouldn't make guest star Sting the killer.)

** The ring Zoe's wearing in the New Year's Eve picture. It disappeared when Zoe's body was found and Tim was devoted to still looking for it years later. [[spoiler:The investigation into the ring leads the trio to uncover the Dimases' smuggling, It also turns out to be a MacGuffin in another way. It's not expensive, but it has sentimental value and Theo gave it to Zoe because of that. When Teddy found out that Zoe had the ring, he insisted Theo go back to get it, which caused the argument that led to Zoe's death.]]

* MistreatmentInducedBetrayal: Mabel recognizes how badly Cinda is treating her BeleagueredAssistant Poppy, and urges Poppy to stand up for herself. After Cinda not only refuses to give her a promotion, but outright says she'll ''never'' promote her, Poppy calls Mabel and offers to give her any dirt on Cinda she wants. [[spoiler:Poppy's actual betrayal started before that, though.]]

* RedHerring: It's a murder mystery, it might be easier listing who ''isn't'' a red herring:

** Lucy's exagerated "Gen Z Speak" tirade contains a number of these, most notable her mentioning how she [[Music/ThousandGecs Prayed to the]] [[Music/HundredGecs 100 Gecs]] [[Music/ThousandGecs tree."]] The tree on the cover of [[Music/ThousandGecs 1000 Gecs]] did actually become a pilgrimage site for fans of the band, so much so that the campus it was on had to fence it due to excessive traffic.

** The fans are relieved that the podcast is picking up after the RedHerring heavy first half of the second season.

* SpotTheImposter: The gang are thrown in Season 2 when, after texting with Detective Wiliams for a while on the case, they hear she's in Denver on maternity leave. When they text on possible evidence, "Williams" responds to just leave it in a park and she'll pick it up later that day and the gang realizes this isn't her.

* StereoFibbing: When Charles and Oliver decide to hand over the bloody knife that was used to kill Bunny to Detective Williams, they forgot to align their stories. Charles claims they found it in the toilet and Oliver says it was in the ceiling. Then they swap their answers. [[SassyBlackWoman Williams]] calls their skit a CringeComedy.

** The Season 2 finale. [[spoiler:With the help of Cinda Canning and Alice Banks, the trio successfully trick Poppy White aka Becky Butler into confessing to the murder of Bunny Folger. It seems like their podcasting days are behind them. But a year later another murder happens, this time involving a Broadway star whose co-stars is Charles, and is directed by Oliver.]]

* FakeOutTwist: The season 2 finale provides two twists in quick succession. In their [[TheSummation summation]] the heroes accuse Cinda Canning of having killed Bunny. Then the suspicion shifts over to Alice who in a rage kills Charles with a knife. After she has been restrained, there is another twist revealing that everything up this point was staged in order to draw out the real murderer amongst the guest, [[spoiler:[[TheDogWasTheMastermind side character Poppy White]].]]

* {{Hypocrite}}: Dickie Glenroy complains about people trying to make money off his late brother Ben while auctioning off Ben's movie memorabilia.